Post Number 50 [insert fanfare]

A Retrospective [with subtitles because I'm so self-important]

No, I didn't actually go back and count every single entry that i've posted. i'm just "trusting the machine" on this one. When i logged in today it said that i had 49 posts. So this would be #50. And there was much rejoicing... (nod to Monty Python)

As i'm writing this the "Count Up" has just passed 139 days, 2 hours. What have i learned in this time blogging? Probably not much that will contribute to the sum total of human knowledge but lets give it a shot.

i like to do things right but my neurosis is sort of "Lazy" meets "OCD". So that would be my estimation of right when it comes to hobbies. For instance, if you're paying any attention at all, you'll notice that i don't follow the rules of English 1201. (You know, the spelling, grammar and punctuation class - whatever the number is...) But i'm not here to make the world a more "Grammatically Sound" place. i'm still trying to figure out where this whole "blogging" thing fits into my life. My cell phone that takes pictures and using downtime in airports with wireless internet have helped. But i digress... (nod to Peter David)

A few days ago it occured to me that the 150 day mark for the blog is coming up. i'm still deciding if that is significant and/or what i want to do for that occassion and/or other "milestones". So far i've only noticed people mentioning annual milestones but comics are measured by issue # and not year and the whole "blogosphere" impresses me as a lot of "episodes" more than dates. You can read old blogs so isn't that more like syndicated TV?

MAKE IT COOL
i won't repeat my personal blog chronology but i will say this. i'm still experimenting with the internet (aren't we all?) and so far, blogging is the most "fluid" thing that i've found. Okay, Wikipedia probably makes it a tie for first. The other day, i actually edited this article - i told you this was gonna be self-important :-)

Every time that i see a blog where somebody has, on each entry, things like "Listening to [CD photo] right now" i am secretly envious. Right now i am "Listening to" the white noise of fans - a desktop oscillating fan and the fan in my laptop. Seriously, i hear so much noise every day at work that, given an opportunity, i tune everything out. If you ever see me sitting in an airport typing on this machine while i'm waiting for my flight, don't assume that i will see you or hear you.

Recently, a couple of my friends have been encouraging me to get a myspace page. One actually told me "Man, you have to get a myspace page." While i really wanted to say "i don't have to do anything of the sort!" i decided to humor my friend so i said "oh really...why?" Now keep in mind this friend is under 30 (no disrespect intended to anyone) so the word "cool" got thrown around a lot and i'm human, i like cool, so i said that i would check into it.

The funny thing is, i think what i meant when i said that and what my friend heard were two different things. i believe this is true because the next time i saw my friend, the conversation started with "Dude, i can't find your myspace page."

Like i told my friend that i would do, i did check into myspace. But not by checking out myspace. i went for what is known as "third party research".
The good news is that after much searching, i found a GREAT article that eloquently expresses the shortcomings of myspace.
The bad news is that the author feels so strongly about myspace that he uses the occassional colorful phrase (to put it mildly). So now i'm left with an ethical quandry: i want to link to the article but i can't in good conscience link to an article with so much profanity. Copying and "censoring" his article would be plagarism. But if you send me an email i will send you a link to it.

And btw, unless drastic changes happen, there is NO WAY i'm getting a myspace page.

I really hope posting this icon doesn't violate anybody's copyright.