3 posts tagged “weblogs”
The pointless forest has moved, like Birnam Wood up Dunsinane Hill, to Typepad. I've done this mainly because I'd like people to be able to comment without having to have a Vox account (though most likely everyone who is interested in doing so has already taken care of it). There's a little overlap between the last couple of posts here and the first couple there, but I have now also started posting brand new things over there.
Most people, unlike me, probably just use a feed reader anyhow, but I know that if you do not, the Vox interface does make it easier, under some circumstances, to notice when your friends have posted something new. Would it be useful, then, do you think, to make a little post here when I've posted something there? Or would that just be extra cruft to no good purpose?
Crossword blogging is a thing. Well, of COURSE it is. Naturally. With oleo. Also please investigate the linked site's sidebar Blogs of Crossword People.
I'm not really terribly good at crosswords, not like the real enthusiasts are, though I suppose I'm speedier than the norm. Investigation reveals that I seem to be much much quicker at completing puzzles when I use things like Across Lite, although I do dislike them for the sorts of puzzles where things other than ordinary, single alphanumerics go in a single box. I wonder why this is (the quickness bonus) -- is it because it's so much easier for my eyes to flick over to see what the clues to crossing words are, because the interface conveniently brings all the clues near my cursor at any moment to the visual fore? Is it because I tend to do crosswords on paper only when I'm in bed at night and therefore more stupid? It is a holy mystery.
My first webloggish project was called "Your Pocket Guide." This was in 2000, before any blogging software (that I knew of, at least) had categories or other organizational options other than date. This was inconvenient, because I liked automated archiving and all those other handy Blogger features, but I wanted to organize Your Pocket Guide into chapters. Eventually I forced my then-boyfriend, now-husband Snark to write a quick and dirty script for posting and archiving in this format. I'm not sure it was actually any less trouble than doing it all by hand, but it made it feel more like a real live weblog, just like all the cool kids were writing.
The idea was that each chapter would have a title adhering to the form [X and Y], and then each post would provide a little survey of some topic that one way or another was an example of X or Y. The first one was "Your Pocket Guide to Fits and Starts" and had pieces on pipe fitters, tailors, clove cigarettes ("nic fit"), boll weevils and their role in the start of the USDA, and the startle reaction. Other chapters were Your Pocket Guide to guns and butter, smoke and mirrors, sweetness and light, proceedings and papers, and hooks and eyes. All very clever! Also, all very tiny. When I go back and look at it now, I'm shocked by how itsy I made the text. I think that's actually even bigger than I had it at first -- or at least more generous linespacing. Your Pocket Guide to Losing Your Eyesight!
I kind of wish I'd kept up with it, but it was a lot of work, and I'm lazy. Fortunately, Snark writes much better and more cohesive little essays on arcana (with more readable text, too), and he's been much more faithful about keeping up with it.
Later I'd start a food blog, which I still post to occasionally, and a work blog, which I used while I was preparing for my PhD exams. I've never had an online journal as such, though, mostly because I can't really imagine that anyone would find it interesting. But, of course, that never stopped the rest of the Internet, so here I am. At the moment I'm planning to use this space to blather about my experiments with learning Inform, among other things. I think I'll also post some pictures of squirrels.
