Watermark

BlogDay 2006

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest . . . post a recommendation of five new blogs . . .

Not long ago I posted a list of 10 Blogs You Should Be Reading -- so I refer you there, and add five more for you to check out:

• Within/Without: Arbitrary Obsessions. Cities. History. Music. Feminism. Maami-isms. Patterns. Identities. Free Verse. by Neha Viswanathan
• under the fire star: an outsider in Chennai. by Nancy Gandhi
• (autobiology) by Siona
• little.red.boat: by Anna Pickard
• OKIR: by Jean Vengua

I've been reading all of these for quite a long time.

And I just noticed, they're all blogs by women.

Vox: the personal journal solution?

I've been playing a bit with Vox, TypePad's new LiveJournal for grownups; or blog platform and social networking service; or half a blogging platform for newbies (albeit with rich and deep functionality) and half social network. 

I've seen some huffiness somewhere (I forget where) about insulting folks with references to newbies and grandmas, but I suspect that beginners and grandparents would not find such references insulting. There is no shame in either -- and I think Vox just might be on the right track for them, but also for those of us who have struggled through the newbie phase to produce nice-looking, professional (if not money-making) blogs -- but would still like a place for easy, personal blogging with a range of privacy options.

I had thought that Yahoo360! might serve that purpose, but it just never felt comfortable for me. The only feature I really liked was the Blast, which might be fun to see as a feature here at Vox. Yahoo was very slow to get some of its more important features off the ground, and Vox, while still in development, at least has what most folks would see as the essentials.

The posting interface is supremely simple, and allows you to easily insert photos, audio, videos, book refereces, and "collections". The service is currently smoothly integrated with Flickr, PhotoBucket, iStockPhoto, Amazon, YouTube, and iFilm; and I've no doubt many others are waiting in line -- hopefully including Barnes & Noble, Powells, and Picasa Web Albums. 

Not only is it not necessary to know HTML to use Vox, as far as I can tell, you can't use it; everything is WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) with cute little iconized buttons. There are several designs available, but if you want total control over how your blog looks, Vox is not for you. This is clearly set up for folks who just want something presentable, quickly, to hold their content. You can switch the design of your site with two or three clicks. Also, there are ads (this is a free, ad-supported service) but they are, so far, inconspicuous.

Each post can be set to one of five levels of privacy: you only; public; friends only; family only; or family and friends, but not public. I haven't checked, but I assume that any media content in such posts would carry the same privacy level as the post. It is this feature that might be useful for folks like me. I have public blogs, but would occassionally like to write a personal, even boring to non-friends, post for those very few who might be interested -- and invisible to those whom I would not want to find it interesting.

Vox facilitates crossposting from Vox to TypePad blogs (which I am about to test with this post) but what I really want is vice-versa. I want to be able to easily include my public content on my personal blog; not so much the other way around. I could see integrating nearly all my material into the Vox site, with some posts more private than others, so that friends could choose to read what they liked, but know they aren't missing anything as it's all in one place.

[You can see how the cross-posting worked -- or didn't -- here.]

There is, of course, the usual obstacle: one must be a member of Vox to post comments -- or to be included on family and friends lists. This is a perhaps necessary strategy to limit spam comments and other obnoxious behaviors, but means one more username and password for folks you want to view and comment on your blog.

In my introvert style, I've left the social networking features to the end. Vox has Neighborhoods, and Explore and Connect functions. All you need to do is get someone you know on there -- or chat up a few strangers -- and there you are -- a Neighborhood.  Answering the Question of the Day (QOTD)  and checking out what others have to say is another way to make connections.

Today's QOTD is: How well do you know your next-door neighbors?

And when I just checked, there were about 140 posts with that tag. I think they mean real life neighbors, though; not virtual, social-network-services neighbors.

Vox is still Beta; a few bugs now and then. I have three invites -- who wants one?

[Crossposted from Vox and Blogging Blog]

10 Blogs You Should Be Reading

If you'd like to broaden, deepen, or sometimes even lighten your life, or if you just like good writing -- these blogs can help:

3 Quarks Daily: Science | Arts | Literature | Politics | Gossip | Philosophy
Yes, it's all that. If you have wide interests and not the time to pursue them all, this is a one-stop information and inspiration station.

Ample Sanity: Blog Portal Ideas
Life is short, says Anne, make fun of it.

Echidne of the Snakes: a minor Greek goddess
Who could resist an opinionated goddess with a sense of humor, and dogs?

how to save the world: Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays
Dave speaks deeply, thoughtfully, about everything. Everything.

Joy Harjo's Web Log
Joy writes personally and powerfully on a wide range of subjects, and occasionally posts poems and podcasts.

Patch of Sunlight: Turning Toward the Light
A recent find. I don't know who this is, but I love his/her writing.

Prairiemary
A very strong writer, whom I hope to meet one day. She just keeps surprising me.

qarrtsiluni: sitting together in the darkness, waiting for something to burst
... an experiment in online literary and artistic collaboration.

via negativa
poetry, photographs, reflections, meditations

whiskey river
quotes, carefully chosen

Owen's back!

Goals, Intentions, Disappointments

9rules announced the sites they've accepted into their network this morning, and Watermark is not on the list -- but two sites that I read are: Real Live Preacher and John Baker. Oddly, the sites on the list are not clickable -- so I'll probably wait until they are before exploring.

I've been thinking lately about goals and intentions, given my impulsive try at inclusion in this network, some recent reading, and a friend's transitional struggles. I think it's natural, if one wants to be good at whatever one does, to want recognition for it -- but it seems a common error to confuse that recognition with the goal of doing it, or doing it well.

