Blatherings 2005 Archive

Adam English: The Amazing Me!

Debbie Ohi — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 15:49:50 +0000

Enjoyed last night's dinner out with Jeff's gaming buddies and their families. I've posted some photos here, for those interested. I especially like this one of my friend Harald, who obviously likes green tea ice cream a LOT.

Adam, by Adam.

Today's Blathering is about my multi-talented friend, Adam English, who has recently revamped his Web page (warning: if you're at work, turn down the sound before you check this site ;-)). Adam is part of Ookla The Mok but also has a solo CD called Sketched Out, full of songs about drawing caricatures for a living like "I Need a Whole New Head" and "The Day I Killed All the Customers." Adam opened Darien Lake Themepark's first caricature stand when he was 17 years old and has been drawing caricatures for nearly 20 years. He has also trained over a hundred local caricature artists. Adam has a musical background, and is classically trained in piano and voice. In his first year after college, Adam worked as an opera singer. His roles included playing the High Executioner in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. Adam is also a card-carrying member of the Etch-a-Sketch Club.

In addition to his music and caricature work, Adam also teaches workshops for schools about drawing, including On the Count of Three...Draw!!!, The Caricature Guy and Amazing Me. If that wasn't enough, Adam also runs the gaming concession at Holiday Hollow, a family-owned amusement park in Pembroke, New York. The main focus of this Blathering, however, is to rave about Adam's Amazing Me school project. In this workshop, students write and draw a professional-quality comic book with the help of Adam to plot, script, pencil, ink and color a full-color 8-page comic book.

What a fantastic idea! Especially since Adam is so great with kids. From this entry in Beckett's LJ, when Adam and Rand visited her, Paul and their children: "(re:) Adam's abilities with kids. Well, on reflection why should I have been surprised, since his main career involves dealing with kids and making them comfortable and willing to sit still and talk about what they like. He's outstanding as a caricature artist. But it's not just a front for convenience, he's genuine with them and they're instinctively drawn to him. Whether it's because he's still closely connected to that kid side or what doesn't really matter; whatever his secret is, it works." You can check out the latest "Amazing Me" comic here. This comic was written & drawn by an "Amazing Me" workshop group, at the Webster Ave. Rec Center in Rochester, NY. Ten children, ranging in age from 6 to 13, participated in the creation of this comic. Do check out Adam's newly-revamped Web page, especially his Amazing Me! comic archives. Adam will be at GAfilk, now only six days away, and I believe it's his birthday on the Friday of GAfilk weekend.

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ornaments and books

Debbie Ohi — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:16:48 +0000

It's past Christmas, but I still love sitting on the living room couch and looking at our decorated tree with its coloured lights...and ornaments from friends and family. I know some people like trees whose ornaments all match the decor of the room, but I prefer ornaments with unique origins. Most of the ornaments on our tree are from trips Jeff and I have taken, or gifts from friends and family. I love ornaments with a story. I've already mentioned a few. Here are some more ornaments we've added to our tree this past holiday:

	From Allison. A Canadian moose bundled up for warmth. :-)
	From Jodi. The ornament came in a cute little keepsake box.
	From "Lord Korak" and family. Do click on the photo to see the gorgeous detail on this ornament, which consists of musical symbols.
	From Luisa. The ornament was handmade by her mother.

Our tree is completely dead, by the way. Jeff and I forgot to keep it watered after we brought it home, and now the slightest touch sends needles dropping like the one in A Charlie Brown Christmas. If we had pets, we'd be doomed. Fortunately the tree is in a low-traffic area, so it hasn't been completely de-needled. Yet. Jeff and I have had a good week so far. Jeff took the week off, and both of us have been spending time seeing friends; Jeff has been gaming as well. Yesterday we visited Parki, and then we browsed Chapters-Indigo near Bay and Bloor. My father-in-law gave me a Chapters-Indigo gift certificate for Christmas. Here's what I bought: For Better Or Worse 2006 desk calendar: I was enjoying the 2005 BOW calendar this past year so decided to continue the tradition. Especially since calendars were 50% off! The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner: Newbery Honor book for young people. The back blurb sounded interesting and I liked the writing style in the first few pages, so I bought it. Eragon by Christopher Paolini: Another book for young people which made many bestseller lists (New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Wall Street Journal); I've been curious about it. First in a series; the second is out in hardcover. Webcomics: Tools and Techniques for Digital Cartooning by Steven Withrow and John Barber: A book about online comics. I'm about halfway through already and am not only finding it fascinating reading, but full of useful tips I can use for my own online comics. One of the things I like about Webcomics is that it interviews online comic artists to find out more their creative process, from idea brainstorming to the final strip. A number of them named James Kochalka as one of their influences. James Kochalka, for those who didn't know, is the composer of the Hockey Monkey song, a fun tune that Urban Tapestry learned from Ookla The Mok. Dandelion Wine performs it now as well. He's also the creator of American Elf, an online comic hosted by WebcomicsNation. I notice that there are also MP3s available on his site, but you need to pay to access them. The Hockey Monkey Song can be found on Kochalka's "Monkey vs Robot" CD, and you can hear samples here as well as iTunes.

