Reverb 10, Day 7 – Community
December 7 – Community
Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
Author: Cali Harris
I love how you can indulge every interest and every shade of your personality on the internet. No matter how nerdy, obscure, bizarre or perverse, a community of like-minded souls is but a Google away.
It's always a rush finding people who share your obsessions. This year Gareth has discovered the dark art of home brewing and in turn, brewing blogs and forums. Just from reading Two Jews Brew and the Inveralmond Brewery Blog over his shoulder I now understand wacky words like kräusen, sparging and trub. Anyone for stout? There's 36 bottles maturing in our dining room.
Some communities I throw myself into wholeheartedly but mostly I lurk at the edges feeling a bit uncool and uncertain. You can learn a lot from the wallflower position, though! Here are my main tribes:
- Health and fitness blogs – I love people who write about their lives and struggles and don't take it all too bloody seriously.
- Food blogs – I lurk at the monolith I Can't Believe That's A Pound Of Butter food porn kind of blogs but comment enthusiastically on the smaller, every day food kind of blogs
- Gardening blogs and forums – I'll need another year of growing and learning the lingo before I'll get the nerve to pipe up!
- MotoGP forums – until I gave up because MotoGP was boring as batshit this season
- Cricket blogs – there are some witty cricket blogs out there but I'm too ignorant about the rules to comment anything other than "huh huh huh, funny."
- Guardian Mad Men blog – there are some extremely learned people on this highly addictive blog who find enormous hidden meaning in everything from set design, closing credits music and Don Draper's choice of socks. Again I just lurk as my thoughts are limited to, "Joan rocks!" and "I dreamed about Don again last night."
- Facebook – for the fabulous folks back home. Reduces longing by approximately 53%!
- Twitter – where all your interests merge in a big chatty mess.
- Our kickboxing team – albeit from the fringes as I'm too wussy to be a proper fighter
- Girl Geeks Scotland - this year I was lucky enough to attend some weekend workshops and met some truly kick arse tech-savvy women who are doing really exciting stuff with their lives. I learned gazillions and was so fired up about life afterwards that I could barely speak for days. At one point a bunch of us were gathered around an iPad, cooing and squawking like it was a precious newborn. That's when I knew for sure, I have found mah people!
As for the second part of this prompt, in 2011 I'd like to participate more and be less stalkersome!
I’m a fan of the wallflower position too. So long as it’s not the position you have
My hubby raised beer and thought it was the best beer he’d every guzzled…no comparison, he thought! The longer you leave it, the more smooth of a taste!
I’m interested in hearing more googa’s about your ipad weekend! We have the iphone and love it!
I mostly lurk at the edges too…afterall, how well do you actually know someone who could personify to be exact opposite of what you’re led to believe!
Day 8 is going to be a tough one for me!
Cheers
Ohhhh, can’t believe you’ve got into the gardening thing too! I got the obsession in May 2010 and, well, obsessed over it all summer. Oh it was BRILLIANT! I read nothing but “grow veg” type books for months and – oh help me – even subscribe to “Grow Fruit and Veg” magazine. And, er, buy a couple of other mucky mags like “Kitchen Garden” and “Grow it” too.
I thought it’s only old people who do this stuff so I was over the moon to see your archives on DietGirl with all the lovely photos. Oh, and my tomatoes? They were my babies too.
What’re you planning to grow this year?
We discovered “Mr Beer” this year. I love that little brown plastic keg. Husband and I aren’t sharp enough to pull together all the ingredients on our own so we use a beer kit and some extra bits-like a little can of something that ups the taste (read: alcohol content). It’s fun to make beer. It’s SUPER fun to drink homemade beer.