BLOGGING ON A WINTER DAY

Last night was quilt guild's December party and my last deadline of the year. That deadline was about the Power Point presentation of the October Quilt Show winners to present during our social hour. Thankfully it all worked as expected and many enjoyed the colorful images.

We have promised ourselves a quiet Christmas and New Years and whatever expectations I had for the holidays is either done or deleted. So-o-o today is my day to return to blogging, that is to write rather than read the other blogs I favor.

Two things have caught my attention this morning; the State of Blogging and the science of ‘mining’ or netting personal preferences from analyzing online search patterns.  More about the latter in a moment but first up is this morning’s E-message from Brian Solis on the State of Blogging. 

Solis questions if blogging has been surpassed by other social media, cast aside the technological information highway. He writes:

Since 2004, Technorati has published its annual State of the Blogosphere report. As it indexes over 1 million blogs, Technorati is the authority. This year, the team dove deeper into the blogs with a focus on female bloggers and mobile blogging.  

Solis continues: Blogs are the digital library of our intellect, experience, and vision. Their longevity far outlasts the short-term memory of Twitter or any other micro network. In fact, with Twitter, we are simply competing for the moment. With blogs, we are investing in our digital legacy.

See the website :  www.blogherald.com/2010/09/20/state-of-the-blogosphere-in-2010/

And why you ask would I care about this?

Most of my search time is spent looking for blogs by quilters, quilting teachers, quilt tutorials, surface designers, decorative arts, crafts and digital-scrap-bookers; all of whom in my opinion use basically the same skills. The elemental art and design skills of color, composition, balance, line and shape.  HOW you use them is the question and countless blogs I have discovered prove that imagination is limitless and blogs have become a worthwhile conduit to finding inspiration and solutions you would never have dreamed of otherwise.  

Just as I expected the use of blogs by ‘older, female, hobbyists, photographers, designers and related arts’ are in the forefront of blogging both in this country and all over the world. How did I know this? I work at it. One aspect of blogs I dearly love is each blogger’s listing of the other blogs they follow; that list will take you into new, undiscovered territory to find amazing sources.  

Last week after my semi-annual dental check-up I was explaining to my 50-something dentist the art and science of ‘mining’ or netting personal preferences from analyzing online search patterns. He is ‘internet reluctant’ lest ‘they' (the government?), find out too much personal information about him (?).

Upon questioning if he a) used a debit card; b) ATM machines; c) charged gasoline; d) charged travel expenses; or e) bought anything from amazon.com, I explained “They” whoever they are, already know your purchase patterns and can determine much about what you are likely to buy.

For example ‘they’ know that the ATM you use most frequently is likely in the same zip code as your residence, as is the supermarket where one uses a debit card. The practice of ‘mining’ is an informational analysis of your purchase patterns and the ‘nuggets’ or keywords found frequently in your e-mails and other social media usage tell a lot about you.  That Amazon.com should suddenly send you suggestions for books you might like to read and that those suggestions should be spot-on is not accidental.  If for instance you like motorcycles, tennis, salami, online poker and drink Gatoraid then the likelihood of you wanting to buy Ladies Home Journal is nil. But that you are a sucker for the latest iPhone app is practically guaranteed! Likewise tickets to see KISS. 

Grasping this concept is the first step to realizing your preference profile and what that says about you.  You need worry only if your frequent messages contain words like terrorist, big bombs or a description of mass genocide. To date I am unaware of genocide-by-patchwork and will not likely be reading your blog.

What I did discover in the IN-box this morning is an amazon.com message suggesting I might like from a long book list. Do I ever! As it happens I have searched for Stephen Sondheim’s new book on Kindle, am always looking for books on patchwork quiltings, intrigued by books on Chinese cooking (although the Dim Sum book is tempting), cannot learn enough about Astaire and Rogers and I will forever be fascinated by dance in cinema.  

The newest suggestion list is absolutely fabulous!  A new cookbook by the chef of Shun Lee in New York awakened many memories.  I remember vividly the first time I wandered into to Shun Lee (now known as East) to have dinner and found flavors never before experienced. Several years later my DH and I found Shun Lee West near Lincoln Center and often had lunch there before our opera subscription series.  

And there is the newest of the Saluda’s annual PopUp books, the Christmas Alphabet Cards. Yum!

Ironically I keep finding Itten’s “The Elements of Color” on the list, this is a book I owned for at least 25 years and then gave away. Now I have to resist the temptation to buy it again.

This week I listened to the audio-cd of Mary Higgins Clark’s “Kitchen Privileges,” her memoir about growing up Irish in New York’s Bronx. The best-selling suspense writer tells of writing short stories and radio scripts for twenty-years before selling her first novel and tells me I do not have time to begin a new career.  Blogging is my current writing exercise and is likely to remain my "investment in the digital legacy."   Later, bb