Google Reader, exiting stage left

March 15, 2013 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

I have blog followers (subscribers) on Google Reader, and I also use Google Reader. A LOT.

So it was worth paying attention to the news when Google announced it was discontinuing Google Reader. While I’ve read multiple articles, I must admit my eyes glaze over when techie terms are mentioned. For those who aren’t affected by this announcement, it’s helpful to know that readers are a handy way to organize blogs into categories, allowing their Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds to be gathered up, allowing the reader to save posts, while also making them searchable from within the reader.

So now it’s back to the hunt for easy-to-use products that will allow us to replace Google Reader.

I did a search on RSS feeds for Macintosh and NewsBar (view, above) seems to be top-rated. I’ve been trying it out and I can customize colors, size of font, where I can put the floating feed (and I can make it disappear) among other things. I like that I can group my feeds as before, and that by clicking, it will show the post to the right with an option to open it in my browser. Once the RSS feeds have been uploaded, they are on their own and don’t refer back to Google’s reader.

If NewsBar is open, and I’m reading a website I want to save, I merely click on the small “plus” sign and it will add it. In some cases (I’m still learning), I had to locate a site’s RSS feed icon (above), then copy and paste the feed address into NewsBar. I’ve added an RSS feed icon to my blog now, too.

On my iPad, I use Flipboard, having logged into my Google Reader account and connected the two, but I don’t know if they are independent of Google; I’d have to suppose so. Debbie of A Quilter’s Table said she was trying Bloglovin, but when I tried it, I received this notice:

For the interim, we could start following lots of blogs, via their following service, then use filters in our emails to separate them off. This will work (I use it now for online quilt shops, family emails, and so forth), so if you want to follow me, you know how (fill in your email above; WordPress is a pretty good platform for this sort of thing).

At any rate, we’ll back shortly, with a new post.

(logo borrowed from www.fabshopnet.com)

And if you’re reading this on March 16th,

Happy National Quilting Day!

Creativity and the Web

October 30, 2012October 30, 2012 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

I’m thinking about all those affected by the horrific storm on the East Coast. I have several quilty/blogger friends, as well as quite a few family members who have been affected and hope that they and their families are through the worst of it. I’ve been on a blogging break this week from the computer (I wrote this post earlier) but I just wanted to jump in and send my thoughts to those who are dealing with this “Frankenstorm” and its aftermath. Take care, everyone.

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

In my class at school, we just completed a unit that was based on this book by Nicholas Carr, titled, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains. We had our Discussion Panels last Wednesday, and it was fascinating that the students were fairly perceptive and able to discuss how the Internet has impacted their lives, for better or for worse. One young man is fairly sanguine about the whole thing, saying, “Well, it’s here. We just have to deal.” Another pair of young women took opposite positions on the question of whether print was dead. The internet’s main impact, that of re-wiring our brains due to neuroplasticity, was skirted around, but acknowledged when they all complained of the inability to finish a book before distractedly checking their phones for texts or messages.

And I think it’s rewired my brain as well. Carr goes through the history of civilization’s adding of new technologies, from writing to moveable print to the typewriter and onward to clocks and the internet. I was interested in his discussion on tools: “The tight bonds we form with our tools go both ways. Even as our technologies become extensions of ourselves, we become extensions of our technologies.”

I thought about how quilting has changed from the time when I used to trace a pattern onto cardboard, carefully cut it out and tape the edges for stability. Then I’d trace it about a bazillion times in order to make a quilt, following along the pencil line for the seam. I did use a machine for piecing, but hand-quilting was the only way to finish a quilt. That’s why my list of 100 Quilts took so long to grow: our tools were more primitive before the advent of rulers and rotary cutters.

He also references Frederick Taylor’s Time-Motion studies and how it has changed how workers do their jobs (above: a golfer takes a swing). Before Taylor came along, “the individual laborer, drawaing on his training, knowledge and experience, would make his own decisions about how he did his work. He would write his own script” (218).

I think of us at work. Some of us spread all our fabric out into a lovely mess (like mine, above). Others fold and organize continually throughout the day. I like to doodle around with my computer when thinking up a new quilt. Some like to start cutting, throwing the cloth up on the pin wall to see what’s going on. Carr notes that with Taylor’s regimentation of industry’s messiness, something was lost. “What was lost along with the messiness was personal initiative, creativity, and whim. Conscious craft turned into unconscious routine.”

I hope I never become such a slave to a pattern or a ruler or a system of making a quilt that I can’t make a creative and conscious detour into creativity. But sometimes I wonder when I make a copy of another’s quilt, using one line of fabric if I’m not caught in a type of quilt-machine using Taylor’s demands for proscribed motion. Is this creativity? Am I being creative, or just following someone else’s script and benefitting from their decisions?

And like many of you, I’ve been following #quiltmarket on Instagram. Carr said more than once, and I’m paraphrasing here, that trying to control the flow of information from the internet is like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant at full blast. The internet caters to the new! unique! amazing! as we all know.

I also have Pinterest boards full of ideas, most are quilts which I’ll never make, but pin them up there nonetheless. Can we be creative 24/7, or is that too exhausting? Has the Internet made better quilting possible? More interesting quilting? Given us an access to a wider range of styles and types?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. I only know that sometimes the Internet affects us quilters, too.

So my question now, is how has the Internet affected you? And has it been for better. . . or for worse?

eQuilt Universe

On Blogging, Part 3 (final)

July 2, 2012June 15, 2012 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Now about this wonderful monstrous hydra we’ve created: blogging. If not conquered, or at least managed, it will sink us all. First some thoughts from others.

