Watermark

Confession

What do you bring to the confessional?
Wasted hours; a kind thing undone,
and another, and another; or some
singular crime, a thought or deed
that left a wound, some innocent
bereft of confidence and cheer?
Have you taken what was not yours
to keep; kissed one not yours to claim?
Or is it deeper, darker than these?
Did you see your path was cold
and steep, so turn an easier way?
Have you scoured your heart of love,
set it to harden in a kiln of rage?
Drop it on the tiles, then. Let it break.

   

Introduce Yourself!

This is Watermark's third INTRODUCE YOURSELF! post. As before, new folks are coming by (this time, many of them from Etsy.) The first INTRODUCE YOURSELF! thread was about creativity; the second was about poetry.

These are new questions, so feel free to jump in even if you already introduced yourself in an earlier thread. If you put your URL in the offered box, we'll all be able to visit you at your own site.

This is a tough one, though:

• What difficult challenges have you met in your creative life?
• How have you met them?
• What, if anything, do wish you had done differently?
• What creative challenge are you facing now?

I will answer these questions, too -- but not for awhile. I'm going to be mostly offline for the next ten days, and I'm leaving Watermark in your hands.

So, go at it,  and have fun!

Playing ...

Redesign in progress...

Later: That navigation bar up there is not working -- I've submitted a Help Ticket. I don't want to give up on it just yet. Fixed!

So -- what do you think?

A [thoughtful] Pause

 

It has been brought to my attention that I am neglecting Watermark. And so I am; another unplanned blogging holiday.

It's odd, but the demise of the iBook seems to have shifted me from right-brain to left-brain mode. As I await the arrival of a replacement, I am reading actual books. I am reading, online, mostly tech- and blog-related stuff. I am (again) quitting smoking, so slightly cranky. I'm immersed in televised politics.

And, of course, I miss Spike. He was so demanding, even when well, that I have frequent reminders of his absence, in all the things I no longer must do. 

So -- all is well, I'll return soon.

Ooopsies

I am participating in a TypePad beta, testing some new features. There have been a few glitches, and I hope for your patience as they appear, and disappear, and reappear...

If you see something that seems wonky, please let me know. You can leave a note in comments, or -- if it's commenting that's wonky, as is the case right now -- email me.

Difficulties

I am participating in a TypePad Beta, and the latest glitch is that Watermark mostly won't come up at www.sbpoet.com; instead, what comes up is a long- napping photo weblog. You can get to individual posts, if you have the URL, but the main page is stubborn and misbehaving even when it does come up. This makes posting difficult.

Also, Spike is in hospital. We think he'll be OK; it seems to be a combination of bad teeth and severe constipation. This is the first time in fifteen years -- since he was kitten off to be neutered -- that my house has not had Spike in it.

So -- here is yesterday's poem, and you may not see another for a few days.

Introduce Yourself!

Our first INTRODUCE YOURSELF! post is over a year old now, and has more than eighty comments, so I thought it might be time to begin a new one. The first one is full of interesting people and ideas -- be sure to check it out!

Some new folks are coming by, and I'm going to suggest different questions this time, so feel free to jump in even if you already introduced yourself in the first thread. If you have a website or a blog, point us to it. Informality is the rule, but formality is permitted.

Here are this round's (optional) questions. If you don't like these, answer your own:

• Do you read poems?
• If no, why not?
• Do you write poems?
• If yes, whatever for?
• What, for you, makes a poem a good poem?

I'll answer those questions myself, once the ball gets rolling.

As before, I'll link this post on the sidebar so that it's always handy.

The first one was so much fun, I can hardly wait to see what develops this time. And, this time, you have the option of subscribing to the comment thread via RSS, which will make it much easier to keep up.

I'm closing the comment thread here, as I've begun a third INTRODUCE YOURSELF! post, with a new set of questions. Go join us there!

Holidailies: I Introduce Myself

 

No, I'm not sticking my tongue out at you. Really.

But I do love that Wild Thing.

Yesterday was the first day of Holidailies, and we were invited to introduce ourselves. Those of you who have been reading Watermark for awhile know me, probably, better than I know myself; but how to introduce myself, and Watermark, to new readers? I could send you to my rather quirky About Page, but you might feel a bit overwhelmed. I've no idea whether my regular readers ever check that out. Do you?

I took this opportunity to play a bit with fd's flickr toys and Picnik to make the above wintry self-portrait. This is one of the reasons I blog: for the fun of it; to play with words and images and ideas.

I am an introvert | poet | snapshotter | blogger. I've been blogging for nearly four years now (with the odd brief or extended break) during which Watermark has collected a surprising number of patient and loyal readers. They (you) are also surprisingly diverse. (Want to know more about Watermark's readers? Check out -- and join! -- the Introduce Youself post.)

Some adore the sidebar, with its widgets and gadgets and pointers elsewhere; some find it unnecessarily cluttered and distracting. Some, who come for my more serious writing, find the cats and quizzes trivial; others come for only those. Some love the look of it; some rarely see it, as they get my posts by subscription or email (check the top of the sidebar if you'd like to join them) and come visit only when they want to comment or I request feedback on a design change.

So maybe Watermark is a bit like Montana weather: Don't like it? Wait a minute; it will change. If you aren't taken with today's post, try again tomorrow.

It's tempting to say that I am like that, too -- changeable and varied and surprising; moody and capricious and fickle. But actually, I'm not. I am, in fact, rather steady and predictable.

