A crafty approach to the Internet

What I have been trying unsuccessfully to do for these past few days is figure out how someone at the Spokane newspaper found me, on the Web, and invited me to submit a column to this tech section.

I figure it had to have been a typo. Some reporter was Googling “blog expert” and he accidentally keyed in “blog dipstick.” Of course my name popped up right there at the top.

I do use my computer. A lot. But I have to be a hair’s breadth close to the antithesis of computer geek. Just to give you an idea: To me, a gigabyte is something that requires lots of calamine lotion or, in a fix, a daub of spit and dirt applied as a poultice to draw out the stinger. And to nail the impression, I’m the guy who has phone numbers taped to the back of his cell phone.

Nonetheless, I do use the Web for my little craft business. I make handcrafted crochet hooks and sell them by way of auction in my blog. And no, I didn’t make my blog myself. Some very kindly crochet/computer-savvy ladies did up my blog as a gift a couple of years ago.

And since that time, to my absolute amazement, “Jimbo’s” crochet hooks have sold all over the world. Not getting rich, mind you, but it’s incredibly rewarding in lots of other ways.

So what sites do I use? Well for starters, my real career before retirement was as a patent agent ( www.wellsstjohn.com); and I still do patent search work. In that vein, the database at uspto.gov is an absolute wealth of information; not just for patent search work, but for state-of-the-art information about almost any technical topic.

My start in the crochet hook business (if you’re curious, you can find out how that came to be on my blog, www.jimbosfrontporch.blogspot.com) came after my son Lance hooked me up with Craigslist.

I discovered folk there in the “craft” forum who were interested in handmade crochet hooks and who encouraged me to visit and join http://crochetville.org/forum/. And from there, I made connections with the kind ladies who made my blog. The rest is Jimbo’s Front Porch history.

A fairly new fiber-art related site that I visit is Ravelry ( www.ravelry.com). I highly recommend both sites to anyone who enjoys fiber arts and friendly people.

Woodworking is another interest, and for that I go to www.sawmillcreek.org where thousands of woodworkers discuss problems and solutions dealing with any woodworking topic imaginable.

I’m fairly certain the newspaper didn’t want me to list the obvious sites like Google or eBay, but the more esoteric sites that I visit in my unique little avocation. I hope I’ve done that, but I must sign off now because I’m in the middle of a huge business deal with a trapped government minister of finance in South Bartuba who needs me to help distribute his wealth.