Monday, January 12, 2009

What? Your name is... what?

I get a bit freaked when complete strangers friend me online, or ask to be added to my friends list on Facebook. The thing about this is, that friend requests don't come with any info, like "Hey, we used to go to school together" or something friendly. If I recognise your photo or your name, no problem - but otherwise, nope, sorry, it won't be reciprocated. Myspace is the worst - change your photo, or update your profile in some way, and I guarantee you'll have at least five complete strangers wanting to be your "friend" within a day or two. Self-promotion, is what it is - presumably the person thinks "I've got no real mates online, so let's just add a few strangers, I'll look a lot more popular". Sad, no?

I have had the odd "stalker" in the past - people who read my blog and instantly assume I'm young, free and single and just waiting for them to show up in Real Life (tm) and sweep me off my feet. Dream on, mister! Mmmm..... I prefer to actually get to know people in Real Life (did someone once call it "Meatspace"?!) before making that kind of judgment. But hey that's just me! Kooky, English and reserved.

Oh, and I'm not a big fan of those emails full of mushy sentiments that then threaten you at the end, if you don't send them to at least 10 people. As if the sender has any way of knowing what I do with stuff. It's a chain letter - perhaps less sinister than in the past - but still a demand for some sort of action. I have better things to do with my time, and I wouldn't dream of cluttering up a friend's inbox. You want a chain to die, send it to me, I'll have no compunction about squashing it.! I will probably read it and delete it. If I'm feeling particularly grumpy, funny e-mails with attachments (videos etc) won't even get read before deletion. Yeah, I can be a miserable git sometimes. So shoot me.

I'd much prefer to receive a personal, chatty email from a friend - but it seems the art of actually communicating, now that it's instant, is dead. I cherish letter from my penpals (who all have email addresses, which I rarely use). Not having a go at anyone in particular, you understand. Just sad that this wonderful medium is not being used to its best potential.

Anyway, back to knitting:

Spent a back-breaking afternoon on Sat, trying to properly inventory coned yarn I uploaded to Ravelry back in 07. Over-exposed photographs (poor colour representation) and everything labelled acrylic - some of the cones have no ID at all. I weighed a lot of stuff and put it on the "for trade" tab. If it doesn't shift within a month, I think I shall be taking it to the college - I'm never going to use most of it, and the "weight of ownership" puts me off buying stuff I might actually use! To that end, I chucked one or two cones that probably had less than a metre on them, and spent a large part of the evenings crocheting some cone ends together - I think it's shaping up to be another charity blanket, or it might get included in the patchwork blanket. The piece ended up about 50cm wide by 75cm long. Who says crochet uses a lot of yarn? That was a bigger piece than I expected to get! Of course, I guess I could ply a lot of it with the new wool winder. Or make lots of garments, as tests, and then sell them, being a process knitter. Hmm.

I've yet to properly weigh my non-trade stash, which is also waaay too big, but I guess I'll do that slowly. In hindsight, it would have made more sense to put it on properly (weighed, tagged etc) in the first place, but never mind. Oh, and I made some left-over Kauni into another charity tee top. It was tempting to make it into a scarf, it's soo pretty, but I have more than enough scarves. If there'd been enough for a waistcoat, I'd've made one.

Current mood: determined

1 comment:

Julie Spriddle said...

I take it someone been stalking you lately online? I'm with you on the friends thing, especially Facebook where I can be quite picky about who is or is not on my friends list. The exception is Ravelry, where I've friended a few people who's blogs I like to read - mostly so I can follow their projects.

I too hate those chain emails and if anyone ever sends them to me, I'm afraid they get moved to the bin and stay there. Horrible things and encourage otherwise intelligent people to SPAM all their friends. Grrrrrhhh.

I used to do the whole penpal thing, back in the distant past when I had more time on my hands which I think is the crux of the problem really. Putting pen to paper or even writing a chatty email takes time and in todays hectic world, simple things like that can slide. Sad really.