All I can thnk of is to take your 'member, member' and go a little further by saying, "member, member, throbbing member".

Geez, nothing like pressuring your readers, is there? Ok, how's this for funny: Why was the turkey the drummer in the band? Because he was the one with the drumsticks.

What ever happened to the hockey pool?

its okay, al. maybe blogging is like baseball? you know, streaky. and even the best hitters go through slumps. and the thing about hitting slumps is, the more you think about it, the more you pressure you put on yourself, preventing you from getting back to your natural swing. you'll break out of the slump soon, buddy, and be belting out those bloggy home runs once you feel the flow. in the meantime, perhaps us, your readers, can think of blogging as baseball - the a team sport. when the slugger is in a slump, the rest of the line-up (i.e. the readers and commenters) have to pick up the slack and chip in a few runs. So here's my at bat: Blogging is like baseball. But hey, isn't all of life like baseball?

Hey - I'm not in the rut! You are! <p>I am here day in and day out doing the good work. Then I notice on the stats that on Fridays you people find some other way to slack off. Well, too bad. There's gabbing work to be done and I expect a full week's worth of back talk from you folk.

Speaking of members, Cyn, this morning my wife was chatting about Jude Law and recent scandalous photos and the 'South Park Movie' bigger, longer, and uncut. Gives ya' the shivers.

Alan is the Babe Ruth of bloggers, magically blogalicious! And like Babe Ruth, but rare in baseball, because he runs 2 blogs, he is a great pitcher AND hitter.
OK, I've shared some dumb ideas, NEXT.....

No, I am a mere utility man...though I <i>do</i> have great pitchers at the other place.<p>But isn't there something to chat about that does not include law or Dubya or sports? These are good things but covered elsewhere hereabouts. Here are some ideas:<ul><li>Is the blogosphere dying? If it is what do I do with this place?</li><li>What could be added around here?</li><li>What to do to fill the impending winter hours?</li><li>If I could name this blog something else - what might it be?</li></ul>

... the Japanese blogging craze began in 2011 following a visit from Canadian blogger Alan McLeod...

A 20-ish kid stopped me on the street this morning and asked me if there was "a Lebanese store" around. My first image was a store selling Lebanese breads, etc - and there are some of those in Hali - but then he clarified - "you know, a convenience store, a corner store". It made immedate sense, but I've never heard to a corner/convenience store refered to as "a Lebanese store". It's true there are many such stores in the Maritimes run by Lebanese families, with my nextdoor neighbours being one of them. When I was a kid, there were two convenience stores in my neighbourhood, both run by Lebanese families.

I have a feeling that this might just have been this kid's lingo, but I'm not sure, and I wonder if other cities/areas have "Korean stores" or "Syrian stores" or "Icelandic stores". ??

1. the blogosphere is dying, but so is public discourse in general. i continue to feel less and less connected with other people around me. everyone seems to want to pigeonhole others or cluster in cliques. and its not just others: i too am losing interest in things that i used to think were interesting exciting or fun. for example, party politics. whatever is going on in ottawa is so useless, so contrived, so pointlessly dull, so formulaic, etc., that its not worth wasting thought let alone words on. we shouldn't wonder that political blogs especially are dying a slow death due to the pointlessness of their subject matter and the predictability of the commentary on the subject matter. i am enthused only about a few things at all anymore, none of which have ever really been covered by bloggers in the blogosphere (and for that matter, fuck the blogoshere, all these bloggers blogging about blogs: as Al said once: a blog is a magazine about me. full stop. if a magazine about ones'self finds readers, then you have a community, but its not necessarily a social phenomenon worthy of intense analysis). so, Al, since you asked, keep blogging as long as it entertains you, whether or not the blogosphere dies. the internet is not dying, so as long as you are inclined to produce content, keep going.
2. add talk about things i'm interested in: soccer, cfl football, punk music, alt.country music, running, fitness and nutrition, pei politics, charlottetown politics, democracy, ecology, how to improve society, beer (oh yeah, that's covered!).
3. skating.
4. keep the name of the blog. nothing else would make any sense.

Re Lebanese store: the kid had to be from ch'town.

alt.country - I'm there.

So like ska you have blog waves. I am sure this blog wave is done. I think it is the second wave, the first being the original blogs of the first years of the web, the lists on new neat sites.

Hans...just wondering...is there any chance you have fallen in a deep pit of some sort and have not noticed? Thank about it - what would it be like to fall in a pit and realize you have not realized it? You know what it is like being half awake getting up in the night to deal with something but finding yourself in the rec room instead of the kitchen when you turn on the light? Maybe that is the cause of your funk. Maybe not. Maybe I am not putting enough into this blog to distract you. Did I mention it is raining here? I am looking forward to a new show on NCPR called "The Beat Authority". Maybe that is what I will do all winter - learn the congas.

Re: alt.country

Are we talking your basic Gram Parsons/Emmylou stuff? Sweetheart of the Rodeo? Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt? Lucinda? Whiskeytown/Ryan? Kathleen Edwards? Alejandro? Blue Mountain? The Old 97s? And I suppose Steve Earle and Jason & the Scorchers was my first exposure way back when.

This is the stuff to which I've been most exposed, but that exposure's been pretty in-depth. I hold Richard Buckner out as my all time numero uno, looks like he just came down from the Kentucky hills even though he's from California, insurgent country, Americana guy. [Prob cause he's the only one I've seen perform.]

I have to admit I know nothing of alt.country except I probably know plenty about it without knowing. I prefer blue grass and that stuff like Gillian Welsh or Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriquez sort of folky-bluegrass. Is that alt.country?

I think I start with Buck Owens and then Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, John Cash and Kris Kristofferson. Obviously, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. I'm not up on the newer stuff, although I've heard a few songs from those you've named. Saw Steve Earle in Moncton last spring and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

Oh yeah. And who could be more delightfully meloncholy than the Jayhawks?

Found it - my history of blogs post from May 2003.

I think the end of the second wave can be pin-pointed to the presentation at Blogger Con III on 6 november 2004 at 3:30 pm when Doc Searls presented on how to make money from blogging. <p>And as Hans foresees, by 2011 in Japan I will be leading the third wave, concurrent to another wave of interest there in the music of Cheap Trick.

... uh, that was Mike that foresaw the Japanese thing ....

Mike was channelling you.

Whooowehee! The Jayhawks are fantastic.
RE: alt country, is Nickel Creek alt. c.? Whatever, I like it. Ditto Lucinda Williams. How about the North Mississippi Allstars?
Speaking of good in many categories, Neil Young has some great new work out.

Hey Alan -- remember the blog fight that wouldn't die? It's still got some life.

Sorry.

...

Incidentally, the Red Sox are losing.

Sorry. Just can't be a good entertainer this Friday...

George Bush and Kurt Vonnegut are both entertaining. Thanks PBS.

Ben, hug some Bostonians for me. I know you will, baby. In fact, tonight's the night, Harvard boy!

Good Friday chattery. That is exactly the sort of non-sense I was hoping to trigger.