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Package from Sybille!

Debbie Ohi — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 04:32:21 +0000

Above photo: Ronnie and me. Luisa asked for permission to print up a t-shirt with one of my cartoons; I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Jeff and I enjoyed hanging out with Luisa, Reid, Michael and Ronnie yesterday. None of them had seen our house since it was an empty shell, so it was fun to take them on a tour. Afterward we went to see King Kong. I enjoyed the movie, though I thought it dragged a bit in parts. I liked Naomi Watts in the role much better than I expected, and I was glad to see she did much more than just scream. It was odd to see Jack Black in a serious role like this; I kept remembering his manic behaviour in School of Rock so kept half-expecting him to bring out in song at any minute. A package arrived from Germany yesterday. Thanks so much to Sybille Machat for the Christmas ornament! ...and the cozy Christmas slipper-socks! I enjoyed meeting Sibylle in Germany at Filkcontinental: One of my favourite Sibylle songs is the "The Evil Eyeball", an amusing Lord of the Rings song which she performs with enormous expressiveness. :-D Thanks, Sibylle!

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Burke Wide Bore Brass Black Tip

Debbie Ohi — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:47:05 +0000

Try saying that title ten times quickly. :-) Thanks to those who responded to my LJ plea for advice re: which Burke whistle to get. To those not on LJ: For Christmas, my mom-in-law has offered to fund the purchase of a high-end penny whistle that I would not be able to afford to get on my own. My whistle teacher suggested a Burke whistle, so I've been doing some researching.
Photo by Allison. Session at an FKO. I love Internet communities. I posted my inquiry on the Chiff and Fipple Forums and got some helpful replies from experienced whistle players who have Burkes, including links to more info about Burkes and sound samples. Chiff & Fipple is a fantastic resource for whistle players of all levels, by the way. Right now I'm leaning toward a Wide Bore Brass Black Tip. I would have liked a Low D whistle but I've tried a few, and the finger stretch needed would definitely aggravate my tendinitis. Ah well. From public replies and some private e-mail, I get the impression that no matter which Burke I choose, I can't go wrong. Having a basement office that is relatively isolated from the rest of the house gives me much more flexibility in terms of practising music than I had in the condo. FYI, here are the instruments I play:

Photo by Beckett.

Piano: This used to be my main instrument, though I'm way out of practice now. I started taking piano lessons when I was around 7 years old, stopped after Grade X Royal Conservatory of Music, picked it up again when I studied for my ARCT teaching degree. Quit because of life upheaval (my mom died, my piano teacher died). I taught piano, off and on, over about 20 years. Unfortunately our baby grand wouldn't properly fit into our house, so we couldn't keep it when we moved. :-( Flute: More transportable than piano, hence my main instrument with Urban Tapestry. I never took private lessons in flute, just studied it during school music classes. I taught flute lessons for a bit. My current flute was a group gift from Jeff and a bunch of my friends from university. I've played flute on a number of recording projects. Guitar: I took a summer guitar course during high school and my parents gave me a classical guitar. For Urban Tapestry, I use a steel-string acoustic that belongs to Jeff; I don't have my own steel-string. Tendinitis makes guitar-playing an iffy thing for me these days; strumming is usually ok for a song or two, but fingerpicking is still too much of a strain, as is lugging a guitar and case around. Unfortunately this means a chunk of Urban Tapestry's repertoire is now inaccessible, but Allison has been gradually learning the guitar parts for some of these songs. Assorted bangy percussion things: Over the years with Urban Tapestry, I've accumulated quite a collection of percussion instruments. I would have learned bodhran along the way except for the fact that I'd never be able to carry it with me on the plane along with my other gear. Instead, I focus on smaller noise-making instruments like tambourine, shaky-egg, cowbell (I wrote "It Said What" so I could use the cowbell), claves, triangle, cabasa, etc. For luggage space reasons, I only take a small selection with me when Urban Tapestry goes to filk conventions; choosing is always hard. Hey, and my big bag of percussion instruments was borrowed by Ookla the Mok for their "Oh OK LA" CD! Rand isn't sure if any of the instruments were used or not, but I'd like to spread the rumour that they were so I can gloat properly. :-)

From the UT archives.

