Random Blog Entry of the Day

Kevin makes his Oscar predictions:

I am off my game this year but the nominations are so god damn boring I could puke. Anyways here is the rest of my predictions/….

Best Actress – Julie Christie
Best Actor – Daniel Day Lewis (he used to be kind of hot)
Best Director – Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Best Picture – No Country For Old Men

Do you agree with these? 

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From Boi from Troy:

Since this story broke late yesterday, I have gone through a mix of emotions.

Leaving the locker room after my pre-Transportation Commission workout yesterday, the television headlines screamed, “NYT: McCain Linked Romantically to Female Lobbyist.”

Great, I thought.  Now that the GOP has no other choice, we find out that out “straight-talker” was a straight, pillow talker.  More than cheating on his wife, by trading sexual intimacy for access, the probable Republican nominee was, in a way, cheating on his country.

I was not happy with John McCain, as the story struck at the core of everything he claimed to be, and confirmed my suspicions of him as a less-than forthright man.

Then I actually read the New York Times story, only to find that, frankly, there was not much there, there.  Rumors and innuendo.  Nothing new had been dug up in months of research, the news is years not months old, and is something that should have come out before Super Tuesday.

I got even madder at the New York Times, as they had all of the information in this article when they endorsed John McCain–but at least they didn’t accuse him of being a man of integrity, as the candidate likes to claim for himself.

But in the aftermath, I am beginning to doubt McCain yet again.  For starters, by delaying any official reaction until overnight, McCain let the issue go through two news cycles unchallenged, and when he did speak this morning, he did not have the righteous indignation of an innocent man accused of cheating on his wife and country.  Cindy McCain looked more like Hillary Clinton or Tammy Wynette standing by her man than a woman who was in shock at such a revelation.

But the real kicker was the campaign statement which troubled me.

“It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

“Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.”

This kind of response now allows McCain’s critics to bring up everything from the Senator’s 24-year record of public service–dating back to the 1980’s and the Savings and Loan debacle, Keating, and more–all of which was well documented in the original New York Times story. How his involvement there does not constitute a violation of the public trust, I do not know.  Whereas he had once disavowed his past and changed his tune to criticize his actions as if he had learned from his mistakes, McCain’s campaign is now asking us to embrace those actions–which is a line I cannot bite.

The timing of stories like this is always curious.  Reliable sources of mine tell me that there would have been an even more salacious revelation about another GOP Presidential Candidate that never came out.  Given the nature of the story and the sources, I figured the mainstream media would wait until that candidate had secured the nomination before wasting such juiciness on him.  He did not win, and we may never hear the story.

If you can’t tell, for someone like me who cares very much for the future of this country and wants the people to have two viable choices in November, or at least maybe one tolerable one, it is all very frustrating, but I am sure we’ll know more…and luckily, if there is fire behind this smoke–as there often is–we’ll have the convention in September to sort things out.  Are Newt or Rudy still available?

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From Jestertunes :

Dave over at The Watters Edge sent me an email yesterday morning asking if I would check out his latest post.

Hey Jester, Would love your opinion on a post I did today since you are one of my favorite opinionated gay bloggers. –Dave

Since flattery (and gifts) gets people just about anything they want, I clicked over to the post and discovered that he had written about a situation that had taken place out here in California this past week. I’m not sure how much coverage it got in the rest of the country, but out here the news was all over it between yet another Hilton DUI and Britney Spears picking up kleenex at Ralph’s Grocery.

There was another school shooting, this time in Oxnard. Unlike the “typical” scenario* the shooter was not a lonely outcast who had finally grown tired of being picked on. This time the shooter picked his victim on purpose, because the victim hit on him.

Both the victim and the shooter were 14 year old boys.

From Dave:

[The victim, whom we will call] Bob went to school in full makeup, wore feminine clothing, and hit on other boys at school.

The boy that shot Bob, was quiet, had never been in trouble before and obviously couldn’t deal with Bob’s advances.

But wait, there’s more.

Bob was a ward of the state. Bob was a ward of the state against his father’s wishes. Bob was taken out of his home at Bob’s request by family services because Bob’s father “did not accept Bob’s lifestyle choice” and would not allow Bob to go to school in full makeup and feminine clothing.

The state encouraged Bob to express himself with the makeup and the clothing.