This exercise reminds me that one is not always what one seems to be on the internet -- or in 3D life. I am, however, quite transparent here, and tend to forget that others may not be. I'm as surprised when, on occasion, someone doubts me, as I am to discover that I should have doubted them.

But that's another post altogether. In the meantime, here I am. And I'm also, sometimes, at Abide | Resources & Reflections on Living with Chronic Illness; and Blogging Blog | Tips, Tools & Toys for the Personal Blogger.

Edited to add:

One Time Opportunity Is there something you'd like to know about me? Ask, and I'll answer. I won't necessarily tell the truth, but if the answer is fictional, I'll tell you so.

Feed Disaster

[Thursday morning: fixed, I think]

 

Subscribe to my feed

In trying to consolidate my feeds, I have somehow managed to unsubscribe about 140 of you.

Please resubscribe!

Yikes!

Yes, I know.

It's weird. Images aren't loading.

I've submitted a help ticket.

Introductions

I had planned to do a series of posts on the comments from the INTRODUCE YOURSELF post, and began that last week -- but I've decided:

• It's too overwhelming to decide what to choose from each comment
• I can't possibly express the flavor of that thread with excerpts
• Better you should just go read it -- and even contribute, if you've a mind to -- yourself

So, I'm going to revert to thanking those folks, from all over the place, who have given thought and time to commenting, and enlivening this blog in my absence:

• John B. | Blog Meridian
• belledame222 | Fetch me my axe
• Cheryl | Journey of Cross and Quill
• Mary Scriver | Prairie Mary
• John Baker | John Baker's Blog
• DrMeglet | randomness revovled around me
• Megan | Flaming Renaissance
• Cathy | The Quiet One
• Laura | Moments, Musings
• Jacquie | wild ink
• meika | meika loofs samorzewski
• pam | MarillaAnne
• Endment | Endment
• Leesa | Peace of My Mind
• Chia
• Theresa Quintanilla | QViews
• Pearl | Humanyms
• Michael | Stick Poet Super Hero
• Bitteroot | Bitteroot and Bergamot
• Anne | Ample Sanity
• Crafty Green Poet
• Lori Witzel | chatoyance
• Rachel | Tales of My Thirties
• bobbi | KirkWorks Fine Arts
• mike | scandalize my name
• sandra
• leah | Creative Every Day
• Tammy Vitale
• somewhere joe | Hooky Beach
• Frances Sbrocchi | Fran's poems
• P.B. Adams | starsequence [popups]
• barbara | barbtries a blog
• Robert Twist | Fantastic Poems
• catnapping | the odd neighbor
• Linda | Straight Up and Slightly Dirty
• sdruthla | Creative Hoarding
• Wm. Rike | arcane matter out of place
• Nancy Bea | www.GenreCookShop.com
• neha | Within/Without
• Natalie | BLAUGUSTINE
• schmutzie | Milkmoney
• Sarah | Sarah's writing journal
• Robert | Robert Peake
• antonia | flowerville
• Coral | CoralPoetry
• Ozymandiaz | Ocellus
• Francesca Gray | Pushing an Elephant Up the Stairs
• Shann Palmer | Shann Palmer says
• Daphne | somewhere i have never travelled
• poet | HIDEAWAYPOET
• Patricia (a/k/a Roswila) | ROSWILA’S DREAM & POETRY REALM
• T Caber
• Edie | A bunch of wordz

There's lots to explore up there; I hope you'll click a few links and discover that for yourself. 

Valentines

That's Cloud and Blue up there, cooing at each other. I chose them to tell you how much I appreciate you. All of you, who keep coming to visit, and add your thoughts to the Introduction Post, even though I've been mostly absent for a month now.

I'm almost back, though. The drawing class ended last Friday, and my energy will soon turn back to this.

Thank you so much for your patience!

Wha....? Where'd she go?

Well. I seem to be taking an unanticipated blogging break.

Cathy thinks I've been abducted by aliens.

Mary tells me she's been contacted by several folks who wonder where I am.

I'm here; I'm just not here. Various things converged to take me away from the Web. Personal and financial crises (all better now -- don't send money); a drawing class that seems to have quite successfully moved me into nonverbal mode; and a return to the interrupted project of organizing my house for life as it is now, instead of how it was.

Also, there is something I need to write about (privately) but I don't want to. And I've learned that, if I won't write what's pressing, I can't write anything. Sooner or later, I'll give in.

I thought I might have a snapshot poem today, but -- not yet.

 

A Gratitude Post

Wulfgar! has announced the winners of this year's Montana Weblog Awards, and Watermark is tied with Raven's Nest as the Most Creative Montana Blog. This is company I am proud to be in. I'm also well pleased with Wulfgar!'s observation that it's pretty obvious that Mike, Sharon and a certain Sam from a certain creek have a very broad readership.

I'll post the complete list of winners below the cut -- where you should go, for some enriching discoveries -- but first, a few thank-you's:

• to Wulfgar!, for taking on what must be both a fun and an exasperating task, honchoing this now annual event
• to all of you who took the time and interest to check out Montana's offerings
• and to all who voted for Watermark

I also want to thank those folks, from all over the place, who have given thought and time to commenting in the Introduce Yourself! post. So far, we have:

• John B. | Blog Meridian
• belledame222 | Fetch me my axe
• Cheryl | Journey of Cross and Quill
• Mary Scriver | Prairie Mary
• John Baker | John Baker's Blog
• DrMeglet | randomness revovled around me
• Megan | Flaming Renaissance
• Cathy | The Quiet One
• Laura | Moments, Musings
• Jacquie | wild ink
• meika | meika loofs samorzewski
• pam | MarillaAnne
• Endment | Endment
• Leesa | Peace of My Mind
• Chia
• Theresa Quintanilla | QViews
• Pearl | Humanyms
• Michael | Stick Poet Super Hero
• Bitteroot | Bitteroot and Bergamot
• Anne | Ample Sanity
• Crafty Green Poet
• Lori Witzel | chatoyance

This thread is even more fun and thought provoking than I had anticipated. Even if you don't feel like participating, I bet you'll find the comments, and the commenters' sites, of interest -- check them out -- and, of course, check out . . .

