Swings and Roundabouts

As I have mentioned before, I'm on a learning curve here.  Its a structured curve because I'm literally doing things by the book, but, it is, nevertheless a learning curve.

I have got into the habit of sitting down at my computer every morning and once I have thrashed through any emails I move onto Google Chrome and go to Feedly to read my RSS feeds like a good girl.  One of my feeds is "Etsy" - I thought it would be a good idea to follow the goings on at Etsy generally and this way I've found out what potential investors might make of our not so little community, for example.

flounce detail on Sexy Hostess Half Apron, Bonnie

This morning's reading completely wrong footed me because I read something about Etsy that I didn't like.  I've spent the last couple of hours humming and haaing about what to do about this.  Actually, I sent a quick email to Etsy asking them if what I had discovered was allowed on Etsy.  Anyway I have been mulling things over along the lines of "good men are often silent "and all that and have decided not to react.

I don't want to talk about the precise nature of my shudder here either because given the nature of the web and RSS feeds I'll probably turn up somewhere and, that's just it, this blog isn't about that - its politics and, of course, not my politics and its a group of people using Etsy to promote their politics.  When I checked things by following a few links I realised that Etsy was just the neutral ground that these people had chosen and that doing a search for their group brought up quite entertaining items and not them.

So I have chilled, poor old Etsy can't help being abused and the United States is a free country, I like to think that I live in another free country and was born in yet another and everyone is entitled to their opinions.

But.

I was always brought up that you never talk about politics and religion at the dinner table.  In life, I have discovered that there are some people that I find lovely and perfectly charming until they tell me their politics and then I find them quite repugnant.  So, as far as Etsy goes, I'd really rather not know the politics of the person I'm buying something off.  On that basis I'm not going to talk about my politics.  Sexy aprons have nothing to do with politics.

Of course I'm itching to go back to the site where the group members are listed and print it off to make sure that I don't acidentally shop in their stores (haha like I'm such a huge Etsy shopper anyway).  But I won't, I'll just stay in blissful ignorance.

I think I've lost a little bit of my internet innocence here.  Up until this morning I was happily bimbling around liking people and things on Facebook and happily pinning left, right and center on Pinterest without a care in the world, just thinking that only nice fluffy people had shops on Etsy and set up boards on Pinterest but of course, probability says that's not the case, more so since for the purposes of Etsy I'm the foreigner, and the vast majority of Etsy sellers seem to be in the United States.

I reallise that if I go any further with my analysis of Etsy vendors I'm going to show my politics and possibly what this is all about (haha sound like showing my knickers, somehow) so I shall say no more merely resolve to not do or say anything political on http://www.etsy.com/shop/GlamourAprons, or on any derived outlets like google+ or Pinterest.

Which reminds me, it would be great if I could work out how to link to my various presences from this page like everyone else does - do I have to make my own buttons? Surely I should be able to copy and paste what's required from somewhere.  Still, not having any readers has its advantages, I suppose.  I've managed to get this not only off my chest, but also sorted out a policy in my head.

For the record, anyone who knows me thinks I'm rather outspoken, "Brittany's Kirstie Allsop" was my favourite (and no, I don't know Kirstie Allsop's politics - which really proves my point).  Politics has no place in my little crafting world, if others wish to hand over real estate for theirs that's their business if they shove it down my throat I just won't go to their shop.

So there you have my first internet encounter - while I'm reeling from this my sister sends me a link to a meditation site so I subscribed to their podcast and then I come here.  I'm only following one blog at the moment its called http://www.listotic.com - I do love a good list - and her blog about weighloss interested me I read it to the end and ended up buying a self help book!  Ahh swings, and roundabouts Tracy, swings and roundabouts.