web publishing – That Grrl

I was downtown again today. Just a trip out for coffee and a stroll around. No photos this time. It’s funny how you can get intimidated and not take photos at times. I saw a few things and I thought about how I would take the picture but there were several people around and I let the chance pass by. I don’t know why I cared that anyone was there. After all, what would anyone do, stop me from taking a picture. Not like it’s illegal or immoral. I’m going to try to work on that.

Yesterday I read a good article in another blog about writers who have blogs. She said most of us just write blogs about writing. I guess that is what we think we know and have thougths about most often. I think anything to do with blog publishing and SEO (search engine optimization for sites) comes a close second if not first even. But it is true that writers tend to make their blogs pretty predictable, topical blogs. I’m not counting this as a topical blog it doesn’t have any real focus.

She said we should write about something else, a personal interest, hobby or cause. I think that is really a good plan. For myself especially as I really do like having a project on the go and I really do need to have a plan and keep myself stuck to it. So, I am coming up with ideas. I do have plenty to choose from, lots of things I am interested in. Too many and some which turn out to be short term or abandoned along the way. I am thinking most about a blog with photos of old things in Toronto. I really do like taking the photos of old buildings and there isn’t any shortage of places and bits of places to choose from. I could have a backlog of photos on hand and just post one a day for a very long time. So that does seem like the idea with the most potential.

Makes me think about Skye and her blog for the town she is in. I check on her now and then. I would be lucky cause Toronto is massively big and a centre for a lot of events and traffic of people in general. I think she is finding that a problem for her smaller area.

Other topics I could write about are Pagan or women’s issues/ culture/ something or other. I think the Pagan would be good for drawing traffic BUT I don’t think I really have enough I want to say to make that a weekly column let alone a daily thing. Unless I added a wider focus for it, including some history and culture which would be borderline on focus for the Wicca/ Pagan topic. Still, it is something I am not passing off on. The women’s thing I am passing on. I really don’t want to blab on and on about online dating, periods, being a grrl or whatever else that direction would take me. I don’t see that being a direction I want to go in. Besides, I see a ton of sites like that which are submitted to Dmoz and most of them are pretty trashy with spam and light/ lame on content.

I am still going to put thought into the Pagan thing. Even though I can’t see it as a weekly column I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea. It’s important to have someone out there talking about Paganism from a real prespective, not all about quick fixes with spells and worshipping gods. I don’t believe in any gods and I am anti-spellcraft. Both seem really phony to me. You can’t say you are for life and free choice and such and then try to force things to your will with ‘spells’ and blame it all on ‘gods or goddesses’. Of course it is more complicated than that. I might try it and see how it goes. If I get into it or get wound out and have nothing left to say after a month.

I think I will keep the writing blog going. I renamed it Word Grrls this past week. So far it just has all my old articles with another dozen or so still in drafts to be stuck out there. I’ve been updating it each Monday. I’m not doing anything else cause I don’t feel right to really grow it till I’m out of old content. For now it is fine. As with the Pagan plan, it gives me time to decide if I want to keep it going as a weekly thing. To see what committment I really have to it all.

I do think the Something Old in Toronto idea is good, good for me as well as something I could turn into a popular site. People do seem to enjoy the photos I have done of old buildings. Although most are still the farmhouses from outside of Toronto. Anyway, it seems like a good plan.

I’m not quite brave or bold enough to be a true urban explorer. Maybe if I wasn’t always alone and wearing open shoes (Croc knock-offs) I would venture inside places. But, I’m not someone who looks for confrontations and I don’t lie well at all. Besides, what I really love are the outsides of buildings. I love the architecture, the carved stone and the natural bricks. I love window trims, leaded panes and stained glass. I love the fancy bits and the broken and old bits best of all. Everything I can see from outside is what I like best of all.

No one minds if you stand outside and take pictures. Even if you tresspass, you’re still just outside, out in the open, not infiltrating the dark and derelict places where anyone or any creature could be hiding or just relaxing after a good night out hunting prey. I think if you go inside you’re more of a threat. You’re invading what was or is private space. I don’t think people feel the same about excursions around the outside of a building.

