If You Wanna Sellout You Gotta Follow The Rules...

*Note: All links in all posts on this blog now open in a new window or tab. I learned how to edit the template so that this would happen without having to go in and ad the target=” _blank” for every single link I wanted to post RIGHT HERE.

So, my friend Gnetch, who has a really awesome and hilarious blog “Thank Goodness for the Good Ones” (I assume she's talking about me when she says “The Good Ones”) posted a screen grab of the rules for AdSense over on her Tumblr blog.

You know, rules always ruin everything. Obviously, I would never be approved to use AdSense because I violate almost all their rules. Especially the offensive language, violence and gambling rules. In fact, it pisses me off that they have those rules at all. Why? What's the point? Advertisers don't want to be associated with gambling or drinking or dirty pictures? Pussies.

Oh and, speaking of rules, I apparently have been breaking some unwritten rule about how we shouldn't be linking to our or other people's Tumblr blogs or talking about them or some crap like that. Oh well, the worst kinds of rules are the stupid “unwritten” rules.

So anyway, I saw Gnetch's post about AdSense as the same time that I was listening to Marc Maron's latest WFT Podcast. He was interviewing Joe Rogan and one of the the topics he was discussing was “selling out.” In fact, you could really hear the anger, bitterness and jealousy (mostly the jealousy) in Marc's voice as he was talking about Joe's alleged selling out by hosting “Fear Factor.”

The reason I connected those two things is because a lot of people consider putting ads on your blog to be selling out. They think you lose your integrity as a blogger, not to mention your street cred, when you sell ads. I agree that some people do. I think Avitable blogged about this recently too. I'm pretty sure he talked about people being able to stay true to who they are and not start blogging towards their advertisers and crap like that. I agree with him on that. But, ads don't bother me on blogs and I think that some people can put them on their blogs without changing who they are or what they blog about.

Oh BTW, you should totally check out Avitable's podcast CYR. You can listen live on Wednesdays at 8 pm central, or listen in the archives.

Anyway, if you can put ads on your blog, and not stop being true to yourself and suddenly become really bland and corporate, then go for it! The only thing I can't stand is when people do a blog post about a product or place or whatever that they're being paid for and they don't tell anyone it's an ad. That's deceptive and it's taking advantage of your readers and blog friends.

I know if I got the chance I'd be a sellout and I'd put ads on this blog. Obviously, I wouldn't be using AdSense since I violate most of their rules, but if someone else wanted to pay me for an ad, I would do it. Hell, I'd even accept ads from something or someone I hated.

Like say Mitt Romney wanted to put a “Mitt 4 President” ad on here and was willing to pay for it. Maybe enough for a decent night at a strip club. I'd do it. Then I would go ahead and trash him anyway. Hell, even if he emailed me and said he wanted to put a bigger ad, with maybe some flashing lights on my blog, and he he would pay me enough for a week on the Redneck Riviera down in Florida at a condo right on the beach, I'd be like “How much room do you need Mormon Boy?”

I don't think I'd lose any integrity or credibility by doing that. I would if I accepted an ad from him and started saying that I supported him though. We all know that I probably never support that guy for any office.

Not that any of this really matters because I don't get enough traffic here to actually be able to put ads on my blog anyway.

You know what? Just typing that about Romney made me really depressed. The 2012 election is right around the corner and it's gonna be the worst ever. GAWD, the thought of Obama v Romney/Huckabee/Palin/Gingrich absolutely makes me want to hurl. Is there ANY chance that it won't be the most horrible campaign ever? Is there any chance that our choices won't be the most depressing ever?

Just thinking about it makes me want to go William “D-Fens” Foster on Redneckville. Or go out and beat up a homeless guy. Or at the very least grabbing an underage hooker and running off to Vegas to play some blackjack and bet on sporting events.

Damn, another blog post that would be rejected by AdSense. Crap.

Blogging Milestones ...