 

Introduce Yourself!

I love this idea!  At Fetch me my axe, she has an Introduce Yourself post, where her blog readers can share something about themselves in the comments. So far, there are seventy-four (74!) comments.

So I'm inviting you to introduce yourselves, to me and to each other. If you have a website or a blog, point us to it. Informality is the rule, but I do have a few questions that you might answer if you like:

• What do you do that you consider creative? Is it easy, or difficult for you?
• What supports -- or undermines -- your creativity?
• If you could give a friend one piece of creative inspiration (advice, or a poem, or a painting, or a book, or whatever occurs to you) what would it be?

I'll answer those questions myself, once the ball gets rolling.

Since TypePad has a feature that allows us to pin a post to the top of the home page, that's what I'll do -- leave this at the top, at least through the holidays, and link to it on the sidebar so that it's always handy.

I'm really looking forward to this.   

Here is the second Introduce Yourself! post. I've closed comments on this one, to encourage you toward the new one.

Here is the third Introduce Yourself! post.

Made for Watermark

  This week's prompt was: take a snapshot of poetry. I did my usual snapshot poem yesterday, but I also found this:

This is just what I pictured, when I named this blog: the ephemeral nature of poetry, of writing -- of everything, actually. We work, and write, and post -- and no matter how long it lasts, that lasting is brief. We catch a moment, and it's gone in a moment.

I didn't  check the dictionary defintions before choosing, but it works even better than I had imagined:

1. a mark which is made on some types of paper during its production which can only be seen if it is held against the light;
2. a mark showing the highest or lowest level that a river or the sea reaches

Of course, I've been thinking about writing a lot lately, with NaNoWriMo pushing me to my expository limits. Yesterday, facing a blank wall, I realized I could read the next chapter of the book:

If you still don't know what your characters are doing in your book, Week Two is the point when you should panic.

Hee hee.

Just kidding.

Having a shaky, hazy, or problematic plot heading into Week Two is absolutely fine, and is a predicament common to many month-long novelists. . .

So, I feel better. Still lost, but better.

[Tuesday:  1371 words. Yesterday: 781 words. So far: 22854 words.] I know you folks must be getting bored with this, but I kept losing track -- so this is for me, not you.

Wave via The Generator Blog.

This Ugly Blog...

I've spent the past few days redesigning Watermark (again), before I read Top 10 Ways to Uglify Your Blog. As it happens, I did some of what Christian would advise, but not all -- and not always for his reasons.

I love 80x15 blog buttons, and tag clouds. I think the buttons are fun, and I find tag clouds (not, as he states, organized radomly, but by frequency, and/ or alphabetically) easy to navigate. However, I don't have ads, and my photo is only on the About page. Feed buttons are nicely coordinated with everything else, and there is only one for each feed. I had already reached the conclusion that if you use a social bookmarking site, you don't need me to give you a button for it -- fond of buttons though I am.

I felt like a doing a good clear-out, and hoped to make the site quicker to load. Most of the buttons have been changed to text, and since I know some folks come here just to get buttons, I made a whole new site for them: Milieux. A new place for toys and play -- a truly ugly blog by Christian's standards.

Much of the sidebar content is now in expand/ collapse boxes. I found the script for this at flooble [BEWARE: many loud and obnoxious popups!] via someplace I've lost track of -- if you think it might be you, let me know and I'll add a link to this post. This script works in a TypePad typelist, even if you don't use advanced templates. At least, I think it works; I've tested it in Firefox, both Mac and Windows; Safari; and IE on Windows.

The sidebar certainly looks cleaner. The question is, does this speed loading, or have I just traded the time it takes to load images for the time it takes to load scripts? Do these boxes improve or inhibit usability?

Also, there is some problem with the Rings code; it breaks the template in IE, in or out of an expandable box -- so it's at the bottom of the sidebar until I can figure out what's wrong. Even though I'm a member of PowderPuff Geeks, I'm really not a geek; I just play one on the internet.

What do you think -- have I improved things, or made them worse?

[ADDED later: Oh, wait! My photo is up there on the banner. Forgot about that...]

100 Things

A few weeks ago, Patia updated her 100 Things About Me post, which apparently got me going, as I was up in the night trying to add to my own list. With only some success.

I still cannot come up with 100 things about me. So I Googled "SB is..." and added a few of those (color coded below.) I made others up. I quit counting.

This is a narcissistic exercise; who would want to know 100 things about a stranger on the Internet?

Still, since I've done nothing else original for some time, I'm posting it. Below the cut, so you don't have to look.

I also added it to my About page. What can I say? It amuses me.

Some of these may be true, but this is not a True or False quiz; no cookies for correct answers. In fact, the correct answers will not be revealed.

Summer Vacation

I am being extremely lazy and uncreative -- so I've decided to take a vacation. It's hot here, and the best place to be is the garden, so that's where I'm going, vintage mystery in hand.

But first, I'll go through the Watermark archives and choose a few favorites to repost each day for about the next week. I will do the usual Friday roundup tomorrow, but otherwise I am excusing myself from new efforts for awhile.

