Pinfails

Feb 14

If I got a nickle for every time I saw this on my dash instead of bashing my head on my desk, I’d have a lot more money and one less concussion.  I need to go watch the Princess Bride to get the taste of AWFUL out of my mouth.

—CR

So. I guessed what this was, and clicked through, just to make sure.

It is a personalized vampire romance novel.  I’mma repeat that, just in case you didn’t see it the first time: a personalized vampire ROMANCE NOVEL.  With names, hair/eye color, etc.

Yeah.  That just happened.

—CR

This was going to go into my “don’t put too much effort in” post, but the last comment made me pull it out. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY, PENELOPE? HOW CAN WE EARTHLINGS COMMUNICATE WITH YOU?

—CR

P.S. Do do do do doooooooo.

[video]

The card kind of took me by surprise, I’ll admit it.  And I thought it was a little funny (only a little).

Then I saw Rebecca.  Oh Rebecca.  You and I need to have a conversation about “too soon,” don’t we?

—CR

OH GOD WHY? NO! DON’T PUT CHOCOLATE CANDY BARS ON WHITE SHEETS? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?

—SS

Feb 13

I don’t even…how…

Nope.  I can’t.

—CR

There are some very fine professional photographers out there who keep pin boards of their favorite shots for self promotion on pinterest. I’m totally fine with that. This guy is far from professional. It appears I’ve stumbled across his personal photo album of really bad photography. (Come on, my mom takes better photos than this - and my mom takes AWFUL photos.)

This album kept going on and on with just the most random photos. I don’t know who this guy is, but I’m sure I don’t want to know. Also sir, here are a few links to three very fine personal image hosting sites. You can even make your albums private, so people like me don’t have to know what you are actually pointing your camera lens at. (Looking at you, fishnet bikini girl.)

http://www.flickr.com/

http://photobucket.com/

http://www.shutterfly.com/

Things your baby can do at 3 weeks old:

* sleep a lot

* make cute baby noises

* possibly lift its head 

Things your baby cannot do at 3 weeks old:

* pray

Feb 12

Pin Etiquette

Ok. I’ve been on Pinterest for a while now, and I love it. I really do. I’m a huge fan of lists and collages – and Pinterest is a perfect combination of the two. I can create a board about a subject that intrigues me or that I want inspiration on. For me these range for boards dedicated to vintage photos of performing animals to boards where I can pin photos for hairstyle inspiration. I also have a board to pin ideas for crafts I’d like to one day tackle. Before Pinterest I used to keep an excel spreadsheet with links to various blog posts I wanted to remember for later. Really. I’m that kind of person. But I was able to ditch that once I transferred all the links (with photos) to the various boards on Pinterest they applied to.

And I’m ok using Pinterest for social networking. It was fine when I only had like two friends I knew on the site, so I was able to look at all their items and comment or repin as I liked – but once I tried hooking it up to my Facebook…a lot of random people (my husband’s distant relatives, people I went to elementary school with, former employees and employers…) wanted to follow my boards. Um, these are my boards. Mine. I don’t want a bunch of people I kind of but barely know following a board I made to post ideas for a bedroom facelift. That’s a little too close to home…. Maybe it’s just my opinion, but shouldn’t you just follow boards of people who are going to pin things that are relevant to your interests? And maybe a handful of good friends that you might want to comment on or “like’ as the case may be.

So I don’t follow a lot of people back. Sorry. It’s not you, it’s just that I don’t need to have my Pinterest feed clogged with pins about your interests that I’m not interested in. (Big sorry to all the school teachers in my life – but I don’t care about classroom activities.) And it seems that with the sudden influx in users I’ve seen over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed an increasing decline in the quality of pins and pin etiquette. According to Pinterest these are the top three rules for pin etiquette….And three of my biggest pet peeves when they are broken.

 Be Nice

Pinterest is a community of people. We know that tastes are personal, but be respectful in your comments and conversations.

 Credit Your Sources

Pins are the most useful when they have links back to the original source. If you notice that a pin is not sourced correctly, leave a comment so the original pinner can update the source. Finding the original source is always preferable to a secondary source such as Google Image Search or a blog entry.