Friday in the blogosphere

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Today is Sar’s birthday. When Sar and I first met she left a comment on Courting.

The blogosphere was way different then. I was used to doing battle with the radical right who first confused me with an idiot, and then I just confused them. I’m not going to pay homage to any of them by giving names.

Sar and I began by battling, though she is a “blue gal in a red state.” We did discover that we had a very good friend in common, our Dawg Doug, who is a true Conservative and wants to “win honorably in ’08.”

At the time Sar didn’t have her own blog, but hosted her brother Strider’s. Thought that the name of Sar’s blog Belle of the brawl, was perfect because it that’s exactly how we met. She is a great hostess and is organized enough to have theme days which have become incredibly popular in a short period of time.

I first met Doug when he rescued me from a slew of incredibly nasty radical right comments. Doug and I have a continual argument over who mentored whom in blogging etiquette, form and other things. Blogging can be intricate, and I will probably ask Doug to explain things that I’m not doing a great job of. Doug also suffered through all nine drafts and countless revisions of my first chapter, and with just a word or two was able to help me see what needed to be changed. Also did a great satire of me and Tom Waits that I will link to tomorrow. The audio version sounds a lot like…well, not me or Doug, but one of my personal musical icons.

His site Waking Ambrose redefines Ambrose Bierce’s The Devils Dictionary for the Millennium. The fun isn’t just in the definitions but in the comments, and nobody but nobody surpasses Sar and Doug in moderating or hosting comments. Contests and games are becoming common in blogging. Sar does them with twists and edges like nobody else. My favorite blog saying is “steal Doug’s blogroll.” Doug’s different, not as different as he would like you to think, but anybody who would take on Ambrose Bierce has to be a bit…

I don’t moderate comments in Courting. Frankly I have a hard time outwitting many commenters. My writing’s not supposed to be comment friendly, but people comment anyway. Sometimes they get into conversations with each other, and it’s cool to watch. I moderate comments in BIO, and that’s what separates personal and political blogging to me. I do return every comment because that’s important to help personalize and build blogging communities.

Serious blogging is labor intensive, and can be too competitive. Yes I have been nominated for some awards, but I seriously don’t think that awards are good for blogging at this point. It’s too early, and there are so many forms of blogging that traditional awards just can’t fill each category.

The blogroll game. People blogroll individuals that they like, enjoy, want to know, or exchange reciprocal links. People, including me join associations and alliances because of common interests or for some other reasons.

I have never enjoyed playing games. I blogroll people who interest me for one reason or another and only deblogroll when somebody ends their blog, and yes I’m human, when I’m deblogrolled. This has been a very intense and amazing time in my life. I’m a writer first, and stay up many nights until three or four writing.

Do find forming communities in the blogosphere to be especially fascinating as my undergrad major was in Urban Studies and my grad degree is in Social Work with much post grad research experience. So yes, the whole blogging phenomena fascinates me as it encompasses many of my interests, but it’s only blogging. It satisfies needs, but it doesn’t pay the bills. A blog is a blog is a blog.

Next on our way back to Sar’s we’re going to stop at the divine Miz B’s What can you say about a half Iranian/half Danish woman who left her heart but not her man in San Francisco to live in Spain? She’s one of the funniest woman around, but she’s not an Iranian/Danish joke. Today she talks about two subjects close to my heart; teeth and not liking John & Yoko. She rants in a manner only she can, and yes I adore her.

My parts of the blogosphere are generally open to anybody with a brain, verbal acumen and some wit, as Patriotic Cowgirl can tell you. She does the best tornado reports since…well never since I think only heard them once in my life, talks about horses and country living, and for somebody like me who lives in Manhattan, it’s an antidote to city living.

Believe that Shayna first introduced us to PG. Shayna’s multitalented, can write much better than she thinks, sings like the star she hopefully will be, is opinionated as we all are, does much for both the community that she lives in and the blogosphere. Shayna has had us correspond with troops, and is just thoughtful and sweet, like her name which means that in Yiddish. No she’s not. She was named for Shana Alexander, a “liberal” TV commenter point/counterpoint–I believe on 60 Minutes in the 70’s.

There is one more woman we have to pick up on our way back to Sar’s party. Nothing would be complete without Alice/or Cooper or whatever she’s calling herself these days. I call her the Empress of The Lost Continent of Wonderlandornot, because underneath that almost 21 year old NYU student exterior is a true regal lady who just happens to be the most cause oriented person I know. Alice keeps us honest and caring about Darfur; she’s passionate with a capital P, but never loses her slightly warped sense of humor.

When I first met her almost a year ago she would preface her statements with “I’m only 20.” “But Cooper, your opionions count as much as anybody elses.” She learned.

And now we’re on our way to partay like its 1985, the very year Alice was born, at Sar’s who was tormenting her younger brothers then. I was living on 63rd Street off Fifth and just learning that life wasn’t always fair, but that’s not a story for a Friday night.

This will be an ongoing post today. Tomorrow I will have a regular post with some “shout outs” or “plugs” as they’re called at the bottom, and will always explain why I shout out that particular person or group.