Only Commas
Posted at 4:45 pm on Friday, April 10, 2009, in Uncategorized, and tagged blog.
I have been thinking, although that is not saying much, if it says anything at all. A lot of what I think about is obviously fleeting, thoughts on the weather and traffic, thoughts on what sounds good to eat, thoughts on what my dog may be thinking right now while I’m at work. These thoughts go nowhere, for the most part, but other times, these thoughts coalesce and eventually make the backbone of a blog entry, a blog entry that may never be widely read, if read at all, but a blog entry nevertheless, forever cemented into the world’s vast storage of everything that is nothing. That is, until I alter my robots.txt files. Do these blog entries make a difference? I’d be fooling myself, disillusion on the order deserving of capital punishment, if I said or believed that they did, even a tiny, tiny little bit. They don’t, but I still write. I will admit that it does feel good to get something off my chest, if only for the purpose of doing just that, and even if doing just that only provides more capacity to get something off my chest. It is a vicious cycle, if you want to look at it that way. I don’t. I see it is as a cycle of endless opportunities. That may be my sophomoric rationalization of what has become a widespread hemorrhaging of self-publishing, but again, I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. In the end, it can only manifest net-positives. Personally, it has helped me sharpen my arguments in real-life discussions, not only on politics, but on lots of other things, because I find myself subconsciously thinking in blog-form, laying out an argument with an opening statement, defending it with examples, pulling back and offering an alternative, and then closing strong, or trying to, reasserting the thesis. It also pays the hosting bills, and that I cannot say, doesn’t make me feel better about doing my side-projects. Because that is what this is, a side-project. I’m not trying to make a living doing this. If I were, I’d be in a lot of trouble, and I probably wouldn’t be married. I may still have a dog, but she’d be mangy by now. I’d be camping out in DC, waiting for some politician to walk-by so I can record his passing thought and then head to the public library and post it. I’d be a superstar, sure, but would I be happy? Probably not. Let’s be realistic. I like what I do, and I like where I am. But I also like this blog, just as it is, an assortment of opinion on politics and sports, on technology and media and personal frustrations. It is what it is, and it is me. Take it or leave it, but please take it. I like you, and I hope you like me too.
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April 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Well, I’d have to say you’re no Walter Lippmann or Peter Lisagor. But neither are you an Andy Rooney. In short, Jeff, we like you. We really like you. (With apologies to Sally Field.)