the ship has sailed

i've been listening to loads of TED talks (they have a way of restoring my faith in humanity, as well as making me think). somehow, i always end up on the tech ones or the ones that are talking about the future of the internet or educating through gaming (those gaming guys have no respect for apple, and they just totally did not see angry birds coming). one thing that i think is in the future of it (but which hasn't been mentioned) is that we'll stop capitalizing it. that's totally unnecessary (of course, i largely dispense with capitals in a general sorta way, so i would think that).

but it has me thinking about the whole social networking thing that is going on in the world today - gmail, facebook, twitter, flickr, instagram - just to name the ones i check in on every morning when i wake up. and that in turn makes me think about content and the emphemeral nature of it. once you put it up for all to see, is it still yours? you have no idea what people are doing with it unless they tell you - desktops, screensavers, tumblr blogs, links on their blogs, advertising for their stallion, advertising for a castle in lithuania - you just never know. and it's the risk you take when you put it out there. that people will see it. and that they'll like it or relate to it. invite it in.

so all of this rabidity among some flickr folks just puzzles me (no new incidents have happened, i've just seen some dire warnings on photos and profiles of late). if you don't want anyone to see your pictures or react to them or relate to them, don't put them online on a site that is designed for exactly that. and just relax a little bit. you have to give something of yourself to get something in return - it's part of the social contract.

just think about music and news and magazines...so much free content is available today (i spent half my evening on the new york times website). and images are a big part of it. if we're going to share our images, someone's going to appropriate them. what you have to do is something to add value to the sharing...make cards or other photo-related art available on etsy. someone who tumbles your photo on their tumblr blog isn't going to bother to do that with your images. and if they saw it on flickr and liked it, chances are, they might be interested in buying your cards featuring it. good things can come of sharing. 

i think new models of defining intellectual and creative property are on the horizon. i'm not sure exactly what they are, but the outlines are beginning to be there (the apple app store is a hint of what's to come). but the world is overloaded with input, so i think people should just be glad their work is seen (especially on flickr) and if they want to profit from every instance where it's used or linked, find other ways or don't put it there.  the ship has sailed, my friends and we have to decide if we're onboard or not.

thursday mosaic: flickr faves

i'll admit i still haven't really done any epic shit, but i have found a whole lot of eye candy and inspiration on flickr in the past week. since it was valentine's day, hearts figured rather heavily. and i suspect there is a plain spoken quilt in my future given the number of those that sneaked into this week's mosaic. as usual, there's a whole lot of color. i blame the snow for that. go away snow.

and then i had to share the photography that's inspired me for the past week as well. there are a number of hearts here too and some photos make appearances both places:

if you click on the mosaic, it will take you to my flickr photostream and all of the credits/links to the lovely people who took these photos.

flickr favorites: inspiration or do epic shit

many thoughts are tumbling in my head and they won't come out right now. i'm going to go sew. in the meantime, here are some pretty things to look at. these inspired me in the past week. if you click on the photo, it'll take you to my flickr photostream, where you can click all of the links into all of these people's goodness.

exploring february: so far so good

it really bugs me that i have come to care about the elusive and mysterious "explore" feature on flickr. it's the top 500 photos of the day on flickr, according to some unknown and possibly ever-changing criteria. just a short month ago, i kinda knew about it kinda peripherally. a few of my pictures of the house and my famous robot shot had "gone explore," but i didn't really think about how or why. it was just a happy mystery to me.



but along came our blog camp 365 flickr group and suddenly, explore was everywhere! there are lots of good pictures in the group and with lots of constructive criticism in the form of comments and favorites, suddenly explore became that much more real. for me and for the group as a whole. and so i've started to care about whether my pictures "go explore." and in some ways, i wish i didn't. because it seems a bit insidious, like the whole messianic follower thing on blogs and twitter, and perhaps a tad unhealthy to obsess about it. but still, i can't help but be happy that both of my photos for february thus far have gone to explore - the rainbow monocule© above and this martini glass of yellow randomness. it does for some strange reason reassure me that my photo mojo has returned and i'm improving. tho' it probably doesn't actually mean anything in the big scheme of things.

flickr has done a good job of creating a mystique around it. so rumors abound as to what the algorithms contain. if you want to read some of those rumors, check here, and here. and here's some advice on how to get your pictures there. and now i'm off to stage my next potential explore shot...i wonder if the cat will hold still....

january photo-a-day

hmm, january has 31 days, but still, i managed to have 36 pictures in my photo-a-day folder. here they are as a mosaic. i am loving this project so far! tho' thanks to a stomach virus my photo from the 31st was actually taken by husband. he's pretty good when he's turned loose with the camera.

snowstorm leads to thoughts of spring

most of today, it was like this outside:

i actually took this shot from safely INSIDE the house, tho' i did have to have the window open wide. but only briefly.  anyway, thanks to this, i stayed inside all day, drinking tea and pursuing all sorts of goodness on flickr. i love to make mosaics and see what it is that's catching my eye. as you can see, i'm a little bit in need of fresh, bright spring colors:

1. Allium Flora journal cover design, 2. Mum's quilt finished!, 3. Whit's Knits: Crocheted Stash Basket, 4. Florida Postcard, 5. Linen, 6. ~Sea Green~, 7. oh ... frost, 8. Garland, 9. Shallow Sea, 10. naturally dyed rug yarn, 11. Blossoms Series. (zoom in), 12. Drawing for tiny wee embroidery, 13. Monsters!, 14. pillowcase stack..., 15. felted rock, 16. favorite yarn supply sources..., 17. crochet trims on pillowcases..., 18. Raspberry Marmalade Quilt - rolled, 19. Eeeee! , 20. Hexagon WIP, 21. IMG_8987, 22. case sheep, 23. beautiful words, 24. 'The Carousel' (detail), 25. Journal

1. Purples and lilacs hand crocheted all natural fibre blanket. Available for order in your colour preferences. Can be couriered., 2. First Three Eggs Of Spring, 3. Almofadinhas pra cadeira, 4. my paint of choice., 5. the sea and herself , 6. new work, 7. night vision (2), 8. Untitled, 9. Babette blanket, 10. Placemats, 11. detail02, 12. Handspun☆Extremity pop V neck sweater!, 13. Nook., 14. embroidered and appliqued felt flowers, 15. Oh 1, 16. square dance, 17. Roundabout Quilt, 18. Robots, 19. handmaiden camelspin, 20. My Rainbow Scarflette, 21. All the colours of the rainbow, 22. robot family pictures, 23. Birds of a Feather, 24. Untitled, 25. 19:365

i also spent quite some time trying to use this tutorial (recommended by spud), to crochet a fancy granny square. my failure to do so is not a reflection of the tutorial. nor is it from a lack of really good yarn that is totally suitable for said granny squares:

but, tomorrow is another day and i shall eventually succeed. or else move on to something else that i actually am able to do. like spend hours and hours looking at beautiful things on flickr.