Celtic harp: When I sold Inkspot, I took part of the cash and bought a custom-made harp from Larry Fisher. You can see how my harp was made here. I had one harp lesson from Sharlene Wallace before moving to Philadelphia for six months during the whole Inkspot/Xlibris stint, where I took weekly lessons from Kimberly Rowe. I had to stop playing harp for a couple of years because of tendinitis but have recently started playing again (yay!). Penny whistle: I started playing penny whistle when my tendinitis was so bad that I couldn't play piano, flute, harp or guitar, and I had to PLAY SOMETHING or MY BRAIN WOULD EXPLODE. Even though my tendinitis is much improved, I'm still playing whistle...I find it a wonderfully portable instrument, and I'm very much enjoying Irish music sessions at the Tranzac. I take monthly lessons from Karen Light, who studied with Mary Bergin. Jeff teases me because I'm always wanting to learn how to play new instruments. Instruments I've attempted to learn but failed: Violin: I rented this for a summer while in high school, but my parents made me return it. :-) Clarinet: hurt my mouth too much. Trumpet: I couldn't get past the wheezing anemic moose call phase. Saxophone: Too heavy to lug around; I'd been spoiled by my flute. Had pretty much the same fingering as the flute, though, which is why I was tempted. I've always loved making music. For me, there's something incredibly satisfying and compelling about losing oneself in the creation of music, especially creating music with other people. In university, I remember nagging friends who used to take music in school, trying to get together some kind of music group. My feeble attempts never did pan out. Then, of course, I discovered filking and hooked up with Allison and Jodi to form Urban Tapestry. :-) Speaking of filking, only eight days until I leave for GAfilk!

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Holidaystuff

Debbie Ohi — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 01:10:54 +0000

My dad took us out for dim sum at King's Garden yesterday. Yummm. My favourite dim sum is steamed shrimp dumplings. I could hoover boatload of those things. Hm, I probably did. Afterward, we went back home to get the house ready for Jeff's gaming buddies. Since we put our First Christmas Decorations In Our New House, I've been so looking forward to having people over and doing the hostess thing. Certainly made our house feel even cozier with the crackling fire, Christmas tree all it up, tunes in the background, people chatting and playing games. We're still unpacking and putting up pictures, but the house feels much more comfortable than it did when we first moved in. I'm sure that part of this because it's starting to accumulate some good memories. :-) Enjoyed hanging out my friend Cathy today, visiting from Calgary. We had lunch at Ho Su and then dropped by Loomis Art store (the one I raved about in my last entry). The store is having a 20% sale off ALL STOCK, yesterday and today! I bought some beading/wire tools like a wire jig and a crimper tool and nylon saw pliers as well as some fabric paints. A week and a half left until GAfilk!

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Happy Boxing Day!

Debbie Ohi — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 16:41:25 +0000

(Above: My mom-in-law's cats, Duffy and Mango, eye a cheeky squirrel just outside the window. The squirrel was having WAY too much fun with the fact that the cats couldn't reach him.) Happy Boxing Day! What an odd name for a holiday, don't you think? People seem to differ about the origins, though it does seem that the original tradition was started to help maintain society's class structure in a one-way gift-giving practice since stories involve merchants giving gifts to servants, feudal lords giving gifts to serfs, employers giving money to servants, churches opening donation boxes for the poor. In North America these days, Boxing Day seems to be more strongly associated with retail store sales. I'm HIGHLY tempted to check out the Boxing Day sale at Loomis Art Store in our neighbourhood, but I also really hate crowds. I only recently ventured into this Loomis store for the first time and almost collapsed into a quivering hysterical fit right there in the lobby, it was SO my kind of store. Dear lord. The Web site doesn't list most of the what the store carries. Fortunately I was feeling cash-poor at the time as a result of finishing up Christmas shopping, so it was easier to resist the lure of all those crafty supplies. Off to have lunch with my family soon, but here are a few pics from my holiday so far:

