Phoning It In

“He just phoned it in” is a disparaging way of describing a perfunctory, careless way of performing a task.

I have been reading blogs for many years. I am amazed at the great writers who have set the bar high and kept their standards. I regularly follow links in search of new bloggers and there are many out there who don’t have what it takes. But I would encourage them all, based on the theory that writing can only improve with practice and that putting pen to paper—so to speak—is an exercise that fosters language and meaningful communication.

But now, thanks to Utterz everybody and his brother can literally “phone it in” and instantly create an audio file which can either be heard on the Utterz site or added to an existing blog. And boy, do people ever ramble. I suppose if someone can come up with an NPR-like commentary, I might listen, but I don’t want to hear someone describing a car-ride though Minnesota or some drunken ramblings from a bar. Listen, and see what you think.

Me Too!

I borrowed this cartoon from Aenodia. It kind of speaks for itself.

Ave atque Vale

I was saddened by Olivia’s last post. She has decided to leave the world of blogging—at least for a while. So I have removed her lyrical Toast and Honey from my list of English blogs. I will miss her lovely writing.

I was, however, delighted to add a second blogger to my “People I know” links. Please welcome Kim at Mad Mommy Meanderings. I have known Kim for close to thirty years and I knew her grandparents and her parents before that.

Makes me seem kind of old.

Anniversary

Two years ago today I wrote my first entry in this blog. It was one of those “Here I am, now what do I do entries?” In the subsequent weeks I tried to figure out what to do with this untried form of communication. I knew what I wanted to do: I wanted a substitute for all the letters I was writing to friends and family. I thought a kind of daily account of our activities and our experiences, along with photographs and the occasional observation, would take the place of letters and e-mail photographs and I hoped other family members would give me material to share. Alas, it didn’t quite work out that way. There can be no such thing as a “one size fits all” letter and it was hard to pass along information from other people without stringent editing which took the fun out of it. My second aim was to find a way to preserve some family history and memories and this format seems to work well: the pages are much neater than anything I could come up with, photos can be incorporated with text and I intend to print up some of the entries for the family.

So, after two years, how do I feel?

I am sorry that I didn’t explore more format options. I admire some blogs out there on Wordpress and wish I had tried it, because I don’t have as much control over the Blogger format as I’d like. What I see, in Preview, is not what I get, in published form. And there always was, at the back of my mind, the desire to learn how to code my own journal. I suppose it is not too late . . .

I am proud that I figured out a little html and soldiered on through all those instructions that initially left me glassy eyed. I still get annoyed with “help” pages that get me going and then pull me up short with something like:

Unpack the tar archive and place the resulting g-client directory on your emacs load-path.
Type make to compile the code.
In your .emacs, add (load-library "g") to set it up.

And of course, once I mastered simple html, along came widgets, which made life harder, not easier.

I am ashamed that I do not have a better grasp of punctuation. I am constantly aware that my semi-colons are wrong and I am not sure about capitals after colons. Yes, I could learn, but . . .

I am concerned that I haven’t kept my links up to date. I have discovered a number of Blogs I would like to promote. I’ll get to that soon and share some new discoveries with you.

I am surprised that I am such a sloppy writer. I am an über-critical reader and I will always pounce on errors of fact or on unclear or clumsily constructed sentences in other people’s writing. But I do not polish many of my entries. I tend to check facts, but there are many occasions when I go back and read a published post and realize I could have constructed it better, used a better turn of phrase or simply used a more appropriate word. Why does this not upset me? Probably because if I didn’t forge ahead, I would never write anything. I would like to sit here leisurely crafting my essays, but Virginia Woolf had it right and a “Room of one’s Own” isn’t always a physical construct. I grab what time I can and make the most of it.

And, finally, I am (just a tad) peeved that I haven’t had more comments from you, dear reader. Friends tell me that it is hard to leave a comment without a Blogger, or is it Google?, account. But the valiant persevere, so if there is anyone lurking out there who hasn’t left me a comment, please do so. Just once.

Consider it my anniversary present.

And in case you are wondering, I am going for another year. Or two.

Back to Blogging

That was an unforeseen hiatus! No real reason, just a bunch of minor annoyances and roadblocks. When I get behind with things, I tend to take the deer in the headlight approach and remain motionless, wondering how I will ever get caught up. I fall prey to the raspberry syndrome. I know that the answer is to forge ahead and I am filled with admiration for those bloggers who put fingers to keyboard daily and do not allow the vicissitudes of life to stand in their way. Even the most faithful take a break on occasion and I was delighted to see that two of the elder statesmen of bloggers, who had been silent for a while, are back. Elizabeth, who had shared her life at Abeyance since 1999 is back on Live Journal. Pregnancy and arguing a case before the United States Supreme Court haven’t kept Beth busy enough, and she has resumed writing about her life in Sacramento at Bad Hair Days.

