April 11
Well, hello! I checked my stats last night, and saw that someone from my very own work place was reading--right at that very moment. Granted, I have no way of telling exactly where this person was coming from, but still--I wonder. Who are you, random person? You were reading for quite a long time. I don't so much mind people from work reading (again, I have no idea that this person was actually sitting in my office reading my page or off at some workstation on the other side of town) because when I start minding who all is reading, then I have to start being more selective about what I tell and that'll just lead to a boring time for everyone. Anyhow, if there are new readers from the story in the Register (which I find utterly impossible to believe--being called a "Sassy Lass" not withstanding), welcome. I have gotten almost no reaction to the whole thing, which is kind of what I expected. No one in my office or anywhere around me have stormed up, tossing scalding water in my face for the wrongful things I've said. I got no ominous calls from people who are able to fire me. All in all, I'm not sure why I even bothered, other than to flummox my mother ("You do WHAT? Oh my god, they used your grandparent's names!!") which really wasn't something I'd set out to do on purpose.
So, anyhow. If you're new, welcome. If you've signed up for my mailing list, welcome (if you haven't, you should know that I've only sent out ONE message, and it was FILLED with secrets--all about YOU. That's right--YOU, right there. You know you want in now.)
I got some shady sounding email this morning. Tell me what you think:
Dear Dana:
We are creating a TV pilot about blogging. We want to bring this phenomenon of personal expression to television for the very first time, and have been scouring the web for appropriate sites. Your web site seems like a potentially great fit for the show.
If you would like to be a part of our pilot, you can do so by submitting a video that encapsulates you and your blog.
Whatever you want to say and show in your video is fine. The key is to capture the essence of your blog in video format, and if it's interesting enough, we'll include it.
If this is something that you want to participate in, please go to our web site for more information, and follow the instructions.
Signed,
The people who sent this mail
Well, first off--I don't write a blog. No matter how many times I say this to people, no one seems to give a shit. I'm trying not to get snippy about it, but for christ's sake. If you want a show about BLOGGING, oughtn't you go after bloggers? Secondly, I can not imagine what the video would have to include to encapsulate me and my blog. I mean, seriously. Maybe I'm lacking some vision here, but my life isn't exactly a multimedia adventure of epic proportions. 45 minutes of Angelo and Eleanor and I eating lunch and scratching scratchoff tickets at the table, with me saying "We could be sitting on a fortune, here!!" doesn't exactly make for a heart-in-your-throat adventure. By the same line of thought, I can't imagine how a blogger could make their page seem better than it is. "Here are the pages I surf when I'm looking for kooky/insightful/zany/political links to include! Now, here's my cat, Fluffers! Everyone say hi to Fluffers!!"
This, of course, is not to say that I wouldn't be interested in someone giving me a tub of money to CONSULT on such an endeavor. I'm chock full of great ideas about how to make a show about On Line Journals (sorry, BLOGS) more interesting than it would be to read my page for a full half hour. Can you IMAGINE if I blathered on long enough to make an entry one half hour of reading enjoyment? Heh, me either.
(Note: If this thing actually happens, and it includes only journals and bloggers I think are utter crap, won't the last laugh be on ME?!)
So, I spent a few days in Brooklyn. I had been formulating an entry about how nostalgia is strange, and how I feel like I fit there because I always will, but that the fit isn't exact and I don't know whether I've outgrown the place or the place has outgrown me, and how, as I walked down the street I stopped dead in my tracks because I got the exact right smell of what Brooklyn smelled like to me in my memories. Things change, obviously. There were no marines armed with machine guns at the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel when I grew up.
All I can think to say about it is to quote a Bryan Ferry lyric, from a song called "New York City" but with the disclaimer that I think he got it backwards:
'you can burn it out of your blood/never out of your mind'
Have a nice weekend, everyone.