It is my humble opinion the the state greatly contributed to the death of this minor.

I have to disagree that the state “greatly contributed” to his death. I’m actually quite impressed that the state recognized the importance of Bob’s situation and agreed to remove him from his father’s custody in the first place. How bad must Bob’s life with his dad have been that before the age of 14 he successfully petitioned the state to escape? In other states, wouldn’t the answer have been, “Tough shit, kid, you’ll be 18 soon enough?”

If you want to fault the state for something, fault them for failing to fully recognize the real dangers faced by gay and transgendered teenagers. But I don’t think that was a “great” contributing factor to Bob’s death.

Dave addresses the blame that must be placed at the feet of Bob’s father:

He should have had a better rapport with his son and let him know that people are scared of what they don’t understand and can react violently to things they find unusual.

Yes, he should have. However that would have required Bob’s grandparents to instill that belief in their son, and so on further up the chain. Most of us raise our kids how we were raised. We pass on the bad habits and attitudes of our family unless we make a conscious effort to break the cycle. Even with that conscious effort, many abused kids still become abusers. Is Bob’s death his father’s fault? No. Bob’s shitty life was his father’s fault. The fact that Bob had to ask the government to help him escape his father is his father’s fault. The fact that Bob’s father could not realize the special needs his (probably) transgendered son had is his fault.

Ultimately the shooter has to be held responsible for what he did. But he was 14. How responsible can you find a 14 year old for anything? Just turned 14 by the way, 1 week after his 14th birthday is when he did the shooting and will therefore be tried as an adult by the state.

I have to fault his parents to a large degree. How can you not know your child is so wound up about something that he’s going to kill someone? Where did the kid get the gun? (I haven’t been able to find out yet) If he didn’t get it from home where did he get the money? Guns are not cheap.

How anti-gay was the home this kid was raised that he’d shoot a kid that was hitting on him?

A 14 year old boy can (in most cases) father a child. A 14 year old boy can get married in some states. A 14 year old boy can understand and comprehend that pointing a weapon at another living thing and pulling the trigger will result in the harm or death of that living thing. A 14 year old boy knows that there are consequences for his actions. Has he never been punished for anything in his life? I do not believe that the shooter had any question in his mind that it might be wrong to kill Bob. He made what I would call an adult decision and should therefore face adult consequences. I don’t believe there is any “magic age” that should determine the readiness of a person to commit a crime, drink a beer, drive a car, or have sex. I understand the need to legislate it, but I don’t believe it’s a very effective system.

The shooter’s home life may not be that “anti-gay.” It could simply be that the shooter’s family is simply “gay ignorant.” It’s possible that his parents had never approached the subject of homosexuality with him. It’s more than possible that the shooter’s family had never really even discussed sex or for that matter drugs, smoking, or any other “adult” theme with their child. I think the shooter’s access to a weapon is definitely something that can most likely be blamed on the parents. The fact that this kid was having such difficulty with the sexual advances by Bob and those difficulties weren’t noticed or addressed by his parents is definitely something that can be blamed on his parents. How can you not realize your child is so upset that he could literally kill someone? How can you not provide your child with the education necessary to understand people who are different from you?

The state took the child out of a safe home because the kid wanted to pursue a lifestyle choice. Being gay is not a lifestyle choice. Wearing makeup and feminine clothes is a lifestyle choice. You can be gay and wear regular clothes and no makeup. Would the state come and take a girl out of a home because her parents would not let her wear makeup and slutty clothes? Absolutely not. Would the state take a boy out of a home because they did not let him drink booze and do drugs? Absolutely not.

Bob was fed, Bob had a roof over his head, Bob was not beaten or abused, he had rules that he didn’t like and the state had no right to take him out of that home.

I think Dave is working from a faulty starting position here: if Bob was transgendered, dressing in feminine or girl’s clothes and wearing makeup was less a “lifestyle choice” than an external expression of an inner torment. I doubt seriously that Bob wore makeup to piss people off. I doubt seriously that Bob enjoyed the torment that he surely suffered at the hands of other 8th graders. If the state recognized that Bob was not able to get the evaluation and psychological counseling that transgendered individuals need, they absolutely did the best thing for Bob by removing him from a home that could be emotionally and mentally abusing him. It’s not the same as not letting him drink booze or letting a girl wear “slutty” clothes.

