Incoherent Scribblings

On(line) Cliques

Since today is the last day for Holidailies, I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has stopped by via Holidailies for their visit. I hope that you found my writing interesting enough to stop by again sometime!

Otherwise… Until next year!

clique n. : A small exclusive group of friends or associates.

I have been online since 1993 in one form or another, but it wasn’t until the last year or so that I really developed an active presence within particular communities. I suppose the reason for this is directly related to blogging.

Prior to 2004 my online presence was static: I maintained a website, but didn’t update it regularly and it was not interactive. I rarely visited bulletin boards and when I did I always remained a lurker. I seldom went into chat rooms nor did I play online games. Simply put, I was just another faceless name among the millions of others on the World Wide Web.

Then in 2004 I started blogging and through the interactivity of blogs I found others online that shared my interests. At first we left each other comments, but in time we began emailing each other with invitations to online events that we were organizing. Though it was done without any intention of leaving anyone out, a core group of people formed and without realizing it, we had become a clique.

Clique: It is a word that I haven’t given much thought to since high school and yet within the space of a couple of months it surfaced nearly half a dozen times to describe my online group of acquaintances. Honestly, the first thing I thought when I read this description of the people that I interact online with was, “Is there such a thing as an online clique?” It seemed rather absurd, but when I pondered the definition I realized that a small exclusive group of friends or associates can just as easily form online as in real life.

I must also admit that I was hurt when I read this characterization of my group of friends. After all, the term “clique” has rather negative connotations and in my mind it implies that instead of including others, we want to exclude them and that is not the case at all.

However, I am sorry to say that I can also see how others might perceive that our group is a clique. As a general rule, we are generous with the comments that we leave one another. So generous in fact, that I can see how a visitor who comes across our blogs might think that comments from anyone else are unwelcome. We also use our blogs to sing the praises of our online events and once again, I can see how a visitor might interpret our enthusiasm for exclusivity.

And though I have never known any of my online friends to be mean to other bloggers, we have unfortunately had to deal with others that purposely try to make us seem to be snobby and unfriendly to those we don’t “know.” It has hurt some of us deeply and while I am angry that even in an online community that is supposedly filled with adults someone still has to act childish, I also pity the person(s) that is (are) only “brave” enough to hide behind anonymous comments.

Because if the person(s) would actually take the time to get to know us by following our blogs for a little while, he/she/they would find that we are actually a warm, welcoming community that simply enjoys sharing our interests with one another.

A Mini-Slump and a List

After I worked on “Catch the Wind” on Tuesday I meant to put it aside and start the baby sampler. However, to be honest, I am not yet too excited about stitching it and as a result, it put me into a little slump.

Whenever I thought about starting the baby sampler, I remembered all of the other things that I needed to do and consequently, I didn’t pick up a needle at all on Wednesday or Thursday. (Actually, this was a bit of a blessing in disguise as I got a lot of preparations for my trip out of the way.) So, after a couple of days of not stitching, I realized that my mini-slump was being caused by the fact that instead of starting the baby sampler, I wanted to continue working on CtW.

Therefore I picked CtW back up today and spent all afternoon working on Jane’s skirt. It is really coming along and I think that I am close to (or maybe even past) the half-way point on her skirt. Not only am I seeing impressive progress, I am also having such a great time stitching it that it will definitely be going into my stitching bag and on my trip.

Speaking of my trip, I am sure you are dying to know what I am planning on taking with me, so here is The List: (List subject to change up until it is actually packed!)

1. Catch the Wind
2. Melissa’s Birthday Exchange
3. Jo’s RR
4. Baby Feet
5. Celtic Spring
6. Ashley’s Roses

It may seem like a lot, but the only ones that actually have stitches in them are CtW and Melissa’s Birthday Exchange. I already have Jo’s RR and “Baby Feet” kitted up, so I figure I may as well bring them along too.

As for “Celtic Spring” and “Ashley’s Roses,” I am still waiting on the fabric I ordered for them. If the fabric doesn’t get here by Monday I am planning on just taking the charts with me and will take the opportunity to look for some fabric when I go home. If the fabric does arrive, I will stick it in my stitching bag too. If I start them, great. If I don’t, it’s no big deal: I will just start them when I get back.

I am not planning on taking too much floss with me on my trip because I am planning on buying a whole bunch in the States. The reason I am going to do this is because, as most of you probably already know, embroidery floss is in Europe is damn expensive! In Germany it is about €1.10, or at the current exchange rate, $1.34 per skein! I already have a quasi-floss mom (nothing official – just a great best friend!) who has been sending me DMC over here and that helps, but since I will be in the land of cheap floss I figure I may as well stock up!