rug hooking...

So what exactly is rug hooking? Is it the activity of putting hooks on rugs to prevent it from sliding? Or is it a cheap decoration that anyone could find to accentuate the appearance of their rugs? These were the first thoughts that came to mind when a co-worker suggested that blogging was as time consuming of a hobby as rug hooking.

This activity was foreign to me. In fact, today was the first time I have heard of such a thing. Could it be because of my ignorance towards everything simple? Or was it simply because of its unpopularity that it has somewhat existed without anyone's knowledge. Perhaps it was the ever expanding generation gap that is to blame for the disjointing of activities between different generations. Regardless of the reason, one fact remain, I was left clueless of everything rug hooking.

To feed my curiosity, I initiated a quick survey around the office to determine how many people have heard of this peculiar activity. To my surprise, a good portion of respondents knows about it or at least have heard something about it. This further my intrigue and curiosity and research was deemed necessary to expand my knowledge despite my complete lack of interest of the subject.

As it turns out, there is a huge following of the activity. A typical google search turned up thousands of links, although most of which were 404 links. Regardless, there were still numerous sites dedicated to the advancement of rug hooking. The authors talked about various techniques they use to do special braiding and designs. Techniques too complex for my simple mind to comprehend. And of course, much like anything material these days, many websites were dedicated to marketing these 'art'. Some of which were sold for ridiculous amounts of money.

In the end, after wasting all that time researching a topic I have no interest in, I learned that you can pretty much come up with anything, call it a hobby, then sell it for a lot of money. Perhaps I should research underwater basket weaving as well. Not only will I expand my horizons, but also gain an insight in what might be the next breakthrough product.