Alright-Get off your a*$ and write something!

Well, maybe it wasn't tomorrow-it's now Sunday afternoon, and I've finally mustered up the determination to put pen to paper (or keyboard to monitor then to cyberspace). This blogging thing reminds me of something I watched with amazement when I was eight or nine years old on the Ed Sullivan Show. For those younger than I who don't recall that staple of Sunday night TV, it was a variety show-a collection of musical acts, comics, sports figures, the June Taylor Dancers and novelty acts, such as the Italian mouse puppet,Topo Gigio-the show hosted by a middle aged-man in a gray suit who spoke with a thick accent, though he was born somewhere in the Dakotas. The show got it's start in 1955, the year I was born, during the infancy of TV. In those days, the picture was black and white and sepia and when midnight came, instead of just replaying re-runs and informercials, the stations would play the Star-Spangled Banner, followed by an announcement that the station was concluding it's broadcasting day, followed by an intricate test-pattern and a high pitched tone that begged you to turn off the set. One of Ed's novelty acts was the guy who spun china plates on long thin sticks-he would start at one end of a long table, place a stick perpendicular to the table, then spin a plate on the stick. Working on down the table, he would place other plates and set them to spinning on their own sticks. As the first plate began to wobble, the man would rush back and expertly spin it again as the audience breathed a sigh of relief. On he would go...seven, eight, nine plates. By this time, plates two, three and four were now beginning to wobble. But just before you knew everything would come crashing down, he would quickly scoop up all of the plates in his professional hands and bow to the applause of the audience.

In my blogging lately, I am like that spinning plates man who has successfully gathered up his plates but is too lazy or occupied or both to set the sticks spinning again. Unlike other bloggers, my topics are limited by the fact I don't have kids to write about and I have vowed that the last thing the world needs is another semi-informed blogger opining about political issues. I try to live my life in a way that it remains mostly unaffected by who my congressman or senator is-God please strike me down if I ever appear at a political debate as one of those sorry codependent creatures asking a presidential candidate how he or she will help me find suitable employment. Political opinions are inconsequential fluff, oft compared to bellybuttons-everyone has one and is is best for all when they are hidden. I also avoid work topics-I've been at my current job almost fifteen years and certainly have strong opinions on issues of crime and punishment, but I've long since passed the point where I think I'm somehow saving the world-at best, I'm shoveling everyday to keep the pile from getting any higher with zero prospects in my lifetime for putting any meaningful dent in it. I also use my own name on my blog which limits my commentary a great deal-I guess I could hide behind a pen name and let fly, but I really don't have the time or ambition to do so-using my own name, I guess is my way of justifiying my lazy writing-if I gave that up I would have no excuse for my lack of regular postings.
I will hit my one-year mark on January 20, 2006-In that time, I have learned these things about blogging:

1. It's damn harder than it looks-if you don't believe it, sign up for your free Blogger account and jump in chief! Write something you think is decent, push the "publish" key and let's see what the world thinks of your "Magnum Opus." Oh yea, and for a real ego check, don't disable your comments key.

2. There is some absolutely incredible talent out there that has never before had an outlet or an audience. If you think that the best and the brightest sprang from the loins of the Columbia Journalism School, you're a complete fool. There are about 10 million shares of NY Times stock being held "short" (profit made only if the price goes down) right now and the days of the national daily newspapers are coming to an end, to be replaced by the truly local fishwraps.

3. Once you start blogging, it may be hard to continue but it's damn sure harder to give up. I have met truly outstanding and talented people-some in person and some just through the comments or by e-mail. Even the one's I haven't met personally, I consider as friends. Just reading their blogs on a regular basis gives you a long glimpse into their soul and almost always, if you like them in their blogworld, you will like them in the real world. I'm gonna try and make it to at least one blog-meet this year and test out my theory.

I thank everyone who has dropped by in the last year-all 12, 326 of you as of this moment. I hope to plow ahead. I look forward to 2006 here in "Fishtown."