Blogs and blogging: the good, the bad and the ugly

Poll question of the weekend:
What kind of blogs or online journals do you enjoy reading? Or related questions: What lures you to read a blog regularly? Why do you keep a blog? What turns you on or off a blog?

One obvious reason for reading a blog or online journal, of course, is that you know the person and are interested in keeping up with their lives. Except speaking from experience, I know that I put very little of my personal life in Blatherings; I prefer catching up with friends in person or over the phone.

Please note that I'm talking more about personal weblogs and journals rather than "here's a cool link" blogs. Also, blogs written by people I know in person fall into a different category for me; the following describes my personal preferences when it comes to blogs written by total strangers.



Blogs I enjoy reading:

Blogs that are well-written, especially ones that have a sense of humour. Although I generally find "shopping list" entries dull (e.g. "I woke up. I had Wheaties for breakfast. I brushed my teeth. I took the dog for a walk." etc.), I enjoy them if they're written well.

Blogs with a personal voice and style.

Blogs that voice opinions. Blogs that are brave in some way, that don't always stick to safe topics. It's a risk, of course, because the larger your readership, the more likely you are to get criticism or antagonize readers.

Blogs that acknowledge readers. Either with a comments section, or by incorporating reader feedback into entries somehow.

Conversational blogs. I don't enjoy reading blogs that come across too much like an academic paper or technical manual. I prefer blogs where I feel as if I've just had a conversation with that person from reading a post.

Blogs with well-written anecdotes about little kids. My friend Amanda Snyder is especially good at this; check out this recent entry. I used to read Lileks more regularly when he talked more regularly about child-rearing. Weird personal preference, I know, considering we don't have children of our own. Or perhaps it's because we don't have children of our own that I find kidstories so interesting. :-)



Blogs with a specific focus. Yes, this crosses off Blatherings. :-) Unless I know the person, I tend to be drawn to blogs with a single focus on a topic I really enjoy.

Blogs with interesting visuals. I read The Crafty-Girl, for example, both because of interesting drawings and photos but also because she talks about cool crafts and illustration techniques. My favourite photo blog is Daily Dose of Imagery.

Blogs that are frequently updated.

Blogs with something new to say.

Blogs that use links. Nothing more frustrating that reading an entry that mentions an interesting Web site, but doesn't include a link (expecting the reader to look it up himself or herself, I suppose).

Blogs that turn me off:



Bad writing. Lots of typos. (Assuming English is their first language)

Blogs that are mean-spirited, especially about people whom the author is (likely mistakenly) assuming will never read their blog entry.

Pretentious blogs. Blogs that are a little too "I'm SO cool and I know you're fascinated by every single detail about ME-ME-ME, no matter how mundane."

Blogs that rely heavily on "I'm Luke Skywalker!" type of memes for content, where the result of a so-called "personality quiz" is basically random, especially when one of these gets popular in my Livejournal Friends list and I end up scrolling past pages and pages and pages of identical huge images of Luke Skywalker or Golden Hearts or Tiffany The Happy Fairy. I'll stop whining now (see point below). :-)



Blogs that whine and bitch a lot. I don't mean the occasional whine, I mean a LOT. From some blogs I've seen, I get the impression that the writer takes a special pleasure in blog-whining ("OH, I can't wait to get home so I can blog about what that woman said/did!")

In Livejournal, blogs with long entries that don't use cut-tags.

Blogs that are too obviously marketing vehicles. I don't mind if the author plugs his or her book, CD or other projects from time to time, but not if every other entry tries to get me to buy something.

Blogs where the author posts even if they have nothing to write about, especially when their entry is basically "I don't have anything about."

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But again...these are all personal preferences. I emphasize (again) all the above "turn-off" factors go out the window for me if the blog is well-written. I'll happily read a 1000 word essay about how much you hate women with big hair if it's entertaining and written well.

I'm also well aware that according to the preferences stated above, Blatherings isn't necessarily a blog that I'd read myself.

:-)

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My Life In A Nutshell

My friend Scott Snyder commented in Flickr about the strip above: "And that's a long time to be on the edge of your seat. I think I need some salve..."

:-D

For those of you interested, archives of "My Life In A Nutshell" are available online. I started this semi-autobiographical strip back in 1999; you can see the first one here.



Saw the Narnia movie a couple nights ago with Jeff and quite enjoyed it. Lucy was PERFECT. Some of the scenes were EXACTLY the way I had imagined when I first read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a nine-year-old. Jeff and I stayed through the end credits so we could clap for Weta Workshop. I am a Weta groupie, not only because of the amazing job they did on Lord of the Rings, but also because of my Waiting for Frodo interactions with Weta Digital. :-)

Had a good writing day yesterday. Also got another confirmation of a small illustration project, and an inquiry about a combination tech writing/illustration assignment. I've started working on an online illustration portfolio. This is new territory for me but I've been getting an increasing number of offers for paid illustration work, so I figure it's about time I approach it as seriously as I do my writing.

