How should one write without annoying others?.....

So, I say "I'm back" as if I was somewhere great!  Part of me thinks I should leave it as that, and add mystery to me, that layer of intrigue and glamour!  But, at the core I am actually a realist and frankly sometimes too honest.  That's me - honest, frank, loyal, a tad judgmental -- a Capricorn.

For a bit if interest, did you know that 'they' say the horoscopes are all wrong and that millions of people are 'not the sign they think they are' -gasp!  Not me, I don't care what they think, I'm a Capricorn.  (Now if you know anything about the descriptions of Capricorns, you find that statement funny!).

Anyway, though I did go to Amarillo, Texas and Shawnee, Oklahoma for two alpaca shows, I really didn't go anywhere.  They were great fun and we are glad we attended them.  But shows take a lot of time (& money) so we are taking a brief hiatus on them.  I also had some time off (forced vacation) at the end of the year; that should have been great fun.  But, the family brought home their own colds and shared liberally.  So I managed to get some required graphics done for the 2011 GWAS showbook, but no fiber sorting. Sigh.  That mountain of fiber has to get done! I just missed a discount special at Zeilinger Wool Co. but I think they have anther in Feb.  But that's okay, I just found another processor that looks promising.  That's when I reminded myself that there is often a 'silver lining' to every negative you experience if you remain open and flexible.  Do you not appreciate your warm alpaca socks that much more because you just got in from the freezing cold in the barn?

Well, I digress, again.  So, why was I suddenly inspired to write on the blog?


It wasn't just because I'm starting to feel better, after what has seemed to be back-to-back colds/flus since mid-December.  It's not just because I got a smidgen of fiber sorting/cleaning done.  It's not just because I realized after 15 years with my husband that the bland look on his face when I am reved up about something is not a "I don't care" look but a "I have no clue why she is going on, but I love her so I will sit here until she done" look.

I signed up for several more blogs yesterday -- glutton that I am for an overloaded inbox.  I had hit on other epiphanies lately as well.  That's another story for another time, because frankly the topics are too deep and my frame around them still unfinished.  But an offshoot of these other thoughts was that I want to strengthen my ties and knowledge related to fiber of all kinds, spinning/crocheting/knitting, and farm endeavors.  Yes, Virginia, there is more out there than alpaca fiber.  I'll pause a moment for the alpaca 'purists' to clear their light heads.

So, one was a blog about farming, but the welcome/rules email letter I received seemed more from a literacy instructor teaching how to blog post properly without annoying everyone else.  I thought the information was very funny, and more importantly, pertinent.  Isn't it amazing that we type so much of our communication nowadays but yet our grammar, spelling, and all-around 'readabilty' has gone down?  So, I'm not sure if I am violating some kind of blog precept, but I have copied it below. Consider yourself educated.  I for one will be bearing some things in mind!

Mary

From:	Self_Sufficient_Farming_and_Living Moderator <Self_Sufficient_Farming_and_Living-owner@yahoogroups.com

Sending e-mail that's looks good is a reflection of your
professionalism. And an e-mail that is properly written not only
makes you look good, but is easier for your recipients to read which
will win you lots of points with that individual. Finally, if you
send an e-mail that looks good, you also look like you know your way
around the computer and the Internet. Here are some tips to
writing a winning e-mail:

1.. MANY READERS DON'T LIKE ALL CAPS. IT'S HARD TO READ AND SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING!

2.. use punctuation its hard to read stuff that doesnt have any commas capital letters periods or apostrophes

3.. Usee yur spall chacker. Its annyang to try to reede constent spalling misstakes.

4.. When forwarding an e-mail to someone, copy and paste what you want to send into a new e-mail then send it off. This is especially true if you had to dig through tons of "layers" to actually get to the message of the e-mail. Or delete all the addresses so it will be safer for everyone.

5.. Be courteous enough to use BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) when forwarding an email to everyone in your address book. You don't want the addresses of your friends to get sent around the net.

6.. Avoid embedding sounds or using "stationary" in your messages, but they take longer to download and can be annoying to your recipient. Additionally, when your recipient responds to your e-mail, they may have to re-format their text (especially color) in order for it to be readable.

7.. Remember that attachments over 50k are annoyingly long to download,possibly causing your recipient's connection to "time-out", or the email could even be blocked. Try to keep those files manageable! (Of course on Freecycle, we should have attachements turned off.)

8.. Re-read your e-mail message before you send it out to be sure it says what you really want it to say.

9.. When replying to a message, don't quote back the entire message if you are just responding to one or two points. Just include what you are responding to.

10.. Finally, don't use short hand. Stuff like "r u going to stp by ltr" can be hard to read. Don't B lzy, typ the whole wrd.

11. DO NOT Change the subject when replying to the messages. If you want to address a particular issue in a message then start a new message by cutting and pasting into a new post. The reason is so we can if we have to remove a topic we can do so without remove on topic messages.