I'm Blogging!

I feel sort of like Bob in the movie, “What About Bob?” Here I am, strapped to the World Wide Web mast, with the digital bits flying through my hair at mind-numbing speed, and I am calling out, “Look at me, I’m blogging, I’m blogging.”
Useless aside: I just did a Google search on “blogging” and came up with 511,000 hits.
2nd useless aside: The spell-checker on THE word processor (which shall remain nameless) that I am using to write this on flags “blogger” as a misspelled word.
Ok, for the uninitiated, a quick primer: Blog is short for Web Log. It is, in it’s conception, a kind of on-line journal. In reality, it is probably the easiest way to have your own website. Blogging sites provide a basic structure and all you have to do is provide the content. Journal entries, pictures, links to other websites, pretty much whatever strikes your fancy. Blogging is apparently one of the hottest things on the World Wid Web these days.
So, when my son told me that he had a blog, and I went to look at it, I decided, “This is so cool. I gotta get me one!”
I have a weakness for the latest cool new thing.
When desktop computers were in there infancy, one of the problems was trying to convince people why they needed one. The industry was in need of the “killer app” (short for killer application) which would show that every just HAD to have a desktop computer. What turned out to be the shot in the arm was the spreadsheet (remember Visicalc?) Think of a spreadsheet as a digital pad of graph paper, or more appropriately, a digital ledger book. You can fill each square with numbers or put in a formula which performs operations on the contents of other squares (like adding two columns automatically.) Anyway, I don’t want to lose anyone, so if you don’t have personal experience with a spreadsheet, accountants and technical people will tell you how wonderful this kind of program is.
A curious thing happened shortly after the spreadsheet took hold. People started doing all sorts of creative (although sometimes silly) things. For example, I remember seeing a spreadsheet file programmed to act like a word processor . Another industrious person actually created a game of solitaire using a spreadsheet. Each box or cell as it’s called, was one of the cards in a pack of cards. It was slow and cumbersome, but hey, look what you could do!
When there is a new thing, especially in the area of technology, there are some people who grab a hold of it and, “because it’s so cool” they try to use it for everything. I know, I’m one of those people. My first computer hard drive was full of silly spreadsheet files that kept track of everything I could think of. But it turned out to be easier to do things the old way (whatever that was).
Or take the PDA (personal digital assistant). I remember my first PDA. It was a small thing from Radio Shack,and fit easily into my shirt pocket. You could put in telephone numbers, appointments and notes. It wasn’t real easy to use, no touch screen or stylus, only a 12 character scrolling readout. But it was a cool new thing. I put everything in there. It would even set off an alarm when I had an appointment. It was so cool. Then the battery ran out, and I lost everything. I’m back to a paper date book. I still use paper.
I know, you’re going to tell me I need to try one of the new ones. Been there, done that. I just prefer paper.
So is blogging the same thing? Everyone is getting a blog, because it’s so cool. People are journaling, and frankly, a lot of blogs are not that interesting (Thanks, by the way, for reading this far.) Am I just being caught up in a fad? Or does having my own blog make sense?
I came across this quote in one of my notebooks. “Writing from his home in rural Maine, the great essayist E.B. White once ruminated on the news, announced in 1956 by professors at the California Institute of Technology that in the new millennium “Technology will be king.” White was struck by the assumption that technology is equivalent to progress, and is therefore something to be desired and celebrated. “Many of the commonest assumptions are arbitrary ones; that the new is better than the old, the untried superior to the tried, the complex more advantageous than the simple, the fast quicker than the slow, the big greater than the small.” (Country Journal, Nov/Dec 2000, p.45)
So why blog? In the spirit of White’s comments, let me ponder a minute whether this blogging thing is a good thing. I’m reminded of a novel I read in high school. I don’t remember the author or title, but I do recall the plot (sort of). It was a love story between a librarian and one of the patrons. But it was no ordinary library. This library accepted books and manuscripts from anyone who wanted to write one and submit it. There was no filter. The library grew larger and larger, but most of the books were never read. But that was not the point. It was not that the books needed to be read, but that they needed to be written.
This was in the early 1970s, long before the World Wide Web. This book, however, foreshadowed one of the key characteristics of the web; namely that it is an unfiltered, self-publishing domain where those who need to write can do so and hope that maybe someone will read it. It’s the writing, though, that’s important. And blogs make this easier.
About eleven years ago, I fancied myself becoming a syndicated columnist. So I started writing a weekly column and emailing it to about a dozen people (their request). It was called, “The Astolfi Theory.” I stopped after a about six columns. But now I’m back. When I mentioned my blogging intentions to one of my early “subscribers,” she looked at me and said, “This is sort of the fulfillment of a dream for you isn’t it?” Maybe. So, I guess I need to write, at least for the time being. And, thank you, dear reader, for staying with me this far.
One last “cool” thing about blogs is the reader can respond. I welcome responses, so feel free.
Blog on Dave, blog on!