Irishgoddess’s Weblog

Drum roll please…. here it is, at long last, the day you have been waiting for…..

THE Q REVIEW! (many thanks to Rashenbo!)

OK, I’ll be at work late tomorrow, and then it’s the last day of NABLOPOMO, and well, I’m very good at procrastinating. It beats me why the hell I said I’d do this review anyway. I mean, I chose the wimpiest letter and I STILL couldn’t get it done. Anyway. I’ve decided to break with format. I have been struggling with the whole concept of review, critique, etc. (For those of you out there who know what a critical bitch I am, shut up.) I am not going to catagorize my Q’s. I’m not going to break them into percentages. (Math isn’t my strong suit anyway. Again, shut up.) I’m just going to list them and tell you what I like. Hopefully this change from my normal snotty personality will not cause me to melt like the Wicked Witch of the West (who I actually adore, and did you know the actress who played her in the movie was named Margaret? In fact, I believe she was the aunt to Peter whatever his name was, that really smart kid that I graduated high school with and then he went to MIT? Remember him? I think his last name starts with “W”.)

Without further ado…

Quaking Aspen

Wow. She has posted every. single. day. Sometimes more than once. She has links to other really interesting sites. Lots of different posts, creative. I will definitely be back.

Quarter Life Crisis
First Quarter.
Oh my god. The first sentence I read begs me to come back for more. It also makes me feel really old, because I think she must be really young (Quarter Life, hello) and I can’t believe that them there y’unguns are posting. I don’t know WHY that would surprise me, but hey, my old brain is fairly pickled tonight. She has not posted every single day, but I don’t care. I love her because she just updated her profile to include her big news. But I’m a little sad, because previously in her profile she listed her profession as a very odd one – but one that I am in too!

Quarter Rest
Second Quarter.
LOVE the header. Love it. She has a Baby Q which tickles my really-cool-anonblogname-bone and lives in Canada. She seems to have had a frequently powerless, waterless November. And still, she has posted every day.

Queen Geek
First Queen. And a tattooed pagan queen, no less. I love her just for that! Many of her posts have good photos/pictures. She posts every day effortlessly it seems.

Queen For A Day
Second Queen. She missed one day, but it was so small, who noticed? Lots of photos on this blog, too. I realize I like that, like a small child, looking at a picture book. Not too many hard words for me! One of her favorite books is Wicked, so many brownie points from me for that, and she is the same age as me. More brownie points, just because.

Queen of the Marginally Bright
Third Queen. I love queens, and frankly, thought there would be more in the Q’s.
I found much to read and comment on, and I will be coming back to do lots more reading! Some of her posts were on topics I’ve written on, too, and that peaked my interest – what do others think about the same idea? Same? Completely different? What if I like what she’s writing, but disagree with her politics? (Thank god that didn’t happen.)

Quelle Erqsome
I love the title. It reminds me of my boyfriend from 10th grade, and his gang. She has two blogs, and I wonder why she chose one over the other to particpate. Her thesis “focussed on why James Bond hates his job and how he might be Oedipalised” and for god’s sake – anyone who write a thesis like that just plain deserves to be read! She’s one of the crafy bloggers, like the Second Queen above. I am in awe of people who can do things with their hands.

Quilter in St. Croix
Another “crafty” person, and she lives in St. Croix. Who knew? She writes beautifully, and has posted effortlessly each day. She has the fine skill of knowing when a post speaks for itself and doesn’t need one more wrap up summary sentence to hit the reader over its head with the point she’s trying to make. I should learn that skill. Amazing, colorful quilts, too. It’s like taking a minivacation to the Caribbean each time you read.

quiltr.com/Orientation: Quilter
I had know idea quilting was so big! She is a serious quilter. That is the main theme of this site (I know, I said I wouldn’t discuss “themes”, but there it is) but she throws in other bits and pieces too. She didn’t meet the daily quota, but my god, she’s busy!

Quodlibets
Sadly, I arrive at the last Q entry. Very lovely header, even though I can’t figure out the Latin. She is a reader, which I automatically love. I also love that instead of the 100 things thing, she did a neat, concise 10. Superb. She also threw in a tidbit about the Bears losing. While her choice of NFL teams isn’t as stellar as it could be, at least she is within the NFC North. Go Midwest! She has faithfully posted every day, taking measures to quick get something up just in case she didn’t find time after her real life. Hmm, planning ahead. Good idea. Other than the underlying current of books, she mostly posts about daily stuff in her life.

I believe this is the number one “theme”. I am in awe of the sheer number of people out there who write about their lives. I love it. I don’t think everyone needs to be a good writer, or have a theme – frankly, it’s interesting to me to just read about all those other people out there. As I get ready for work this morning I’m thinking about what Quodlibets is doing in Chicago to get ready for her job, what Quiltr in St. Croix is going to be working on today, etc. It is a dorky cliche, but it makes the big world out there seem smaller. And after my mood yesterday, I can use that.

I have been busy all day, getting the house decorated, raking the yard, making L’s birthday cake, and I took her to the library as well. I just made a cup of tea and decided to treat myself by sitting down at the computer and writing.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the act of blogging. I’m signed up to review some of the participants in NaBloPoMo, and I’ve been wondering who blogs, and why. There are some people out there are critical of certain types of blogs. There are those who criticize the so-called “mommy blogs”. And the knitting blogs, and the “What I had for lunch” blogs. Maybe no one cares what you had for lunch, but then again, maybe someone does.

I used to worry quite a bit about what other people would think of my blog. (OK, sometimes I still do.) I tried to remember why I started it. I had recently re-established contact with a couple of college friends. I found myself emailing them both the details of my life – and it seemed redundent, not to mention time consuming, to type it all more than once. I decided it would be more fun to stay in touch with them by posting to a site they could easily access and keep up with me and my family.

Since then, I have also found my blog is a good way for me to think out loud, to hash out ideas in my head, and to work through issues for myself. It helps me clarify. I also have found that I pay more attention to my surroundings. I observe situations and people more closely, thinking about them and how they might be funny, or poignent, or interesting.

I didn’t think a lot about having readers other than those couple of people for whom I intended to write. In fact, there are many people in my life that I hope will never discover/read my blog. I have told a few additional friends about it, and three of them are regular readers. I also think I have three other semi-regular readers as well. Ironically, the two I intended to reach never read it, and I have lost contact with them yet again. But it is immensely gratifying to have complete strangers read something I’ve written and say “Yes! I understand you!”

It would be naive of any of us writing and posting on the internet to think we’ll never have readers. And I think we need to be completely honest – we all knew when we started that unless we post to a private journal (ala Oprah’s journals, or something likewise password protected) we wanted others to read what we wrote. No matter what drivel we might write, we all want, in some small (or big, needy) way to be read. To be heard. To be acknowledged.

The fact is, maybe no one ever reads your blog. But you write it. It is out there, and it as fine as you are. You blog, therefore you are.