So, this is my 1,200^th post and last week was my 5h blogiversary. Cool huh?

Five years! And people say I have a problem with commitment. I guess I showed them!

It's kind of hard to believe it's been five years though. I think one year in blogging probably equals five years in real life. So, I'm actually going to consider this my 25^th blogiversary. Which is REALLY impressive.

I guess this is where I lament all the people who have come and gone over the last five years here in the bloggerhood. Some I'm still in minimal contact with, but many have just moved on completely and left us “internet people” (who apparently aren't REAL) people behind. I'm not gonna lie, it does hurt a little when people do that, but I'm not gonna focus on them.

I'm just gonna keep on keeping on and even though I've said many times that I'm going to get back to posting more often, I really do intend to do so. Starting … soon. Ha! I'm kidding. Starting next week. Maybe tomorrow, but let's not rush things.

I've often said here that one of the biggest surprises of blogging was that I met and made some kind of connection with people from all over the world and different cultures. That still holds, although some of those people have moved on and I haven't done a great job of keeping those connections going either. But, hopefully I will be better about that in the future too. As well as be better about finding new bloggers to read and meet and have virtual sex with in my dreams become friends with.

And yes, I've said that I didn't want this blog to be nothing more than a place to pimp “I'm With Stupid.” Something I've done a terrible job of doing since I've only been posting twice a week lately meaning that half my posts have included a promo for the show.

Which BTW, can be heard every Thursday night RIGHT HERE! This week Matt-Man and I discuss the fun and games of unemployment. We preview the State of the Union Address and will have another installment of “Matt-Man's Moment of OCD” and much, much more!

So don't forget to listen live and hang out in the chat room or just listen through your mobile device, or in archives 24/7 on the right side bar or on the show's page on BTR. Or you can always download the show and listen on your favorite mp3 device.

And, just to give you a little sample of the amazing hilarity and fun, here is my special interview with God from a previous show...

Yeah, I know, it's almost four minutes and you're just too busy. That's okay. Also, I need to find an audio host that will show up in Google Reader so people aren't forced to click over to the blog to play it. What's up with that?

Which reminds me. I also mentioned that I'm going to do some audio posting and vlogging again this year and I haven't done any of that yet either. But, I will. Still working on how I want to do it. Do I want to make is sound podcast-ish or just do a little audio file? I'll figure something out.

So anyway, happy 5^th 25^th Blogiversary to me!!! Let's have a party!!!

Why Do You Blog?

To write?
To stay in touch with friends and family?
To join the national discussion?
To talk about a specific topic like sports/TV/music/food etc?
To try to influence others?
To give your underrepresented side a voice?
To bitch and rant?
To entertain?
To try to make a little side money?
To try to become a professional writer?
To strengthen your personal brand?
To connect with people from other places and other cultures?
To find members of the opposite sex who are not your wife or husband to get busy with?
To brag about how awesome you are?
To brag about your absolutely perfect kids who never do anything wrong and make perfect grades?
To trash your husband and give commenters the chance to do the same?
To show off your artistic talents?
To avoid having to pay for therapy?
To make yourself do something creative and keep your brain working?
To create a daily record of your or your family's life?
To chronicle your swinging lifestyle.
To celebrate your favorite celebrity in a slightly creepy/stalkerish way?
To make yourself a better person?
To make friends who will up and disappear on you and really hurt you?
To have something to do when you're bored?
To expand on the ideas that you've been tweeting about?
To be discovered and become famous or get a reality show?
To become famous for getting fired because of your blog?


Also, are the reasons you blog today the same as when you started? If not, why not?

You don't have to answer right now if you don't want to.  The reason I ask is Matt-Man and I have decided to add a new "Blogger of the Week" segment to "I'm With Stupid."  We're hoping that many of you would like to come on the show and do a short interview about why you blog and your blogging experiences and all that stuff.  We may not do this every single week, just when we have someone willing to come on.  So, anyone want to be interviewed on internet radio and become a BIG STAR???  Email/DM/Call me or Matt and let us know. 


