Random Ideas

$%*$($* Spammers

I’ve noticed my website getting “scraped” more often lately, and my text ending up in random places.  The most recent one, however, sent me to a page that said this!

The website you are trying to view has been suspended due to a breach of our Acceptable Use Policy.

That’s pretty cool.  I report these fake blogs and spammers whenever I see them, and if you see your stuff getting scraped, you should report them as well to the blog owners (Google for Blogger, 6Apart for Typepad, etc.).  These people take a good thing and abuse it, and I can’t stand it!

A couple of follow-up crazy ideas I got from listening to crafters who like to try to electrocute themselves circuits and motors :):

1)  The use of heat-sensitive fabrics was covered in the SXSW panel, fabrics that change color next to body heat.  I thought this was very interesting.  My dad makes some ink with some strange properties I can’t tell you about (he’s a biochemist, he makes lots of stuff with strange properties) and I started wondering what I could do with it.  It’s very cool stuff.

2)  I contemplated using LEDs with a hat - my brain came up with the name “halo hat.” Could I crochet them in like beads?  What effect would this give?  Seems like I’m always trying to read/crochet in the dark, and I don’t like spotlights or reading lights - they’re too small and/or too focused on an area.  What if I could create a more diffuse glow?  Would it be too wrong to make a halo out of my head?  I’m not particularly angelic

And a follow-up note:

I think a lot of people don’t think they’re that crafty when they are.  I think a lot of people don’t have the foggiest idea what crafting is.

Why do I consistently run into the idea that crafters are busy little homemakers in their cheery little vintage homes with two sunny kids?  Why do people think of crafting as  kids’ projects with glue, construction paper, macaroni and safety scissors?

Crafting isn’t apparently for normal folks - crafting is the province of primary school art teachers, housewife moms with young children, and midwestern women with chintz aprons.  There’s a lot of stigma in those assumptions, a lot of cliches, and a lot of irritating gross generalizations. First of all, I see nothing wrong with being any of those things and resent the value judgments I know are implied.  But it’s still wrong to assume that’s what and who crafting represents.

Often folks don’t want to associate themselves with craft at all because of the perceived “style” of crafters.  Doilies, cabbage roses on curtains, dainty teacups and the like - it’s all well and good, but I’m more of a Design Within Reach style person myself, and I know lots of crafters who are too, and these generalizations and prejudices don’t apply too well.

I think crafting is about skill and creativity and art. Making stuff, for me, is all about practicing something, about putting in the time and effort to learn a technical skill, it’s satisfying because I’m always learning. It’s about expressing myself and exploring my imaginative, creative side.  And every once in a while I apply myself to making something I truly like, or something I think is pretty and useful, and that’s great.  And I like that I’ve done more with my spare time than wasted it staring at the TV.