Blue Beanie Day
November 19, 2007
When you’re invited to a costume party, make sure you show up on the right day. Strut your stuff any earlier and your grand entrance may acquire less admiration and more awkward glances than desired. This advice would apply especially when the party is being thrown more or less in honor of a special guest, present.
Monday, November 26, 2007, is Blue Beanie Day. Facebook invitations were sent inviting celebrants (“standardistas”) to show support for Web Standards and Accessibility. Instructions as follows:
Don a Blue Beanie and snap a photo. Then on November 26, switch your profile picture in Facebook and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group at Flickr.
Pretty straightforward. The blue beanie comes from a man named Jeffrey Zeldman who wrote the first widely read book about the subject. The cover of his book, Designing with Web Standards, shows a pixelized photo of him wearing a blue beanie. Clever and skilled as I am, I magically rendered my own head into the beanie on the book cover, seen here (on right — wow!):
A bit too eager to be among the first to don the blue beanie in such a way, I posted my new photo to Flickr and changed my Facebook and Twitter profile photos to suit. Somehow, in all the excitement, I overlooked a very important piece of information. Not only was I posting all of this a day early — Sunday, instead of Monday — but I was actually posting a whole week early. Monday, yes. November 26, not November 19.
No big deal, though, right? I could just switch it all back, act like it didn’t happen, and post it again next week. Well, not exactly. To my aid and much embarrassment, recall our special guest, indeed present:
A note about Interweb conversations
Blogging formally and participating in larger conversations such as these is a relatively new venture on my part. I’ve long been a spectator. A lot can be learned from the sidelines, but actually playing the game is a whole new experience.
What I learned tonight in this abashing self-imposed incident is that on the Interweb — this great place where vast, unending conversations take place — everything and nothing can be retracted. I can retrace my steps and remove every instance of blunder, but I can’t mar the steps or memory of others. And if I’ve learned anything from watching over the years, the best approach is to take the hit and keep on going. Classic “learn from your mistakes” advice.
All in all, this incident probably wasn’t really much of one, and it’s doubtful many saw it or will care. But I feel better having written about it. And If there are excuses allowed to be had, let me offer this one. Earlier this week I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted, and am currently stabilized by pain medication.