I would also answer that question if I could.  Right now I don't have a definitive answer as to why I blog.  I mean yeah, it's mostly about trying to make connections with people and especially people from other places and cultures.  But, I'm not really being that successful at that right now.  I am succeeding in the whole "making friends or connections with people who up and disappear" thing.  But, I think that's just part of the blogosphere and everyone experiences that. Otherwise I don't really have any specific reason why I'm blogging right now.  Maybe I'll try to figure that out sometime soon.

Anyway, here's a pretty funny promo I made for "I'm With Stupid" using some snippets from Lebron James' new ad...

Some Observations On My 4.5 Year Bloggiversary...

First, a quick conversation I had with the check out chick at Walmart:

Her: Do you want this Kit-Kat bar kept out?
Me: No, just toss it in the bag.
Her: Are you sure? It’s so hot that it will probably melt in your car.
Me: Just toss it in the same bag with the milk and frozen veggies. That’ll keep it cold.
Her: You are so smart!!  I’m going to have to remember that. That’s such a good idea!
Me: I’m glad I could help.

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So, this last Saturday was my 4 ½ year blogiversary.   This blog started on Jan 12, 2006.  Seems like only yesterday.  Anyway, I thought I would celebrate my 4 ½ year blogiversary by listing 20 observations about blogging.

1. People are very sensitive about things that they like.  If I don’t like what they like, they tend to get defensive. 

2. Boobies are popular.  Especially Giada de Laurentiis’ boobies.


3. People love to give others advice on how to blog and/or twitter.

4. There are lots and lots of really creative and funny as hell people out there.

5. But, Trolls are sad and pathetic people.

6. There is no observation #6.

7. Strippers that I’ve met in real life are way more friendly than strippers I’ve met on blog and Twitter.  I understand that they have to be careful because of all the creeps and Judgey McJudgersons out there.  But, they should know how much I love them and be my friend.

8. 90% of bloggers are super awesome people. Even the mommy bloggers.

9. If I write a blog post celebrating “curvy” women I’ll get tons of love.

10. If I write a blog post celebrating “petite” women I’ll get lots of grief and even an email telling me that finding petite women (especially Asian women) attractive means I’m basically a pedophile. 


11. So that 10% can be kind of annoying.

12. Sometimes commenting is more fun than writing the posts.

13. It’s amazing how open people can be when they write about their lives and their, um, activities. 

14. It’s almost impossible to stay anonymous in the bloggerhood.

15. I don’t really get the blogs written from the point of view of the family pet thing.

16. Man there are some really damn hot blogging babes out there.

17. More than 90% of my hits are coming only from the US and Canada. I’m finding it much harder to make connections with people outside of the US and Canada than when I first started blogging.  I don’t know why. 

18. People love lists.

19. Sarcasm is something that is either hard to convey through blogs or some people aren’t very good at picking it up.

20. I continue to be amazed at people who can produce quality blogs every single day.

Bloggers Meeting Bloggers?

So for the first time ever I met a real live blogger! In person!! Can you believe that? And which blogger was it? Was it one of the hot, sexy, smart and all around exciting babes from blogland?

Uh, no. It was Vinny Bond.


But, he did bring the beautiful and charming Nancy with him...



How cool is that? Vinny and Nancy were up here in the area and he sent me and email. Most people would have tried to sneak in and out of the are without my knowing. But, Vinny isn't the type to do that! Against his and Nancy's better judgment, he let me know they would be here Sunday Morning.

So, I drove over to the town of my birth, Yellville, Arkansas, population 1,312 (saaaaaaaaaaLUTE!) and we met up in the parking lot of the Harp's grocery store. From there we headed up to Hilltop Family Restaurant and had some breakfast and chit chatted for a bit before they had to head on back towards home.