My mom-in-law gave me a keyboard that rolls up: It's a 49-key, four-octave electronic keyboard that sounds remarkably like a piano considering its appearance. You can get about 100 other instrument sounds, but I like the piano the best. The keyboard also offers about 100 different rhythm accompaniments for those that like that sort of thing. Reminds me so much of that Star Trek the Next Generation episode "Lessons" where Jean-Luc Picard jams on the penny whistle while his pal, Nella Darren, plays her futuristic rollable keyboard. Yes, I'm a nerdgirl and proud of it. :-)

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90 Seconds Of Dave Huth

Debbie Ohi — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:44:44 +0000

Ok, I was wrong when I said I probably wasn't going to be posting any more Blatherings between now and Christmas. This is the last pre-Christmas Blathering. Really. I'm serious this time! I've finished my Christmas shopping. I've had a mini-breakthrough with my novel writing and am MUCH happier with how it's turning out. I'm having fun working ahead on my Will Write For Chocolate strips (the comic officially launches next month). After a snowstorm the other day, I walked outside and found that one of our neighbours had shovelled the walkway and driveway for us; Jeff is going to return the favour, of course. I LOVE this neighbourhood. I love our new house. I just got an e-mail from old friend I used to hang out with at the University of Toronto, who happened to stumble on one of my online projects. My list of Things That Make Me Happy These Days could go on for much longer. I feel pretty lucky, and try not to take anything for granted. And I'm SO looking forward to spending lots of time with friends and family over the Christmas holiday. I'm seeing Allison and Jodi tonight! But the real reason I felt compelled to post is because I've recently been perusing the online projects of Dave Huth, a friend of Rand's I met at Concertino a couple of years ago (photo by Allison): Dave is one of the most talented and creative people I know. Do check out his paintings, sculptures and drawings at Iconville. And his incredibly creative photo collages of friends and family. And his amazing macroblog. Hey, and I just noticed he even has his own podcast! But today I'm to going to mainly rave about Dave's video blog, which I only recently discovered. 90 Seconds of Dave is Dave's experiment in micro media. "Video blogging is a weird and unpredictable exercise. I'm translating ideas, moments, and bits of my life into 90-second chunks of video." Trust me...this is much, much better than what you might expect from a "home movie" blog. Most of Dave's videos require the latest Quicktime 7, which is available free from Apple's Web site. Cat lovers are sure to enjoy his most recent entry, for example, which includes a link to his Budget Gifts video. "With this many nieces and nephews, you gotta be frugal. You gotta be clever. You gotta put in the time for creative solutions. Mooch agrees." Dave has also been posting installments of his independent film, Lorem Ipsum, online. Here's the intro page. "Lorem Ipsum is an independent movie shot and edited entirely with digital tools. It is being released serially through my videoblog. This page is where I will collect all of the pieces of the story, as well as where I will post the entire finished film once all the parts have been released." Rand Bellavia is one of the characters in the film, for those interested. :-) Have a wonderful holiday season, everyone! Drink eggnog, hug your loved one(s), make snow angels. I'll be back after Christmas.

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Handwritten, more Der Struwwelpeter

Debbie Ohi — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 12:13:26 +0000

Click the handwritten entry above for a larger version. You can see my other handwritten journal entries here.

I was surprised at the response to yesterday's Der Struwwelpeter entry...so many of you were already familiar with this memorable childhood figure. AND there's apparently a musical/opera version by a group called "The Tigerlilies"...! Thanks to Hitch for pointing me to this video clip. The company's site also has some history of Struwwelpeter: Apparently Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, a Frankfurt 'medical man of the lunatic asylum', wrote and illustrated The Struwwelpeter (ShockHeaded Peter) more than 150 years ago because "he couldn't find anything on the shelves to fire the imagination of his children." From Juliane:

Of Struwelpeter I particularly liked the story about Paulinchen and the matches because it had a happy end. The cats survived. Do you know Hilaire Belloc? British poet who made fun of this kind of 19th century educational poetry. Very funny. "There was a boy whose name was Jim his friends were very good to him..." Poor Jim gets eaten by a lion. Eventually. Educationally. And bit by bit. Belloc also burns children in the process. Hilaire-ious.

To Helen and Dan: thanks again for the book! (and I've still been unsuccessful at getting e-mail through to your account :-( ) The mysterious chewing in the wall of my office has moved to a different place. There's not much we can do about it until the spring, so I'm trying to ignore it. Sometimes I half-expect part of the drywall to suddenly explode and a little furry head to glower out at me, demanding to be fed. Fortunately I have some German chocolate left from Franklin's package; I'm saving a small piece of Santa's foot for dire emergency. I'm not sure how much Blathering I'll be doing between now and Christmas. In case I don't...Happy Holidays, everyone!

