Branching Out in 2006

It's always good to get out of one's comfort zone, and try new things, especially if one has the feeling of becoming stale. As I mentioned last week, I want to make this place a more interesting one to visit and have more of an interaction with my blog readers. So I'll be commenting on stuff other than knitting from time to time.

As a child, I so loved to read, that it would annoy me that the teachers at my elementary school, which was next to the Greenbelt Library, would only let me check out 3 books, at the most. Every two weeks or so, I would be taken to the New Carrollton Library, where I was allowed to fill my knapsack full of books. I consumed books as one who eats bonbons by the boxful, and I got so good at speed-reading that I could finish off a 200 page book in 2 hours or so. As I grew older, I could be found reading books that were 2 or 3 grades level above me. My parents pretty much let me read any books that I wanted to read (although they weren't so happy about me reading romance novels). If I was being particularly naughty, my punishment would be, no library for the next 2 weeks or so.

To this day I've retained my love of reading, although my time has been taken up by other activities such as knitting, cooking, working, and so forth. I still manage to sneak in a novel or two, and I am very fond of biographies and history books. I guess you can tell where this is leading to. I've got a great MT plugin - Media Manager. You can use it to create lists of books, DVDs, just about anything that Amazon sells on their website. Not only that, but you can also write reviews and post it along with pictures of the book cover and links to the Amazon page. I'm going to be giving this a whirl on the blog. Not only will I be reviewing knitting books, but I'll be reviewing other types of books. I should caution y'all that there may be a religious book being reviewed from time to time, so if you don't care to read that review, just page up to the next blog entry (and don't leave rude comments - these will be edited with a note "deleted by blog owner").

I've been seeing great KALs in the blogosphere, but I've hesitated to participate because I rarely finish in the time set. I did manage to participate in Sockapalooza sponsored by the blue blog earlier this year and it was so much fun. However, I'll try to do more of this in the coming year. Also, I hope to participate in Secret Pal exchanges, once I get a paying job again. These look so much fun, and I know Knitgenia had so much fun participating in one. Should I do so, I promise to not to be a sucky pal, but be very considerate of my Secret Pal and pick out items that I know my Pal will be delighted with.