Not to worry, I'll be back soon. Probably sooner than planned, if this tactic works as it has in the past -- a little reverse psychology, a little easing of expectations, and I often find myself renewed.

You might want a little vacation yourself, no?

Comment Spam

Well, this open-commenting site has been (re)discovered. So, another poll:

[I've no idea why all this whitespace is in here]

FeedFlare

This is a test, to see how things are different after activating FeedFlare for Watermark -- despite all the explanation, I've no idea what to expect. Just a hint to the techies -- pictures, pictures, pictures, please.

Awhile back, I added FeedBurner, then forgot about it. This service runs all your feeds through the FeedBurner feed, invisibly, so that you know how many folks read your various feeds.

When I went in to set up FeedFlare, I discovered that Watermark has 111 subscribers.

Wow.

LATER: OK, what is it supposed to do? Something I won't see?

Thursday Walk|Poetry Thursday

   

Rachel has generously sent me a translation of the China Daily article that was linked to Watermark:

I'm only hemidemisemiliterate in Chinese, but this is what I think it says:

A Creative Landscape Indicates a Romantic Existence
Aren't we always looking to lend our lives something of a romantic sensibility? So--have you experienced the beauty of artistic representation? People often regret the lack of poetry in their lives. What would happen if you took every incident of your life and expressed it through a picture and a poem? Well, you'll have to savor the sensation yourself. Don't hesitate--throw off your trepidation--once you've tried it, you may just find the romance that's been missing from your life for so long.

The word for "romance" or "romantic" in Chinese, pronounced langman, is a transliteration from English. The first definition given in the Dictionary of Modern Chinese, the dictionary in most common use (it seems to me) in the PRC, is "rich in poetic feeling; full of imagination." I don't think the word has acquired as strong associations with vapidity and silliness in Chinese as it has in English, but instead has sort of attached itself to a set of traditional attributes of the scholar-poet.

Ah, of course -- a scholar-poet. Just how I've always imagined myself.

I am no Pollyanna, and generally averse to the too-quick assurance that every cloud has a shiny lining -- but it's true that one consequence of illness is a widening, and sometimes a deepening, of time. Time to think, to read, to look.

Together with time, I have been blessed with the technology to share my observations -- a digital camera; a little laptop. Interesting, and sometimes beautiful, things to look at. This columbine comes back, year after year, and seeds itself in neighboring gardens. 

This van, which sits in the parking lot, offending some neighbors and intriguing me, has aged -- perhaps not with grace, but with style.

Like me.

We each have our own way.

Today my way is somewhat incoherent -- too tired, but determined to post. Please bear with me.

[My Bread Van photoset on flickr.]

Bloggishness

There have been some major (and some minor) changes here at sbpoet.com. Some changes have been made in response to specific complaints -- some my own, others from readers:

• Can't find email addy:  put text (in CAPS) above the GMail Me button

• Can't find About page: made the ABOUT button more 'graphic'

• Found the About page, but can't find your name: I think that's clearer now (it's Sharon Brogan, btw)

• What? You have more sites?!?: split out my own sites from those where I occasionally post, and put mine at the top of the sidebar

• Too much stuff; site loads slowly on dialup: Sorry, I like visuals. I hope you come to think it's worth it. Also, I do offer full feeds, so you can read me in a newsreader, one post at a time, without ever coming here. I hope you do come here, though.

• Small Poems & Commonplace Book not displaying correctly: fixed

• Blogrolls have dead links: pruned & updated

• No updates on Blogging Blog: we have new writers/contributers; the blogrolls have been pruned & updated; and I'm working on the sidebars

• Too many cats and squirrels: um, don't know what to tell you... I'm curious, though -- no one ever complains that there are too many dogs, or too many flowers -- why is that?

Watermark has a new banner, and I want to thank all my patient readers who responded to one poll after another. There is about a 70% approval rate on this one, which is pretty good. It'll do, for now. I want to thank Dave, especially, for saying my blog is fun -- just what I needed to hear on that day to keep me plugging away at this; and Cathy and dolphin for graphics advice.

All my other sites (except Blogging Blog, which is no longer simply mine) also have new banners. I love the Abide banner, with an evocative image from Harmony, who granted me permission to use it. A friend looked at it and said That's so you!

Most of the new banners take advantage of Phillip's Letters toy, with which I am clearly enamored. Now, I do realize I'm breaking all the rules here. I know that a suite of sites is supposed to share the same design, and they used to, pretty much. White backgrounds, the same black font. What can I say. I got bored with it.

Blogging Blog isn't really in this suite anyway, nor is Abide, really -- so I feel I have more leeway there. All the others have the shell at the right of the banner (and sometimes the left, too), and the top right sidebars are nearly identical. Abide, though the banner is entirely different, does have the shell. I think my readers will recognize that these sites belong to me.

Watermark received the most thorough clearing out -- deletions, additions, and rearranging. If you haven't stopped by in awhile, you might want to check it out.

Links got a bit of a shake-up, too. I decided to drop the Kinja digests; I think they may work fine for folks who read a few blogs, but for someone like me who follows a fair number, and many in different categories, Bloglines and Blogrolling just work better. I'm using the blogroll from The Big Sky Blog (thanks, David!) for my Montana blogroll; that one's more likely to be up-to-date, and I added a few Montana links of my own.

The biggest changes are to the About page, which I've never liked. More accurately, with which I've never been comfortable -- some of you will remember that it was months before I brought myself to even put my name anywhere. Recent advice, however, gave me permission to move the focus from me to the sites themselves -- the what, why, commenting and linking policies, and so on. I've also added an About This Site category to Watermark.