Some folks probably do have the recognition itself as the goal -- to be famous, or published, or to win some particular award, or make (some specific) lots of money. At least then you know when you've done it, unlike some more amorphous, moving targets. But I do think that doing something well, and being recognized for doing something well, are different goals that require differing -- not necessarily, but sometimes, anithetical strategies; so it's important to know for which one is aiming.

It's sometimes frustrating when you choose a vocation, or an avocation, that is difficult to measure -- as I have tended to do. How do you know if you are a good activist, or therapist; or a good poet, or a good blogger? There are, of course, some measures -- and even more excuses -- none of them certain. I sometimes wish I had chosen accounting, or mathematics, or engineering. Something where I could say, there, that's done. Where I could assure myself, with confidence, I have made a contribution.

Do I want to be a poet, a good poet, a published poet, a famous poet? One can be a bad, published, famous poet. Truly. Don't ask me to name names.

One can be a good, unpublished poet; unknown until after death -- Emily comes to mind. No doubt one can be a good, unpublished and unknown poet -- we would not, by definition, know who s/he is.

I want to write poems. I want to write good poems. I want my poems to be available (which they are, here and at Oratory.) I would like to have them in book form, and do intend to do a Lulu book (or something similar) when energy allows. But I don't want to be famous, and I don't want to compete.

I took a break from writing, and came across this great post by Elizabeth West at Utata:

I take photographs for several reasons. First, I think, is the desire to stop time—to capture a moment that will never return. . . The taking of such pictures is what matters more than the viewing. . .

The second reason I shoot is to share. . .  

Both types of photography are totally engrossing. They engage my mind, my hands, my spirit, and my emotions. Taking such pictures puts me into a flow state, where everything is working as it should and time ceases to exist. . .  

However, getting ready for a show requires something else: thought and effort. Pictures must be selected, printed, matted, framed, and hung. Decisions must be made. Are the pictures for sale? What price should I put on each? The entire process sounds more like work than play. . .  

Photography . . . is pure joy for me. I do not want to turn it into work, and I do not want to worry about the marketplace. Those reasons helped me make a decision—the photography show will go on without me.

She puts this so well, this distinction between work|creativity; recognition|joy. For some few lucky ones among us, they merge. For me, energy spent on sending poems out for publication, and bemoaning their rejection, would be energy not spent writing or reading poems.

Just as energy spent checking my blog stats and regretting not making it into elite networks is energy not spent blogging.

Habits of Effective Bloggers - Roundup

problogger's challenge to write about the Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers has resulted in a great many thoughtful posts; mostly, of course, about professional blogging, rather than the personal and idiosyncratic blogging in which I indulge.

I was hoping for some truly eccentric suggestions. You know, like turn three times clockwise, then bow to the west twice; or put on your FEAR THE POET T-shirt, burn sage incense, chant "I am creative" thirteen times. Something.

But no, pretty much the expected good advice, with a few not-so-typical good ideas; and some of the usual, unusually well-expressed. To the extent there is a common theme, it is: Passion. Persistence. Patience. To which I would add: Play! . . .

I did a very quick look-through, and offer below some brief excerpts . . .

To read the rest of this post, go to Blogging Blog.

Habits of Effective Bloggers

Six Habits of Effective Bloggers:

1. Get out of bed
2. Drink whatever caffeine stimulant appeals to you.
3. Take & upload a few pictures of the cat.
4. Write.
5. Post.

You think I'm kidding?

Sometimes managing #1 is a challenge; #2 is then a requirement. Without #3, this blog would no doubt have stayed in dim obscurity -- this is not how I imagined making The New York Times.

If your topic is narrow, you are likely to have a ready-made audience; all that is needed is to bring your blog to its attention -- assuming, of course, that you provide good content. If you are not blogging for business, or around some specific topic or hobby, then how will a potential reader find you? Well, one way is that they may stumble across you while looking for something else; cats, for instance.

Why would you be blogging, if not for work, or money, or politics, or some other specificity?

Maybe because blogging (that ugly, guttural word) is, itself, an art form. Or can be. Then blogging is simply a tool, or a medium -- like clay, or language. So one must learn to use this tool -- to sail this craft -- just as another artist must learn the qualities of canvas and paint and color, or whatever means of expression s/he uses.

That means some tedium; learning at least a bit of code, so that one can display that cat picture in the most appealing manner -- floated, or centered, or wrapped in text, as the case may be. It means learning how (and whether) to do a blogroll, and how to ping the services that send you readers, and how to market whatever art it is that you are making. And let's not pretend that marketing doesn't matter. If you didn't care whether anyone looked, you wouldn't put it online.

Somewhere around #4 & #5, you add your blog to yet another directory, and spend some time reading another blog -related blog, to see if there is something new to learn. And you learn it. Because if blogging is your art form, then you must keep exploring the techniques, the possibilities.

It's a different thing than using a blog to display some other kind of art -- paintings, or photographs, or poems. Then the blog is simply a gallery, or an online page. Many are, and quite good ones at that. But I mean something different -- something I don't even know yet. Something I am discovering as I go.

The most important thing -- whether you are blogging for art, or blogging for business -- is the missing #6 on the list. It's idling.

Idling meaning, doing something, reading something, imagining something, apparently unrelated to blogging. Doing nothing. Meandering, physically or otherwise. While wandering about, one is likely to stub one's toe on an idea, or an image, or a link that sparks yet another, and another -- and then here you are, at the keyboard, blogging.

It's a challenge, that balance -- to take the time, the silence and solitude, to find something fresh; and to take the time, the noise and community, to stay connected and current. To write; to post.

But then, you can always take a break and go look at other people's cats:

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

Do be sure to visit Eatstuff's Weekend Cat Blogging this week, which has some very fun shots of a possum; and I and the Bird at Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding is absolutely amazing.

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?

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.