I'm just a bloggin' fool

Paul Lester asked an interesting question on his blog earlier this week. In his post, Paul Lester Photo » Blog Archive » Why I blog, he challenges his readers to explain why they blog and if they've ever been tempted to quit.

The second question is easy to answer. I did quit, for nearly two years, when other aspects of my life demanded my full attention. No one was more surprised than I when I started up again.

The first question - why do you blog? - is harder to answer. I don't know the reasons. I first started to learn the technology; but it's not that complicated, and that was quickly accomplished. Yet I blog on, despite the progress in interfaces that makes it ever easier to do so.

For more than 20 years I've been part of online communities. I've met good friends (not to mention my husband), and I've learned a lot about a lot of different things. In many ways, online communities are much like the colleges and universities at which I work. Both are full of talented, knowledgeable, and diverse people who are incredibly interesting and who value many of the same things that I do in life.

As my network of online friends has expanded, as more and more friends and family have moved online, and as email has overrun itself with spam (it's so crowded no one goes there anymore), blogging has simply become an easier way to keep in touch.

And I've learned so much! I learn from all the blogs I read - about photography, invertebrates, plants, birds, other animals, and the weather. I gain glimpses into lives very different from mine, lives of people with whom I have many common interests but would never have met in the offline course of events.



Or maybe it's simpler still. Where else would I find a community of people who would care to see a photo of a bird's nest I found in the yard this morning?

How I spent my summer vacation

At least one day of it: Playing football. (You gators just stop listening, right now!)

If you know Ann Arbor, you know that football is serious business and that Maize and Blue are not just colors. So what better way to spend the day than at the Women's Football Academy? It's a charity fund raiser for the UM cancer center and has been running for nine years.

We spent the morning at the practice field rotating among 10 groups of coaches and players, learning basic skills and going through the same drills as the players do when they are training. Of course, we got to stop after a couple of run throughs, and we skipped the part where you put on pads and try to knock each other out off the field and back to Ohio.

After lunch, we went over to the Big House and ran some plays in scrimmage. Even starting from the 20 yard line, we found touchdowns challenging but just getting out and playing was a ton of fun.

So, I had a great time, learned more about football, and helped a good cause. The event raised more than $180,000 for the cancer center patient and families fund and I have a shirt and hat autographed by every player I could get to sign it, plus Coach Carr. I now have the perfect outfit for all those upcoming football Saturdays.

Top Five Ways Blog Carnivals Make Blogging Better

With perfect timing, Mike at 10,000 Birds posted Top Five Ways Blog Carnivals Make Blogging Better.

The most important to me are the last two: contact and community. I blogged last month about virtual communities and the people you meet online. Even though I've only been back in blogging a few months, I'm already beginning to find I'm on the edges of a network - reading and being read by - bloggers who care about the environment, conservation, wildlife, native plants, and local communities. I've discovered some links through blogrolls, but others through carnivals (I and the Bird, Festival of the Trees, Good Planets) that show let us show our best face, and the words or pictures we're most excited about, to the rest of the community.

Carnivals help us turn our monologues into conversations. Without someone reading and responding, I would not have the feedback that helps me improve those words and pictures. I wouldn't learn nearly so much about the world, nor see and read and learn from others.

Do I care about lots of links and page rankings? No, not particularly. But I don't want to talk to myself, either. I can do that without a computer.

People

In her post Talking to Strangers, Robin recounts her meeting fellow bloggers in person for the first time.

It's not so unusual as it may sound, as virtual communities are often strong ones, and in-person gatherings and "real-life" relationships are natural corollaries. Of course, I speak as one who met her husband online, and who has many close friendships with roots in overlapping online communities from twenty years ago. Yes, people were online back then, though only geeks and spies knew about ARPANET and BITNET, those precursors of the Internet. Some of us dialed our phones and put the handset (a concept now almost as obsolete as "dial") in the acoustic coupler and called up a local bulletin board at 300 baud. Real geeks had 1200 baud modems and talked to friends all over the world on Fidonet.

