linky dinks #13

Have you ever experienced the illusion that a vehicle moving ahead of you on a highway is actually headed toward you? This paint job would probably not help the situation:
backward painted truck

lovely cottage
lovely cottage in argentina

this reminds me of my music-loving brother pete
http://diggfoto.com/2009/09/21/with-guitar-for-traveling/

this is what a dalai lama licious feminist looks like
http://jezebel.com/5366712/this-is-what-a-feminist-looks-like

Sometimes I think it would be fun/cathartic/engaging to have a completely candid and anonymous blog to spill the beans in each and every day. Kind of an adult Dear Diary, You-won't-believe-what-happened-today- self-centred-funny-revealing-painful-joyous-humorous-sort-of-journal. And then I think again. The reality is, while it can be useful to write that stuff out, anonymous is never really anonymous. If readers want to find out who you are, they will.

There's been plenty of 'anonymous' bloggers (or other types of online writers) who have been outed for one reason or another. And even if you don't go to a greath lengths to hide your identiy, basically, the more opinionated or candid you are in this world, the more you will divide your audience. Some will love you, some will hate you, and some will love to hate you. Others may just coast along out of interest, unsure of what they really think.

As a great fan of personal memoirs, it pains me to think of the price paid for telling one's own (often unfair or exagerated version of events). I'm delighted that others take the risk. But I think you have to either have a very thick skin, a huge payout, or enjoy pain to write such a journal online, day in and day out.

In the following case, the writer was simply very candid in her online column, first about her marriage and subsequent divorce, and now, perhaps, pays too big a price. Simply put: who wants their life portrayed from someone else's point of view, for all to see? I stopped MommyBlogging at the request of my oldest daughter who was (then) becoming a teenager and didn't want any of her life discussed, no matter how what. (And I was very careful and respectful with anything I wrote about, that still was too much for her, which I could accept.)

You can put it all out there, but few friends (characters in your life story) will probably stick around for the long haul. That's a big price to pay. And I think this is why fiction was invented: use what you know, change it up, and let her rip on the written page. Or use actual names and events and ensure that all of your best friends are cats for ever more. This isn't the most compelling story/interview, but it got me thinking about this whole topic when I read it:
liz jones

This kind of summarizes everything that is wrong with our world right now, environmentally speaking. Free enterprise of the quirkiest and most wasteful order. Am I being harsh? Yes. But ever since I saw footage of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, I can't help but despair over any/all gratuitous use of plastics. On a lighter note, there's lots of funny ideas here, and I did have a laugh at some of them, but still, when will our madness stop? Can we really afford to keep making a plethora of goofy things that we don't really need and will end up as garbage on land or sea?
82 odd products

and the seasons, they go round and round...
another fine performance by the PS22 Chorus
I think of this song (the lyrics) at this time of year when it's so deeply beautiful outside and yet you know what the sequel will be...
the circle game

Question of the day: What do you think about being candid online?