Rachel of Stitched in Color writes a fine post aimed at new bloggers, with her own list of Readers’ Pet Peeves. I laughed when I saw two of mine on there: “blurry photos” and “people’s feet” (I get tired of seeing pedicured toes, so thought it amusing that others have the same reaction).

Ez of Creature Comforts gives her advice for blogging:

“Be passionate. Blog about something that truly matters to you. Believe in yourself and be an active and friendly member of the blogging community. Oh, and have patience! It might take a while before anyone knows you exist, but keep at it and never be afraid to ask for help when it is needed.”

Here’s mine:

No guilt. No apologies if you don’t blog, but do give us an explanation if you’ve been away for an interesting reason, like you went to Australia, or had a class in color theory, or just spent time walking the beach with your children. We do want to know how you recharge your batteries, and we might follow your lead. I always love those posts about trips, esp. to New York’s fabric district!

Decide whether you are a “commercial” quilt blogger, or a “personal” quilt blogger. While we’re happy to have both, it’s sometime irritating to have a personal quilt blogger suddenly start pitching a product or an online fabric shop in that “advertising” way. I’m always happy to learn about new products from the bloggy world, but we readers recognize that those who take money from their enterprises have an obligation to sell. And you know quilters: we love to buy, but hate to be sold. (And this includes Too Many Giveaways!!)

Blog only when you want to. While they say the muse inspiring writing only comes if you apply your backside to a chair, sometimes it’s better wait a day or two for an interesting idea than to force your blogging to a schedule. Caveat: if you are blogging as a line of work, then you have to treat it like work. You know, show up with interesting content, a new idea. It’s about the showing up part that’s important (but be aware of the previous idea of commercial vs. personal). Which leads me to my last idea:

Avoid too much secondary content on your quilt blog. This falls into two categories:
1) personal stuff that overwhelms the quilting stuff. Moderation in all things–open another blog for yourself if you find that most of your posts are about your cat. Or kids. Or whatever; and,
2) importing from others to fill your own blog space. While those who run design blogs do this quite frequently (you can only redo your own house so many times), I think that we as quilters have many things we can write about as we sew. And while a nod to inspiration is good, I like seeing all topics of the sewing universe on quilt blogs, from the new trend of sewing clothing (all things Old are New again) to how you like to put on your binding. There’s also the technical aspect: too many videos is a drag on our bandwidth. Again, moderation in all things other than quilting.

Be a blog reader and commenter. We can’t read all the blogs all the time. Choose a few of your favorites and read fairly regularly. I’ve made some great friends by doing this, and they have widened my circle as well. Think of it as the new pen-pal system. Follow some links occasionally to gain new inspiration. But perhaps a time limit for computer viewing is a good idea, as we all know we have quilting to do!

Forgiveness and Fun. I’ve tresspassed just about all of the above listed pieces of advice at one time or another, and we should have a bit of forgiveness tucked away for bloggers, just like we do for when we stitch in a tuck and hope no one notices. And FUN! Yes, hopefully blogging is enjoyable.

Above all, write what interests you. Be yourself. Share with us your struggles. Avoid cattiness, but healthy dose of snark can be fun.

Be true to yourself. E. B. White, a famous essayist, noted that “Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself . . . the true writer always plays to an audience of one.” But if you write it, we’ll read it!

˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙

Coming Wednesday!

Project Gingham Reveal!

eQuilt Universe

On Blogging, Part 2

June 30, 2012June 15, 2012 Elizabeth E.3 Comments

Recently on Creature Comforts, Ez wrote “Things I’m Afraid to Tell You,” a discussion about life behind the blogging curtain. Leave yourself some time, if you want to hop over there and read. One salient quote:

“However as time has gone on, and with the ever-expanding roster of blogs that are out there showcasing pretty thing after pretty thing, I’ve come to realize that all this beauty can actually have the opposite effect. The always-nice that we see on constant display everywhere we look (from blogs to magazines, etc) becomes frustrating because it doesn’t really look like how our life looks, right? Instead of visiting a blog and feeling inspired, we quite often leave feeling less than, and like our life can never really match up to what we see.

“As a long-time contributor to this trend of pretty-everything I should know better, but even I get sucked up in feeling like other bloggers are more successful, have better wardrobes, perfectly behaved children, gourmet meals pre-made weeks in advance…they host fabulous parties with every last detail glittered and festooned to perfection, take lavish vacations, sign book deals in their sleep and pose for photo shoots in their immaculately clean designer-decorated homes. Please can I at least get a raised hand if you’re feeling me on this.”

I’ve heard too many blogging friends say that they recently have come to a point where they hate blogging, that they just want to sew and walk away from the other part of having to put up photos and commentary on what they do at the sewing machine.

I graduated with an MFA in Writing, and this idea, that our private selves–or what we do when we create and spend time thinking about while move around our bits of cloth–can be in opposition to our public self, is not a new one. Cezanne was famous for this, often packing up his paints and easel and leaving if he thought someone was watching him. But even he participated in gallery shows, presenting his work for his audiences when he was finished with it. The difference between us and Cezanne, is that blogs are DAILY (or at least WEEKLY) and are giant content sucking machines. And usually that content comes from us.

And we all know you have to have generate content to blog. And if you don’t have content, you have nothing to write. And if you don’t write, then you don’t have a blog, which many quilters use as a tool to decrease the isolation as well as foster a conversation of sharing.

Bridging this innate tension between wanting to create privately, with sharing what you are doing with the public, is a constant.

I have one more post about this.

˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