When you ask to join a Facebook group, the administrators get a thumbnail breakdown of who you are, and what other groups you belong to, to help them decide if they will approve your membership or not.
I run two groups and regularly “vet” requests to join. What I find the most interesting about the profiles is the groups people belong to.
I had expected that as my groups are related to romance novels, the other groups everyone belonged to would be related. Different genres, perhaps, or different emphasis. Lovers of Steampunk Vampire Wiccan Flash Fiction. Readers Against rabies. Where To Find More Freebies. Help My Kindle is Broken.
That sort of stuff.
Some readers belong to a staggering number of groups. I have no idea how they keep up with them, for I find the small handful I belong to hard enough to catch up on.
Other readers are members of just two or three or sometimes one or none at all (in which case, I’m honoured they chose to join my group!).
Only, the groups are mostly completely unrelated to romance novels. Some of the titles of the groups are completely opaque. Loose Moose Rock might be a group of employees, or a page dedicated to a type of music or a tourist site. Or none of the above.
Then there’s the self-explanatory ones: Midville High Class of ’79. Chani’s Wedding Prep.
It’s a fascinating browse through the myriad interests of human beings.
Then there’s me.
The five groups I belong to are all about writing novels. Boring stuff, and totally expected. And, honestly, if the groups were available via some other platform that wasn’t Facebook, I’d move in a heartbeat.
However, I was catching up on all my blog reading this morning and the light bulb flickered on, over my head. Blogs are where my weirdness shows up, not FB groups.
Blogs seem outdated to a lot of people these days, especially as most websites are blogs. Even sites that appear static and unchageable are often built on the world’s most popular blogging software, WordPress.
So I follow a lot of blogs.
In fact, let me flip over to my RSS reader, and check out how many, exactly.
238 separate blogs.
A large number of them are totally predictable: Author sites, writing sites, publisher sites. Promo and marketing sites.
Some of them are real oddballs, that have no clear reason for being in my feed, except I like reading them. I thought I’d list a couple of them here, to show you how trully wide and deep the internet has become.
Upcycled Wonders
https://www.upcycled-wonders.com/
Ultimately, all my time goes into writing and publishing the next book. I so don’t have time for crafts and home-making…although I read blogs like this and wish I did.
Colour Lovers
I just love, love, love this site. I love browsing around, checking out the patterns and the spectrums.
I love colour, as anyone who has ever seen the inside of my house will guess. I have to restrain myself when I design sites and pages.
Only, I confess, my notebook (OneNote) is a blast of colour. The pages, the tabs, the sections, each individual notebook, has its own colour theme and palette, far beyond the paltry pale offerings that Microsoft build into the native app.
The site has a blog, although they rarely post. But that’s okay. I stop by to visit even when there isn’t a new post.
Jesse Cook
This is the only music site I follow. I mentioned Jesse Cook in a recent newsletter, and how I loved his Spanish inspired music and how surprised I was to learn he was Canadian. Now, I’m just waiting for the next album…
All That’s Interesting.
http://allthatsinteresting.com/
This site scratches my curiousity bump each day. It is also a rich fodder for story ideas and just plain cool factoids.
Mike and Lisa’s World
http://mikeandlisaworld.blogspot.ca/
I saved the real oddball for last.
I can’t tell you why I follow this blog except to say that these two would have to be the hardest working couple I’ve ever come across. I mean hard-doogs, sweat-making work. They built their own off-grid house, landscaped the property, rebuilt power systems, flip houses on the side, and just this year have started reworking yet another property and building a house upon it (as in, erecting walls themselves).
I tripped over the blog one day and started at the beginning of their story the way the header suggests. Bad, bad mistake. I read that sucker from first post to the most recent, completely hooked by the narrative, and came up for air hours later. Lisa writes the blog and she is not an author, but she is a natural story-teller.
Fascinating.
What about you?
What oddball blogs and groups do you belong to (that you’re comfortable admitting to in public!)?
Share in comments below and let us all see some of the weird and wonderful sites and groups out there.
Cheers,
.
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