It was really cool meeting my first real live blogger in person. And it's pretty cool that it was Vinny and Nancy because they are both so terrific! Come on back anytime guys.


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In other bloggers meeting bloggers news, did you guys know that Lorelia Gilmore Starr is planning a Blogfest 2010 in Atlanta? Well she is. No she doesn't live in Atlanta, she is just planning on being there and wants all the cool bloggers to be there. Wait, if she wants the cool bloggers, then how did I get invited? Well anyway, it's in July of next summer, which seems like a long time off, but not if you're the type to plan out your blogger meet ups in advance it isn't!

There's even a cool logo...


And a Facebook Group! How awesome is that? So, join the group and start making plans. This meeting other bloggers is cool.

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In news about THIS blog, I finally gave in and put the Follow Me thingy on my sidebar. I've been resisting putting it on there for a while. Then one day I decided I should do it. Then I came across Hit 40's blog and her 974,309 followers or whatever it is and decided I wasn't worthy.

But, last Friday rxBambi asked where she could follow my blog. And hell, when someone named Bambi asks where the follow gadget is, I go and get it and put it on my blog.

So, feel free to follow way so I won't look like some loser with no friends.

Kaylia's Book and My Rules ...

First of all Kaylia’s book has been released!!! Check it out on Amazon! Go buy like a dozen copies of it and give some of them away to friends and family.


Congrats Kaylia. That’s is so awesome babe!

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In other blog news, have you noticed that Google Reader has added a “Like” option?


I’m sure they did this a long time ago and I just recently noticed it. I’ve also noticed that nobody has ever clicked the “like” button on any of my posts. Anyway, I think I like the Facebookification of Google Reader. Of course, like Facebook, they don’t have a “dislike” option. Which is okay, I guess, cause we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

--

And since I'm blogging about blogging, not too long ago Avitable posted his "Rules For Blogging." Since then I've seen a number of other people post theirs. So, I figured what the hell, I'll do mine.

1. These are MY rules. Not rules I'm trying to push on you. Quit being so God Damned defensive all the time.

Okay, that wasn't really my first rule. But, I had to put that up there because I know there will be SOMEBODY who will make some whiney-ass comment about not knowing there were rules or some stupid shit like that.

1. I will almost never post more than once a day.
2. If I have nothing to post, I won't post anything. I'll never put up a post that says "I don't have anything to post."
3. I can't possibly comment on everybody's blog every single day. When I don't comment on yours, don't take it personally.
4. If you post multiple times a day *looks at Gary*, I will probably only comment once. That doesn't mean I won't read the other posts, I just won't be likely to comment on all of them.
5. If you truncate your posts in reader, then I'm less likely to comment everyday. And, if you truncate posts in reader, and post multiple posts per day, then I'm probably only going to read the one post that I comment on.
6. If you make it hard for me to comment, I'll be much less likely to comment. So, if you use a comment system that takes extra effort, or doesn’t work in all browsers, then don’t whine if I don’t comment that often.
7. I cuss. I'm not writing for the NY Times or whatever. I will not be censored. If my language bothers you, then you will have make a decision as to whether or not you continue to read my blog. I won't take it personally or hold it against you.
8. If anything I write here causes you to get your panties in a wad, then get over it. If you have a serious disagreement with me, or what I write, feel free to articulate your disagreement either in comments or via email. Don't run to your blog and write one of those childish "Some bloggers ... blah blah blah" posts.
9. If you take every single thing I say here seriously, then I can't help you. If you've been here a while you know that I'm sarcastic and like to mock people. Believe me, there won't be anything written here aimed specifically at another blogger.
10. If I'm making fun of people you like, or people who you agree with politically or anything like that, then grow up and realize that we all have our own beliefs and opinions.
11. I will not reply to your blog post via Twitter or Facebook. I might refer to it if I have already commented, but I won't not comment and then say "Good post!" or something else lazy via Twitter or Facebook.
12. I try to reply to all comments, but I'm not very good at doing that. But, I assure you I have read them, and very much do appreciate your taking the time to comment.
13. If you stop visiting my blog, it's very possible that I'll stop visiting yours. Or I will stop commenting. If you haven't come by my blog in a couple of weeks, don't send me an email asking why I haven't come by and commented on your blog.
14. If I consider you a "blog" or "online" friend, then I consider you a "real" friend.
15. If occasional photos of cheerleaders or very attractive females in skimpy outfits, but never nude, bother you, then you've come to the wrong place.


