Several bloggers have added recurring word for today entries to their weblogs. Being a word-a-holic, I always stop and read those. One of the most interesting currently is at Blah3.
Word of the Day
tri-kai-dek-a-pho-bi-a
n.
An abnormal fear of the number 13.
Wanna take bets on whether there's a White House briefing today? My money says no.
Another source of new words for me is the Scrabble game on my Palm Tungsten C. The latest, Version 1.2 , which is from Handmark, contains a usable dictionary. One can actually look up words and get a definition from Merriam-Webster. Earlier versions of the game were not nearly as neat. If you haven't upgraded, do.
And, yes, George W. Bush does strike me as the kind of person who is superstitious. He is someone who avoids thinking, and that personality type often likes shortcuts that make thought unnecessary.
(Pause.)
I thought I had Stevie Wonder's "Superstition," in iTunes and I do. The perfect song for this entry, eh?
Filmmaker and blogger Brian Flemming has launched a blog ad campaign too promote his movie, Nothing So Strange. That required thinking about what blogs are and do.
Blogads are fun
"Nothing So Strange" is running Blogads to promote the DVD release. Because I actually know what a blog is, I have been put in charge of this particular portion of the ad campaign. It's an awesome responsibility.
I had lunch with Blogads proprietor Henry Copeland this weekend, and he gave me some excellent advice on running the campaign. Henry told me not to try to communicate too much information with the ad, as tempting as that might be. Don't underestimate the 'wtf?' aspect, he said. So I'm trying to create simple ads that create curiosity. Nothing So Strange has a densely packed website, so there's no reason not to let the website do the work.
Article comments
1 - Mac Diva
I've gratuitously inserted an ad for my blog friend Brian Flemming's movie Nothing So Strange into this entry. I hope other Blogcritics will do the same in entries of on their own blogs. Brian is our friend. Let's help him out.
2 - TDavid
I checked out through Bitpass and wrote a Nothing So Strange review but the review received zero comments. I'm guessing this was in great part because I'm one of the few folks here who has actually paid to see it.
It was only later that Brian mentioned in another thread that he'd even seen the review. Odd, considering I originally posted at my blog and trackbacked to his blog and then republished here later.
Have you actually seen this mockumentary, Mac Diva? Or are you just promoting it to show support for a friend?
3 - Mac Diva
I've only seen excerpts, though Brian is sending me a DVD. I can't offer critical analysis. What if the movie stinks? I probably won't write a review. I've looked away from boo boos of writer friends in the past, so there's kind of a tradition.
4 - Shark
CAUTION:
TODAY'S MAC DIVA "ESSAY" IS:
1) Yet another shameless attempt to stay on the "leaderboard" by pasting together a few paragraphs using the glue of her moronic restatements of the obvious;
2) an attempt to suck-up to Brian Fleming, since she's gonna need a few smart allies if she chooses to MESS WITH ME;
3) A thinly veiled attempt to MESS WITH ME.
4) More "insights" from the Original Original Thinker:
• a 'word of the day' ala Readers Digest;
• this brilliant line: "That required thinking about what blogs are and do" from the original blog theorist herself;
• "The worst form of the blogging blues is when the blogger just doesn't feel like blogging." (Dr. Laura meets Steve Jobs)
• out-of-the-blue personal tidbits: "I had to send my Titanium PowerBook G4 to Apple to be repaired..."
• Egotistical, self-referential closing: "I haven't succumbed to the deep blogger blues for long enough to affect the viability of Mac-a-ro-nies. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed."
YEAH, so are the readers.
PS: Brian, send me a DVD! I can't blow like MD, but I'll give you a massage.
5 - Tom Johnson
The worst form of the blogging blues is when the blogger just doesn't feel like blogging. I used to wonder why some bloggers disappear for days, weeks, months or altogether, with not so much as a good-bye in some cases.
Don't forget that "real life" also gets in the way sometimes. Unless you are one of the very, very few for whom blogging is somehow your career, this is done purely for your own entertainment (no matter your aims or subject matter - you don't do this unless you get some satisfaction out of it.) Sometimes you just run out of time.
I also think a lot of bloggers feel an obligation to write something everyday, and that obligation leads more often than not to forced, stiff, boring, and pointless entries (the "I'm having breakfast right now" types of posts.) I'd rather check in with someone's site and find a good piece of writing every week than find some tossed-off sentiment everyday. But then, for me, blogging isn't about logging your travels around the web - it's about the people and the bits of their lives they reveal to readers through their sites. Links are great from time to time, but I'd really rather read about you. Otherwise it's just like reading a report - and given the writing skills of the majority of bloggers, not to mention the fact-checking "skills," that makes for some painful reading, far too often, unfortunately. Give me something good and thoughtful - an opinion, feelings, whatever - over a bunch of links and facts anyday.
6 - Dirtgrain
Well said, Tom.
I do see value in "link entries" as well. Often, I feel myself wanting to find others who have a similar outlook on life. Yes, you can find this with personal blogs. But I also find this with link blogs/news blogs. In making news-blog entries on my blog, I'm trying to point to things that others who are like me would be interested in. And I add commentary that is often personal--and if I'm lucky, insightful.
When I first started my blog (last November), I listed it on various sites. Often, I had to distinguish my blog as either a news blog or a personal blog. This pissed me off. My blog falls into both categories. I'm not going to artificially limit what I write based on anybody's pre-existing standards for what a blog is. Rather, I proceed with my own purposes and let my blog fall where it may.
7 - Mac Diva
One of my favorite guest entries is about personal blogging. It is on A Skeptical Blogger's site somewhere. I am not much of a fan of blogs that are exclusively personal. I suppose there might be a way to do it so that it doesn't seem like endless navel gazing, but I don't know how.
I don't know whether everyone on the thread is familiar with the take it easy on Fridays trend that caught on in the blogosphere last year. Many of us post light entries that day. It is also the official Cat Blogging Day. The Calpundit annointed that and it caught on. The above is a Friday entry. I would encourage people who want more substantive fare to check out my list of entries at Blogcritics or go read my blog. There is plenty of meaty material there, including several symposiums on legal issues and series on important cases.