I’ve had website addictions come and go, but I think my current addiction to Tumblr might last a while.

Back in 2007, I liked Twitter a lot. I had it open most of the time, watching people I know having fun. It felt like eavesdropping on the people chatting by the coffee pot at work. I didn’t talk much, but I liked listening. Then it turned into a chaotic mess. People I liked stopped talking, and the relationship of follower-to-following went from friends chatting to a one-to-many communication means that way too many people were using as a sales tool. I still find occasional interesting stuff on Twitter, but I only go there when I’m desperately bored.

For a while, I checked Facebook every day. But it’s been ruined by the ads and the weird filtering for me. I go there at most once a week now, because all I see are the sponsored posts. It’s like choosing to turn on the television to watch commercials. Why would I bother? I check it mostly to make sure no one’s saying anything directly to me to which I am rudely not responding. I don’t even have it bookmarked anymore.

I never managed to get into Pinterest. It’s pretty, but it seems like so much work. And I’m sort of queasy about the idea of posting images that don’t belong to me. I just don’t see how Pinterest isn’t a violation of creator’s rights. Even if I pin something that I credit to the place where I found it, how do I know whether that person has properly credited the creator? I joined and browsed and I understand the appeal, but it never worked for me.

I’ve played with reddit, “front page of the internet.” It was fun for a while. I’d say three months. But I never found a place that felt like home there. With dozens of sub-reddits, it seems plausible that such a place exists, but if it does, it’s in some obscure corner that I never stumbled upon. I still visit sometimes–there’s a lot of interesting stuff there–but it doesn’t call me.

Tumblr, on the other hand, now beckons on an hourly basis. I didn’t get the point of tumblr. Like, not at all. It completely confused me. I joined it for #UFYH. I have no idea how I found #UFYH — I’m sure I stumbled upon it in a blog somewhere. But I joined tumblr so I could tell the #UFYH lady thank you. That was months and months ago. And I never really figured out what to do with it. Follow people? But how do I know who to follow or why? Lately, though, I’ve hit some critical mass of people that I’m following — plus discovered the like and reblog buttons! — and I’ve realized that tumblr is the bee’s knees. People are having conversations there. Interesting conversations that are taking place in a way that’s easy to follow. Profound conversations about life and media and symbolism and sex, and also amusing conversations about Supernatural and Sherlock and baby bunnies and cute boys. There are pictures — art and comics and gifs and incredible, drop-dead gorgeous scenery — and jokes and serious moments and political statements. It’s everything — the trivial, the serious, the thoughtful, the superficial. I’m pretty much in love.

Of course, they just got acquired by yahoo and so perhaps I’m at exactly the wrong moment in tumblr’s history — hitting its peak, just in time for the stupid sponsored ads to take over the show and end the party. But even if that happens, I’m really glad to be at the party right now. (Except, you know, for the fact that it’s a total time sink. But then the internet is like that!)

In other news, rain, rain, and more rain, surrounded by thunderstorms that last for hours. Zelda dislikes thunder. Yesterday, she tried to climb into my non-existent lap while I was standing at the sink, washing dishes. I tried to get a picture, but there wasn’t enough light. Here she is, however, preventing me from writing by sitting on my chest. Why she thinks on top of me is the safest place to be when the thunder rumbles, I couldn’t say.