Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I Can Conversate With You

This past month, I experienced what I can only call, a piece of normal. Normal as in, something that you do/have in the course of a typical day. In this particular instance (actually two), I had two distinct conversations with two very distinctive fellow bloggers.

Now before you get your panties in a bunch about me trumpeting the fact that I experienced something that occurs in every single day of my existence, let me tell you up front that while I have this about two or three times a day in the real world (and I'm not talking about brief chit-chat between co-workers, or while you're standing in a line waiting, and things like that), I haven't had this in my online world (read: chat rooms) in quite some time and almost never in my blog world. Isn't that just the spiffiest run-on sentence that you've ever read?

In the chat rooms, it's darn near impossible to be able to carry on a conversation with someone without twenty or more idiots butting in and crapping on your parade (one of many reasons why I've toned done my chat room attendance in the past month). As for the blog world, for the most part, you comment on a blog post, and you get a response to your comment and then you continue on your merry way.

That's why it was so refreshing to have a conversation with a fellow blogger for the first time since last summer, when I had a truly silly one with my friend Sy. The first one that I had was with a fellow blogger and all around good egg, Jannie Funster.

That one started innocently enough, in a post whose title escapes me, about visiting different cities. But over the course of three days or so, we managed to have a rather normal conversation about visiting a city versus visiting the outskirts of a particular city. It was very refreshing to simply be able to have a intelligent online conversation with someone, as opposed to having a hit and run insultfest that most of my chat room encounters were.

The second one dealt with music. Earlier in the month, I made a post about what c.d.'s I had in my bookcase, and another fellow blogger and all around good egg, Lynn made a nice post in reference to it. As with the previous blog, I was able to have a very good conversation with Lynn (and Jannie who happened to drop by) about the types of music we both listened to.

Both of the conversations with most refreshing and in the end, I managed to learn a little bit more about my fellow bloggers.

It really was a pleasant experience for me. To be able to actually partake in two very big helpings of normalcy that I found in all places, a blog, in this vast wasteland called the Internet, was something that really made those particular days shine.

12 comments:

  1. I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that most of the bloggers I interact with seem a little bit older than the chatters I used to interact? Could there be a maturity issue?

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  2. Thank you, my friend. It was great fun discussing music with you and Jannie and it made my day shine, as well. And it goes to show how many nice people there are through-out the land.

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  3. Charles: I do believe a lot has to do with maturity. While I was in the chat rooms, I've met adults with the maturity level of a ten year old, and by the same token, I've met a couple of teenagers who were mature way beyond their years.

    I would have to agree with you about the bloggers you interact with (and me interacting with oher bloggers), in being if not more older, at least well grounded in reality.

    Lynn: I'm glad I was able to brighten your day discussing a favorite topic of mine. Trust me, that particular topic will be rearing it's ugly head again very, very soon.

    And yes, there are quite a few nice people throughout the "Blog" land here. I'm glad I've been able to meet a whole slew of them during my stay here, and I hope to continue on meeting many more of them in the near future.

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  4. I love a good conversation! Being home with the kids all day, I enjoy my sometimes very brief exchanges with my fellow bloggers. Lately, I have contacted a few via e-mail and we extend our conversation a little more. I agree that it is wonderful to find bloggers who like to share thoughts, opinions and creativity via the Internet. Some of my fellow bloggers know me better than my next door neighbor. Interesting how that unintentionally came about!

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  5. Well I love the writing aspect of blogging - the creative output - but I get a big kick out of the commentating too. I converse with nearly all my regular commentators either privately or as and when. I've met some wondeful people online and as for me mate Sy he probably knows as much as about me as some of my closest "real" friends - even if we do on the whole chat about silly stuff! (It's a Brit thing.)

    Sometimes I find a site that looks interesting and comment but when author never comments back I find it incredibly dull and give up - it's just like someone hanging up the phone on you! I suppose it all depends what you want out of it - of which there can be many reasons.
    Yes, you have to be discerning as there are some fruitcakes out there but I've found it an enlightening experience - and as you have pointed out a valuable one for anyone who aspires to write seriously.

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  6. Septembermom: I still maintain contact with quite a few former chatroom friends from years ago, but to be quite honest, even though I've met a ton of people in the blog world, only a select few have e-mailed me (yeah, I know, my e-mail addy is on the bottom of my blog), and vice versa. For now, I perfer the conversations taking place on the blog. More safer and less chance of getting burned by someone (trust me, this has happened to me on more than one occasion).

    Jane: I know what you mean by finding an interesting blog, commenting on it, then being disappointed when the creator doesn't respond. I usually give people about a month, so as to better figure out what their particular posting style is.

    As for Sy, well, what can I say? He is one in a million. We originally hooked up through someone else's now semi-defunct blog, and things haven't been the same since.

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  7. It really is a big small world out there!

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  8. In more ways that you can imagine, it truly is.

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  9. What level of self worth or celebrity must I achieve before I no longer need to fell obligated to respond to posts on my blog?

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  10. When your net salary hits $1,000,000, then you can hire someone to fulfill your blogger obligations.

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  11. Ooo, I'm a good egg. I'm a good egg!

    Thanks, Georgie.

    You are a shining star on the internet too, so glad we've met!

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  12. Jannie: I'm very glad we met as well.

    I've seem to have found that an old adage is true, that the some of the most friendliest people you can find, live in Texas.

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Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

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