Some toys have moved from Watermark to About -- or just been added there, after wondering where to put them. Both Pandora and LastFM are there, and I'm playing with All Consuming. Is anyone really interested in the books I read, and the music I listen to?

In trying to figure out (with patient TypePad Support) why Small Poems and Commonplace Book had gone wonky, I learned that I have many and tedious HTML validation issues. I do not intend to weed through this until the weather is dreary again. Unless I must?

I know I still have work to do, especially on some of the peripheral pages, like the Cats and Webrings pages -- which I won't even link to here, since they are so pitiful. I'll get to it. Eventually.

Finally, I applied to 9Rules; I'm not sure why. I believe I applied before, never heard back, and forgot about them. Yesterday I perused some of their sites, and I see that Watermark hasn't a chance. These seem to be mostly professionally designed, quick and minimalist. Very not me. Some good sites, though, that demonstrate much more design control than I would be likely to have, even if I had the skills. I plan to spend some time over there in the coming weeks.

This whole process has been rather like my old grant-writing days -- completely obsessive. I hope you like the results, but whether you do or don't, please let me know.

China Daily, still. Again.

Remember this?

I still don't have a translation, aside from the bewildering Bablefish interpretation -- but I have heard from China Daily:

hi,Dear Mr.poet: Nice meeting you in the beautiful blog!
yes, we are introducing your awesome blog to Chinese readers,to show what life looks like in "a poet's notebook".Our team is called Global Blog,which connects Chinese netizens to wonderful blogs all around the world through brief introductions and blog links. This is a fresh way to show foreign blogs to China and we are the first media to do so. Global Blog belongs to China Daily Website,one of China's top eight news portals at state level.We really appreciate your blog and welcome to our website!

Posted by: Nan | Wednesday, 17 May 2006 at 02:03 AM

And, from the author of the article:

Hello,I am the person who recommend your peculiar blog to Chinese people.The first time I look through your blog ,I was so attracked by it.I like your special style and the way you observe life though I do not really understand the thorough meaning of all your poem.I hope you can stick on and I believe that you can attrack more and more readers.
I am only a university student and I know little about the meaning of life,but from your blog I learn that one can live his life in such a romantic way,and I really like it.
May you be happy!

Posted by: 高月影 | Wednesday, 17 May 2006 at 04:34 AM

Mary says:

Dear SB, you have the most charming comments I've read yet and the only Chinese one I've run across! I try to live my life in such a romantic way as well. As for the meaning of life, both peculiar and particular apply.

Prairie Mary

Posted by: Mary Scriver | Wednesday, 17 May 2006 at 11:22 AM

Which, I think, pretty much sums it up.

Really, I am still delighted by this whole thing. I do think the writer intends to say nice things about Watermark, I just wish I knew what they were. I continue to get a fair number of hits from there.

I rather suspect that romantic means something a bit different to the Chinese than it does to us. But, may I be happy! Yes!

Housekeeping

It is probably not obvious, but I've spent the past week -- rather compulsively -- working on this blog, and the Links Blog. I can't swear to it, but I think that every link on this sidebar, and all my blogroll links, now work. I've cleared out dead links, and deleted inactive sites. It's like sweeping dead bugs from the basement, only more tedious.

Surprisingly, one of the oldest blogrolls was the most intact; people who blog about or for their cats seem to stick with it longer than other bloggers. I think I had to remove only two or three sites from that one. There's probably a PhD thesis in that somewhere.

There was an Aortal link on the sidebar, and one for an Insignificant Microbe: help it evolve, but when I went to update those I was reminded why I so rarely do so. At least one third of the Aortal links are dead, or should be; and most of the Insignificant Microbes are the same. I may just move up the evolutionary ladder, to Lowly Insects, perhaps, or Flippery Fish -- if a blog gets that far, at least it's likely to be somewhat active.

I don't know what to do about the Aortal problem. I know that maintaining that kind of directory is a lot of work. I wrote to them some time ago about this, but never heard back.

Speaking of problems, a reader has kindly let me know that Watermark is not showing updates on his Blogroll. I've suspected this was happening, just from noticing a few times when I was visiting other sites that my updates weren't registering. Anyone have an idea why this might be? I also see I've dropped from a Large Mammal to a Marauding Marsupial at TTLB, but I'm assuming this is a temporary glitch. I doubt that I've really dropped from nearly 500 to 70 links overnight.

Let's see, what else . . . Oh, yes. I've added a couple of new toys (found at scribblingwoman)-- a Page Rank Check from BlogFlux, and buttons that are supposed to show the current  egopoint status of searches on my name and domain, but don't. They're off by about five thousand points.   

If I didn't have a healthy ego, this might make me paranoid.

Speaking of which, please let me know if you see any problems. Really.

Blogger Code

Via Radio Free Blogistan:

B7 D++ T- K+ S+ F+ I++ O++ X E L+ C-- Y4 R+ W- P++ M4 N H

This questionnaire is a kick! They offer three versions of the code; this is The Bling Badge, which, as the winner of The Writer's Edge Blog Bling Award (see sidebar) is the obvious choice for me. Sadly, this one is too wide for the sidebar.

Yes, I know, if I were a real geek, I'd know how to fix that. But I'm not. I only play one on the internets.

How I Blog

HOW do YOU

Blog?

It's a textual thing. Pure text with some inline CSS. No graphics required.

