State of the Weblog

Well, now that I've been doing this for a while, I thought it was time to iron out my thoughts about what I have liked about this whole writing thing, and check to see what has worked and what hasn't. Why I am doing this is partially because I realize that the nature of the posts have been all over the place, and partly because this post is more introspective than anything else (of course, a similar argument could be made about the weblog endeavor as a whole).

1. The posts have been all over the place. I realize there has been no consistent theme for the weblog, and that I have used several different devices and subjects when constructing these posts. Part of this is because I have been trying different things to see what works (serious arguments without humor, serious arguments with humor, baseball analysis, numbered independent tidbits, etc), and part of it is because it breaks up the monotony. While I am tempted to try and focus the theme of the weblog, I don't think it has evolved sufficiently enough to that point yet; also, the randomness of topics and style has been called"charming" by the Resident Female, and it is easier to write when I have no self-required topic of adherence.

2. I dislike the term "blog", and even if I end up wasting 2 days of my life typing out the superfluous "we" every time, it will be worth it. Weblog just sounds better.

3. I have been relying too much on sarcasm of late. As Shakespeare once said, "Sarcasm is the wit of the witless", and thus I am very prone to it by nature. Yes, according to Billy, puns are where it's at when it comes to humo(u)r, and I have been ignoring this genre lately. Mostly because my life has been burdened by an impending move, a career change from analyst to student/teacher/researcher, and my workload has been incredibly heavy at work, my "pre-thoughts" on topics has been hurt lately and the time to write them has been relegated to my coffee/lunch breaks. As such, I relied on the easiest form of humor there is: insulting my anonymous readers and slandering Jim Belushi. So, seeing as how absolutely none of my constraints on time have changed even remotely, I promise to pretend like I am going to be more witty and thoughtful in my posts, but will probably just go back to making crude sexual jokes and psychotic threats aimed at the semi-famous.

4. Short of excessive circumstances, I plan to erase detracting comments left by the anonymous rather than create posts to respond to them. The Resident Female has assured me that my previous posts, while in many ways are funny, could become a rather unhealthy and boring tradition. Most importantly, though, is that angry and combative posting is widely available on the internet, and I'd prefer to service a niche market.

5. I may try to work in more emails from friends. While this weblog was originally intended to be a shared forum run by myself and my friend Sung-Ho Mpenze O'Shea, he has gratiously not lifted a finger or even thought about putting up a post. However, he continues to pepper me with emails and an incredibly supportive chronicling of everything wrong with my posts, my life, and my hygiene. Also, email posts are incredibly easy for me to write (ctrl+C, ctrl+V), and this is my way of revenge for driving me out to the country, dropping me off of the side of the road, and abandoning me in cyberspace. For example, as many of you have noted, I refer to The Resident Female as "The Resident Female". Well, Sung-Ho has picked up on this as well, and insists that I did this subconsciously because it sounds similar to "Resident Evil", and he knows how much of a crush I have on Milla Jovavich (and, of course, is also a comment on the evils of the monogamy). It is nuggets of observation like this that allow me to not worry about being creative, as well as insure I would spend another night on the futon. When something interesting crosses my inbox, I will usher it along to you.

6. Um, coffee break is over, so I apologize that I didn't edit this...