Mostly Not Knitting

Blogs
I think another reason I didn't post for a while there was because I lost contact with part of my bloggiverse. I use Sage as my RSS feed and blog reader and the last time Firefox had a big upgrade, Sage didn't upgrade. I struggled with Bloglines for a while as a temporary measure, but then it died. So I switched to Google Reader, but I had lost some more blogs on the way and it never behaved quite as I wanted it to and I always ended up with more tabs open than seemed necessary or desirable, and I couldn't keep track of who I'd read and who I still had to catch up with. It meant that I had to keep signing in, because I have more than one Google identity, which is a bore. Also, Google Reader would really prefer you to read blogs through their viewer, but I prefer to read them in the blogger's own page, so that I get more of the feel, and in case they've added some new photos or patterns or whatever in the sidebar.

So I had the feeling that some of my friends were out there chatting and I couldn't hear them or keep up with the jokes. It was a bit like being suddenly deaf, I suppose. But at the end of last week, Sage sprang into life again and I installed the upgrade. I've spent an inordinate amount of time getting everything back again as I want it but now, the sound's back on, and the lights are on, and the heating, and I'm up-to-date with everyone again. It's good to be back.

Photography
I haven't linked to the Big Picture much lately because so many of the collections have illustrated disasters and tragedies, and I thought you could probably find enough sad things on the Internet without any help from me. But this week they have Fall Is in the Air as the theme, which is a lot more bearable.

Two cows traditionally decorated for the 'Desalpe' when the cows are led back to the plain for the autumn after summering on mountain pastures, in Charmey, Switzerland on 25 September 2010 (Reuters / Valentin Chauraud)

There's also a jolly series on Oktoberfest.

If you're really into historical photography and you have some time to spare, there's a set from the Denver Post Plog of America in Color, 1939 -1943 which I keep going back to. I just can't get over the level of detail in these, both visual and historical.

Woman working on a Vengeance dive bomber, Tennessee, November 1943 Photo by Alfred T. Palmer. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Weather Pixie
Thanks for the comment, Amy, and for your concern. I'm not sure what's happened to the Weather Pixie. She says she'll be back soon, but she's been gone for a while. I think she was on Twitter but she's disappeared from there.

There's a little description of what she does and how she does it here. The brains behind it, Tamsin Bowles, appears to be alive and well according to Google, so maybe it just got to be too much trouble.

I've left the link in my sidebar just in case she comes back. I wouldn't want her to think we'd all gone away.

Rude Words
If, after that, you have any time left at all for internetting, I can recommend this blacklist of words that Google Instant doesn't want you to help you look for. It reminds me of the stoplist for car registration numbers, so that people don't have to drive about in cars that say BUM or TIT, only taken considerably further. It's not for those of a sensitive dispostition and whatever you do, don't do a Google Image search for any words you don't recognize. I won't be held responsible.