Frank Paynter at Sandhill Trek is collecting posts on How Do You Blog, complete with this very cool text graphic from Mandarin Design.

How do I blog? Difficult to answer on this stubbornly blank day. When I'm less blank, I write. I take pictures. I respond to inspiration I find on the web, and link to it.

Beautiful Creepy-Crawlie

This exotic creature was crossing the path the other day -- does anyone know what it is? Yes, I realize it's some kind of -- or something like -- a caterpillar. Maybe. This photograph does not do it justice; those little circles are lined with an almost neon blue.

I've also had a number of far less beautiful creepy-crawlies cross my path lately, and because of them find it necessary to implement comment and trackback moderation on all of my sites. This means that, when you leave a comment or trackback to one of my posts, it will not appear on the site until I have personally approved it.

This feature, and Authentication, have just been added to TypePad's spam fighting arsenal. I had hoped to not use them, but am finding other efforts increasingly useless, and deleting spam after spam is tedious.

So I hope that you, gentle readers, will not find this a discouragement. I love receiving real comments; it's an important reinforcement for me.

[& I see that TypePad's spellcheck is not working . . . ]

I know, it looks weird . . .

Message from Typepad:

MAINTENANCE UPDATE: Some published weblogs may currently be experiencing issues with layout and design. We know about the problem and are working hard to resolve it. Over the weekend we will be automatically republishing weblogs on TypePad in order to address this problem.

Blogger Interviews

Melanie  is doing a series of interviews with bloggers, and today she published her interview with me. I discovered Chandrasutra shortly after I started blogging, and it has been on my favorites list ever since. I am delighted to be so honored.

Since I've had the questions for some time, I resisted reading the other interviews until I'd finished answering; I feared I would lose my own way. So I've just had the pleasure of  reading the thoughts of a varied, knowledgeable, and articulate group of bloggers, some of whom I'd not previously discovered.

If you are interested in writing, blogging, journalism, and the intersections among them, go check it out.

Sensitivity

Bright Visitor -- clicking takes you to the Flickr photo page

OK, I'm feeling better about this (though I will be doing some things to speed up loading -- thanks, Selva, for the tips on where to look.)  I think the tone upset me as much as the complaint; my own hyper-sensitivity, for which no one is to blame. So I've had to sort out my own defensiveness from what is actually unimportant to me.

In the defensive category, a commenter on the complaining site says:

. . . having massive pages that, as an obvious and necessary result, take forever to download is rude and means you don’t care about your audience . . . And then there’s the questionable taste of having zillions of little graphics all over the place… Which is fine if they’re actually useful for something, but sheesh.

That hooked me. Then I went to his site and found this disclaimer:

This website is guaranteed to contain something, somewhere, that will offend or upset you. If you do not wish to deal with such things, please go away. Remember, NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO BE HERE.  If you choose to stay, anything and everything that happens to you as a result is strictly your own fault.  Expect no sympathy from anyone.

So I decided not to worry if this guy finds me rude. And I'm seldom accused of bad taste (though I have been accused of whimsy.)

Thank you all, for your reassurances; and Dave for noticing that the site is designed so the main content comes up first and you don't have to wait!  for the, admittedly very full, sidebar to load. I love my sidebar. Silly, I know.

And yes, I'm happy to have people read me in Bloglines. Fifty people do, I've discovered! For some reason, I have five feeds, and altogether there are 50 subscribers.  All this time I thought there were only nine.

This incident has gotten me thinking, though, about for whom do I blog? Barbara is right, You can't please everyone. More on this later; I'm working on Mel's questions.

Well, this made my day . . .

From GreenViolet:

Maybe I'm just turning into a cranky bitch, but if I have to wait for your blog to load about 79 of the eventual 200+ items on your page, you're not that interesting, poet or not.

According to SiteScore (I had to check - I do check fairly often, but haven't for awhile):

Your website responded in 0.49 seconds, and your homepage downloaded in 1.69 seconds. This is very fast and suggests your website is running on a sufficiently powerful web server.

Although they also say my site is rarely visited, and Thursday's weekly SiteMeter report says Watermark is averaging 141 hits/ 189 page views per day, which doesn't seem all that bad to me, given what I do.

This one's from WebSiteOptimization:

So, at the slowest 14.4K speed, it takes six minutes. That's a long time. But at 56K, which I think is fairly standard these days, it takes 1.7 minutes -- is that too long?

I dunno. Maybe I don't care.

Naming

Jenni asks:

1. Where did you get your blog's name from?
2. How is it representative of your life, personality, or writing?
3. If you had to change the name of your bog, what would be an alternative title?

And I say:

1. I was thinking about writing on water, the impermanence, the ephemeral quality of all writing.

   I saw the mineral line on a crystal water glass; all that was left of the water that once filled it.

   I thought of the high-water line on a coastal cliff, or the tide line on a sandy beach (that line my dog would not cross; though she loved the beach, she hated wet feet.)

   I thought of my tiny garden pond, the goldfish, and the verb to ponder.

2. All of the above.


3. This is difficult. Pool, perhaps?

TLB Ecosystem & 2004 Weblog Awards

The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem has [again] lost its mind.  This morning I woke to find this: 

                & a little research found this:

And this, to demonstrate its recent eccentricity:

So, for the moment, I am a Playful Primate -- and who knows what I will be tomorrow.  What I won't be is a winner of a Wizbang  2004 Weblog Award, not having made it to the finals.  Still being a bit new to the game, I didn't realize I would have many strikes against me:

1.  Woman
2.  Feminist
3.  Rarely [overtly] political
4.  When overtly political, leans to the left
5.  Really stiff competition
6.  Basically uncategorizable, the categories being:

Why I Blog

Joe asks:

. . . do me a favor and tell me a little about (or point me to) the very last thing to inspire you (anything – not necessarily a website)

Well, Joe -- you have. Your request inspired me to do this post, which I've been thinking about for some time -- inspired by a variety of things, including the IT Kitchen, and this:

How often have you had a conversation with a non-blogger that goes something like this?