Dave says that Bob was not beaten or abused, but is that the same as saying that Bob was in a nurturing or healthy environment? No, it’s not. Without a bit more information it’s hard to conclude that the state was wrong to remove Bob from his father’s care. I have to assume the case for removal was quite compelling, as the state does not historically, arbitrarily, decide to separate kids from their parents.

Finally comes the blame the victim mentality. Bob should not have hit on the shooter. To this I say, Bob should not have hit on the shooter after the shooter had rejected initial advances. But this was not the case, Bob, even after being told to stop, continued to harass the child that shot him.

This smells a bit like the “gay panic” defense to me. We will likely never know to what extent the shooter was “harassed” by Bob. Did the shooter take an odd look as a sexual advance? What was said? On how many occasions? What sort of encouragement did the shooter give Bob? In my experience as a gay teenager, I had to have a written engraved invitation to get the confidence to “hit on” a guy. I can look back on times when in retrospect I’m CERTAIN that a friend of mine was asking me for sex and because of my fear of being outed (and rejected) I ignored those not-so-subtle come ons. I think it’s far more likely that Bob expressed interest in the shooter, either directly or via a friend and the shooter became so embarrassed and humiliated that he felt he had no choice but to murder Bob.

Plenty of blame to go around. But if you are a parent the way you can avoid something like this happening is to let your children know, there’s nothing wrong with being gay, and how to properly resolve conflict. Be a role model. Treat even the people you hate with at least a modicum of courtesy and respect, to show them that you try and treat people even those you hate the way you’d want to be treated.

Finally a point that I feel like I can completely agree with Dave about. Even if you want to teach your children that you (and your religion) believe that homosexuality is wrong, the overwhelming point should be made that violence and hatred is never acceptable. A gun is no way to settle a conflict. All people, even those who are different from you, deserve respect. There’s a reason “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you” is called the “Golden Rule.” It’s supposed to supersede all other rules!

While a tragic confluence of errors and bad parenting contributed in some ways to this unfortunate situation, the blame is laid squarely on the shoulders of the 14 year old shooter. He made the decision to take a life in cold blood. He had the forethought to bring a weapon to school. He had hundreds upon hundreds of opportunities right up to the moment he pulled the trigger to change his mind. He had presence of mind to devise a plan to carry out this murder. His parents, Bob’s father, and especially Bob should not be on trial.

If Bob had simply been another “normal” straight kid who made an enemy at school would we be having this discussion? The fact that we have to explain that Bob was homosexual or transgendered in an effort to find meaning in the shooter’s actions shows how far we really have to go to find acceptance, even among the gay community.

What do you think?

* I hate that there’s such a thing as a “typical” school shooting.

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From Rich Brown:

You know it's funny because Justin and I often get exuberant praise from people once they find out how long we've been together (over 7 years now.) In the straight community it's not a stretch when people have been together for several years, however in the gay community it's treated almost as a golden anniversary for every year you make it past the first.

I'm not going to lie and say maintaining a relationship is easy because if it was there would be many more long term gay relationships in our community. Relationships, straight or gay are difficult, ask just about anyone. From meeting the right person to figuring out how to get along together without killing each other, it's a complex equation which some people never manage to solve.

I bring all this up because usually after the exuberant praise from people comes the question "What's the secret to making it work?" I've always offered up numerous reasons of how it works for Justin and I and how we've managed to stay together for so long , but when I was thinking about this the other day I finally came to a conclusion of the real reason why it's worked for us for so long. Simply put, we're best friends. I know that might sound a bit too simplistic, but it's really the umbrella for having and maintaining a successful relationship. Because we're best friends we enjoy many of the same interests, we absolutely love hanging out together, and most importantly we communicate with each other. I'm not saying that you should be in a relationship with your best friend because certainly we didn't start out as best friends, however I do believe that if you can grow together as best friends then your relationship will have a good chance at success.

I know that's a simple answer to a complex problem, and I'm not saying that's the end all be all answer. Obviously there are more factors then just being best friends, but it's one hell of a good start. Every gay couple (and happy straight couple for that matter) that Justin and I know who are in long term relationships all share this one common thread, they're best friends. They do things together, love being together and understand the importance of communication. I truly think that after the honeymoon phase is over, if you can’t look at your partner and see someone who is becoming or has already become your best friend, the possibility of maintaining a relationship with that person for the long haul is very slim.