I put Christmas lights up on my office tree! See below:



I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I LOVE MY OFFICE. My new craft corner has been in heavy use with Christmas present wrapping; it's so great to be able to leave stuff out instead of having to put it away each time.

Hey, I have 78 people in my Frappr! map! It's great seeing seeing a sample of where my readers are from, including Japan, England, Ireland, Germany, Canada, U.S. and Scotland. And of course in yesterday's Blathering, I learned more about Liechtenstein (a small state next to Switzerland) and Malaysia (they sometimes hook Christmas ornaments into their backs (!)). Sadly, Frappr! doesn't seem to work with all browsers.

Last month, I launched an informal experiment to see how high I could get a page called "skimper" up on Google rankings. As of yesterday, I was surprised to find that I'm currently #1 out of about 13,000 results! Looks like "skimper.com" is offline for some reason, and there's no sign of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (or whatever his name was).

How people are finding me:

buckley's cough syrup: I'm #1 in MSN Search. Ha.
chocolate covered grasshoppers: #4 in Yahoo!Search. I've been getting a surprising number of people looking for these. Are they THAT popular?!?
Worst love songs: #2 in Google.
stacking firewood: #2 in Google.
too paranoid: #1 in Google.
ematei: #2 in Google.
cute librarian: #2 in Google.
How many species of wild guinea "pigs are" there: #1 in Ask Jeeves.

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SuperNoteCard, Samorost2, postcards for my collection

Peeked out the window this morning and the scene reminded me of a Christmas card, with every branch of every tree laced in snow, the street silent and white. I love winter mornings.



I've mentioned SuperNoteCard from Mindola Software in Inkygirl but I'll plug it here as well: A while back I started using a virtual index card called "Miss Lonelynotes" to help organize ideas for my articles and novel. They've since upgraded the software at least half a dozen times and renamed it SuperNoteCard, and the functionality is now specifically geared towards writers.



SuperNoteCard uses virtual notecards to help writers capture and organize content in fiction (including screenwriting) and nonfiction projects. You can define and track characters, plots, and references in your writing, using "drag and drop" to organize the flow of ideas and information. I'm using it to organize info for my YA novel and have also used it to organize info for magazine articles. You can try it out yourself for free for 30 days, after which you need to buy an activation code (only US$29).

And another link, this one with zero productivity value at all but SO entertaining: Samorost2 (thanks to Jeff for the link). You need to have sound turned on for full appreciation, so it's best not to check this out at work. ;-) The game reminds me a lot of Myst, except with more humour. You can play several levels for free; the full version is US$9.90.

What's YOUR favourite addictive online game, by the way?

Hey, my Blathering about the National Cartoonists Society Christmas party was mentioned in The Daily Cartoonist (newspaper cartoonist industry news blog).

And wow, the response to my crafty Blathering yesterday was such that I already have one Christmas ornament exchange group filled, and a second started. This is for NEXT year's Christmas, by the way (2006!). People in Group One (I'm using LJ ids since I know some don't want real names listed publicly): me, braider, msminir, vixyish, Allison, chirosinger, rms_butterfly, little_cinnamon, missquirt, Beckett. Group Two (so far): Sandro, Lissa, tibicina. If you want to sign up, please add your name to this comment thread. I'll post confirmations and guidelines next year, but basically each person is going to send one homemade ornament to everyone in their Group plus one extra for Interfilk. If you'd like to make/receive extra, you can make special arrangements with members of other groups as well; I plan to exchange with everyone! :-)

And here are some of the postcards I've recently added to my Flickr Postcard Collection...

Sandro sent me a cool optical illusion postcards that shifts images as you tilt it; sorry, but this can't be accurately shown in this scan:



"Hi Deb! How are you? Well I hope good and confused (because you don't know me). My name's Sandro and I come from Liechtenstein (a small state next to Switzerland) and I'm a huge fan of your comic strips! I found them coincidentally by googling the web for 'comic cooking' (needed it for school). From there on I read all of them and I was laughing like an idiot. I really love them. Thru 'Debbie's Blatherings' I found out about your collection of postcards, so I thought I'll send you one! Searched my whole room and this is what I found. It's been designed by my aunt and I hope you like it. Greets, Sandro."

The (somewhat disturbing! :-)) postcard below is from Joshua:



"Hi Debbie! Greetings from Malaysia! I've been following your works/photos for a while, happy to learn that you like to collect postcards as well! Multi-cultural, multi-racial, Mayalsia consists of 3 main races: Malay, Chinese (that's me :-)) and Indian, plus many other minority yet equally important Aborigine groups. Nice to "meet" you again and hope you'll like this one!"