16. But, I will never post nudity or porn here.
17. If you consider pics of women in skimpy clothing "porn" then well, that's your somewhat narrow minded opinion.
18. Just like David Letterman, I have and will continue to have sex with members of the Staff of Cynical_Bastard.
19. I will delete comments that I believe are offensive or racist or bigoted, or any comment that personally attacks another commenter.
20. Since I put this list of rules together in about 20 seconds, I reserve the right to modify, add to, break or selectively enforce any of these rules on a daily basis.

Blog Roll Schmog Roll ....

See that blog roll over there on the sidebar? Well take a good long look because it’s about to go bye-bye. I haven’t updated the thing in months. It’s just lying there like a dead carcass festering in the sun, drawing flies and stinking the place up. There are blogs on there that are dead. There are blogs that have gone private. There are blog on there that I don’t read and they don’t read me.

Instead of sprucing the whole thing up I’m just going to light some dynamite underneath it and blow it all to smithereens. It’s basically useless anyway. And if you want to take me off your blog rolls because I’ve taken mine down, you are more than welcome to. I think giving shout-outs to new blogs that I come across would be better than a blog roll. I don’t know the last time I’ve checked anyone’s blog roll anyway. I find new blogs through comments and shout-outs.

I’m following Dianne’s lead on this one. She courageously said the other day that she was ready to just take her blog roll down and now I’m going to be all supportive and do the same thing.

--

You know I'll be honest with you guys. I can't seem to come up with all that much to blog about. I sit here staring at the computer screen hoping that inspiration will strike, and the only thing that does is usually gas. Some days I get out the camera and set it up thinking I'm going to do a vlog and .. I got nothin'. I do the vlog and then play it back and then delete because it sucked so bad.

I've considered blogging about ...

- How much I think I hate Facebook.

- The incredible, shrinking republican party.

- OMG! I’m sooooo embarrassed that we have President who put mustard on his cheeseburger! Ahhhhhhh! We’re an embarrassment to the whole world! *rolls eyes* Really republicans? Is that all you’ve got?

- Some left-wing groups are busy engaging in some activities in Arkansas that is straight up harassment of citizens exercising their rights.

- Sasha Cohen has decided that she WILL compete in the 2010 Olympics. I only mention that so I can post these pics.



- I'm actually kinda enjoying a lot of the NBA playoffs just as long as I don't watch the Lakers. God I can't fucking stand those guys.

- I'm totally bummed that Robert Rodriguez's remake of Barbarella staring Rose McGowan isn't going to be made.

- Miss Homophobe USA California and Bristol Palin?


- Steroids in baseball is still only a major scandal for the sports writers who love to be outraged and indignant and non sports fans who hate baseball anyway. The fans just don't give a shit. Cheating has been part of baseball since day one.


But you guys don’t to hear about any of that shit. So I don’t know what to blog about.


Oh hey, this is kind of cool …

A man who is a graduate of the University of Arkansas is now the President of Panama! How awesome is that? My fellow Razorback. At first I thought this meant that I had a chance to be president too. Maybe one of the Central American countries. Preferably one without death squads though.

But, then I decided that I would prefer my own island. You know, a place where the weather is warm and the rum is flowing and the beaches are topless. Yeah, something like that would be nice.

I think I’ll call it Jaymanistan. And everyone here is welcome to come live under my benevolent dictatorship. Who wants to move there with me?

It's Not My Style to Complain, But ...