If I want to unravel all the details of the early history of blogging, I suppose I should go to a book mentioned the other day by Kymm (she’s in it.) With chapters like “Social Functions of Online Diaries in America” and “Male and Female Cyberbodies”, The Mirror and the Veil sounds like interesting reading. The more I read about it, the more it sounded like a reworked Ph.D. dissertation:

The Mirror and the Veil offers a unique perspective on the phenomenon of online personal diaries and blogs. Blending insights from literary criticism, from psychoanalytical theory and from social sciences, Viviane Serfaty identifies the historical roots of self-representational writing in America and studies the original features it has developed on the Internet. She perceptively analyzes the motivations of bloggers and the repercussions their writings may have on themselves and on American society at large. This book will be of interest to specialists in American Studies, to students in literature, communication, psychology and sociology, as well as to anyone endeavoring to understand the new set of practices created by Internet users in America.

And to think I have written about jam.

My Name is Nohbdy

“ Mother, father, and friends, everyone calls me Nohbdy.” In Robert Fitzgerald’s translation of The Odyssey, that’s how Odysseus responds to Polyphemus’ question: “Tell me, how are you called?”

Clever answer, Odysseus, and one which stood you in great stead as you escaped from that dangerous island. But while the answer Odysseus gave was tricky, the question was straightforward. Not so the question of nomenclature facing those who sign on to the various parts of the Internet. Questions pop up on the screen requesting “default name”, “admin name”, “user name”, “display name” or “account name.” Once in a while they take pity on you and explain what the name means and what it will be used for. The unwary find their names appearing where they hoped for anonymity—and vice versa.

Whether to use a real name or a pseudonym is a problem that plagues forum contributors and bloggers. On the whole, the younger writers who are employed or want to be employed hide their identities. No employer or prospective in-law wants to read exactly what the object of their interest got up to on Saturday night. Heather B. Armstrong single-handedly introduced a whole new word into the English language when her employer found her blog and fired her. My heart went out to the guy begging for help on the Blogger Help Group. He had published a Blog under his real name using the “new” Blogger and his employer demanded that he remove the identifying features (or else.) He couldn’t figure out how to do it.

It’s the older bloggers who cheerfully write under their own names. Just take a look at the writers from the 1930’s who contribute to the ageless project. What have we got to lose? Our pensions?

If a blogger wants his friends to find him, he has to forgo anonymity. Odysseus instinctively knew what we find easy to understand today. Googling “nohbdy” doesn’t yield good results.

And the Nominees Are . . .

The nominations were announced today. No, I am not referring to the Oscars, but to the Seventh Annual Weblog Awards. You have until February 2 to vote and the results will be announced on March 12. I always check out the finalists: they must be good, right? I bookmark them, and some I never read again. I always find a blog worth adding to my list of “must-reads” —and we don’t have to listen to boring speeches from the winners

I Warned You

I prophesied in an earlier post that things were going to go pear-shaped with this blog. They have. I took the big step of upgrading my template and, just as Blogger warned, I have lost my links and all the other elements I labored to include. In some cases I sort of see what I have to do, but there is a lot of work involved. I'll have a go one of these days and see if I can get where I want to be. I am sure in the long run things will be easier. If I used to link to you, don't get upset. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Holidailies

I mentioned in an earlier entry that there are people brave enough to commit to a daily post during the Christmas season. The registration site is now up. I certainly won't attempt it, but I plan to visit the site daily in the hope of getting to know some new journalers/bloggers.

Baby Steps

I never wanted to have a “blog”. I wanted a proper on-line journal, designed to my specifications, just like a regular grown-up. But I didn’t know how to go about it and when I realized that Blogger could do some of what I needed without much effort on my part, I jumped on board.

For a while now Blogger has been announcing their new and improved Beta Blogger and inviting members to switch over so they can utilize some new features. I am a proponent of letting sleeping dogs lie, but last night I took the first step and converted my blog. Now I am summoning up the courage to go the rest of the way. I do want a better way of inserting photos. I am not sure if I should disturb the status quo of colors and fonts: design is not my forte. I worked hard to make some changes. So here is the biggest turn-off:

Give your blog a whole new look!

We've introduced a new tool for customizing the appearance of your blog. Before you can use this tool, you'll need to upgrade your template. By upgrading, you will lose many of the changes you previously made to your template. However, we will save a copy of your current template so that you can access it later.

So if Amen with a T suddenly turns purple or disappears altogether, you will know why.