Noonish tomorrow I will have been doing this blog for two years. I was blogging for years before that at other places but for two years, I have had this pulpit. I can't for the life of me think of anything of value that has come of it other than the daily pleasure at seeing the stats and the converstaions with some of those people represented by those stats. Some things I might draw from the 1849 posts prior to this one:
- I like music less than I thought I did and I like sports more. A quick look at the number of post under category tells you that. Unlike sports where I have a deep and abiding relationship with my favoured teams, I have an interest in politics similar to my interest in NASCAR and Formula 1. I watch for the crashes. I am quite surprised by those who are strongly Tory or NDP. I dislike Tories but only due to their consistent record of practical incompetence rather than for any theorical basis. I vote NDP but whenever I think I will pop round for a night of envelope stuffing, the whole fellow traveller thing puts me off.
- I find the discourse of the nature and place of the web and blogging is quite poor. Participation in the medium appears to qualify in itself as expertise. Could there be a more classic example? The web is less interesting and less important that fans grant it but it is more promising than most futurists project. It wil be replaced by an unknown and this era will seem quaint. That is as certain as death and taxes. We will obey fascist ants controlling it all one day.
- Very little consideration is given to the downside of the medium of the internet generally and blogging speficically. Far from being a self-correcting system, it is most often a self-justifying one, confusing opinion for fact and popularity for reliability. I have not become more intellegent through blogging. I have likely become stupider. Will may be feeling the same thing. I have warned people away from its use in professional contexts and been later thanked. Yet I will continue to do this. I can't think of a process other than blogging where so many people in it feel it a curse. Maybe relying on employment for income. Quitting is often a badge of honour. It is a fantastic waster of time and productivity which, like pollution, is never calculated into the cost-benefit analysis.
- Blogs do not compound knowledge or create opportunities for collective advancement of a proposition. Where there is a shared interest there can be growth in an idea but for the most part it is genial yapping - not a bad thing in itself but I have also come to have quite visceral dislike for individuals who I have never met and who otherwise have absolutely no affect on the course of my life. On the other hand, I have learned much about being gay in America, being a former artillery officer, being on anti-depression medication, Kylie Minogue and central and western New York State.
- Of all the things I post I am happiest about the photos. I am proud to share my ribs with you. I have chronicled the sparking of my new fascination with the USA which has little to do with 9/11, the war on terror, societal envy or access to sun in the winter. It's the BBQ and the bold freedom to celebrate slow cooked meat. I love the experience of experiencing and that is always better with a smokey tomato based sauces. And beer. And jets on sticks.
Comments
NYCO - April 24, 2005 8:49 PM
"On the other hand, I have learned much about being gay in America, being a former artillery officer, being on anti-depression medication, Kylie Minogue and central and western New York State..."
Apparently you haven't learned enough, Alan! Rochester is not central New York. Rochester has its own zone. The Not-Western-Not-Central Zone. This is a *fantastically* important distinction.
Alan - April 24, 2005 8:52 PM
I never knew! What the hell is that about? I think Linda is failing to tell the entire story.
The Other Ben - April 24, 2005 11:44 PM
Rochester is in the "It takes a lot longer than it should to get there by Greyhound from Ottawa" zone.
Alan - April 25, 2005 8:10 AM
Scrantonesque?
Mike - April 25, 2005 8:18 AM
From what I can tell, viewing Fox Rochester in Nova Scotia, Rochester is it's own city-state, and is apparently run by two lawyers named Cellino and Barnes.
8-)
Congrats, Alan!
Alan - April 25, 2005 8:28 AM
Why does the CRTC do that? I remember when it was all Detroit in the Maritimes after they decided there was no cultural value in having Maine TV - our nearest neighbour and twin separated by a revolution. Here we have the blessing of local US TV: Watertown PBS and a family-run WWNY CBS, Syracuse NBC and an ABC outlet, WWTI, recently transformed by Clear Channel that is practically speaking from nowhere.<p>The CRTC's dumb rule this weekend is that the CBS switched Friday night to the CTV broadcast of some dumb US police drama at the crack of 9 pm even though the CBS outlet was showing the Yankees game. Some CRTC rule to protect us from late innings of a Yankees game in favour of a Canadian rebroadcast of a violent US show. Thank God for the well pensioned bureaucracy needed to create that brilliance.
Alan - April 25, 2005 8:36 AM
To make myself feel better I have written an email to my cable service provider about the Yankees broadcast foul up. I expect to have my NBS station switched to Denver as a result.
Barb - April 25, 2005 12:14 PM
Interesting commentary on the general discourse found on blogs. One of the things I like about it is the anonymity of posting one's thoughts and opinions. But that also allows for anyone with a half-baked idea to post as an expert. Let the reader beware is the watch-word!
Mike - April 25, 2005 3:54 PM
It's a bit better now, with our ABC, NBC and CBS stations coming from Boston, but Fox is Rochester. I wouldn't mind seeing the Bangor stations again - good ol' Eddie Driscoll, Dick "Gassy Hands" Stacey, and the old woman Jenny on Dick Stacey's Country Jamboree who sang "On the wings of a snow white dove" every Saturday night. Like most eras, bygone.
"Driscoll was a joker with vaudeville sensibilities, says Salisbury, now the station's senior news photographer. Driscoll would try to make the crew laugh with off-colour jokes, while they would try to knock him off balance. Once they started to dismantle his set on live TV. "He was a great, great person to work with," Salisbury said. "He was crazy. He would go along with anything."
http://www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/nshist75.html
Alan - April 25, 2005 4:33 PM
Was it Jenny Chantrell? portland will know. They played a talent show around 1980 in Truro outsideof Ryan's IGA on Inglis Street and guys I know went in, started each tune and a C+W, morphing into a punk rendition over and over until they kicked them off the stage.
portland - April 25, 2005 8:36 PM
yeah that's the name i think. the guy with the upper plate that would slip out now and then and his son (who never said anything) would back her up. as an aside, i was at the iga that day. i was extremely embarassed for my wise ass friends. they were being jerks that day, playing "let's make fun of the yokels" like the evil preppy guys in a revenge of the nerds movie. if only dick stacy had powers like sissy spacek in carrie, he would have showed them. they would have deserved it.
Alan - April 25, 2005 9:53 PM
I am such a story recycling loser. I am in a 21 month loop. I have come to the end of myself.