Multiply 365 Day 143 - Blogging for dummies

It all starts with a blank page, not unlike the one I am beginning with right now. What happens next is really anyone's guess. For those that haven't figured out what it is I am talking about, it is how I blog. I wish I could sit here and say there is a lot of planning and mapping out, with splashes of extensive research thrown in for good measure, but that is not really what takes place.

Usually there are two types of blogs that come out, one in which I have a clue and one in which I don't. The easiest blogs are the ones where I have a clue, something came across my radar screen, maybe a news story, maybe something that just struck me through the course of a day, but a germination of an idea is there that I can work with, and like clay, mold it into something that is worthy of being put on a page and posted.

The harder ones are where I don't have a clue and I have to create something out of whole cloth so to speak. I just sit down at the computer and bang on some keys and hope I am the millionth monkey that bangs out something that is readable. Whether that is truly the case I suppose is up to you the reader, there are surely some things that you take a quick glance and say that your time is better spent elsewhere. Other times I get the genie in a bottle and something magical happens. At least magical by my standards, which means it is better than it had any right of being when I first started.

Just because the method I approach the blog would leave a lot to be desired from those that would call themselves writers, or worse bloggers, doesn't mean that there aren't a couple of standards that I try to live by while on the page. If I am approaching something of a factual nature, then it is my job to get get the facts right, or as right as I can get them. For me that means staying away from those sources that I deem questionable in favor of more credible outlets. So you will not see me citing what are obviously biased outlets (WorldNetDaily, Media Matters, etc.) or kooks (Alex Jones, Jerome Corsi) unless the object of the piece is purely ridicule of said sources. There are far more reliable places from which to get information that aren't so obviously agenda driven. In an ideal world (which is made moreso by having access to the internet) I tend to take the advice of my old time radio partner Jerry Bowyer, who instilled in me the fundamental principle of using the actual source material whenever possible. So if a post has to do with a bill before Congress, I will make the effort of at least making myself familiar with the bill, rather than relying on someone's interpretation of it. For me that is just common sense, which I find is more lacking by the day as laziness has become the rule and not the exception.

If I am approaching a topic that is more my opinion on something, the standards don't get lessened, if anything they are more strict. Because in order to have a solid world view of things, there has to be a consistency with the argument and a reason for believing what I do. It pisses some people off, those looking for me to kiss a particular party's ass, but if I can't a core set of principles for myself from which to branch outward, then I really have nothing to fall back on. So when Republicans start bandying about the argument of smaller government, I can't help but laugh, as they supported the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, one of the largest expansions of government in our nation's history. Likewise when I don't hear Democrats complaining about the detainees being held at Guantanamo now, when they spent 7 years bitching about it when President Bush was in office, again I laugh. I am not going to have my opinions, or this blog, blow in favor of one party or the other just to keep a friend or two. It's just not how I roll.

None of the above means I can't be wrong, I am human after all (well unless I am feeling God-like, then all bets are off), and I surely welcome criticism where it is warranted. Heck it is one of the best learning tools out there, either in being able to defend a position or in recognizing when I may have run off the reservation as it were. I can't be right all of the time, can I?

Of course anything on the page has to be interesting to me in some way, shape or form. I realize that means not everything I write is going to be everyone's cup of tea (my glogs will never be all that popular, I get that) but I can't be all things to all people. So you will never get a blog from me on something like gardening, because that subject just does nothing for me. There are plenty of places out there that are better suited for people looking for that type of information and while I am sure I could make myself familiar enough with the subject after a few years of reading, it just doesn't have enough of my interest to be devoting years worth of time to just to come up with a blog entry or two. There are limits to what I will and will not do for the page. As I argued very early in my blogging career, blogging is for many people, myself included, the illusion of work. That by sitting down at the computer and banging out a few sentences here and there I have actually accomplished something of merit, when in the grand scheme of things I almost assuredly have not, I just spent time doing this rather than something else. Sure there are some people who can make a career out of doing what I am doing, or who at least use this type of platform to augment that which they are already doing, but for the most part if people were truly honest with themselves, they would realize that blogging really isn't work. That doesn't meant I don't like reading their stuff, I tend to be an avid reader after all, and I always love taking in differing styles of writing and reasoning, but I also try to keep blogging in its proper perspective. We aren't exactly reinventing the wheel here.

And through all of the above, some how, some way, I try to come up with something that is entertaining or informative on some level. Some days it works, and I still go back and reread those entries from time to time. Other days, not so much, but hopefully even from those entries I can pick up a thing or two so that I might write better next time. As I sit here on day 143 of a self imposed 365 day project I can only hope that the scribblings are getting better, because I know my typing isn't. Speaking of which, now would be a good time to check on that very same typing and see how many fixes are needed.

So while I do that, you do whatever it is you do and maybe we will do this thing again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and so on and so on.