I was thinking that one of the members here was friends with one of Ina's friends. So, when are you going to be on her show? A pic of TR jogging by? You have to ask? The nice thing about men like TR or Nate Berkus is that you can drool all you want and not worry about making you hubby jealous! There's some mighty good looking cake recipes on the Apple thread right now. Go ahead. Be neighborly and greet your new neighbor with a cake. Maybe he'll invite you onto the Today Show. Sally

I've been thinking about starting a blog for work/networking purposes. But I dunno. I'm kind of a privacy freak. I toyed with "My Space" trying to stay current, but none of my friends are on My Space, and it hasn't proven to be of much use, and I don't really have time to mess with it. Could someone explain the whole blog concept to me? I read a lot of them, but I really can't get into them. There are some AWESOME blogs and video sites out there. Who hosts blogs? How can you keep track of them? I've read a lot of garden and cooking blogs mostly. They are tons better than most of what I see on TV or read in magazines. I'd like to get more into it, because it seems like nowdays all the really creative stuff is on the 'Net, not on TV or movies or mags. I just sit at my computer so much for work, I hate doing it at home. I can't afford to get something small for reading in bed or something like that. Actually, I mostly like to watch online videos when I get home. Unfortunately the backlash of working in acaemia is that my brain is just fried, fried, fried when I finally get home from work. I need brain candy.

Blogs, blogs, blogs. I'll give a not so shameless plug to Atticmag. I know Jane F. Jane T. and Allison and when you visit AM you get an eyeball full of professional and relevant - not amateur and recycled. I think we are not the norm because we like to write and read. (if I may be so bold and speak for everyone here on the GW. lol!) Like dlm said it's not like I never have errors in my posts but I make an effort to look things up if it doesn't look right. At the very least spelling. I suspect many color and design bloggers really don't like to write. What they like to do is talk about themselves and their talent - real or perceived. Speaking to their CRAFT is not the priority. Rather it's about self-promotion. Many of them do not have enough expertise to fill a thimble and as a result their content is, well, kinda empty and dumb. So, the narrow message they have gets repeated over and over. Once they wear out their small stash of images and cogent points, they occasionally turn to images or content that they can lift from some place else. If you are able to load your blog with quality content about your craft, not necessarily yourself, the content will be lifted and reused - I've seen it happen within a matter of hours. Citing sources is a lot like spellcheck - something more bloggers should be doing but they chose not to. I have a blog and it bores me no end. I like to write tomes about color when the mood strikes. Passion gets lost in meeting a regimented blog posting schedule. Plus, when speaking to color, the "acceptable standard" of 300 words or less for a blog post is nothing! Came up with the idea of podcasts about color/design - I like doing those and they have done really well on the blog and in iTunes. They're a ton of work to record and edit so I will never be able to keep the front page of the blog filled with fresh podcasts. Can't say I understand all the blogs out there or the act of blogging per se. Never clicked with me as far as what's the point. The bloggers who view their blog as an open journal of sorts -- I get that. Otherwise, I struggle with most things blogosphere.

I have one, but I hesitated to post, because it's mostly a how-to for building a Harbor Freight greenhouse. So not very interesting, unless you're trying to fit Part A into Part B! Eight years ago DH and I built a little 10x12 greenhouse. At that time, the Gardenweb greenhouse forum was very active with HF greenhouse owners. We all shared tips, so I gathered up ideas and built a little blog with photos from our own build. The HF assembly manual was infamous back then for being totally confusing, so I wanted to prevent people from being driven mad by the ridiculous manual. (It's better now, thank goodness.) I haven't updated it for a very long time, but I keep up with questions that people post at the end of each section. I've met great folks from all over the country. I'm just linking to the very last section, because I know you guys don't need to know how to assemble the roof studs (!) This is the only section that has any photos showing the little completed greenhouse. link: Building our Harbor Freight Greenhouse, Part Seven I'm not good at building a blog, and I really need to rework this one, but it seems to wobble along OK for folks who need help. I have great respect for active bloggers, as I don't seem to have the required devotion! Foxes, I totally sympathize with the challenges of figuring blogs out, bit by bit. I figure it out, and then I forget, because I don't work on it often enough. Mostly, I'm posting this to encourage you and others to go for it! I would love to see anything others are working on.