Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Blog Introduction

I thought I might tell you a little about the blog and my self-imposed guidelines and rules for posting.

I am in my anecdotage, and in general the site is about things that I have witnessed and things that have happened to me, not about things that are happening now. Typically, I will post something because I hope you will find it amusing or otherwise interesting. I might occasionally post an opinion - or even a rant - about something current, but this will not be a political blog or a blog with an agenda other than that of telling my stories.

I am not going to use asterisks or anything else to indicate that the names I use for people are not their real names, because most of the names I use will not be real names. Exceptions will be noted unless the people are or were famous. Place names, however, will be genuine. I'll take the name Donnie Richards before anyone else snags it.

Anecdotes will not appear in chronological order for any number of reasons: I'm sure that if I took that approach then I would remember and want to post about some things long after their time slots passed; I don't want to focus too long on one period of my life because of the risk that it might drive away some who just aren't interested in the subjects covered for that period; and I want the ability to post a few times in a row about some subjects which span a number of years, and that would throw the chronology all out of kilter when I abandoned those subjects. When it comes to time, we'll be hopping back and forth.

That's true of subjects too. Often enough there will be no segue connecting two posts regarding entirely different subjects. Although necessarily biographical in nature, this blog is not intended to be a complete biography, but only to present interesting or humorous scenes from my life.

It seems to me that you would have to be very sensitive indeed to be offended by anything I intend to post, but . . . my life has been less that of a saint than that of a sinner; still, I've never been evil. I've never committed a crime more serious than smoking the occasional joint, a habit I have not yet abandoned and I speculate that I never shall. For several decades my personal life was more promiscuous than it should have been. There were a couple of periods during which I drank too much, not for the sake of drinking but because of the people I ran with and the places we went.

Language in my posts will contain some vulgarity from time to time, including - yes - the "f" word, but it will not be rabidly coarse. Relationships, affairs, even one night stands might be discussed, but there will be no bedroom scenes.

Are the anecdotes true? You bet. But . . .

  • They stretch back as far as sixty years. In some (many? most? all?) cases the edges may have been smoothed by the passage of time.

  • There is some embellishment of course, but nothing outrageous. In a very few cases I have changed characters around a bit to make a story more coherent. To the extent that it would be possible, complete accuracy would require complex explanations of who people were and how they came to be in particular stories. I'm going to avoid "complex explanations" like the plague. It's the flavor that I'm after, not historical footnotes.

I have followed several blogs and for me the single most annoying thing about them has been their irregularity: you might see posts two or three days in a row followed by a ten or fifteen day gap. I've watched as the bloggers began to lose interest in the blogs, posting less and less frequently, and then not at all. I hope and expect to post here twice a week and for a long time to come. Barring acts of God I will post for at least a year, as I have taken the precaution of compiling a supply of one hundred posts before activating this blog. No promises, but I will try to post each Sunday and Wednesday.

With that I bid you welcome.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

So far so good. I already had a couple of giggles out of your first story :) Godspeed :)

Unknown said...

Cool! I'll keep an eye out for the illegal ones so I can check statutes of limitation... ;-)

lass said...

aha ha ha ha *gasp* aha ha ha ha. You are so clever that anyone who comments will feel compelled to try to be at least equally witty- if not equally clever. Well, they may try.

Anonymous said...

Re: "but this will not be a political blog"...

You've vowed not to make this a political blog; however, it's apparent you have both the skill and the ability to move readers. So why not? The magic words that instantly capture the attention of politicians now is - I have a blog. And that's because you have the potential to influence votes.

You should consider a parallel political blog as well. I would read both.
Lass

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

Hi Lass.

I thank you for the complimentary suggestion.

I am inclined to be disinclined, but I guess I need to think it through. How about this - I'll do that, write my thoughts down, and take a position in a blog post next Sunday.

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Your succinct and persuasive writing skills plus your ability to rummage through the tripe to focus on the most relevant current political events/issues will make for a not-to-be-missed political blog.

I think you would have a great deal of fun with it while offering your blog readers a point of view sure to be thought provoking and challenging.

Fact: Your natural ability to communicate, combined with a wealth of folks who thirst for serious analysis/debate, makes this a win-win for you and your readers.

Don't give it too much thought, please, just pick a political topic, any political topic, and GO!

Lass

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

Ah ha ha ha ha ha. You're so impatient.

I have begun the process of contemplating this, and when I write and post the blog entry you will see that it's just not that simple - there or other considerations, not necessarily deal-breakers, but considerations nonetheless.

Anonymous said...

***damn kid...

Lass

BrokenDownProgrammer said...

Testing Live Bookmark.