Now, I would NEVER criticize anyone's blog here. I know a lot of people spend a lot of time blogging about how crappy other people's blogs are. I wouldn't do that. If I don't like what someone is saying on their blog, I just don't read it.

But, there are a few things that get on my nerves and I just can't stay quiet about it.

I gave up the fight against word verification a long time ago. I still hate it, but have come to accept that that is a losing argument.

I thought I was starting to win the war against comment moderation, but it looks like the tide has turned against me on that one. I keep coming across more and more blogs that do that. I totally understand that some people have legitimate reasons for that, but for most people this just isn't necessary. I will still try to fight this, but like I said, I seem to be losing.

I haven't complained too much here about people truncating their posts in their feeds in Google Reader, thereby FORCING us to click on their blog to read the whole post. Again, if you're blog has ads and you need the clicks for the ads, then okay, fine. I'm actually cool with ads as long as they aren't intrusive or pop-ups or anything like that. But, for all the "I just blog for myself and I don't care how many hits I get" crowd, I don't understand why you truncate posts. If you don't care about hits, then let me read your blog in my reader. But, I'm sure this one is a losing effort too.

However, there is one thing I'm going to bitch and whine about a lot. I keep coming across blogs that have very light colored text on very light colored background. Good God this is annoying! I don't care if I'm the only one here who has a problem with this and can't read the damn blog because the text doesn't show up against the background or not. I'm going to complain often and loud about this. Light pink text on a light pink background? Or gray text on a white background? Sorry, I can't read your blog.

I guess that light text thing is okay if YOU DON'T WANT PEOPLE TO READ YOUR BLOG. But, otherwise it is the #1 thing about blogs that is annoying me these days.

Actually it kind of reminds me of some of those design shows on HGTV. You know the ones where a designer focuses more on aesthetics than actual functionality of a room. They remove the TV and ceiling fan so you just sit there and sweat and stare at the wall. Or they put the couch facing away from the fireplace, so you're cold all winter long. Well, that's what light colored text on a light colored background is. It looks pretty but it's fucking useless.

I feel much better now that I got that out of my system.


And, I just can't let this go. Message to a certain governor who gave a "response" to a certain President on Tuesday night ....




We might want to keep an eye on those things. You know, they could like, blow or something. And we might want to, oh IDK, be able to warn people who live in their general area that they are about to blow.

Heck, you never know, but someday that "volcano monitoring" that is a total waste of taxpayers dollars and sounds silly, might even give us enough warning to evacuate 30,000 U.S. military personnel and $250 million dollars worth of military equipment from the path of, say Mount Pinatubo should it decide to erupt. What’s that, that ALREADY HAPPENED? Oh yeah. That hokey “volcano monitoring” thing kinda worked out pretty good huh?

Look, you can say that the stimulus bill was full of all kinds of wasteful spending. I’ll agree with you on that. And you can say that money for volcano monitoring didn’t belong in that bill. It should be in some other kind of appropriations bill. You might be right about that too. But, Gov. Jindal didn’t say either of those things. He mocked volcano monitoring as some kind of hair-brained, loony idea dreamed up by some Godless science-believing, commie-loving, terrorist-supporting homo liberals.

Out of more than seven hundred billion dollars, that’s the ONLY scab he could pick at? Good grief.

Hell, even the Libertarians believe that the gov’t should help to protect our citizens against natural disasters.

Delurking Day and Blogiversaries ...

Delurk people!

Today, well Monday January 12, 2009, is National Delurking Day! You know what that means, right? Yup, delurk yourself in the comment section here and say hello! We’re all nice people here, even RockDog over there is a nice guy. Nobody is going to hurt you or be mean. We love everybody.

So take a minute to say hello. Then go around to all the rest of the blogs you read and say hello to them too. And then come back here and go to each of the blogs over in my sidebar and say hello to them. And then come back later and click through the comments to other blogs that might not be over there on my sidebar yet and say hello to them.

