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| Okay, so a person who shall remain nameless (respectful as I am of people's right to privacy) but whom I will refer to as F_ _ _ _ _ S, just said, in a consecutive series of emails to me: 1) "Nice Xanga post... why don't you post more often" 2) "Maybe if you wrote more interesting stuff [people will actually read your posts]" 3) "To be honest I skimmed" One minute, I am on an emotional high. People read me! People like me! People care! Literally 3 emails later, this same person has put me in a despondent funk as I search desparately for meaning in my life. In any event, this same person (who's anonymity I will continue to preserve by calling "_ R _ _ _ I _") ultimately decided to comment on my post, which is critical, because as an aspiring blogger I need to have my ego stroked on a minute-by-minute basis. For your commenting convenience, I've set out some handy "pick-a-letter" comments that you can simply refer to by letter, rather than typing out the entire thought: (A) Keith, you are a brilliant man whose words inspire me to do greater good. (B) Keith, your blogs are sublime, and I don't even know what "sublime" means. (C) Keith, you have the coordination of a blind, drunk man with no limbs, but that's okay because you are a genius with an IQ easily over 50. (D) Keith, you're a geek, but I read your blog, so I am hereby commenting so that you will be one reader closer to your goal of 1,000,000 readers. (E) Keith, you are neither brilliant, nor are your blogs interesting. You are uncoordinated and kinda dumb. You are definitely a geek. In fact, I don't even know you. I'm just commenting to tell you that I don't know you and I don't read your blog. Finally, this same person (who's anonymity I will steadfastly and loyally protect by calling "_ _ A N C _ _") suggested I might get more comments by asking a question at the end of my blog. I refuse. To use such an artificial device to stimulate interest in my blogs is stooping to a low that even a lawyer such as myself refuse to do. Why would I need such contrivances to generate comments?
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| As a purely self-edifying social experiment, I am wondering how many people will read this post even though I haven't blogged in a year and three months. I am still a few readers short of a 1,000,000, and I am still hopeful of reaching that goal. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the scarce few who read this (my wife, maybe?) | | |
| Web 2.0 - greater interactivity, open source contributions so that the collective creates something bigger than the sum of its individual parts. Witness the success of Wikipedia, and the ability of the online masses to create an encyclopedia that rivals anything on the market in breadth. I read the other day about Open Source Beer - a German company that is selling its beer, along with the formulation for the beer. Anyone interested in copying and improving in the beer is invited to do so, as long as they make their incremental improvements public.
Apolopedia - I'm looking at the many (many!) blogs by people out there who have invested time, energy and serious thought to religious matters. There's a lot of good stuff out there! Wouldn't it be cool to have a Wikipedia style encyclopedia for "apologetics" and other spiritual matters? I'm thinking here that if someone reads new book by a Christian author, and feels that he or she has gained valuable insight into a particular topic, there would be a common forum upon which such thoughts could be posted. Others who have read the same book can add further thoughts, clarifications, or corrections. Wouldn't that be cool? Through our collective efforts, we could create an online resource that is deeper and more relevant than we could each do through our individual blogs. Thoughts, anyone?
Post-script (posted a few hours later)
I see that this idea has already been started - see http://www.apologeticscourses.com/TextBooks/HomePage. I still think there's a niche here for something different, but am interested in hearing what others think.
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| Is this yours?
Came up with a nifty quote the other day (insofar as 10 years ago can
be called "the other day"). Reads: "I will not ask what I want,
for I know I will not get what I ask, nor want what I get."
I've always wondered whether I made this gem up, or heard it somewhere
and forgotten its source. So now I'm asking: Is this quotation
yours or someone you know's? If not, I'm claiming it as
mine. You're still allowed to use it.
Smudges on the Internet
I was cleaning the condo last night, and ran into a box filled with
letters I'd handwritten, and sent by mail, to relatives and friends
back before the Internet. These letters were written almost
entirely between 1990 and 1993, after which either (a) people realized
I was not very interesting, and stopped writing to me, or (b) forces
completely beyond my control changed the very foundation of my letter
writing universe, causing people to stop writing to me. For
purely egocentric reasons, I lean towards the latter explanation.
I think the advent of e-mail and instant messaging has made it far
easier to send quick messages to people, and paradoxically, has led to
less personal and meaningful correspondence. Does anyone still
have penpals? Speaking for myself only, I regret not continuing
my letter writing habits.
As fascinating as it is to blog and send self-important missives into
the ethers of the net, there is something magical about reading
correspondence of the non-electric kind, filled as they are with
spelling mistakes, badly drawn pictures, and smudges where the ink ran
fast. You just knew that someone spent a good long time writing that
letter. Conversely, e-mails and instant messages are easy to
start, take no time to write, and can be delivered in a blink of an
eye. There's less personal sacrifice in sending an e-mail.
I have letters from a cousin in Australia (truthfully, I have two
cousins there, and wrote to both, but this paragraph is only about one
of them). We only met in person once, at a family gathering in
Vancouver in the early, early 90s. After that, we wrote each
other regularly. I think our friendship grew with letters.
We stopped writing them when instant messaging (here's to our our
memories of ICQ) came along. Our ICQ chats became increasingly
sporadic and I think our friendship suffered. Tragically, she
passed away in a car accident shortly after.
We had a running joke, I was to meet up with her to have coffee, I
think in 2000. Seems I missed our date. I guess she missed
it too. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
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| Is anyone else annoyed by the non-stop
construction at Leslie and Sheppard? There's a sign there now,
posted by the construction company, that reads something like "Grascan
Construction: 20 years of building excellence". Methinks they've
spent each of those years working at Leslie and Sheppard.
Someone who's blog I admire wrote "on a completely different note...i
don't
know what to write here anymore. :d i don't know how those
of you who
blog all the time keep doing it. kudos to you for that!" I
completely get that. There aren't nearly enough things that annoy
me to blog as often as I want.
Seriously though, I've spent some downtime lately reading blogs of
people I know (some well, others not so well). It's amazing (and
touching) what some people share about online. Some blogs are a
beacon of philosophical clarity - daily nuggets of (and I mean this in
the most admiring way) fortune cookie wisdom expanded upon and writ
large on the canvas of the internet. Other blogs are works of
pure fiction (google "anonymous lawyer blog"). And some people
share intimate details of their lives that I feel almost like a
high-tech Peeping Tom; here I am reading about the trials and
tribulations of acquaintances and friends who would probably never have
given me the time of day in the non-blogging real world.
Yet another blogger (the one I admire) shares her struggles with
cancer. It's deeply affecting, truly inspiring, and I think
there's a book deal in it for her. Call me if you need an agent.
Consequently, I've decide to likewise say something deep in each blog. Today's deep thought:
<...>
<...>
<No joke: 2 hours later>
Okay - no deep thought, but a new observation: Coming up with deep
thoughts is difficult and slow - worse than watching water boil.
Sarcasm is definitely easier to blog than depth.
By the way, I expect each person whose blog I've referred to above to
comment on my website so that I can inch closer to my goal of 1,000,000
readers.
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