On the Lighter Side

For weeks now, I've been waiting for TLB to realize that I am not a Large Mammal. I'm merely a Marauding Marsupial, as I've been for months. It turns out, I really am a Large Mammal:

Bear Spirit Calls To You ~

Bear is spirit keeper of the West, the place of darkness, maturity and good harvest. Bears are active during the night and day. This symbolizes its connection with solar energy, that of strength and power, and lunar energy, that of intuition. The bear holds the teachings of introspection. When it shows up in your life pay attention to how you think, act and interact.

Bear's Wisdom Includes:

*Introspection
*Healing
*Solitude
*Change
*Communication with Spirit
*Birth and rebirth
*Transformation
*Astral travel
*Creature of dreams, shamans and mystics
*Visionaries
*Defense and revenge
*Wisdom

  Animal Spirit Guides ~ Which One Calls To You?
  Brought to you by Quizilla

Via kalamity

Watermark in the New York Times

Two weeks ago, I received a message that a reporter from the New York Times wanted to speak to me about my blog. 

Was he interested in my fine, sensitive poems?  Or perhaps my incisive political commentary?

No.

He was interested in Friday Cat Blogging. 

The article is here. Yes, it requires registration -- but you can always make something up, and besides, it's cats.   

I think the reporter, Daniel Terdiman (who also writes for Wired News) did a good job (though I have been blogging for ten months, not three)  stressing what is most important to me about Friday Cat Blogging:  that it brings together folks from all around the web who otherwise would not connect.  And, of course, it offers a little relief from what has lately been a heavy dose of seriousness. 

I hope those of you who are visiting from the Times will take a minute to visit my main page.  There is much more than cats on offer here, including poems, politics, and other minor matters.  If you came just for the cats, you will find many cat links here.

[Crossposted to Big Sky Blog]

Praise For My Readers

Christian Crumlish at Radio Free Blogistan has written a post in response to Blogging Politics.  He has several interesting things to say -- go read it -- but what I really want to share with my readers is this:

The comment thread at Brogan's Watermark entry is well worth reading to gather a range of insightful views. Any blogger would envy sbpoet for her intelligent, thoughtful readers.

This is so true!

Blogging Politics

Both Joe and Danny have recently expressed concerns about blogging politics.  Joe says:

If I wrote a lot about politics here, I could lose you as a reader. . .

Though I listen to and read a lot of news every day and feel very strongly about this year's election, there's nothing I can offer you haven't already heard. . .

So, between now and Election Day, this blog will be strictly politics-free.

Danny says:

I have tended to stay away from writing about the election just because a) politics can alienate people from my true objective, namely to chronicle and consider creative issues and b) I think there are a lot of better informed bloggers expressing my perspective far better than I can and c) I don't want to be diverted by responding to a lot of inflamed and irrelevant discussion on this topic. . .

Blogging is media. It's broadcasting. It's public. It's not journal keeping. People have short attention spans and they want to know when they log on, that they will get a certain type of experience. Deviations are disturbing.

Deviants are not.

This has been a concern to me, as well.  I know that my regular readers do not come here expecting a passionate rant on our political situation.  The first eight months I pretty much avoided the topic altogether, for some of the reasons cited above. 

It just all seems more urgent to me now -- so much at stake in the next few weeks.  My grief and fear -- yes, I think it is fear -- are less deniable.  So I obsess, and it has spilled into this place.

I am asking you -- not because I will necessarily do as you say, but because I want to know -- would you prefer that I keep these topics out of Watermark? Or talk about them less often; or, possibly (it is possible, I imagine -- people keep sending me material via email) more often?

Blogoshphere Quirks

Cheering

What She Said is a fairly new blog that answers the question:  Where are all the female bloggers? WSS features extensive interviews with women bloggers, and a very long blogroll of Progressive Women who Blog Politics "at least part time."  The blog is beautifully designed, the interviews are thoughtful, and the blogroll is a delight. 

So why am I talking about this in a post on Blogoshphere Quirks? 

Because Watermark is on that blogroll. 

Perhaps it's a mistake.  I am a progressive woman who blogs, but very rarely about politics (I may not be able to continue resisting the urge to do so, though.)  I wanted to be on that blogroll; I wished I could be on that blogroll; and there I am!

Screwy

The Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem has been very confused lately about my evolutionary status.  For some time, I've been a Marauding Marsupial (and actually, I still am), but for awhile there it was telling me I had suddenly dropped from 85 inbound unique links to seven, and had devolved to Flappy Bird status. 

Now, for several days, TLB has been convinced that I am a Large Mammal, despite thinking I have only seven inbound links (Technorati thinks I have 214 Links from 104 Sources.)  Watermark's current ranking at TLB is #259, and for the first time, I am actually receiving hits from there. 


Surprisingly Painful

Now, this one is silly, and I know it -- but I was so taken by surprise, and wonder if others have had similar experiences and how you have dealt with them. 

I left a comment on someone's blog, thinking to be amusing.  The blogger responded with something like I'm tired of people making pointless comments; if you don't have something helpful to offer, don't say anything.  Now, the blogger certainly has the right to respond however s/he likes; the surprise to me was that it hurts! 

