Monday, July 14, 2008

VEXATION NOTE BY NOTE

There you are. Your itunes play softly in the background. Perhaps a little Photoshop. A little Illustrator. A little email. A little online shopping. And then maybe peruse a blog or two. (Remember that your itunes are gently guiding you through your surfage. Your little support system.)

Friend #1 is announcing that she's expecting twins. Huzzah for her.

Friend #2 posted photos from her recent trip to Dallas. Eighty-percent of the photos are of her holding the camera out in front of her and her husband, clearly demonstrating a debilitating fear that should she ask a fellow tourist to snap a memory for them, the fellow tourist would dash into the crowds with her beloved digital camera.

Sister #1 still hasn't posted on her bloomin' blog. You're seriously considering removing her from your RSS feeds.

Mom started a scripture blog. Sweet. So does that mean you don't have to actually read your own scrips if you check her blog?

Person Whose Blog You Blurk: It looks like her daughter is—Oh my gosh, what is that horrific sound? What are those nasty notes getting mixed in with your friendly, self-selected itunes? Oh great. She has become one of those people. She's added inane music to her blog.

Like I said, there you are: doing your thing. Clicking on over to her blog for a sneaky peek into her day-to-day and it appears as if she's made the conscious effort to assail your ears with whatever mixture of music she thinks best illustrates her personality. But why? She was doing a fine job illustrating her personality with her words, photos, and blog appearance.

Perhaps in order to avoid the angst you experience when her music overthrows yours, you ought to plan ahead.

Perhaps before you head her way you hit mute on your keyboard to avoid the annoyance. But that's lame, cause you were enjoying your own tunes and would like to continue doing so.

Perhaps you don't go there anymore. But that's lame too, for you've enjoyed the part of your day where you surreptitiously check in on her comings and goings. You want to blurk her, for goodness' sake.

Perhaps as soon as you get to her blog you scroll as fast as your little pointer finger can take you down to her widget music player on her sidebar and hit pause or mute. It's a hassle, and what if you forget one time? But it seems to be the best option if you want to continue to enjoy your own tunes while you read up on her terribly interesting little life.

Short as it may be, there is a flip side. When tunes are a part of a person's online self, musical irritation isn't always the result. Sometimes (okay, on one blog) you pause your own music to experience their selection. The Billy Joel is especially fun. You can't generally go wrong with The King. And the Wham! is a nice retro touch.

So thanks, Janeen. It's you and only you.

8 comments:

whitneyingram said...

The worst is when you aren't listening to music and your volume is turned up. So when you get to a blog with music, it scares the hell out of you.

cat+tadd=sam said...

You scroll with your pointer finger? I'm a middle finger scroller. Interesting.

Kar said...

Ah, I am guilty of this. My apologies. I used to hate it when people put music on their pages, but I got over it when I started blogging at work...no iTunes to listen to. I agree with Whitney though, sitting in silence with the volume turned up really scares the hell out of you when music starts playing.

Janeen said...

Ok, I have changed my page, I have given my readers the option to listen to my music or not. My tunes will not come on automatically; you will have to press play. Now I have moved up my music higher on my page so you may make your own personal choice as to listen or not to listen!

Andrea said...

I happen to like your music! As does B who is often Blogging with me and starts to rock out when we get to yours. I LOVE IT!

[Morgan] said...

I admit, I've given in to having music on my blog...
for the sole purpose of pulling it up and hitting play while I clean or my kids want to dance.
What I can't figure out is why when I de-select autoplay, it works for a while and then all of the sudden one day I pull up my page and it plays automatically... arg.

I was raised listening to the piano man, perhaps I should add him to my listening list...

M to the E to the R to the I said...

Ugh, I HATE music on peoples blogs. It's so intrusive. I had it on my blog for about 12 hours then I wanted to shoot myself, so I took it off. Amen to all you have said sister.

L said...

Great minds think alike because when I stated that I hated the music on my friends blogs my friend commented back that it showed readers her personality. Like you said the music often sucks and makes it impossible to listen to my own music, and is it really necessary to have the music one likes on their blog? I mean it isn't like they sit at their blog all day listening to the playlist so shouldn't it be what the readers prefer? I think so and my vote is no music.

Two side notes. I think your sister Cat has an interesting point on the finger scrolling. I looked down and noticed I was using my ring finger. Only because it has feeling at the moment. Icicles I am I tell ya. Secondly is it safe to assume blurk is blog stalking? If so I learned a new word. Huzzah.