So many people have the wrong idea about relationships. They classify their friends and their partner into separate categories. I’ve even seen many people treat their friends with more common courtesy then they afford their partner. (I can’t say I haven’t been guilty of this myself at times past) Aside from all other requirements of a relationship, if you and your partner treat each other with respect and as friends, nearly anything is possible together.

I’m not trying to come off as if Justin and I have the perfect relationship because we don’t, just ask our friends who balk as us every time we bicker in front of them. I’m not sure if the perfect relationship actually even exists. Like a small child a relationship is a beast of its own nature and it changes over time as do the needs of the individuals in it. A successful relationship requires constant nurturing, commitment and attention. It also requires that both people come to some agreement regarding the combined expectations.

Justin and have had our conflicts over the years but we’ve always managed to get through the tough times and make it work. It’s no secret to anyone that since the beginning we’ve had an open relationship. Our arrangement brings its own complexities to our relationship, and while it’s not something I would advocate for everyone, the arrangement seems to work for us. Trust me when I say that Justin and I have been criticized by many regarding the way we handle our relationship, but it’s always been by the people who can’t seem to maintain anything long term themselves. I usually just laugh to myself and think that if we’re so wrong in our choices then how come we’ve managed to remain best friends and together for nearly a decade. But I digress because that’s a topic better left for another post.

Everyone has their own expectations with a relationship and a belief of what symbolizes a successful relationship but at the end of the day if you look at each other and know that you’re truly happy and in love, then you’re probably looking at your best friend. Cheers and Happy Valentine’s day.

Random Blog Entry of the Day

Noticed on In the What?

I'm the authority on having a not shitty blog because I have a shitty blog and know just how it's done. Rules:

1. Nobody gives a shit what you ate for breakfast or what song you're listening to or any of that livejournal crap. Unless you saw Mary in your cornflakes or built a really cool Cheerios empire WITH PICS save it for the old folks home.
2. Do you use your blog to complain about the same problems that you can't fix because you're emotionally inept? The internet is not your shrink or your diary or your mom.
3. Don't post porn. It's 2008 and unless we are 12, we already know where to go to see all the free porn that we want so don't post pictures of your stolen porn because you probably only like boring stuff like half the porn-posters do. If you have a porn blog you get a pass.
4. Don't post artistic porn EVER EVER. First of all, going on about how pornography is art and the beauty of the human body isn't original and it doesn't make you edgy like your overexposed myspace pictures of your eye do. Most of it sucks, and we don't want to see lame colorized shots of shaved plastic statues staring into middle distance like they got punched between the eyes.
5. Are you posting about how good your haircut looks? No it doesn't.
6. Don't write about politics if you're an idiot.
7. Kev says: Don't talk about your boyfriend, nobody loves him but you.
8. If you MUST talk about your boyfriend, don't refer to him as your "sweet cookie face" or I will come to your house when you are sleeping and barf on your pillow and eat live scorpions beforehand.
9. Are you writing something only your friends will understand? Do only your friends read your blog? Do you spend all your time making awards in MS Paint and cycling them around the same 10 people? You don't need to blog, you need to go to the mall.

1. Do you link to me? Good, that makes you have a good blog.
2. Are you posting over and over about the tricks you bring home and how you keep in touch but OOH FEELINGS and it's SO DEEP and now you don't talk anymore and the same thing cycles every weekend? That's SO interesting, but next time, try sleeping with someone with more than three chest hairs and remember not to blog about it.
3. Do you use your blog to snark back at people who leave you bad YouTube comments on your crappy videos? Good, keep it up, you are funny.
4. If your blog is very sad, remember to make it red and black and have lots of pictures of fairies with torn wings.
5. If what you're posting has been posted on a gazillion other blogs already post it anyway but don't act like you're original and made up the ideas yourself.
6. Kev also says: Oh add pictures to all your entries and don't use too many words because no one likes to read. [I don't follow this rule but I have a shitty blog so it's ok.]
7. Last, if all you can think of to do is post camera phone pictures of yourself and your sunglasses and hats collection, don't think we're impressed by your style and you look like a bug.