Even if someone does mention my picture taking they don’t seem aggressive in asking their questions, mainly curious. Then, they ask if they can see my pictures. Of course, I just say my camera doesn’t have a review feature. I can lie about some things. My camera is private, for my fingers only. Strange isn’t it that someone who keeps so private and self contained as I am feels ok about tresspassing, or at least invading the outside space of someone else.

But, you see, I must get those pictures. The buildings and places haunt me. I’m not sure if I just need to document their existence or if I want to treasure something old and permanent, something broken yet still dependable. Still there after all these years and a lot of weathering.

I’ve just moved to Toronto now. The city has so many broken and mouldering buildings. I took the streetcar down Queen Street on Sunday and was amazed at all the places I could have stopped and swung out my camera. Now that I have rechargeable batteries and the extra 512 MB chip I have unlimited picture taking ability. I can take pictures till my fingers go numb from the cold. I do try to remember to keep the camera strap on my wrist, so far no accidents but likely it’s just a matter of time. That will be a day of suspense. I get lucky with things quite often though. Like the time I accidentally knocked a glass of water on my husband’s computer monitor. After a day or two of rest it started right back up as if it never had a shower at all.

Anyway, I went to CanZine on Sunday. That was my reason to ride the rails, not just being a gawky tourist. Being new to the city and having no idea where I was going or if I would ever actually get there (ignoring the whole getting back thing) I over compensated and arrived at CanZine at least an hour early. Many of the tables were not yet set up. I browsed and felt very conspicuous, being one of the only fat grrls there. I knew moving to Toronto was going to be tough on my self esteem but I felt so out of place there. It was all in my own head, no one said “please move your enormous ass”. I tried not to be embarrassed even though I felt like a whale in a goldfish tank. I wasn’t even dressed trendy or fashiionably. My hair was just it’s usual mess and I think my pants were too short.

Don’t misunderstand, I did enjoy CanZine and I’m glad I went. I do regret that I was too early to see the set up for the Torontoist table. Maybe TOBlog was there too, I didn’t notice a tag saying that on any table though. It is my plan to write for one of those Toronto blogs. Maybe people would like to hear from someone new to the city, someone born in Toronto and vagabonding all over Ontario and farther, now back to Toronto. I grew up mainly in the Rouge, part of Scarborough for those who have never been farther east than Jarvis or so.

I can hear the streetcar going by from my place, the new place without windows. I don’t know how I will adjust to living in a basement. I like seeing the daylight or even something of the sky at night. I miss that after living far outside of the city for so many years. The shower here doesn’t seem to get very hot and all my stuff is still flopped around, lazily, just expecting me to organize and put it all away. If ever there was a time for one of those good fairies… But, we all know there are no such thing. Still, I can’t quite stop a stray hope.

I met Liz of Infiltration at CanZine. That was a real highlight for me. She may not see herself as a star but she was for me. I bought Ninjalicious’s book and two of the zines. Even though his idea of urban exploration is much bolder (dirtier and dustier too) than mine, I still admire and enjoy reading about his adventures. Did you know Pickering is right next to the Rouge? He grew up very near to where I grew up. Kind of a that feeling of ‘home boy does good’. It’s really too bad he had so little time. Yet he did a lot with his time. I’m already older than he was and I feel I’ve done so very little. Maybe it’s wrong to keep running list in your mind of all the things you want to do. I just end up flogging myself with them all.

Anyway, Liz was interested in seeing my urban exploration photos. I guess they would be rural exploration to be accurate. Abandoned and derelict farmhouses, to be specific. I have quite a lot of them up on the Flickr site. Some of them didn’t turn out great, I was a digital amateur. I had a few lucky shots. The content of the photos made it easier to get a good picture. I think it must be hard to take a really boring photo of an abandoned building. The drama is all there for the pixels to absorb. It would take real effort to blunder badly.

So that’s my babble today. It’s coming up to mid-morning now and I set myself the goal of assembling my bookshelves today. If I get all my books loaded on there that will be a lot of the clutter disappeared. It is truly awe inspiring how many books I have. Even though at least two boxes full have disappeared during my vagabonding in the past few years. It’s sad, but I’m not even sure which ones are gone, though I have some feeling of missing something, not anything specific.