Tag Archives: blogs

OpenID & You & Me

Ugh. Title-suckage. Sorry. Can I blame it on a chaotic week?

So Blogger have made that switch to OpenID support that I was talking about. For any of those of you on WordPress.com or Typepad (or LiveJournal or AOL/AIM) you can now use your identity from those platforms.

Alternatively, if you have a self-hosted blog, Simon Willison has easy to follow instructions to get yourself an OpenID which points at your own domain. So now, any comments I make on Blogger blogs will point back to my blog once more. Happy happy joy joy.

(Still can’t see the point of the ‘Nickname’, by the way. Since, essentially, it’s the same as Anonymous, why not get rid of the ‘Anon’ field. Surely commenters can just type ‘Anon’ in the space for a ‘Nickname’ if they don’t want to leave any identifying information?)

Edit: Oh *now* the official Blogger blog is talking. This exerpt particularly amuses me: “Ironically, our testing of OpenID, a feature that lets you use accounts from all over the web to comment on Blogger, made it appear that we were trying to force you into getting a Google Account. We regret this appearance, since we’re strong supporters of OpenID and open web standards in general.” Hmmmm.

SBQ

Last week’s SBQ was more about blogging than stitching. I’ve been mulling over my answer to the question since it was posted, and have been interested to read other stitchers’ answers.

Take a minute to reflect on your blog reading habits and preferences. What do you prefer to read in stitching blogs? (Progress, tips, family life, experiences, etc.) How much do you think you are influenced by other stitching bloggers?

Much as I expected, many answered that they like to see mostly (or only) stitching on a stitchers blog. I figured this largely because most of the comments I get here come in response to a post where I actually show some progress on a piece, or on a happy dance post (oh so rare!). For me however, I find most stitching-only blogs don’t hold my interest very long . Yes, stitching is a big part of my life, one of my dearest pastimes, but none of us are one-dimensional.

When I read a blog, I like to be able to feel I ‘know’ the person behind the blog a little better. A good deal of the blogs I read are not stitchers’ blogs. I like to people-watch, and that reflects in my online habits, I think. That said, many of the blogs I read are crafty in some way – either stitchers or knitters or otherwise. These are the people I share interests in common with, so it stands to reason that I will find them interesting. But I am most interested when the blog shares a little bit of this and a little bit of that, along with the craft reports. There are some stitching-only blogs that I check in with, and I have been inspired by some of the wonderful finishing techniques that I’ve seen lately, since discovering some of the bloggers on the SBEBB, but by and large, I want more!

I like witty writing, I like a little bit of fun stuff, a little bit of family stuff, a little bit of stitching, and a lot of personality. I aspire to write this kind of blog myself, and for my one or two readers:wink: to feel they know me just that little bit more (without getting creepy, mind!) That said, I do try and keep the depressing stuff out of here. Life isn’t all happy and shiny, but I would rather my blog be a place to laugh and sing rather than a place of misery. Sometimes the misery might creep in, but most of the time it won’t. I do admire people who can share more of themselves with the whole wide Internet and gain solace from doing so, but that’s not me.

OK, ‘nuf rambling from me now. I’m off to get some stitching pics off my camera so I can get me some more comments:giggle:

Beautiful Blogs

I meant to write this two days ago, but haven’t quite got around to it yet (just as I haven’t quite got around to breaking/fixing all the image links on here, and I haven’t quite got around to getting a Christmas tree yet, and I haven’t quite got around to folding the laundry yet. Am I painting you a certain picture here?!)

Anyway, there are two very wonderful blogs I have been reading for about 6 months now. Each was one I merely stumbled across, enjoyed, and was thrilled to discover were Australian. So I kept reading. Each just achieved major kudos in an ‘Australia’s Best Blog’ competition, arriving in 2nd and 4th places. Yay 🙂

So go now, discover Claire of loobylu (who has a 3 year old and is pregnant, and lives in Melbourne, but this is where the resemblance to me ends, as she is brilliant and gorgeous :giggle: ) and Karen of karencheng (also a gorgeous and talented mother, from WA this time). Their blogs are both uplifting, beautiful spaces, and I am never disappointed when I pay a visit.