The postcard below is from Michael"beige_alert" Pereckas:



Description on the postcard:
"Greetings from the Milwaukee Art Museum! Named a "New Wonder of the World" by Conde Nast Traveler, this is the first Santiago Calatrava-designed building in the United States. Stroll through the world-class Collection or one of the changing exhibitions.

Rembrandt and His Time: Masterworks from the Albertina, Vienna
October 8, 2005 - January 8th, 2006"

I love snailmail postcards: each is unique, personal, a brief wave of greeting, a miniature still-life. If you send a postcard to my P.O. Box, I'll post it in my collection as well as in my Blatherings: Debbie Ridpath Ohi, 34 Eglinton Ave. W., P.O. Box 189, Toronto, ON Canada M4R 2H6.

Thanks!

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crafty

The picture above is of a Christmas ornament I added to the tree yesterday. It's a penguin I made from Fimo some years ago but never got around to doing anything with. I got out my glue gun (also now unpacked, yay!) and stuck a paper clip on him...and voila, insta tree ornament!

Mary Bertke and I were recently talking in LJ about homemade Christmas ornaments, and came up with the idea for a homemade ornament exchange next year. A few months before Christmas, interested crafty-types would add their names to the list and we'd all exchange addresses; that way we'd each know how many ornaments to make, and we'd have a month or two to create and mail them. Too late for this year, sadly.

Hm...perhaps each participant could make one extra ornament, and each year's collection of ornaments could be donated to an Interfilk auction the following year. Probably OVFF, since that's the one right before Christmas. That would also give non-crafty types a chance at the whole collection.

(Update: Wow, looks like people are already willing to sign up now for next year! If you're interested, please see the comments section in my related LJ post.)

Less than a month until GAFilk! I've almost finished my contribution to the GAFilk quilt:



I ordered the materials (including the ready-made square with the music edging) from Margaret Middleton. To those interested in contributing a square for next year's quilt...it only costs $1.75 to order the quilt square kit from Margaret! See this page for details as well as photos of quilts from past years.

I originally envisioned the whole square to be embroidered but changed my mind as I was embroidering the "Dandelion Wine" text across the top; note how the text size gets smaller near the end...that's because my enthusiasm for embroidery was quickly dying with each painstaking letter and I wanted to get it over with. Even now, I'm cringing at the idea that I have to do more sewing, to fasten the squares and the batting together along the edges. At least I know I have a few weeks.

Stop laughing at me, Allison! :-D

I admit it...I SO lack the patience to be a good needlework person!

Anyway, I went out and bought some fabric markers to finish the rest. THAT part was fun, so I think I'll stick to drawing my quilt squares from now on. Might even do two next year.

Hm...looking at the square, I realize that I still need to colour in Tom's moustache and beard, but don't have a brown fabric marker. Hm, guess I'll have to improvise somehow. Dandelion Wine is the GoH at GAfilk next month.

I've started up a (very small so far) Flickr craft photos set, for those interested. The only other craft I have photos of so far is my first and only attempt at painted ceramics, a birthday gift for Jeff earlier this year:

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Christmas tree!

Update: I accidentally left some of the photos below on "FAMILY VIEWING" only when I first posted this Blathering. I've since changed the viewing permission on these photos, so they should show up properly now. Apologies for the inconvenience!

(Above: Jeff lifts me up so I can put the angel on our Christmas tree. our first Christmas tree in our new house!!!)

As I've mentioned before, our old place in the condo building didn't allow live Christmas trees, and one of my "first house ownership" fantasies has always been to be able to have a tree at Christmas.

We went with my sister's family to a tree place near Orangeville to look for our trees, an annual tradition for them; we help them decorate their tree afterward. The tree place is also quite near my mom-in-law's house, so we dropped by to get a small box of decorations that she's been storing for us for quite a few years, from when we were renting out in the country.

This is one of my favourites:



Choosing our trees was a serious process including much wandering and comparing and careful analysis of percentage dead branches vs optimal shape and height, etc. Jeff and Sara took a break from the stress to do face plants in the snow:



My family had dinner at my place and then helped decorate our tree; Jeff and I had also dropped by Home Hardware to pick up some garlands and coloured balls.

Sara and Annie brought over homemade decorations for us:



I showed my family the lovely homemade decoration that Heather Borean gave me at the housefilk:



And my father tried out my harp:



After everyone had left for the evening, I went back to the living room and sat on the couch for a while with the lights off, watching the coloured lights in our marvellously decorated Christmas tree, snow still falling in the darkness outside. Jeff came down to sit with me for a while and we both agreed: it had been a truly wonderful day.

Other news:

I've been revamping the Urban Tapestry Web site. Jodi has updated the DNS pointers, but it will probably take a few days for the urbantapestry.org domain to point to the new site. Feel free to drop by for a look!

Here's the new site.

I'm still in the process of updating the info and layout; thanks for your patience.

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