Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Negative Trajectory Is A Positive Flat Line (The Blogs)

The hardest thing to come up with for a blog post is, believe it or not, the title of the post. For me, the topic is ridiculously easy to come up with. The title, on the other hand, incredibly hard. Because of the basic understanding I have with a dictionary and a thesaurus, I avoid using certain combination of words and phrases that would imply, however indirectly, saying goodbye.

I do not wish to say goodbye. In fact, let me state unequivocally that the only way I would say goodbye, would be if I was to drop dead. Of course, that would necessitate someone coming onto my blog and saying, "My name is such and such, it is my sad duty to say that (my real name) aka G has gone to meet his maker."

I would hope that before it reaches that point, that I would remember to leave detailed instructions on how I would want this blog (and others) to be taken care of.

Now, with that being said, let's continue this post with a more upbeat tone, shall we?

The title of this post is a combination of things. "Negative Trajectory" is a phrase I pulled from one of my favorite comic strips, Calvin and Hobbes; "Positive Flat Line" is simply the opposite of the first phrase. Put them together and you got an oxymoron.

And now, a couple of general observations from the world of me.

1} I went blog surfing a couple of months ago and found ten new blogs to read. It took me about six hours, over the course of two days, simply because for every six blogs I came across, five of them were either in Spanish, Portuguese, Indian, or some other wonderful language that I have absolutely no clue on. Out of these ten blogs, the following has happened to them:

Two that I decided to comment on have reciprocated and have chosen to become followers. I have in turn, reciprocated that gesture and now feature their blogs as links on mine (Caffeine is Life and Dog In The Hole Studio); Two others I have commented on have chosen not to respond to the comments, which is fine. All bloggers are unique when it comes to running their blogs; Three others I have chosen not to comment on and instead have been simply lurking in the background reading; One got nuked because I decided it didn't really interest me anymore (I nuked it because he had a strange habit of simply making a title and pasting a link), and the last one was nuked for me.

2} Some blogs actually don't like differing viewpoints. I came across a couple of blogs that are, for the lack of a better phrase, left of center. As in, so heavily skewed to the Democrat viewpoint that one might get the impression that the blog is an extension of MoveOn.org or the Huffington Post.

Whatever. Anyways, with one blog, I'm sort of welcomed, but time will tell whether or not the welcome mat will be yanked. The other blog has basically thrown down the gauntlet and said in response to comment of mine, "I come from an old political family, so don't mess with me."

Like WTF?? I make an innocuous comment and the owner says, "Don't mess with me!" What kind of bullshit is that?? I mean, I can give the same lame excuse of "I come from a political family myself. My late father was a heavy player in local politics, ran two successful mayoral campaigns and was a conservative Democrat." So does that make me better than you?

