Fishies...

and stuff.

Well, we had a fine time at the New England Aquarium last night.  While I will intersperse this post with some pictures from the visit I'm not planning on blogging about it very much.  There isn't a lot to say about a trip to the aquarium, a place we love, that I haven't already said.  We are glad we're members and get to go often.  The kids love the penguins.  Emily was especially happy to see the penguins again and reflect on her donation to sponsor one.  We learned a little more about why approaching seal pups that appear to be stranded (but in all likelihood are simply waiting for mom to come back with fish) is wrong and unsafe for the pup and for the human (it's also illegal).  We watched "our" beloved sea turtles meander about the giant tank.  You know..we had a fine visit to the aquarium.

    Nope.  That's not what I felt like blathering on about this morning.  This morning I felt like delving into the nature of blogs and blog like entities (such as Live Journal, MySpace etc) and how they can suddenly, within certain communities, all break out in a tizzy over one topic.  I'm a knitter and my first experience with this was in the context of a shawl called Charlotte's Web. Almost simultaneously it seemed as though every knitter blogger was purchasing Koigu by the dozens and making this shawl.  I had to make it.  I had to acquire the koigu to make it.  I wanted to blog about it like all the other "cool" knit bloggers and if you read that post you see I was in way over my head. I had never knit lace before and had dived into a project based on the infectious enthusiasm I caught reading about it. This still happens, I have a wonderful winter sweater I wear for mucking about outdoors when it's very cold, it was a Knitty pattern called Banff.  I have yet to knit a pair of Jaywalker's but I have the pattern.  In the case of knitting obsessions it's pretty harmless, in the worst case it leads to uncontrolled stash enhancement, but that's a lost battle anyway.

In other contexts though all sorts of mini dramas (or in the case of the awful MySpace Suicide a larger tragedy that brought on a huge public condemnation of the adults involved) spring up and become all you read about for a day or two and then die away.  It's odd because in some cases it really seems like a virus.  You read about something in the blog or journal of someone who you would expect to have an interest in said topic, then someone else links to it and once in awhile it just takes off with everyone and their mother chiming in with their thoughts and opinions.  Often this takes the original posters meaning or intent and runs with it into whatever directions fits the agenda of the person now writing.  The latest was a mostly LJ thing and involved the playing (by adults) of a game that involved consensual and clothed touching of breasts link here to brief description with further links to original post and many comments (many,many comments)).  This game happened at a convention or two and on the surface the concept of grown people indulging in what to me is a childish concept is baffling  but my attitude is that as long as no one makes me have to be involved than I don't care.  Now, before I expand on this, the thing that amazed me is the huge numbers of comments, blog posts, comments on those blogs etc related to this "game", most of them by people not present.  The range of comments  were what you might expect, some thought the whole thing silly but harmless, some thought it was akin to assault and raised the specter of  patriarchal privilege (and the assumption that woman who chose to participate clearly were unable to say no to the (literal) "man".) As I said, I simply felt that it was childish, I myself would not have been the least bit interested in participating and that I believe that such "games" or any kinds of excessive adult PDA should not take place in public spaces where non participants are forced to be a part of things.  What amazed me though was how many people managed to ride off into rhetorical sunsets of rage and outrage even with repeated posts by the original poster and participants that refuted or laid to rest their "concerns".  For 24 hours it appeared, that on LJ at least, this topic was the only one I was reading about.

I kind of love this stuff...not the particular topic, or knitting pattern, or political rant etc, but I love seeing some innocuous topic go from one bloggers little space on the internet and into the minds of so many people.  It's fascinating, it's often a train wreck when it concerns things like the above kerfluffle and for all the good or ill it can engender it is a way that community happens and evolves, even a virtual community.

    In the more benign and good sense, you have an "A list" blogger like the

Yarn Harlot , who started out posting (and they are funny, instructive and insightful posts) about her knitting life and is now a published author who packs in halls when she is on tour and who, via her blog has raised over $430,000 for Doctors Without Borders (all from knitters who read her posts, or read posts about her posts from others).  There are blogs like Making Light, which not only always have something interesting to say, but where the commenters are as erudite and readable as the posters. There are bloggers who are struggling with something (infertility, diabetes, cancer, loss etc) and find others with whom they can share their thoughts,dreams,obstacles and triumphs without worrying about boring them with too much information or minutia.  When I was adopting my first child 13 years ago this online world was still in it's infancy, but the support I got was invaluable and some of the people I originally "met" online are still friends and we marvel at how naive we were then (about parenting) and how much things have changed.

    From a personal level? This week has had a few difficulties that I won't bore you with but that have stressed me a great deal.  I fully expect to get a handle on them in some fashion or another (mainly because I don't really get a choice-the joys of being a grown up) but when I have a sleepless night or suddenly feel as though I can't cope, the internet and my blog roll is there to amuse and enlighten and sometimes annoy me.  I can get  advice from knitters about my silly knitting issues, over involve myself in some mini tempest in a teapot and so put aside thinking about my own troubles for a few moments, I can discover that a friend of mine has great news that lifts my spirits and I can pray for the health of a friend who's news is not as great.  I get to catch up on all the babies who are 13 year old girls now and the long (and yeah it's a cliche, but, strange,) trip it's been from those villages in China to our homes in America today.  I check in with other mom's of young boys and we commiserate about how the current climate in education is doing them a disservice (a post for another day). The internet counts.  It's a real community.  I don't mistake time spent here for time with my family, friends and others in the face-to-face world and I am pretty good about limiting my time, but it is a community with all the good will, negativity and cynicism, hard work and benign neglect that most communities are made up of. all that said..I won't miss it too much when my time with it dwindles to a trickle during our time on the Cape in the summer.  Last summer, it only took a couple of days for the kids and I to adapt to no reliable internet access, minimal tv access and the like.  I look forward to more summer nights on the couch reading or at the kitchen table playing board games.  The internet IS a community and it's a valuable one but my family and time spent together is often all the community I need.