This holds true with web apps and communities as well. It takes awhile for me to decide the usefulness of joining and using, this was true for LiveJournal, Flickr… and now Twitter.* (Interesting examples as I consider all three journaling sites: traditional, pictorial and expositional.)

When I redesigned my website and set up my new Wordpress blog, I realized I missed traditional journaling; documenting an event or thoroughly exploring an idea. Besides the discipline and mind stretching, I enjoy and find it useful to go back and see where I was at at a certain point in time. The only reason I didn’t start there and then is this was about the time I discovered I was pregnant. Naturally this would’ve been the topic most on my mind and I was far from ready to reveal or discuss anything about that.

But that (and this) type of journaling can consume more time than I have to spare. This is partly why Flickr became my default journal of sorts a couple years back. It’s an excellent way for me to document things I’d done and when. But, naturally, it doesn’t capture thoughts.

In walks Twitter. Actually, I was first introduced to Twitter about two years ago and was unimpressed and bewildered by the application. But then, the examples I saw all followed this model:

“What a nice day!”

“I had breakfast.”

“My neighbor mowed the lawn.”

And so on. It just took enough people I knew to join in and the standard use to tweak slightly before I became intrigued. Brenna’s regular Twitter collections helped soften me quite a bit, actually. It’s nice to have a place to share a thought or simple happening without feeling obliged to build a post around it nor look for commentary.** (People can comment on a particular entry, but it feels more conversational than an acknowledgment.) Or create an email and figure out who all to send it to. This way it’s out there free to amuse or annoy as folks may choose.

Also, as I do these things for my own benefit as well to share, I’m pleased to have a place to jot things down, have time stamped and then collect every week as an ersatz diary. And, yes, a lot of the thoughts and events are about my pregnancy—it is changing and ruling my life after all. It’s for that reason that I wish I had started Twittering before, then I would know exactly when Kip first felt Taran kick, laughing and crying as he did so. (Thankfully I happen to know when I first felt her as I was dashing off an email to Dylan at the time and chose to mention it to her.)

And, really, the biggest reason I decided I must start Twittering is that I can think of no better way to document my labor and delivery while sharing with those who can’t or choose not to be there first hand.***

* Yes, somewhere after Kris and before Dylan, I joined Twitter. And by god, I enjoy it.

***I imagine there will be a point in the process I’ll be handing it over to Dylan.

But that’s last week’s news, for there is an update today! It also includes the small update I made this past weekend. (permalink)

My sudden down time actually had more to do with plant fertility than mine–though what the hormones are doing to my sinuses didn’t help at all.

Which brings me to information aesthetics, a “weblog is based on the assertion that information visualization can be enriched with the principles of creative design and art, to develop valuable data representations that address the emotional experience of users, instead of solely focusing on typical task effectiveness metrics” and stuff like that there.

And Andrew Vande Moere does a good job at finding some nice looking ones: example 1, example 2 and example 3. And then there’s the Geological Investigation of the Alluvial Valley of the Lower Mississippi River by Harold N. Fisk, 1944, which maps the ancient courses of the Mississippi River:

This is plate five of a fifteen plate set, all of which have been assembled into the stretch of the river(s) for your convenience right here.

Then a week to draw, experiment with drawing and just darn play.

Then a week to just write.

Another week to design. Then maybe another to write and draw.

Ah, well. At least I have coffee to console me.

In the meantime, you have probably noticed I’ve slipped in to a more erratic schedule here and it will continue as such until the end of February, by which time I will have a new web space, design and have begun posting Wode.

So this might be a good time for me to mention Bloglines, your friends list away from LiveJournal. It will track all your favorite blogs with RSS feed, like Jennworks, blargblog, Making Light, Alas a Blog and most Movable Type journals. It will also display the most recent entries of all of them in one window, the length of the displayed entry—from just a title to the first couple of lines to the whole darn thing—is dependent of the RSS feed of the blog in question.

In these busy days, I’ve been finding it extremely helpful. Even if I don’t have the time to read everything, at least I know what I’m missing.

I was curious on how well I would absorb the information, but actually I’ve been doing very well in that respect. Actually I pay much more attention to the content and don’t get distracted the way I will while reading the same material. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been more conditioned to take in information in an audible fashion or if my innate politeness is kicking in and so I cannot possibly ignore the person talking to me—even though it’s and MP3 on my computer. And it’s perfect for when I’m drawing, I will actually focus more on drawing listening to a book. As Steve put it, it’s like your giving yourself a cookie for sitting and drawing.

Anyway, recently I’ve been enjoying A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, which has so far covered the origin on the universe and earth and the laws of physics, mostly told through people’s attempts in understanding and defining all of the above.