Anyways, we shall see where we wind up going with this one. Trying to read it is usually an exercise in futility, simply because the blogger writes like a southern cracker hyped up on crystal meth.
~~~~~~~
Up next: The W.i.P.'s

16 comments:

  1. "Southern cracker hyped up on crystal meth." Hmmm. I was with you until that, G.

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  2. I think you have to welcome and accept differing viewpoints if you put yourself "out there" in a post. It makes for an interesting blog discussion. That guy's words are apparently not worth reading if he responds in such a jerky way.

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  3. Oh, G, you made me laugh from the beginning of your post to the end.
    I once kept a little notebook of titles for books. It was a long commute on the Red line.
    I figure it's the picture that I post that might get some attention rather than my lame titles.
    I stay away from political blogs these days. I am bored to death with the discussions. Get the FACTS people then post.
    My SIL is retired and political for the rest of us and yes I avoid her on facebook.
    Blog manners, as far as I am concerned are, if you become a FOLLOWER of my blog I will post your blog on my blog link. It's my way of saying thank you for taking the time to read mine.
    I comment on blogs if I have stopped by. Everybody wants to know that some body has been there and read what they had to say. It's human nature.
    The people who tell their readers that they are too busy or too important to respond to comments I don't go back. Sorry, that's just rude in my book.
    I'm glad I came across your blog.
    You make an old lady smile and sometimes giggle and that's good for the spirit. :)Bea of DogInTheHoleStudio

    PS: Thanks for the plug!

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  4. One of the things I love about my current blog list is that for any of them I can disagree with a specific point or post without having them think I'm attacking them. I like to be the same way.

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  5. That is fucking hilarious! I am Riot Kitty, so don't mess with me? :P

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  6. Lynn: My sincerest apologies. At the time I wrote this post, that was the first thing that popped into my head to describe the way that particular blogger writes her posts. It was never my intention to offend my readers, indirectly or otherwise, with any of my descriptive writing.

    Septembermom: I think you if you put yourself out there, you have to accept about 98% of what's thrown at you. It's the other 2% you have to legitimately worry about.

    Bea: I make a rule never to discuss national politics on my blog, having dealt with the juvenile aspect of it in the chat rooms. I also for the most part don't visit politically oriented blogs unless they're relatively open minded or it's a small part of the overall blog (Riot Kitty's is one such blog).

    As for the link, you'll see me do that from time to time with blogs I love to read, so I'm more than happy to offer it.

    Charles: Same thing goes for mine. I do have a few blogs listed on my links that sometimes offer opinions that I'm not inclined to agree with, but because they treat everyone with respect, I have no qualms in offering the link or continuing to visit on a daily basis.

    R.K.: Yeah, go figure. I am G, hear me roar.

    Fer shure.

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  7. OMG enjoyed reading your observations here. First thanks for stopping by to visit and saying hi. I set myself up with Google Reader and spend way too many hours reading blogs. Like yourself I'll lurk with some, comment on others, get a return visit from some and nothing from others. I've found many online friends and acquaintences. I say acquaintences cause some people quite honestly I don't think we'd be friends 'in real life', we frequent the same photo challenges. I try my best to keep politics out of my blog (except for a hurray at election time). Given up reading some cause they just can't get off their narrow soapbox(left or right). And been dumped by some for 'gasp' offering a view that differs from theirs when asked my opinion. Anyway, you're probably saying 'what the flip is this chick doing leaving me a short story on my comments' so I'll go now. Just wanted to say hi, enjoy reading you. Come by again.

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  8. Jeanne: Many thanks for the reciprocal visit.

    I'm more than used to people leaving wonderfully long comments (see Ms. Bea's lovely comment) on my blog.

    I don't use my Google reader, even though I have all set to go, as prefer to actually visit a person's blog site to read and explore, so even thougn I follow at last count through Google about 50+ blogs, I have overall about 70 bookmarked.

    And from time to time, I will surf blogger to find new blogs to peruse and purge out ones I've lost interest in.

    And yes, I will be coming by again, and I hope that you'll do the same as well.

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  9. It's funny, I know most of my readers are of differing political persuasion than I yet we are all pretty good pals (maybe because I don't get political at my blog?) :)

    Anyhoo, we are all humans and should respect each other's right to free speech without any nastiness.

    And for me, when I find myself not wanting to listen to another's views if they differ to mine, I need to look at me more than them.

    Anyhoo, as to you and post titles... I think some people write the copy, then come back and look at it, or at what would happen next and think up their title then.

    Toodles!

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  10. Jannie: Good points.

    I thing early on, I used to write copy first, then struggle like mad to come up with an appropriate title for the post.

    Then I swung completely the other way, coming up with a title that had a major disconnect with whatever topic I was writing about.

    Now I've managed to blend the two extremes much better. I still have fun making up strange titles for my posts, but now I try to make sure that for the most part, there's a connection there.

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  11. Yeah, it's amazing what we can find *peers* out there in blogoland.

    At least you get a reaction. I don't like indifference.

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  12. Pink: I agree with you on the indiffernce angle. It's tough sometimes when I'm following a blog and the blogger has a habit of really not responding to the comments much, if at all.

    Indifference can be lethal in the blog world.

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  13. I'm still learning all the "rules" of blogland - and really, I tend to be a lurker more than a commenter.

    I usually stay away from blogs where the poster has the attitude that their way is right and there's no room for discussion.

    Different viewpoints and conversations discussing the pros and cons of any topic are what I find interesting and keep me coming back.

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  14. Gabby: Whenever I find a new blog, I usually spend a month or so lurking before deciding to comment. Yours was one of the few exceptions to my steadfast rule.

    I agree about the "my way or the highway syndrome", which is why for the most part, I stay far, far away from political blogs.

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  15. So far I've not had good times with political bloggers- Used to visit a "Jurassic Pork" writer-blog guy who folded n deleted awhile back- He just ranted away n argued with all who disagreed on his right-liberal theories.

    sometimes, religion n politics can start wars... if tolerance is dissallowed. What's the point of free expression?

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  16. Snaggle: Political blogs are an extreme rarity for me, simply because of all the garbage I dealt with in the chat rooms for the past two and a half years.

    I only found these two, simply because I went exploring someone else's blog. One of them was a follower and the other was a link.

    With one of them, the person is reasonable tolerant when it comes to opposing viewpoints. So long as you can articulate your point in a respectful manner, it will be responded pretty much in the same way.

    With the other, the person is just an idiot, which for me is goint to make it much more fun to play with.

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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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All the content that you see here, except for the posting of links that refer to other off-blog stories, is (c) 2008-17 by G.B. Miller. Nothing in whole or in part may be used without the express written permission of myself. If you wish to use any part of what you see here, please contact me at georgebjr2006@gmail.com