Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Blog: what is it good for?

Well, those of you in tune with this particular pop culture reference will not hesitate to respond "absolutely nuthin'" ... and truth be told, I've been wondering about this a lot. I spend time now on Facebook and Ravelry, and reading Twitter feeds (yes, I follow Lance Armstrong, what of it?), and I've been wondering about keeping this space open (?) or active (?) -- I'm not quite sure what the terminology ought to be. What was once a knitting blog now clearly isn't, and I have other blogs for my classes, so that material ought not to be here ... and the handful of you who did make time to read my posts have no doubt gone on to other more rewarding sites (I hope so).

There's no denying that a blog of one's own is a good spot to rant about the Red Sox, celebrate FOs (my summer of socks!) or muse about the possibility of opening an etsy store for R's photos, or to make a partial list of summer reading:

A Mathematician's Lament, Paul Lockhart
Nickel and Dimed. Barbara Ehrenreich
It's Not About the Bike, Lance Armstrong
Nice Try, Shane Maloney
The Big Ask, Shane Maloney,
Borderline, Nevada Barr
A Duty to the Dead, Charles Todd
Lance Armstrong's War, Daniel Coyle
The Tourist, Olen Steinhauer
Who is Conrad Hirst? Kevin Wignall
The End of the Chapter, John Galsworthy
A Mango-Shaped Space, Wendy Mass


Here, fye, an egret series, from the pond down the street (I am reminded that in Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country the character of the Vietnam vet uncle, Emmett, spends lots of time looking for an egret ....)





Here you see Tessie still having to be convinced that cows (heifers) are not scary. By the end of our 2 weeks in Vermont I think she had decided that they are a strange variety of large dog; she got to the point, one night in the barn, of touching noses with a particularly brave cow.

So, I'm still thinking about all of these blog matters. Clearly I'm not quite done yet. So I'm going to borrow Garrison Keillor's Writers' Almanac send-off:

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

Oh, and those of you in metro Boston? Try to keep cool.

5 comments:

Bea said...

We're still here. Or at least I didn't feel a need to take you out of bloglines. Its nice to hear from you occasionally to know you are doing well.

Knitting Linguist said...

Still here, too! But I understand that sometimes the places that one needs to write change :) I love the pictures, and I'm glad to hear that Tessie has come to terms with cows -- that's a big one!

Nana Sadie said...

I hate to think that Facebook (which really frightens me) or Twitter (who really cares about my one-liners?) would replace the blog. I hope not.

Ravelry, of course, is another animal entirely, tho' I ought to call a halt to too much searching - leads to drooling, and then...oh my, I hit the "buy" button at etsy again!
lolol
LOVE the photos you've posted. And will understand if you decide to fold up shop. Still, it's nice to hear from you...Bloglines still tells me when you've posted!
(((hugs)))

Nana Sadie said...

and now I'm off to check out The Mathematician's Lament!
lolol

marit said...

I'm still here! And I'm glad you are too- I've missed you, and I hope you don't quit blogging altogether!