Let me quickly answer your first question, which is:
"why on earth are you doing this? blogging is lame!"
And perhaps after a few entries or a few weeks---whichever comes first---I will see the light and come to agree with you. But many of my friends and relatives are using blogging as a creative outlet of expression, albeit with varying degrees of success (this has more to do with the shallow and obtuse personalities of the bloggers themselves, not so much the actual blogs). For the last few years, Facebook provided me with way to link to stories and to publish a diary of sorts. I actually started using Facebook as a means to really irritate someone with whom I went to Northwestern University, whose smug and misguided nonsense began to get under my skind. So I began a quest to see if I could really piss him or her off enough to actually "de-friend" me on Facebook. And I would draw some degree of satisfaction knowing that he/she was reading my posts and about to explode.
Also, a handful of books have been written about the emergence and subsequent power and relevance of the blogosphere. My favorites include:
Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World
by lawyer, Professor, conservative talk-show host, and activist Hugh Hewitt... a
ndAn Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths
by Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a 2nd Amendment lawyer and a Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee.The first blog to have a significant impact on our lives was the infamous Drudge Report, a blog operated by Matt Drudge devoted to news and current events. Please note that I am willing to be corrected on this fact. I am not an astute follower---nor do i care---of the pop culture/paparazzi/Hollywood narcissism/obsessive-fandom industry that is US Weekly, People Magazine, and their ilk. So I don't really know whether PerezHilton or TMZ has been around longer than that, as reluctantly as I am to concede their popularity.
Okay, that was a long disclaimer...hold on..since I am at the cafe, let me order another round....
Drudge gained its prominence by scooping news stories about the Clinton Administration and its missteps when the mainstream media was, at the very least, asleep and the wheel, and at its very worst, "protect a Democratic Administration" mode. Since the Drudge Report began, blogs of various stripes emerged and began to challenge the status quo on just about everything. Perhaps the most influential blog in the last five years or so has been the DailyKos, run by liberal activist Markos Moulitsas, which has blossomed into an enormously powerful fundraising, grassroots organizing, and idea-generating machine for the Democratic Party and whose contributions enabled and catalyzed their recent electoral successes. What's interesting, to me at least, is that nary a politician, newspaper, magazine or student, professor, or any citizen really, lives their life without some casual reference to some blog somewhere. It just doesn't happen. And the ancien regime knows this. And they are paying attention (no i am not a revolutionary, far from it).
The long and short of it is this: rather that be a passive observer of the blogosphere movement, I have decided to join it. Im not really sure where this is going to go, nor to I really understand how to use the blogspot.com editors very well. So why not, right?
I am going to abstain right now from giving a lengthy description of myself or views. They should become readily apparent as I discuss each topic. So.....here it goes! I will hold you close, if you are afraid of heights (thanks Incubus)
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