Can you list the internet as a hobby?

Congratulations Alexandra!! I look forward to hearing more about the wedding and what married life is like!

Casey: Is everyone okay on your end? I hope to hear from you soon!

Well, this may come as a surprise to you all, but I spend way too much time on the internet. I know- surprising, right? Someone who's part of a collab blog with four other girls she met online spends too much time on the internet.

Currently most of my online time is spend divided between facebook, gmail (I enjoy organizing my contacts and labels, okay?), google reader, twitter, and youtube.

     - While I'm not in love with facebook like I was the first two or so years of college (remember bumper stickers?), I still spend a fair amount of time there. It's a necessary evil really; I do enjoy keeping up with friends on it and getting ready to move to France I've been spending a lot of time there talking with other people in the program. I've met some other girls who are going to be in Lille and we're going to stay together in the interim time between arrival and finding an apartment (and possibly even find an apartment together). It's things like that which renew my love of the internet (not that it ever really diminishes). Just a week ago I was totally lost with making plans for moving to France and now that I've found two other people to make those plans with, it all feels much more manageable. Anyway, I digress.

     - I spend time on gmail too- beyond the usual reading and responding to emails. Like I mentioned, I get an odd satisfaction from organizing on my emails into neat little labels and sub-labels and making sure I have every possible contact that I could possibly need in my address book, along with phone numbers and addresses when applicable. Just in case I need them, you know? I like to keep my google calendar nice and organized like that too.

     - I LOVE google reader! I look back on the days I didn't use it and wonder how I managed to keep up to date with so much content. I use google reader to keep up with most of the sites I read (blogs, web comics, photostreams... really most sites that update can be subscribed too through the reader). Hark A Vagrant is one of my favorite comics (and I love xkcd too!), I highly recommend it. I also keep up with The Oatmeal which is always good entertainment. Blog-wise, I'll share with you guys some of my favorite blogs at the moment. It's BEDA right now (blog every day in August/April), so many of the youtubers I watch are also blogging regularly): Kristina, Kayley, Rosianna, and Hayley (though Hayley's been MIA for the past 8 days or so... I hope everything's ok with her!) They also blog when it's not August or April and their blog updates are one of my favorite things to see on my rss feed. Another one I read is Temerity Jane whose blog I've come to love. I was suspicious at first because I'm not really in her target audience (she just had a baby and the majority of her posts are about being new parents, yada  yada), but I really enjoy the way she writes and she's just hilarious in general. Even if I can't relate to most of the things she's writing about, I do enjoy reading about them!

     - Twitter, for me, isn't really used to keep up to date with friends, but rather celebrities and "internet people." For instance, I follow Maureen Johnson whose tweets are fantastic. The twitter conversations that occur between Hank, John, and her are wonderful. I follow a lot of youtubers on twitter, moreso than celebrities I think. I also use twitter to post little things occasionally, a bit like a mass text message to friends. If I want to share something, but there's no one in particular I want to tell, then I'll tell twitter.

     - Youtube! I really, really love youtube and spend lots of time there, perhaps a surprising amount for someone who doesn't actually make videos herself. I've been watching youtube regularly and subscribing to my favorite for four five years now (wow, has it really been five??) (I've been doing lots of these parenthetical questions today, haven't I?) I've wanted to start making my own videos many times, but never have for many reasons, just a few being my fear of being terrible at it and the cruel internet criticism that would follow and also just the sheer work involved. I'm not very good at keeping hobbies going, so if I did start making videos I'm not very confident that it would last all that long. I like the idea though, I'm a fan of the idea. Maybe when I'm in France to chart my progress over there? .... We'll see. Anyway, youtubers! I started out with Caitlin Hill, boh3m3, Natalie Tran, Mr. Safety, LisaNova: youtube before nerdfighteria, really. Then I found Alex and Charlie and was satisfied with my subscriptions for many years. It wasn't until this past fall that I really delved into nerdfighteria. I found Hayley, Kristina, Kayley, Rosianna, Tom, and of course Hank and John. And I'm now a nerdfighter! As for recommendations, Rosi (missxrojas) is one of my favorite youtubers and general internet people. Her videos are beautiful, as is her writing in general. She is very thoughtful and natural in her videos by which I mean that she shares her real and personal thoughts. She just sits and talks to the camera and has a conversation with you (well, you know what I mean). Her videos are simple and my favorite. I also love Tom (frezned) who is just hilarious. For some of his videos he just turns on the camera and starts talking, and what he comes up with is brilliant.

Well, there you go! I've talked (perhaps too much) at length about my favorite internet places and people, maybe someone will like one of the things I like too. Oh, speaking of which I just found this site today (Rosi actually posted it on tumblr) and it's hypnotizing and relaxing. You create circles with your mouse which, when they bump into each other, make little chiming sounds. Odd to describe, but check it out! It's very quickly addictive though, as a warning. And with that, I'm off to bed!