Sweet Blog O'Mine

v. 2.0

  • I’m Down with O.P.B.*

    * Other People’s Blogs

    There’s something inherently voyeuristic about weblogs. They offer the general public a chance to peer inside other peoples’ thoughts, feelings and lives. For example, a co-worker was telling me that she started reading Megnut, because the author was a classmate of hers from Tufts (go Jumbos!). Around the same time, she started reading kottke.org. Somehow, through reading the two blogs, she and other readers realized that these two bloggers were dating. At the time, they were in two different cities, met at a conference, and began to visit each other. Reading their blogs carefully, readers could see things like — “when I was in San Francisco . . .” and ultimately followed the progress of their relationship.

    I have met one person through my blog, but have tentative plans to meet even more. After stumbling across Gaping Void and posting one of his cartoons on my site, Hugh MacLeod sent me a lovely email, wishing me a happy belated birthday and thanking me for plugging his cartoons (if you haven’t seen them yet — they’re great! Go check them out!). We have emailed a little and I offered to take him for a drink if/when he ever comes back to NYC. After reading his blog a little more closely, I noticed a rather provacative post (which of course caught my eye), and followed the links to another blog. Turns out that Hugh and Franny have a little blog-comment-flirtation going. Suddenly I felt like I had just hit on someone else’s boyfriend, which is a little strange, because I haven’t even met any of these people in person yet! Sorry, Franny — it was all very innocent, I swear! At least so far, I suppose — keeping my options open these days. Sadly, so far, no blog-comment-flirting for me yet (no wonder, considering that according to the roll-call, I only have three readers — all female. C’mon people — who are you?! I know you’re there — I can hear you breathing!). Ho hum. Guess I’ll have to stick with the in-person version!


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    courtesy of Gaping Void (thought this one was appropriate!)

  • My So-Called Blog*

    Great article today on teen blogs in the New York Times Magazine.


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    Like the author, I truly wonder how blogging would have fit into high school in the 80’s. Hard to imagine, huh?
    (* Clearly a tribute to My So-Called Life — AMAZING, yet stupidly cancelled show.)

  • And Also in Today’s News

    Guide to New York Jargon, from The Morning News. (Alright, so May 13, 2002 isn’t really “today’s news,” but who cares! Still just as relevant today.)

  • Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves*

    And for the rest of the country, some of whom don’t know any better.

    Single Women May Decide 2004 Election

    *A tribute to the Eurythmics/Aretha Franklin duet.

  • Girls Just Wanna Have Fun*

    As you may recall from an earlier post, I went on a ski trip this weekend. Sadly, the weather didn’t cooperate, so there wasn’t as much skiing involved as we had originally hoped. Regardless, we had a great time on our girls’ weekend away.

    For a long time, many of my closest friends were all male. Particularly in law school, the people I hung out with on a day-to-day basis were guys. Since then, I have met more and more smart, interesting, creative, and funny women, and many of them have become very good friends. I am learning to treasure “girls’ nights” and “girls’ weekends” more and more each day. Our ski weekend was no exception. Starting on the car ride up, the four of us talked about our two favorite things — boys and food. Since three out of the four of us are currently in dating mode, we swapped potential setup ideas, sort of like trading baseball cards — “oh yes, I saw that one, but you might like him better — let’s swap! What have you got in your pile?” Then on to food — what we should and shouldn’t be eating, craving sweets versus craving salty snacks — followed, logically, by exercise — yoga, tennis, hiking, biking. And this was all before we even got there.

    Once we arrived, we were greeted by less-than-stellar accommodations. We all agreed (did I mention that we are extremely smart?) to upgrade to the nicer hotel a little further up the mountain. You get to a point in your life where money can, on a small scale at least, buy happiness. For a little extra, we had a much nicer room and much more space (also important for four women getting ready to go out to dazzle the boys at après-ski).

    Despite the lack of snow, but since we were in skiing mode, I was craving fondue (which I’ll be getting this weekend, just as a side note — here’s the one I’m making). Couldn’t find it anywhere, so I modified my quest to French onion soup. Clearly what I really wanted was just melted cheese (I’m the salty-snack-chick mentioned above), so it definitely did the trick. Here’s the result of my quest.