If reading these rules made you out of ideas for what to write, you have a shitty blog and you can be in the club. I'm president.

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From Protean :

Published in the February 1, 2008 edition of QSaltLake.

I write these columns about whatever’s been on my mind right before a deadline. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about loss. All kinds of loss: lost love, lost loved ones, lost dreams, lost experiences, lost youth, lost hope, lost expectations.

Loss is a huge part of living. Despite what a lot of people think, it’s not a bad thing – the fact that something could go away when you don’t want it to gives that thing value. If nothing could ever be lost, you’d never be in a position to gain anything.

One of the most obvious forms of loss is death, and this type of loss has the greatest emotional effect on me. In a recent nursing school clinical I cared for a patient who had recently been diagnosed with a fatal form of cancer – the same kind that took my grandmother. I lost her ten years ago and yet, when I heard my patient’s diagnosis, something rolled over inside of me. I realized how this very same diagnosis had affected my life so many years before.

But sometimes loss isn’t so dramatic and final. I feel that when we date – or put ourselves out there in any way – we are prone to experience loss. Often times when you meet someone and start to get to know them, you have great hope for what the future could hold for you. But all too often, things don’t go as we want. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there is still a sense of loss, even if we understand logically that things weren’t meant to be, or wouldn’t have worked out. That’s just what happens when expectations aren’t met.

Loss comes in many degrees, shapes and sizes. It can be wrapped up in a person, an experience or a secret hope. And all of these variables affect the impact it has on a person. Loss is different for everyone, and nothing you feel after a loss is wrong or inappropriate. Most of how a person experiences loss is internal, not something a lot of people get to see. This is why it's important not to measure how you experience loss to how others experience it. It’s the actions we take after a loss that are most important.

A friend recently suffered a very significant loss, one that is on a level I have never experienced. In struggling to figure out how to support her, I’ve come to accept that, after sustaining such a deep loss, she’s existing in a place that I simply cannot be. In certain ways our losses isolate us. They put is in a place that demands we find a new perspective.

Acknowledgement of a person’s loss can have a significant impact as he or she grieves. When my grandpa died I felt completely disconnected from the experience. But as the police-escorted funeral procession made its way through the streets of the small town where my grandparents lived, total strangers stopped what they were doing and stood silently as we passed. The firefighters, who were out in front of the fire station washing their truck, stood tall with their hands on their hearts. These people didn’t know my grandfather, nor could they see the faces of my family members behind the tinted glass of the cars. These total strangers stood in acknowledgement of a life they knew nothing about and a family’s loss they were not experiencing. It touched me then, as the memory of it still touches me today. That experience reconnected me to the world as I was experiencing it at that moment.

To finish, I’ll share something I wrote to the friend I mentioned earlier: Take all the time you need. When you feel like crying, cry. When you feel like you need to be alone, be alone. Give yourself what you need. And when you need to, ask others to support you as you seek what only you can find. As you said the other day, the world just keeps on going no matter what. The world will keep on going but it will not leave you behind. The experience you're living every day is one that will speed you ahead of the rest of the world. It will progress you past many of your peers and drop you in a place that will allow you to experience life more fully and in greater depth. Live it with all your heart and don't be ashamed of the pain.

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From the Twinklboi Diaries :

Wow, I’ve now been blogging for 4 years, I just realised! 4 Years ago I decided to start writing random post about my days and from that started this blog and also my podcast.
So, here’s a few random snippets from the last 4 years of my blogs!

March 25th 2005

OOOO-OOOOO-II!!!

Since I was 8 i remembered a song that was kinda ravey, and i could only remember the tune like “oooh oooh iii”, since then i had been searching and trying to find what the song was…in the end i gave up…then, last night I was downloading a kate bush video (for laughing properties only) I stumbled onto cloudbusting and was watching it and suddenly i heard that tune that had been in my head for 12 years, i kept playing it back over and over, and then tried to find other mixes of the song with no luck….i was almost ready to give up, thinking that it was probably something rare that i’d never hear again, then i typed into google “kate bush samples cloudbusting”, had a look around and stumbled onto a webpage about a group called Utah Saints, i was at the point of switching off when “ooh ooh ii” caught my eye, then i read the article, utah saints used the kate bush sample and pitched it up and down to get the effect, UTAH SAINTS, and with the info i set about finding the tune, Got It! and haven’t stopped listening to it yet.

