One of my friends who has known me since I moved to California in 1988 has referred to me as the original blogger. I like it! Ahead of my time was I! But it’s only true if you think that somebody sending out extremely personal, angst filled emails to large numbers of people at once, and then getting back a bunch of private but helpful responses - if you consider that a blog, then yes I was ahead of my time.
Except that I learned the whole thing from my high school computer teacher who did exactly the same thing, so there goes that theory.
I am ahead of my time in others ways, for example, my body is aging ahead of all my friends. When I did a startup company with my friends in 1996 and our stock dropped like a rock 6 months before the dotcom crash. I’ve already trimmed my first gray nose hair. See what I mean?
Anyway, I have been encouraged by my friends to create a blog because of those angst filled emails I was talking about earlier but I think they may have forgotten how old I am now. I’ve come to realize that angst filled email messages tend to lose their charm as the author enters his 40s. But, we are heading to the UK to live and I know in my heart that I am going to get myself into all sorts of trouble, so stay tuned if you like.
Being completely clueless can be beneficial at times in case you’re wondering. For example, the summer I got pulled over three times for speeding and didn’t get a single ticket despite accidentally calling one of the cops a word I am no longer confortable using in public as I was handing him my expired registration and expired proof of insurance. Boy was I shocked and boy did it show! So he took pity on me and who wouldn’t? You can go far on pity …
I have to admit that I haven’t written a blog yet because I assume it will just suck. I imagine zero comments in all my articles, or maybe just a couple anonymous posts from my mother. Only time will tell …
This is Nicki. You’ll be fine in England! Just remember, they have strange words for things like the hood of a car, the trunk of a car, and cigarettes, and you really can’t forget to drive on the left.
Don’t attempt to hide your cluelessness either. You’re not going to England because it’s a familiar place. You’re going so that you can all see what it’s like to live in a different culture! I think it’s great.
Hi Jon…glad you’re finally coming “out of the closet” to blog beyond email.
With regards to the “original blogger”, I think the Surrealists have you beat in terms of timing. Andre Breton wrote and published his “Manifesto of Surrealism” in 1924. Since there were no computers or Internet in 1924, he published a magazine. Breton’s Manifesto is “automatic” writing or we might call it “stream of consciousness” writing today. The Surrealists were fascinated by Freud’s theories of the “uncanny” and the “subconscious”. They would write and create art that tapped into the subconscious.
Have fun with the blog! …Heather
Uh oh, I’m still doing it at age 56; does that make me charmless? But I’d be terrified to do it in public, rather than just inflict it on friends (and a couple of friends of friends).