take your needles to class

Over thanksgiving, I hope to finish the border on the "Summer from Kansas" shawl. Over the past month or so I've been taking it to lectures and I was surprised last week to find that I was nearly done with the body. And now I am really done with the body, and on to the edging, which just goes to show you that a few moments are never wasted even if they are between scribbling notes on statistical techniques and the Maya collapse. Given the long weekend, maybe I'll even have pictures! Amazing how much more quickly things grow on #6 needles, compared to size 0.

I really miss my blog. The irony is that I have a lot to say-- you know, new characters, funny stories, new ideas, and so on. Most of it is not textile related and when I opened this space I told myself this would be truly focussed on textiles, since my interests there are wide-ranging enough to be entirely confusing anyway. I'm tempted to write at length about grad school in another space. a) it would help me get it off my chest b) it might be helpful to other older students struggling with this adjustment. But a lot of the incidents and characters are recognizeable and one of the points about writing is that I don't want to censor too much. How do you deal with such things? Do you, as a blogger, have concerns that people you describe will be recognized and that this might reflect badly on you? Do you have private, password-protected blogs for particular friends? How do you deal with the line between cyber-anonymity and possible real-life acquaintance?

Comments

[Cassie]

Personally, I've avoided telling any negative stories about people or LYSs that I know. Same with negative family stuff. Even though none of these people really read my blog, you never know. I'd feel safer telling a story without naming names, so somewhere down the road it wouldn't come back to haunt me.

[June]

As I live and breathe, it's a post from Carrie! Hello, stranger! :) I look forward to seeing your shawl.

[claudia]

I assume that anything I put on the web is (1) Permanently out there and (2) accessible to anyone and then I edit accordingly.

Good to hear from you!

[diana]

I'm paranoid. If I have a bad day because of some local idiot, I keep it general :)

[gail]

It's a difficult choice about what to put in your blog. The Chronicle for Higher Education recently had quite a long article about graduate student bloggers, and how they decided what to put in their blogs about their grad school experience. I'm not sure what issue, but browsing the past month might find it easily. I also knit in class, but only mindless socks with a minimal pattern in the cuffs. i couldn't quite manage a lace edging while taking notes and trying to look interested and participatory in class! I'm back in grad school after a much longer absence than yours!

[Anne]

I consciously chose, when I put together my blog, to write a blog that I wouldn't be worried about the Dean, or my Mom, or ANYBODY coming across.

And I consciously didn't want a "train wreck" blog -- you know, the ones where you can see somebody falling apart.

So mine's set up specifically as a writing exercise -- and the persona who appears as "Anne" is indeed me, but it's just an aspect of me.

It's useful for me, as a humorist, to figure out how to write about things without hurting people's feelings.

And there's a Whole Lot of STuff I simply do not write about.

[bibliotecaria]

Many people seem to forget that blogs are open journals, and thus should be edited accordingly.

If there are some things you just have to write about from your graduate school time, you might consider 1) writing about things without naming names and 2) writing for later publication. Distance provides some perspective and less likelihood that others will recognize and be hurt.