The grin on my face hasn’t gone yet, hehe!!

I’m trying to do some music using samples and stuff at the moment, seems to be the year for sampling musicwise!!

Nite x

Another?

October 27th 2006

Loud Ass Mother Fuckers [mobile]

As I was waiting for the bus home a gang of about 10 teenagers galloped past me while shouting, and i quote “arbury massive” followed by “we are loud Ass Mother Fuckers” and while staring at them walking around with their cans of stella and making sure no eye contact was made, I thought to myself…loud Ass Mother Fuckers? More like Dumb Ass Twats, another reason why this city sucks is because people like them are allowed in a civilised society, almost home now! Lol, another thing is when people try talking to people on the bus and its obvious that they don’t care and aren’t listening but are smiling uncomfortably, haha

More?

December 24th 2004

Christmas Eve

I’m still not in the so called christmas spirit, i’ve had baubles shoved in my face since October, OK!!

Where i work its more about ripping off the general public at the hardest time of year for them,screwing them for every last penny and getting them in debt, and unfortunatly they can legally do this!!

Store cards and Insurances, providing a “piece of mind” when the corparate fatcats line there pockets with the gold of insecurity,

Ladies and Gentlemen, I work for a part of the GUS group.

The management are all fucking retarded, every single one of them, and i hope they read this!!
Oh well, the clock just clicked to midnight.

*IT’S CHRISTMAS*

Ok, one more!

October 21st 2004

Twinkles Illness and The Birth of Paradox

Before you all get excited, the title of todays blog is not a forthcoming book! I’m ill at the moment, sore throat, headaches, sickness, etc…..so i generally feel like crap most of the time and have been feeling this way since sunday  on a positive note though, i have been working on my alter-ego Paradox Vortex, visit the site for more details and promo clips videos and such…in fact loops will be available for 24 hours today  though i don’t think anyone will download them, lol!! Bushwhacked has been going well and is almost finished, yay!! I got an e-mail for the guys at digital cutup lounge in response to using there track on Bushwhacked too, i love there stuff, they were responsible for the madonna wtf project, and my favourite track “Material Bitch”

ciao bella xxx

There we go, a lil bit of history, have a look through my older blogs, see how I’ve grown! 

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From Volaciousnet:

I’ve been blogging for almost 5 years now. I first started in 2003, and this post marks my 600th entry. I’ve read a lot of other blogs, and have met some great friends, in fact out of the good friends that I still talk to, a significant portion are bloggers.

So I wondered the other day.. what makes a good blog? I haven’t really discovered what the secret recipie is yet… obviously, as we say in the television industry, Content is King. But what content makes something readable and keeps readers tuned in? This is what I’ve postulated… feel free to mention if I’ve missed any key ones….

Sex. It’s no secret that sex sells. It’s at the core of any type of populist marketing. Tasty pictures, whether tasteful or pseudo- porn, always catches the eye. Sordid tales of sexual encounters also rates highly, spare no allusions! Let’s face it,even if there’s nothing else that the gay community agrees on, sex will always bring them together! Personally, I am not a fan of sites that are mostly porn, but mostly because I can’t read them at work
Religion and Politics I was going to class Sex, Religion and Politics all together, as these are the three forbidden dinner-table topics, however sex does deserve its own heading. You can avoid religion and politics as long as you feature hella sexy boys. However, these latter twin demons are always so controversial, it’s likely to spark a debate no matter what you say.

Original Ideas
I would say out of all the blog posts I read each day courtesy of Google Reader, only 25% of the new posts really say anything new. Even if it’s a common topic that’s being thrown up, I’ve noticed that I get attracted to people who offers forward a different take on it. Even if it’s completely whacky… sometimes the best reads are the wierdest!

Honesty
The best blogs speak from the heart. If the writer is passionate about something, chances are it will make a great post! There’s nothing worse than a blog where you know the writer is being fake, or trying deliberately to self-promote. There are several blogs on my list that lack the first three attributes mentioned, but I am enthralled by the way the writer’s character comes through in his or her dialogue.