And these scientists, let me tell you, what a bunch of characters, in some cases such dramatic lives. Guess they would have to be, dedicating large portions of there live in pursuit of evidence for their theories, and, once they found it they would often discover someone else had as well. or they would submit their findings only to have them shelved and ignored for over a decade, sometimes determinedly so. As Bryson quips “Sometimes the world isn’t ready for a good idea.’ (Uh, sometimes?)

Some get very zen in the face of all this and will adapt a befitting sense of humor. One of my favorites has been Niels Bohr, who once commented that “a person who wasn’t outraged on first hearing about quantum theory, didn’t understand what had been said.” He also once told a young physicist “Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true,” and then there’s my favorite “There are some things so serious that you have to laugh at them.” No wonder he chose the yin-yang symbol for his coat of arms when he was knighted.

But the tale I absolutely adore is of the bitter feud of Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, who were the two most prominent paleontologists in 19th-century America. Apparently they were once bosom buddies until some completely unknown tif turned them into the fiercest enemies. And they went at it hammer and tong: theft, forgery, vandalism, plagiarism not to mention their dig crews throwing rocks at each other.

I’m truly inspired, I tell you. I truly would love to do a comic about this, either taking inspiration from their story or actually adapting their story. I can actually visualize certain scenes and, let’s face it, no one can be as bitchy as a Victorian gent. And there were some equally nasty characters around the same time, some of them paleontologists as well. Not to mention that this was the same time period as Nellie Bly,* so, you know…

But, naturally, this would have to wait a decade or so, until after I finish Dicebox. Ah, well.

*Childhood hero.

But, good lord, was getting to work today much more of an event than it should have been and took far too long. Really, the worse part was getting to the bus, had to walk in the streets and skid on ice for the most part. There were stretches of sidewalk that good neighbors had cleared. Except that with the absence of salt or sand it had all become black ice. Or gray ice, whatever.

But it was actually kind of a relief to actually get out of the house and go somewhere. I’ve been kind house bound with not so much the snow, but the ice on top. I wasn’t so much afraid of falling as twisting my ankle.

Though I did try to put my unexpected time off to good use. yesterday I actually gave myself permission to read most of the day. that is read one of the reference books that I really want and need to read for Dicebox and other projects, the book in particular was and still is The Whole Shebang: the State-of the-Universe(s) Report by Timothy Ferris, a nice overview of current cosmological theory. This is actually my third attempt so I’m really getting the hang of the difference between an open, closed and flat universe, let me tell ya.

It’s actually an enjoyable read and interesting stuff, so I had been a little baffled as to why it’s taking me so long to get through—it’s not that thick and I have familiarity with many of the concepts. But yesterday and today made it clear to me why I’ve been making so little progress.

First, I need to read it in relative quiet. Trying to absorb concepts of four dimensional space and the membrane paradigm theory of a black hole on the crowded and noisy bus today was futile at best. Also I like making notes when reading this type of book. Not only can I pick out concepts that interest me for later review, but the ritual of writing helps to scratch thoughts into my brain very effectively. Lastly, I keep wanting to reference other articles and books on similar subject matter, to see how things match up—hard to do on the bus or while taking a bath.

But what I have been finding especially entertaining this time out with this book is how all these brilliant mathematicians, physicists and theorists keep dying too young in the manner of artists and poets–that one from a mortal skin disease, this one from typhoid, the occasional case of plague. No duels or lover’s revenge yet, but I have faith.

Yes, I know, it’ll be several months until I even begin Chapter 5. They’re actually going to be part of a pin-up that will go up on Girlamatic as fill-in for New Year’s week as I will be doing some visiting over Christmas and the relatives are actually going to want me present for the whole shebang, or at least a good part of it.

Anyway. The characters in question have actually been with me for quite sometime, some even named or between names, if you follow. I just felt if I was going to draw them, I should nail down all their names. And I actually do enjoy rooting around for names, have a few name books on the shelves and usually I have a feel for the rhythm or sound I’m after to begin with.

I was just about done selecting names when I realized that all the previously un-named ones now had names beginning with the letter “L.” Except for the one that was named “El.”

I do this thing quite a bit; Kip pointed out for a while there I was selecting a lot names begining with “G” and “R,” usually in sets of two. (Molly’s name used to be one that began with “R.”) As I had realized this before the names were set for me, I could actually go back and rectify the situation. Now only three have “L” names and I can live with that.

I actually blame this specific occurance on my recently picking an Ella Fitzgerald CD, Ella Sings Broadway. She does a version of “Whatever Lola Wants” that is quite compelling, corny early 60s band arrangement aside.