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Acacia Sears CD, Der Struwwelpeter

Debbie Ohi — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:40:25 +0000

Exactly one year ago, I made the announcement on Blatherings that we were moving out of our condo into a house. Egads, that seems like a lifetime ago. This was my old home office. Five days until Christmas! I only have a few more presents to get. I'm not crazy about the chaos and crowds but whenever I start to feel whiny and resentful, I remind myself of my Scrooge moment last year. I still see the same flautist around subway stations from time to time and always try to give him money.

I've been enjoying the new CD by Acacia Sears; I also ordered her "(tiny and insignificant)" mini-CD-R but haven't been able to listen to it yet because I still need the proper insert for my laptop. I first met Cacie years ago at some filk convention whose name I can't recall. I think she was about 16 years old and I was blown away by her voice even back then. You can find out more about Acacia on her Web site including some sample soundclips from the CD. I especially like George's Tongue (lyrics by Neil Gaiman). Thanks to Helen and Dan for my Christmas present (see photo below), which arrived in yesterday's post. To Helen: I've been trying to e-mail you, but the mail keeps bouncing back. Helen knows I've been studying German. :-) I recall her showing us Der Struwwelpeter at the cottage years ago...have any of out there heard of this German children's story? Apparently the image on the cover helped inspire Tim Burton to create Edward Scissorhands. This Web site has some of the book online:

"Der Struwwelpeter is a book in the fine tradition of 'be good or die' german fairy tales and stories. As a child, I was exposed to the charming imagery and sledgehammer morals of this book and I fear I may never remove the haunting pictures from my subconscious. However, the nightmares that followed were a very effective behavior training mechanism. As an extra burden of guilt, I am told my grandfather used to print these books to keep my family fed during the war. I am now inflicting this horror upon the rest of the world by scanning it and translating the german text into english."

The Web site writer admits his German is not all that good; I'd be interested in hearing from you native German speakers already familiar with the story about the accuracy of his translation. Anyway, do check out The Sad Story of Paulina Pyro, Konrad and his Thumbs, and Soup Boy Kaspar. Lovely, eh? Also feel free to have a sneak peek at my new Will Write For Chocolate strip, which officially launches in January. This section of the Offpanel Productions site is still being tweaked, so please do let me know if you notice anything odd. I encourage you to leave a test comment. :-) Regular weekly updates will start in the new year.

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Clara and the Bossy, xmas ornaments, blog poll results

Debbie Ohi — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 05:17:54 +0000

For the interest of those attending GAfilk in early January: I've put together a package for the Interfilk auction which includes a copy of the DAW short story collection Magic Tails (contains a short story co-written by Michelle West and me), a fridge magnet made from a signed copy of my first Will Write For Chocolate strip (which launches next month through Offpanel Productions) AND a personal appearance by the buyer (or a friend of his/her choice) in My Life In A Nutshell. Yeah, I know, it's all about me-me-ME. :-) I hope to throw in some other fun stuff; more details in an upcoming Blathering. The photo above is of Clara and the Bossy, my sister's newest book, due out in March. Check out the Ruth Ohi sticker on the cover! Speaking of my famous sister, one of my nieces (Jeff's brother's daughter) called the other day to say she just saw Ruth in an episode of This Is Daniel Cook. She thought it was me at first. :-) The revamped Urban Tapestry site is now at http://www.urbantapestry.org! It's still somewhat under construction, but at least the basic structure's in place. Our goal was to update some of the info and make it a bit friendlier-looking. I also took out the blog; didn't make sense since both Allison and I already have online journals. Yay, thanks to Jeff for brightening my home office! This afternoon he installed extra lights in my craft area as well as my desk, and a hanging lamp from the office tree, above my reading chair. I'm going to make an interesting lampshade and wind some realistic-looking greenery along the cord, to look like part of the tree. Jeff is an unusual sort of technonerdboy in that not only is he good with computerstuff but is also handy with workroom tools; he likes building and fixing things. There was no space in our condo for a workroom but now he has a space set up in one corner of the basement. Jeff says he's going to build a bookshelf for my paperbacks, to fit in the narrow space in the entranceway of my office. Considering Jeff's pretty busy with work and still hasn't set up his own home office area, I think it's sweet that he's been taking all this time to get my work space comfortable.

