New Friends and Old Friends

Following are links to the thoughtful posts that four good friends
prepared in response to my intrusive question.  One of the things I
love about the world of blogging is that every morning there are
brilliant kids in the sandbox, ready to play.  If you do nothing else
for yourself today, read these posts and subscribe to the feeds of the
following four bloggers.

Stu Savory…

Brian Moffatt...

Mike Golby…

Dean Landsman…

Thanks to all the new friends and old friends who are working on this ill formed project with me this month.  If you haven’t seen your contribution yet, then that’s because I’m saving it for Thursday or Friday, or because it’s referenced below under the "Read More" link!

Anne Mathewson, formerly of fishbucket.net, and now blogging at ample sanity, shares the following:

The
simple answer would be with a more than modest degree of
tongue-in-cheek humor and an xtraordinary amount of quality
link-sharing. But is anything really that simple?

Some have
called my blog a portal. Others have referred to it as a linklog. And,
of course, there’s always those few who blink and stare, then retreat
quietly. It is my own contention, however, that i fall into the
as-yet-untagged classification of Personality Blogger.

While i
would prefer that readers visualize me as sharp-witted, youthful, and
trendy - an Americanized version of the Harajuku girl, if you will - in
truth i’m generally sitting here in a ragged tee and leggings whilst
downing rather large quantities of diet pepsi, something with a high
alcohol content, or mood stabilizers - depending on time of day or
frame of mind. As for sharp-witted, that’s pure unadulterated sass held
somewhat in check by the knowledge i may wish to blog again tomorrow.
In Safety. Youth? If by "youth" one means "old coot with a face full of
wrinkles which continuously send out party invites to their friends"…
then hell yes, i’m youthful. And herein lies my first response to your
query: i blog with great stealth.

Preparing an entry is
somewhat difficult. Not in construction, but time-wise. Often i find
myself distracted by the remarkable things one finds on the interweb,
those little intellectual stimulations. You know… the two Chinese
students lip-synching the Back Street Boys or animated bunnies
re-enacting A Christmas Story in thirty seconds. Like that. My second
answer to your query: i blog slowly.

Which leaves us with the
one thing bloggers need most - inspiration. While my current blog is
quite young indeed, i’ve actually been blogging for many years. There’s
a secret most of us old-time bloggers use to tap into our creative
juices. A little trick i’ve used successfully for more than four years
now. I put my husband’s underwear on my head, pull my long hair through
the leg holes, then dance, talk out loud and think. Okay, perhaps it’s
not precisely the same formula you use. I mean, some of you obviously
do not have husbands. Close enough though, eh? Therefore my final
response would be: i blog with style.

ummmm…

There’s
something i’m wondering. Something most bloggers my age are probably
wondering right about now. What did you ask us again?

Tamar Jacobson wrote…

Sitting at my desk.
Early in the morning.
I light a candle and some Nag Champa
Cup of coffee steaming next to me.
Cats in attendance.
Stories,
tales overflowing to be told that get me off the treadmill, out of the
shower, straight from my bed. In preparation for a post I rummage
through old papers, sift through photographs, scan, search the
internet, read other blogs, newspapers, magazines. Sometimes I take
notes when thoughts spring up in my mind, as I drive to and from work.
Mostly I write directly onto the blog. Sometimes I prepare the post
ahead of time on Microsoft Word. Often I weep as I write. Sometimes I
like to read it aloud to myself to get a feel for how it sounds. Ideas
or outlines are mainly in my head. Very seldom do I know ahead of time
how the post will turn out.

Often, after I am done my voice is hoarse for the whole day.

Many
people, on their own blogs, have posted their own responses to "How Do
You Blog?"  I’m tagging these posts "howBlog" on del.icio.us.  (And, in
compliance with Murphy’s law, del.icio.us is down, even as I type
this).  Drawing the conversation closer together here, the following
links are provided….

Feckless corporate scammer that he is, Bruce blogs at work.

...how
I do it is, first I shirk my official duties, I drink my coffee and
read my favorite bloggers, progressive sites, and other assorted
weirdos. I follow links. I read news stories.

Joel Sax blogs anaphorically.

Robert Yocum blogs The Life of Robert from Redlands, CA.  He uses a computer, a keyboard, a monitor, electricity…  he’s an RSS link troller.

Elaine of Kalilily blogs late at night under a full spectrum light.

Steve Sherlock, writing on the "Synergy" group blog, says,

Bottom line,
A list or long tail…
starting with a keyboard or a pen or a microphone…
no matter the technology for capturing or delivering…
in the beginning was the word…

Actually in the beginning,
the thought came before the word!
The thought begat the word,
the word begat the publication,
the publication begat the conversation

and the conversation goes on.

Steve has an even more personal and revealing post on his own blog, "Steve’s 2 Cents."

Winston Rand, from "nobody asked," creates a whole new poetic blogging/unordered list genre with his response:

HOW DO I BLOG?

Let me count the ways…

• Early and late, with coffee or wine…
• Spontaneously… Though there are piles of books, mags, research
  materials and ideas all around me, most of what gets posted is what
  strikes me as I sit down…
• Deliberately… Even the spur of the moment spewing is done with vigor and purpose…
• Open-ended… There is rarely anything I write that is complete… Always another thought… Always another ellipsis…
• Directly into WordPress default editor which sucks. When I have the time…
• Comfortably…rarely in the nude…often in my BVDs…
• Eclectically… No single focus… Perhaps a sign of ADD?
• Seriously… Death, dying, aging, family matters…
• Humorously… Tongue-in-cheek, dryly witty, gross under- and over-statement…
• Good enough… To keep me coming back…
• Not good enough… Few read, fewer comment, nobody cares. But then, nobodyasked…

And
ever the earnest, self-conscious, and somewhat abrasive figure… if
you loved him in your comments, you’ll give him a standing O at his new
McDMcBlog, the anonymous McD comes through with a passionate commentary.  I read Rebecca Blood’s interview with Glenn Reynolds
and Glenn allowed as how when he first started blogging he was more in
your face and he didn’t adopt his more laid back smirking style until
he was more comfortable with the medium.  I prefer the in your face
stuff myself, so McD… "Bring it awwwn!"