And then lets all have a glass of wine, or shot of tequila or beer or a glass of chocolate milk and toast each other.

There, don’t we all feel warm and fuzzy now?

Seriously, though. It’s National Delurking Day. So do it. You know you wanna.


I myself actually have a few blogs that I haven’t commented on yet. I shall go and do so today.

BTW, today was determined to be National Delurking Day by Rude Cactus. Hey, somebody had to take charge of these things!

--

♫ Happy Anniversary bay-bee … got you on my .. mi-ind! ♫

Today is Cynical_Bastard’s THIRD blogiversary or blogbirthday or whatever you call it.

I’m twee *holds up three fingers* .. twee yees old.

I think it’s pretty cool that my blogiversary would fall on National Delurking Day. That gives you even more incentive to delurk and tell me how much you love me. Or send me naked or suggestive pics. ;-)

Or tell me what an asshole I am. Either way, do it!


So, lets do a quick review of some of the things that happened in the bloggerhood last week, shall we?

Dianne posted about the latest conflict in Gaza.
Dana posted about some ninny who wants more expansion of the Nanny State.
Emmeline had a really great post about dating or marrying or having a serious relationship with someone who has VERY different religious views than you. Say like a devout Christian dating an Athiest.
Vinny Bond had a good discussion about a dude kicked off a flight for his t-shirt and the lawsuit that followed.


And what did I contribute to the bloggerhood last week?

A picture of a grown man wearing a diaper and holding a teddy bear.

Ahem. Yes well. We can’t all be substantive and serious now, can we?

There really never has been any real purpose of this blog. I guess when I started the posts were a bit more serious. Some political stuff, some (anti)social commentary or whatever. But, as time went on it started to be more about connecting with and interacting with other bloggers. I started finding that I really preferred the back and forth with others and actually getting to know people better than the actual blogging. Especially people with much different views, backgrounds and cultures than me. And that led to my Myspace, Facebook and Twitter pages.

I know there is always a lot of talk in blogosphere about “real friends vs internet or blog friends” and I don’t really know the answer to that one either. I do consider many of you to be a “real” friend, even if we’ve never actually met. But, it’s still a pretty complicated subject. I guess basically we all get to know each other only as well as each of us lets people get to know us.

Which is why it is so sad when people stop blogging. ESPECIALLY the people who just disappear. They just up and stop. No explanation and no response to emails. Assuming that there is an email address that we can try to contact them with. Just this last few months there have been a number of people who decided to quit blogging. I totally understand that you have to have priorities and sometimes it stops being fun and life gets in the way. I’m cool with that. But, I still miss them and it still bugs me when they just disappear or whatever. Kinda goes back to that “real vs blog friends” argument and shows that everybody has a different view of who is real and who is an internet or blog friend.

Also, over the last couple of months things have slowed down here quite a bit. I just seemed to have lost my blogging mojo. I’ve had a case of blog constipation that I can’t seem to get over. I’m always amazed at people like Matt-Man who can not only blog just about everyday, but actually post a GOOD blog everyday. With the slowdown has also come a pretty big decrease in readers. But, that’s okay too. I guess.

Maybe something will happen and I’ll snap out of my blogging malaise. Or I won’t. But, one thing I do want to do is find more blogs and blog friends outside of North America. I’ve been trying to do this off and on since day one, but it’s actually pretty hard. There are some cultural barriers that make it harder than I thought it would be. And there’s the whole language thing. And that’s the only real goal I have for this blog this year other than to still be here next year. And for each of you to still be here next year too!

Anyway, much like the blog itself I don’t really have any idea where this post is going. Other than to say thank you to everybody in the bloggerhood who comes by here and puts up with my smart ass comments and lameness and all that fun stuff.

So, um .. that’s that I guess. It’s Delurking Day and it’s my blogiversary. That’s about it. Be sure to and delurk at lots of blogs!!