Christmas ornaments exchange

The ornament to the left is one I made for my mom-in-law years ago, out of felt and some gold braiding. Last week, I posted about homemade Christmas ornaments and a proposed Christmas ornament exchange. Singlemaltsilk says she was inspired by the Blatherings comments thread on the topic and has created a new LJ community. "I've created this community because I enjoy making, and sharing, Christmas ornaments. I'm hoping that like-minded crafters will join, and share ideas, resources, tips and (of course) photos of their projects. With that in mind, I've put up a few photos of the handmade ornaments currently on my tree. I hope you enjoy them!" If you plan to participate in next year's xmas ornament exchange, I encourage you to join this community. You can see a list of the Christmas exchange groups for next year in this entry. If you're interested in signing up, there are still some places available in the second group; please post in the comments of section of that entry.

Blogs and blogging: survey followup

Thanks to those who responded to my poll question about blogs. I found it interesting how many people only read blogs of people they know personally. Many felt their own blogs weren't particularly interesting, but wrote them to keep in touch with friends. I was delighted to hear that Blatherings helped inspire fifona to start her own blog and folkmew to start posting her watercolor pieces online.

Just a few excerpts from discussion in LJ: From figmo: "I like reading blogs of people who have lives and talk about what they're doing. This can mean anything from a day with the kids to dealing with 'the interesting and famous.' Folks like pafuts and artbeco show that staying at home with the kids doesn't mean you don't have A Life; I particularly like reading their blogs. Both of them also write so well they could chronicle walking from one part of the house to the other and make it interesting. Reading blogs like theirs shows me that choosing a lifestyle that for me would be Sheer Hell On A Platter can be very rewarding to others and puts balance into my own life." From redaxe: "I'll read most things that catch my eye. I have on my reading list a blog about malls, a batch of political blogs, humor blogs, blogs with links to music or cool stuff, parenting blogs, blogs about reading and books, general-topic blogs, blogs by high-profile folks, blogs by scientists and academics. Your criterion of "well-written" usually applies, though mine tends toward 'interesting' -- I'll cut some slack in the writing if the person's content is worth the effort. Blogs with good communities of commenters are more interesting, in general, as well."

From jhayman: "I like to hear about my friends. Truly personal stuff makes me uneasy, but my definition of 'personal' may vary from someone else's. I'm privy to pretty personal stuff all the time. The little vignettes in blogs add dimension and depth to my understanding of the people I know. I like to hear about people I've only heard about. Again it's a way to just get a sense or impression of a person. I'm a voyeur of people's lives :-)." From ldwheeler: "Well, I myself have the World's Most Boring LJ Ever (I'm thinking of renaming it to that very title), but I like it. :-) I started it last year partly out of curiousity -- a longtime friend michaelhinman had started an LJ, and it seemed to provide a few benefits: a venue for self-expression; a fairly simple writing exercise to use as kind of a warmup for other writing projects (that's had limited success -- I don't even do the warmup every day); and an opportunity to maintain contact with friends old and new. I hope my LJ is occasionally of interest to people; while I ultimately write to please myself, I try to remain conscious of the fact that it's still public and that I'd like to be engaging or at least not annoying.

Personal blogs I like (which includes the various LJ friends, plus other blogs of real-world people I know) tend to be well-written, by people with interesting lives/pursuits/passions who can express themselves in a coherent and humane manner. While I occasionally like blogs with a narrow focus (and I regularly check a couple political, faith-based, cultural, etc. blogs in addition to my various LJ communities), I tend to prefer a more varied approach -- people who post about family, culture, viewpoints, foodstuffs, miscellaneious silliness, anything else that comes to mind. Kind of like Blatherings, come to think of it. (Your judicious use of photos, artwork, etc., elevates it further.) I don't care for blogs that are All Angst All The Time; or Profanity-Packed, Barely Coherent Rant Of The Day; or Meme Quiz Quiz Meme Lather Repeat. So I try to write a blog that wouldn't annoy me. :-)" From missquirt: "I find reading about very personal information fine in some cases (when it's a friend who I would talk about such things with anyway, for example) but very awkward in others. Unfortunately, I ran into trouble once when I de-friends-listed someone whose posts always tended to make me upset. That was tricky because I really enjoy knowing the person in real life, but there are some things you just don't want to know about someone, and it can be hard to avoid reading when it's right there in a short snappy one-sentence post... Right now, I'm really enjoying reading blogs to read about things going on in Ontario. I'm enjoying the experience of being out here, but I'm always very aware that it's not home, so it can be very comforting to read about familiar places in terms of anything from pancake houses to blizzards to maple trees." Photos on today's Blathering were all taken recently. Click on any image to get more details.

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