Sunday, October 09, 2005

I dream of Bloggy

The other night I had my first dream about blogging (I also had a work dream wherein one of my clients from Relapse Prevention group--drugs and alcohol-- was at a party with me and told me he was going off to smoke dried boogers to get high. He said they were going to put some Scotch tape over the top of the pipe to get rid of that "academic" taste. I tried to tell him it wouldn't work, that I had known people who tried it, people who had also tried smoking toenails. My client insisted that those people just hadn't smoked enough boogers and that he intended to smoke those boogers until he was high, dammit!)Being about computers,it wasn't that exciting a dream. Actually, all I remember is going from blog to blog by clicking links and eventually coming back to the blog I had started from. I was overjoyed with the realization that all the blogs were connected by six degrees. This possibility thrills me in waking life as well. CF and I have had conversations about the internet being part of an emerging universal consciousness, and no matter your thoughts on that it does seem undeniable that something exciting is happening. Part of the intrigue for me is how quickly it's all started. Six months ago no one I knew had a blog. Then Dup, trailblazer that he is (see his purchase of an Mp3 player), got one, and within weeks I knew at least ten people with blogs. Crazy. Has any form of communication spread this quickly? Even email took longer, if I remember correctly. More importantly, has there ever been a more creative form of DIY mass communication? I personally know these two storytelling ... geniuses who have brought the serialized cliffhanger into the 21st century! And whoever said that freakin' slam poetry was the "savior of poetry" never dreamt of the blogosphere. Because if you hop around the links on poets' blogs enough, you'll experience my six degrees dream for real. And it's poetry that needs to stand the test of the page...well, the screen...the written word (not to degrade the slam scene--I had little actual contact with it--but it seemed to be more about performance than the quality of the words).

But now I'm afraid that this phenomenon is going to die as quickly as it started, and my first post's crack about Pet Rocks will prove true and bloggin' will be merely silly fad fodder for bad sitcoms in 2023. I hope not, but I'm noticing more and more time is lapsing between my friends' posts. Blade insists it's just the change of season--school, new jobs--and I hope she's right. Because like it or not we're living in cut-off times, and email and blogging can be vital ways to keep our social networks breathing. So, fellow blogger, take a moment now and post something...Just a little something...I'm checking out your blog ten times a day anyway...C'mon now...Throw a Pete a bone...

11 Comments:

At 5:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I do not have a blog, but I check yours periodically...I laughed out loud when I saw your link to boogers. Thanks. BY the way, this ain't a blog, but you should look at beedogs.com -- would you believe me if I told you there were even MORE beedogs?

 
At 6:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There really is something quite beautiful about how ubiquitous the written word has become, first, as you say, with email, and now with blogging. We're a literate people again, out here in hyperspace -- strange as that seems. I guess for me, this is a marvelous and revolutionary thing all by itself: language hasn't been completely vaporized by phones and TV. Whether the written word sticks around is anybody's guess, which definately adds to the strangeness of blogs here and now.

I only wonder why Blogger has kept their selection of blog templates so paltry?? What've they got, about a dozen different styles to choose from? Haven't they caught on to Nike's pick-your-own-color '80 retreads yet? Why can't you just pick your own colors and basic parameters? That this hasn't happened by now is, to me, very strange. Very un-Google (Blogger's owner) for a giant intent on apparently swallowing the world with a smile to keep us shuffling between the same couple of outworn templates...like we was chumps.

 
At 6:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of blogs, when is the US Beard team going to update its blog?

usabeard.blogspot.com

Lazy beard growin' weirdos!

t

 
At 5:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi pete. the other night i dreamed that you renamed your blog "shilo," presumably after the neil diamond story. if this seems like a made-up story, you can ask schreck - i immediately woke her up and told her.

xo,
fw

 
At 6:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, Pete! I really love to read your blog. It gives me insight about you. I feel like I am slowly getting to know you in a way that would not happen by just visiting with you at family gatherings. It's like having an ongoing conversation at the neighborhood coffee shop only we don't interrupt each other causing forgotten points.

I am glad I have such a clever and creative brother-in-law. My only concern is that you will discover that I am dull and unoriginal. Maybe if I didn't write things like this, you wouldn't find out so soon! I wish I could REALLY meet you down the street at the coffee shop!You can breathe a sigh of relief that I live too far away to do that.
:-)
Love you lots, KTS

 
At 10:26 AM, Blogger la Ketch said...

thanks for the link pete. i just posted something in your honor...

 
At 4:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks for blogging- i love to read them but can't have one myself-due entirely to my inability to remember one more fucking password.love, kays

 
At 9:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pete, I do not have a blog. I can not use the inability to remember a password as an excuse as all my passwords are the same and easily guessable as well. I am just too dull to have a blog. This may be evidenced by the fact that I can't even think of a new password. Please continue to liven up my bleary eyed life with more...yes, more...and I will contine to free load. (but with glee, and I hope that gives you a modicum of pleasure).

 
At 7:28 AM, Blogger Reb and Heidi said...

Oh dear god that smoking boogers dream is hilarious.

 
At 9:56 PM, Blogger philavox said...

So Pete...after posting my beef (above), I realized that maybe I was being a bonehead without realizing it...and, as it turns out, yup, sure was!

Because....

There are TONS of free DIY Blogger templates all over the net.

So here's two, in case you ever get the itch to customize:

http://www.erisfree.com/d2/apart.php
http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/

--which is not to say that your template isn't JUST RIGHT. Of course it is! I just needed to add a positive to my negative, because it's all about the balance, after all.

 
At 12:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is great... I was sitting at my pc waiting for some illegal downloads to finish, and rolling a smoke. I was also pickin' my nose for a minute, and I dropped a booger very close to my tobacco pile. The thought of smokin' a booger made me laugh, and I googled it and ended up here!! Lol...

Well, I'm done pickin' and googlin'...Later!

 

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