Watermark

solomon's seal

Timely

Cartoon from Hugh Macleod via how to save the world

I'm way behind in my blog reading, due to all my blog-tweaking -- and this is one of the first things I came across while catching up.

Recently Noticed

Yet another conversation about Where Are All The Women Bloggers at Scobleizer. Lots of comments and, of course, dispute -- but so far, civilized.

Just a note, that I began reading this blog because Robert recently visited Montana, in sad circumstances. Both the real world and the virtual world are small. Click that photo up there and read the comments for another example of small worldness.

From the comments on the above post, I found two interesting sites:

The Remembering Site makes it easy for anyone, anywhere, to write and publish their life story and add to it as life unfolds. It says it is a non-profit initiative, but it does charge a fee ($25 USD) to register and get guidance in writing an autobiography. There is a Remembering Site Blog; the author says she started The Remembering Site because her father died too soon and she realized she didn't ask him all the questions about his life that she should have.

Then we have Tales from the Reading Room, which has lots of interesting stuff, including some intriguing posts on blogging: The Blog as Surrealist Legacy, for example.

Daily Linkport points to deep quote, which promises to create links to specific quotes on the Web -- links that will never expire. Now this sounds useful.

Linda Plaisted has a post at Utata on writing an artist's statement; it strikes me that this might be helpful in writing a blog/ website About Page as well -- having just struggled with this myself.

I'm feeling a bit tired, and uninspired. Also slightly worried that there has been minimal response to all the changes around here. Positive response, but minimal.

How do you motivate yourself to keep doing whatever it is you do?

Signs & Omens

Mostly because of the colors, I switched the earth view on Watermark to the water vapour view. This is a screenshot from this morning:

Lovely, isn't it?

Now, I'm not one to see images of the Madonna or Elvis on burnt toast, but consider -- with all the warnings we've been getting about global warming, climate change, rising seas, hurricanes and floods -- doesn't this make you just a bit uneasy?

Hmmm?

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.

Friday Critter Blogging

Endment has expressed some gentle skepticism about whether these:

    

and these:

   

...are really the same creatures. What can I say? The clothes make the dog.

They were called adorable! by a stranger on the riverpath again this morning.

Then there's Spike, who has never been referred to as adorable:

Handsome, bullying, beautiful, aggressive, demanding, intrusive, and rude, yes; but never adorable.

Boo, on the other hand, has one major descriptive, and that is ...

... sweet.

For other critters of various appearance and temperament, visit:

Friday Ark
I and the Bird
Carnival of the Cats
Carnival of the Dogs
Circus of the Spineless
Weekend Cat Blogging

At our house, we are all retreating to the shade. You?

Calling all geeks...

It would be really cool to have a widget to put on blog sidebars (especially, of course, TypePad blogs) that would let a reader click through to posts on that date from previous years.

Of course, I don't know if you folks would click that link -- but I would.

UPDATE Saturday 20 May: A response from TypePad Support --

. . . There is a Movable Type plugin that can do this but we're unable to use these with TypePad. Thanks for the suggestion though. We will keep this in mind as a possible future feature for the system.

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!

Thursday Walk|Poetry Thursday

   

Why is the poet fearsome?

Because she speaks the tabooed word, she tells the hidden truth. She looks, she sees.

Because her sustenance comes from something that cannot be sold, or withheld, or rationed.

Because, sometimes, when she meets a fence, her muse demands that she climb it.

Sometimes dangerous poems are hidden in drawers, but still -- they have been written.

The internal life is less easily ruled, restricted, than the external life. it cannot be marketed, and there is no profit beyond the spirit.

If everyone wrote poems -- if everyone read poems -- what would happen then? If we all were just a bit more connected to our internal selves, our animal selves, our spirited selves, our sensual selves -- would the made world unravel? Who would we be then?

Suppose we all heard god speak in tulips, in pollen, in the hidden languages of the body?

If we could reach our hand into the river and lift out the sequined fish, what then?

[Thank you, Ivy, for the pointer to the FEAR THE POET T-shirt! My first -- let's hope my last -- impulsive internet purchase.]

Snapshot 17 May 02006

REVISED Thursday 18 May:

In dreams I swim
through crowded pools.
I am infinitely malleable

and invisible; transparent
as this light, falling
on the paving stones.

A scarred and scrawny
squirrel scolds me
from the lilac tree. Why?

What have I done, or left
undone, that has offended
you? The feeder is full, water

pours from the fountain.
Solomon's seal curves
gently in the shade.

My life is an empty gourd.
What more must I do?

Original beneath the cut.