Comprehension
I don’t think this can be stated enough… a good post can be really destroyed by writing like an eight-year-old. I think many people (including myself) would find it difficult to understand let alone respect the opinion of someone who appears barely educated. If one is blogging for a cause, believe me the best writers are the ones that get noticed and quoted!

Engage the Readers
Some people write only for themselves, and those that have a “conversation” with the reader tend to gather huge reader bases. Whether you write inflammatory posts or not, I find readers feel more valued if the writer replies to comments. Maybe it makes the writer seem more like a friend than a distant publisher? Sometimes comments from readers can be even more entertaining than the article itself!

Regularity
The most successful blogs I’ve found have regular content. Most likely readers will become bored, or moreso lose that “connection” with the writer if they don’t hear from him/her in a long time.

Well, those seven are for starters anyway. Although I’m terrible with many of those points (particularly the last one), those seven seem to be common factors in the blogs I read. So I’ll leave it there, and hand it over to you…

What do you think makes a good blog?

Random Blog Entry of the Day

Noticed on Electro-Plankton :

 

There's this perception that global warming is a cyclical event so we're damned if we do, damned if we don't. Problem is when that cycle is unnaturally hyper accelerated, many ecosystems can't adapt and mass extinctions occur. The above image is Greenland today. 10 years ago, this entire area would have been covered in an ice sheet.

It seems the island is finally living up to its name.

 

Random Blog Entry of the Day

From The Spicy Cauldron :

This is the first meme I’ve been challenged to undertake in 2008, and my lovely Canadian friend Sue is to blame! The title says it all. My problem was narrowing the number down to just seven—and, of course, one person’s weird is another’s everyday normality. It’s all normal to me… but here goes…

1. I speak in something akin to glossolalia when talking to our cats on many occasions. It’s my own personal nonsense language which seems to have its own bizarre syntax—at least, certain gobbledegook words emerge enough times for me to recognise what they mean. It’s not dissimilar to what a lot of women report themselves as doing when entertaining their babies.

2. I have an allegedly extremely rare cognitive balance disorder called Mal de Debarquement Syndrome or MdDS for short. It has no known cause or cure, but many people develop it when getting off aeroplanes or boats, failing to recover their ‘land legs’. My own situation is even rarer as I have spontaneous MdDS—that is, I hadn’t been on a boat or plane back in 2004 when I first began exhibiting symptoms. The disorder or collection of symptoms was first identified and named back in the late 1980s.

A series of 27 cases reported in 1999 noted all but one patient to be female. The average age was 49 years. As I am male and the condition started when I was 36, it is clear that statistics often mean bugger all.

I used the word ‘allegedly’ because it is thought that a huge number of people living with MdDS are never diagnosed or, in some ways much worse, they are misdiagnosed.

3. I collect Doctor Who action figures. I don’t really see this as weird because if people collect china, or teapots, people don’t seem to notice. For some reason, they do when it’s anything to do with toys and you happen to be a grown-up. They see it as very weird indeed.

4. My hair has been dyed or bleached every colour and shade from bleached white to jet black ever since I was 16. I currently do not dye my hair but will no doubt do so again at some point in the future.

5. I never seem to have enough pets. Our home is currently shared with five cats, two cockatiels, three large terrapins in a five-foot tank, and a more modest tank of tropical fish. These will be joined at the end of March by four ex-battery hens—I’ve just finished building their coop—and within a month or so after their arrival they will in turn be joined in their wooden palace by at least four other purebreed hens who will never have known the horror of life inside a small cage. The photo I’m using to illustrate today’s entry is one of our latest recruits, who happen to be twins. This one is Jasper Morrissey, because he’s lovely but prone to bouts of melancholy, reminding me with this trait of his now-departed predecessor, the much-missed Lord Belsham.

6. I use my iPod as a divination tool—set it to shuffle, see what tracks come up, think about how I can apply the lyrics to my situation.

7. I knew how to read and write before ever attending school, as I wrote a story in backwards writing on my first day there and the teacher had to use a mirror to comprehend the otherwise nicely-rounded and clear handwriting. I wrote backwards for several months, and it is thought this is because I am left-handed. I can still write backwards easier and quicker and without errors when compared to right-handed people attempting to do the same. My parents did not teach me to read or write. They did, however, read to me from an early age and it was when they bought me comic books they realised I seemed to be reading them and not just following the stories from the pictures.