You might think that friendships born online would be least likely to change over time and distance. Not so; we began to meet in person as well as online. We had parties and happy hours and group outings. After a time, the friendships expanded to include significant others, spouses, and children. We attended each other's weddings, christenings, and bar mitzvahs. The friendships matured and deepened, and while parties and group events continued, we also became close friends with individuals and like all friends, went out to dinner and to movies and to reciprocal charitable events. We visited our friends in the hospital and cried at their funerals and tried to preserve real memories in a virtual world. These are people who know me as I am, like me for who I am, and make me laugh and think and try new things.

Just like any good friends, anywhere.

And so, when I moved to Michigan, I left many friends behind. We still exchange emails. One of our BBS systems migrated to YAHOO groups, and maintains conversations that haven't matured much in the intervening years. But we can no longer drop by for a spur of the moment dinner, we're missing this year's parties, and the kids are older and taller and prettier and smarter, and we're not there to see it.

So, if anyone tells you virtual communities aren't as good as "real" ones and virtual friends aren't 'real" friends - tell them they're wrong. Virtual holes in your life are just as big.

inukshuk

inukshuk: 1) a milestone or directional marker used by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic 2) a new word I learned from kerredelune in her comment on my post yesterday. I love words and language, so a new addition to my vocabulary is a joy in and of itself. In addition, however, her comment and Floridacracker's post both struck a chord with me.

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." How often have I told myself that there was no point in doing something because it was so small an effort? or was mainly symbolic? Listening to my inner cynic meant that a small step that would have made a small difference didn't happen.

Perfectionism is a seductive trap. It may remain beyond my abilities to single-handedly change the entire world, but if I can make it better in one part, or for one person, plant, or animal, then the world is in fact a better place.

Audubon, Part 2

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the start of our golf club's quest for Audubon certification as a wildlife habitat (It takes a village). I missed the second meeting, and just got the minutes. As I hoped, I'm working on the outreach subcommittee. I see another blog in my future!

Our initial brainstorming session a few weeks ago produced some wonderful ideas - outreach should be a slam dunk. Nice weather, nature, golf: what's not to like in a state with the 2nd highest number of golf courses in the country (after Hawaii, or so I'm told)?

One of the many reasons to love Ann Arbor

New library branch is an example to follow

The Ann Arbor District Library is great, really great. Good collection, great staff, innovative programs, responsive to the community, and (like the rest of the city), very environmentally conscious and conscientious. I like the creativity of using draft horses, and as a library administrator myself, not to mention a local taxpayer, I love the fact that they got a grant to pay for it.

Public libraries are a great resource for habitat builders. They can help you find all sorts of useful information, print and digital. Anyone want to share a great library story?

It takes a village

I mentioned in an earlier post, that we can see a golf course from our back deck. Truth is, we live in a golf community, even though neither of us has ever golfed. What can I say - we liked the house, we liked the community, and we liked the view. Plus, we're far enough away from the duffers to avoid a field of golf balls blooming beneath the deck.

Last night, I and a dozen neighbors along with some of the club staff met to discuss the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP). The clubs owners' and staff are very interested in certifying our golf course, and called for member volunteers. Our group is enthusiastic about the project, and last night's initial brainstorming led to a host of ideas for followup. It looks like we have enough momentum to move forward, and I plan to blog our efforts as we go along. Stay tuned!

Should Auld Acquaintance ...

One of the nice things about returning to blogging after a year and a half absence was finding that several of the blogs I read regularly are still alive and thriving. I'm still catching up on what I've missed, but it's nice to see Niches and The Taming of the BandAid still thriving.

Sometimes it seems like there are many, many fellow travelers on the native-plant, backyard-habitat bandwagon, but that's only because likes attract. In "real life" most of the people I meet or talk gardening with are lawn-crazy, irrigation-system loving, tropical-plant cultivating folks who just don't get native plants and think wildlife habitats should be banned from suburban neighborhoods. The other night I was chatting with a new acquaintance at a party, and almost fell off my chair when I asked about her gardening and she replied that she was mostly interested in native plants and reducing the amount of lawn around her house. Eureka!