Thanksgiving month, days 8-9

(Crossposted from Google+)

Thanksgiving month, day 8:

I am thankful for Internet friends.

Beginning in the mid-to-late 1990s, I have had a succession of happy relationships with various blogs, discussion groups, and other online fora. It began with Gardentown and the "Beenies" (short for "Gazebeenies", which refers to people who like to hang out in the Gazebo, as the G-town chat room was called). I hung out with the Beenies online and in person until the site imploded due to a personality conflict gone mad--learned a lot about gardening, had a good deal of fun, ended up with a nice cookbook.

I next got involved with DRNA, Dachshund Rescue of North America, while searching for information on the longhaired dachshund I'd impulsively adopted from the pound. I worked with them for several years, fostering and transporting rescued dogs. Two of my nine fosters (sequential, not all at once!) are now permanent residents of my house (and part of the reason we're too full to foster any more). I'm not active with DRNA any more, though I'll occasionally drive a transport leg or do a home visit. But Tom, Karen, Jane and the others remain among my favorite online acquaintances. They do good work. Check them out at drna.org.

Third and by far the least respectable was the Sith Academy, a spoof fanfic community I first joined as a reader, then as a writer. It was there I made the acquaintance of Siubhan, the site's founder, who is now a successful short-story author, Hugo nominee, and soon-to-be published novelist. I won't list her real name here because I'm not sure how much she'd want her serious career associated with her silly slash days. But I remain thankful to have met her, co-written with her, and by God had my stuff beta-read by a bona fide HUGO NOMINEE. OMG.

For many years I was a regular on the Slacktivist; this one remains strictly an online thing, as I've never met any of the Slacktivites face-to-face. I hung on for a while after the site relocated to Patheos, then fell away. But I still honor and admire many, many of the folks there, an amazingly diverse and articulate crew, and particularly site founder Fred Clark.

There's a lot of overlap between Slacktivist and Making Light, the blog I hang out on the most. Again, I've only met one of the regulars face-to-face (and in fact, had met her in person before running into her again on ML--*waves at patgreen*), but I consider many of the regulars to be dear friends. Again, the blog is a source of a great deal of enlightenment, especially to one whose life experience has been very narrow. The Fluorosphere is also home to some of the wittiest and most fundamentally decent people on earth, and I'm grateful to be allowed to hang out with them.

Thank you, ISPs, programmers, computer manufacturers, power companies and social networks. And thank you, all my online friends. You've enriched my life immensely.

Thanksgiving month, day 9:

I am thankful that somehow I managed not to start smoking. (Also that I quit drinking when I did, and that I never got started on anything more intoxicating.) I definitely have the addictive personality; I sure don't need a chemical dependency making me any less healthy or less functional. Also, I am a weenie and would never be able to do the hard work of quitting.

Thank you, Daddy, for not smoking, and thank you, Mama and all my siblings, for quitting.