When I started blogging, I had a heart-to-heart talk with myself about not taking things personally; remembering that online is different from real life; etc. etc.  And thus far, I've had little reason to remind myself of these platitudes.

I do not intend to respond to this person -- I don't think this is their problem; it's mine -- but I am curious if others are as thin-skinned as I am (at least, I am today.)  Any words of wisdom?

Shells

Robin asks what the image on my last post is, which gives me a chance to admit my ignorance, and to point you all, again, to Scott Draves [aka Spot] and his wonderful work.  All the shells and shell-like images I use are from his image index.  I keep his mouse on the sidebar, in the Tools section.

Gratitude II

ENCOURAGEMENT

This is what I drank my coffee from this morning.  I won it at What The Hell Am I Doing Here, by being visitor #10,000.  Once the caffeine hit, it occurred to me to check my own stats; sometime in the past few days Watermark passed 10,000 and is well on its way to 11,000 (any hits from my own computers are excluded from this count.)  Since visitors (and links, and comments) are the greatest encouragement, this seemed a good time to continue with my Gratitude posts.

So I began work on Gratitude II, with the intention of listing all the folks who have offered encouragement in this experiment, but you know what?  There are too many of you! 

The list goes on and on.  More than eighty blogs link to Watermark now, and some who linked early on have fallen off the list.  Others who offered encouragement in comments or by email would not show up on that list anyway.

Please, all of you, accept this blanket thank you, and know that I mean it.  You all have made Watermark a Marauding Marsupial.

Sorry

Messing with the site. 

**********************

I got a note from a reader saying that my site is loading slowly.  This happens sometimes with TypePad, but the fact that I have so much stuff on here doesn't help. 

I want all this stuff. 

I've known for a long time that it would be better if the main column loaded first; then any delay will be on the sidebar.  Should be simple, right?  Just switch the positions of the columns.  Not.  They switched alright, but the sidebar got completely scrambled.  So I've rebuilt it.

But now the design hurts my eyes.  Is this just because I'm used to the original? 

What do you think?

Gratitude I

INSPIRATION

My difficulties last week, and Joe's quick response, reminded me that I owe a big thank you to the folks who have shown me the weblogging way.  These bloggers have all directly influenced Watermark, by showing me what is possible:

First, Erin ( a favorite poet), who showed me that a more-than-poetry blog can be done, and done well. 

From her, I followed links to and through:

Ivy, one of the first poets to link to me, and still one of my favorites

A New Broom, who, when I found her, was writing (and posting) a new poem every day.

scribblingwoman, who finds and shares wonderful books, links, images, and ideas

Trish Wilson, where I discovered Friday Cat Blogging

Eeksy Peeksy, who crafts wonderful haibun-like descriptions of small moments

Whiskey River, the font of wisdom

frizzyLogic, writer, thinker, photographer

Artichoke Heart, or A Pillow Book, or Woman Who Loves Insects – poems, cats (the lovely Bean Bean), and audio

onionboy, writing, drawing, and writing prompts

! Blog of the Day !

Look what I woke up to this morning, from Blogliners!

I had actually planned a gratitude post for today, for all the inspiration, support, and encouragement I've received as a weblogger.  I think I'll just bask for awhile. 

Another Kind Review

was reviewed today by The Weblog Review; rated 5 out of 5! Not bad for a novice.

Forgive me for indulging in some self-serving quotes:

Watermark isn't the typical weblog that gives a moment by moment evaluation of what goes on in our author's daily life. Instead, it tells her life in a more creative way - through her poetry . . . the author/ creator/ amazing poet, finds ways to write so many different types of poetry about so many different things . . . Sharon's off to a great start with a weblog that's only been around since January. Her experiment, as she calls it, is one I hope sticks around for a while.

When Watermark was reviewed at Time Goes By last week, it came at one of my low-energy times, and I did not take the opportunity to really soak in the good words -- which I am going to do, and share, now:

What attracted me the first time I visited Watermark is an ethereal quality to the layout of Sharon’s Weblog that pulls me in, when I visit, in a quiet but insistent manner . . . Sharon’s great strength is the very short poem – almost haiku in form . . . [Watermark] is a special place, perhaps of renewal – and we can all use some of that now and again.

These encouragements are very welcome, especially at ebbing times.

A Kind Review

was very favorably reviewed today at Time Goes By.

A nice thing to wake up to this morning.

Weblog Tools & Design

inspoetica Originally uploaded by inspoetica.

Posted by sbmontana from Flickr.

I didn't post on Tuesday, but I did work on my weblog; you may have noticed a few new additions:

Googlebombing (again)

JewJewJewJewJew

See here, or here, or here, or here . . .

I did this some time ago, on my sidebar, with links to a variety of sources; but on checking today I see that this effort has still not been successful. I am dismayed.

JewJewJewJewJew

Montana Gratitude

Yesterday Ed Kemmick of the Billings Gazette kindly mentioned me in his blog, City Lights:

If you get tired of the frenetic, overly politicized content of so many blogs, Sharon will provide a nice break for your eyes and your mind. She's a good poet and an imaginative photographer.

Other Montana blogs that have mentioned and/or linked to Watermark include Big Sky Dave; A Chicken Is Not Pillage; A Secular Franciscan Life; Better Living Through Blogging!; and An Offering of Myself to The World. (If I have overlooked anyone, please let me know and I will update this post.)

I am particulary grateful to these folks for bringing me visitors who would likely never have found me otherwise. Perhaps some of them will visit again.