There was a time when I used to save bookmarks in Chrome into informatively labelled folders.
That time ended years ago.
Since then, I’ve been throwing everything I want to save into a melting pot called “Other bookmarks”. It’s true, these are the bookmarks that are not in the organised folders, which makes them “other”. (Except for the ones that are duplicates, which are not “other”.) Still, as labels go it’s not especially helpful.
A few months ago I decided to make a new folder system and started transferring old bookmarks into my new system. I got through about twenty before I got bored. Which leaves approximately a billion.
I’m not going to sort through them methodically today. That would be boring. Instead I’m going to do the fun thing: hold my breath, jump in, and see what’s tangled in my hair when I surface.
Bookmark 1: Recreating ancient Roman hairdos
Experimental archaeology is a real thing. And if you’re doing research for a fantasy novel based on or inspired by some real civilisation it sounds pretty awesome.
We can only learn so much about how historical civilisations lived by reading their love letters and digging up their mummified cats. A logical next step is trying to live the way they did.
Hence “experimental archaeology”. (I wrote about a book by a woman who does this. She’s my hero.)
In this case, it’s a matter of “the hairdo on that ancient Roman statue would look awesome in the office with my suit. Let’s see if I can figure out how to recreate it.”
Spoiler: sometimes you can. The boss still won’t be impressed.
Bookmark 2: Washington Draft Horse and Mule Association
I know I had a good reason to save this page, but I have no idea what it was.
Maybe I was trying to research medieval travel. It does have some cool photos of wagons.
Bookmark 3: What people around the world dream about
People worldwide dream about flying.
A stripper is happy to take off her clothes in front of people, but her dreams are private.
54% of the Icelandic population believes in fairies.
Bookmark 4: 36 things I know after 36 years of marriage
“Every one of us is, in our own way, difficult to live with.”
Whoever wrote this is a genius.
I read it and had to wonder how I’m difficult to live with. I’m sure my husband could tell you, but he’d probably be insulting about the whole thing.
- I find it physically impossible to be quiet when I get up early in the morning. Is it my fault that all the doors and the floors squeak, and that skirt in the dryer has a metal zip on it?
- When I’m engrossed in a book I’m blind and deaf. You can sit next to me and shout and I genuinely won’t hear you.
- My skills at housework are a hairsbreadth above “troll”.
- I’m certain I’m not going to drop it, because really, how careless can you be? Then I drop it.
- I have perfected the art of sleeping through the noise of the cat vomiting, because the first person to acknowledge it has to clean it up.
Bookmark 5: Turtles could hold the secret to human immortality
Did you know tortoises and lobsters don’t grow old? They do occasionally get dropped live into boiling water, though, and I’m not sure this risk is worth the upside.
But the scary thing would be if humans could learn “negligible senescence” (not aging) from them.
How terrible a world would we create? Even overlooking the obvious overpopulation problem.
You know how there are those jobs that are so cool that everyone wants them, but there’s only one of them in the country and you can’t get it until the last guy dies? Well, bad luck! Because this guy is going to be there for the next thousand years.
Or you have an old enemy. He stuck gum in your hair in primary school, broke your science experiment in high school, and stole your promotion by bad-mouthing you in the corporate world. No easy escape for you when he ages and dies. He’s going to be spreading rumours about your fictitious office romance until the next ice age.
Bookmark 6: The simple answers
… to the questions that get asked about every new technology.
No, you can’t eat it, and it won’t solve that knotty plot problem for you. But there’s no going back.
In conclusion, I spend way too much time on random websites. How about you?
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Fun read! That braid on the horse. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of humour, but the picture of the horse really cracked me up!
P.S. I’ve never dreamed of flying. I’ve jumped of a skyscraper and hit the ground at the same time I hit the bedroom floor. I also parachuted and forgot to pull the cord, and somehow survived (just stood up and dusted myself off). But never a dream of flying.
Thanks! I liked the horse too. 🙂
You’re really missing out if you don’t have flying dreams. I’m so sad for you I’d make you a cake, but I can’t cook so if I did you’d probably be safer not eating it.
tom: you apparently? never owned a horse (or, in our case(s) “rented” them from the yooniverse, or wearever horses come from). I suggest the possible non-ownership because we live in the semi-country, which means people can wander by and into and around our property — which is different from axually living “in the country” ’cause there are more people in general wandering by on any day and some of them come onto our property just ’cause we’re sort of “neighborly” (sum day i’ll try to define what THAT means). and so… one poor lonely teenaged girl who needed attention, I guess, asked our permission to occasionally come by and braid our horse’s hair. and so, maybe twice a month, one (or the other, sometimes both) the horses would have braids. so that’s the sort of thing we know can happen — but, of course, there’s lots of things which could happen which would surprise us.
It would surprise me a great deal if my horse suddenly had a braid, mostly because I don’t have a horse…
A brave adventure indeed. Sometimes I look at my bookmarks and think, “How drunk was I when I marked that one?”
Haha, that’s a very good question!
why isn’t there a “like” button for Urban’s comment? (in my case, if not drunk, you know, the other influences when I …)
Yea, sorry about that. I’m not technical enough to figure out how to get “like” buttons for other comments. I’m afraid you’ll just have to settle for sending Urban happy vibes through the ether.
Clever post. A great way to dive in too. I try to keep my bookmarks organized, but they do tend to add up fast!
I admire your fortitude.
One of the things that entertains me about going into old bookmarks is it’s like digging through history: what was I thinking about, what problems were I trying to solve a year ago or five years ago. (Usually the answer is “how do I write a good book?”)
#2 is so me – “When I’m engrossed in a book I’m blind and deaf. You can sit next to me and shout and I genuinely won’t hear you.”
My kid did find a way though. He throws himself at me…Let’s say it hurts for me, but he finds it amusing. Thank god he is only a toddler. lol
But I only have bookmarks now if It’s something I need to regularly open, which does not happen very often. Otherwise I save them in Scrivener. Great tool! 🙂
I’m so glad my husband doesn’t throw himself at me. I’m betting he’s bigger than your kid. He does tickle my feet, though, which I still haven’t learned to ignore.
I save stuff in Scrivener too. For example, I have a list of useful links for when I’m editing. At least, I thought they’d be useful when I saved them. It’s probably actually more wagons and stuff.
I dont know why but I don’t bookmark many things. I sort of let the google autofill remember for me. Trouble is if I forget the first letter of that website…. In my flying dreams it always works sort of like swimming and usually fails me just as the monster catches up
Yes! Flying in my dreams usually involves a lot of kicking, and when there are monsters around I tend to get stuck just at the height they can reach my ankles.
My bookmarks are really boring, but Ruth Goodman is indeed awesome, I love her TV programmes.
I heard she had TV programmes. I’m going to have to go track them down now.
I spend way too much time on random websites, but for some reason I never bookmark them. I desperately google them later, like what was the name of that site again that had the cool post about x and y… I should start bookmarking websites. Might save some time and trouble.
I’m not sure my bookmarking actually helps me find anything later, given how disorganised my bookmarks are. But I’m still doing it, so part of me must think it has some value. 🙂
I bookmark nothing. However, like you, I’m lost to the world when I’m in the middle of a good book. Or reading an interesting blog. Or watching a YouTube video on organization. (Watching other people organize is my crack.) Glynn is still getting used to my lack of response when I’m engaged with other things.
And I haven’t had a flying dream in ages. Oh, how I love them….
Another fun blog. Thanks!
Haha, I can just see you eating popcorn and watching a YouTube video of someone organising her t-shorts by colour. I bet you iron your socks, don’t you? 😉