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    Thanks, ladies, for a relaxing and fun-filled weekend! You can find the pictures here.

    * A tribute to Cyndi Lauper, and one of my all-time-favorite songs for karaoke.

  • Welcome to My World

    It’s readership appreciation day! Perhaps there are, indeed, at least fourteen of you out there.

    Update — apparently Erika has started a roll call — feel free to join in! (now I’m curious . . .)


    synd08.jpg
    Courtesy of Gapingvoid.com.

  • Welcome to My World

    It’s readership appreciation day! Perhaps there are, indeed, at least fourteen of you out there.

    Update — apparently Erika has started a roll call — feel free to join in! (now I’m curious . . .)


    synd08.jpg
    Courtesy of Gapingvoid.com.

  • We’ll Be Right Back After These Messages

    Happy New Year, everyone! I ended 2003 and started 2004 with a bang, and got all dolled up for the big night in a 50’s retro pink satin dress with black polka dots and a crinoline. Why the hell not, right? I think it’s the first pink item of clothing I have owned since I was about three. Did a bunch of party-hopping, drank way too much champagne, and still feel rather hung over. I will admit, however, that lunch at Sammy’s Noodles and dinner at the Corner Bistro did help quite a bit. Nothin’ like a little grease to help a hangover. That, and a lot of Advil.

    I’m off skiing for the weekend, so no new posts for the next few days. I know — I can almost feel the disappointment oozing through the internet. I am slowly realizing, though, that my readership is steadily increasing. I think we may be up to about 10! It helps to have a big family. See you next week!

  • We’ll Be Right Back After These Messages

    Happy New Year, everyone! I ended 2003 and started 2004 with a bang, and got all dolled up for the big night in a 50’s retro pink satin dress with black polka dots and a crinoline. Why the hell not, right? I think it’s the first pink item of clothing I have owned since I was about three. Did a bunch of party-hopping, drank way too much champagne, and still feel rather hung over. I will admit, however, that lunch at Sammy’s Noodles and dinner at the Corner Bistro did help quite a bit. Nothin’ like a little grease to help a hangover. That, and a lot of Advil.

    I’m off skiing for the weekend, so no new posts for the next few days. I know — I can almost feel the disappointment oozing through the internet. I am slowly realizing, though, that my readership is steadily increasing. I think we may be up to about 10! It helps to have a big family. See you next week!

  • She’s Crafty*

    Well, I survived my birthday — what better way to celebrate than with a week off work!? This week will be spent seeing movies, socializing, and trying to get to some of those little projects that have fallen by the wayside during the past year. One such project is my knitting. In true urban hipster chick style, I started knitting what was supposed to be a scarf last year. but as you can see, it has become way too fat to be a scarf, and it’s made of very fat, squishy yarn, so even if I made it long enough to be a scarf, it would never fit around anyone’s neck.


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    I turned to the internet for help. I found three yarn stores in my neighborhood — Purl, in SoHo, Downtown Yarns, in the East Village, and Knit New York, a knitting store/coffee shop. I chose Downtown Yarns, since some of the reviews I had seen online spoke very highly of the place. I had already decided that I want to turn this thing into a purse, and I knew I would probably need supplies to do this. When I went to ask questions, one of the women there was somewhat nasty to me, saying that they don’t generally tend to help people who bring their own yarn and who don’t buy things there regularly. She also acted as if I were a complete and utter moron when I asked basic questions. I felt like saying, “look, lady, I haven’t made anything with yarn or a needle and thread since home ec in junior high — cut me some slack.” I got a little bit of guidance, two tapestry needles, and some big, fat needles with which to start my next scarf. It will be very narrow. Not sure I’ll be heading back to Downtown Yarns anytime soon. Luckily, I have a friend who knits who will not be so condescending when I ask moronic questions. Perhaps I should try another crafty hobby — suggestions are welcome!

    *A tribute to the Beastie Boys song of the same name.