Monday, April 17, 2006

The Anniversary Gift Fades

The Anniversary Gift Fades

The Anniversary Gift Fades (2003)

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of this blog. I sipped punch all day and hired a cyber-clown to fill helium balloons.

But, today, alas, the punchbowl has a scummy watermark, and the wrinkled balloons are abandoned and nosing the ceiling tiles.

That's one of the strange things about blogging. Nobody cares what you said or did yesterday. You're only as good as today's update.

~/~

So, what do other bloggers say about the hazards of blogging. Let's check. What else have you got to do?

From a comment taken from the cache of the defunct Susan Crawford Blog:

I think this is one of the hazards of blogging; people always fear that you're going to post what they say.

Why worry about that when there is a comment section? Why should I quote you when you can just quote yourself?

From sueeeus:

I find that one of the hazards of blogging is that it's so in the moment. That's all fine and good when the moment is good. But when the moment is dark. Well. Not so good.

Yes, I find this phenomenon is true whenever I mistakenly wander into my own archives. However, Jack Daniels helps dull both the ache of a history-of-bad-posts conscience and those annoying memories of bad writing.

From Smart Mobs:

Getting fired for blog entries is so common now that it's come to be characterized by the term "dooced." Dooce.com, a blog kept by one of the dooced, has seen its traffic more than double over the past year, according to Web site ranker Alexa One networker who asked not to be identified says she regularly peppers her entries with fiction so she can avoid being identified by her employer.

Um, right. I live offworld, consume many useless products, look exactly like Antonio Banderas, and will be am self-employed as a typist.

From CBS News:

"Dust" found on computer processors and monitors contains chemicals linked to reproductive and neurological disorders, according to a new study by several environmental groups.

[...]

Electronics companies began using polybrominated diphenyl (PBDEs) and other flame retardants in the 1970s, arguing that the toxins prevent fires and cannot escape from plastic casings.

"This will be a great surprise to everyone who uses a computer," said Ted Smith, director of the Toxics Coalition. "The chemical industry is subjecting us all to what amounts to chemical trespass by putting these substances into use in commerce. They continue to use their chemicals in ways that are affecting humans and other species."

This report was made two years ago, so I assume "they" "fixed" "the problem" by now. Maybe this explains why, lately, I haven't been thinking as much...

...about sex...

And, finally, from Dave's Long Box, here's a bit of a post called "The Hazards of Blogging While Sleep-Deprived":

He ha ha tlook at the deude pioking Im so tired


So tirded


must sleeepo


must change diaper


poo
poo


poo


HA HA ha


,.


help me

Nothing like upping the blog's intellectual ante as I kick-start year two...

5 comments:

idyllopus said...

Well, how about have a moderately contented post first blog anniversary? Kudos.

Tim said...

It's the easter bunny, that pied-piper of people's attention this time of year.

If only we knew where that rodent lived, we could fill his hole with concrete, or slow him down with a leg-trap or two...

For me personally, I found blogging became a lot of fun once I found just the right balance between love/hate for my audience. On the internet, I think any audience is mostly "passersby" who are literally browsing through lots of stuff and wasting bandwidth.

It's like a virtual flea market and there's always something sparkly from another booth catching people's attention and distracting them, that is, assuming I ever had their attention in the first place.

I publish for my own personal enjoyment and for the few regulars who come by once a week and the occasional person who stumbles by and reads 30 or 40 posts in a single visit.

All the rest are there by accident and I wouldn't give them change for the virtual parking meter if they asked.

But you know, I still remember that post with the picture of the "Nunz with Gunz." That was hilarious.

And the many fractal images that fit in quite well with news stories, like the quaternion one for the Oklahoma government building bombing.

Cyndy said...

Happy Blog Birthday! ...read because I was lagging behind, don't always read daily, and often do go beyond/before the post of the day, especially because you have so many delights here.

Anonymous said...

Anniversary

Windows on the wound
Wobble on wooden frames
Then shatter in the silence
As if night shears the sound

Each ornate globule glows
In the lozenge of dissolve
That slithers slothful weaves
And slows into rapturous rows

Without this place to displace
Pieces of a shattered tongue
Where can embers smolder
Into phases of the moon

cruelanimal said...

Thanks, all, for your kind words. I'm grateful you continue to drop by.

As Tim notes, I also blog primarily for my own satisfaction -- as time and energy and life permit -- and for the regulars who have bookmarked me or linked to me or subscribed to my feed. And, I suppose to stay on my toes. For me, writing has always been a way of discovering what I think, just as art has been a method of discovering what I see.