y'all can't all be wrong: Jen, I'm Going To Strike First On This One, 'Cause Now That I've Written The Best Blog-Post Title, I Want To Write One That Nobody Will Understand

Yep, next week I finally get to meet Jennifer Garrett, author of being jennifer garrett, aficionado of (most) things WNBA, gulper of 'Dew, and alum' of Wellesley. I read her blog daily, she reads mine a lot, we've ping-ponged a few emails, and we've even done the wishlist absurdity. We are friends through blogging -- no question there, but how will our rapport be for an in-person encounter? I've pondered this in the past: can font-and-electron-friends be corner-bar-friends? and I'm excited and a bit nervous to find the answer.

Regardless of how things go next week, it's still cool that people can meet and have a connection because of daily words that they craft and make public. I often think that my blog will either get me fired or prevent me from landing a good job (after I get fired for blogging, of course). If you Google my name you'll simultaneously discover that I am a freak and not very popular; if you dig a bit deeper you might learn that I'm a Socialist and don't mind calling myself a goddamn pussy. And, trust me on this one -- this is America damn it -- the two things you don't want to be are a Socialist and/or a male pussy.

Nevertheless, I hope for the day when you can't get hired because you don't have a blog. Bloggers may catch a lot of crap, but it takes a fair amount of effort to push out words on a daily basis -- even poorly written words. Furthermore, when you factor in the effort-of-aesthetic to represent individuality with CSS and three-panel-layout, you'll realize that if someone's blog induces a reaction in you, then that person probably has marketable skills and is probably worth hiring (regardless of the sex, race, religion triumvirate).

Plus, it's blogging. You don't get an editor. You don't get an income. It paints a great self-picture because you can't hide. I'd like to see it used in the election process -- i.e. require candidates to maintain a near daily blog for a certain amount of time before election day. Topics could be anything and the only requirement would be no use of speech-writers and/or editors. It would actually work too if humans didn't have such a hard time differentiating between the quantities of polish and perfection.

See you in a week Jen (oh, and I was serious about that best title thing, but it's one that wouldn't get me hired).

Comments

I just read an entry on William Gibson's webpage's blog segment (www.williamgibsonbooks.com) discussing how blogging affects his bookwriting

It doesn't help, was his conclusion, and his explanation of why is perhaps informative

Most of what crosses my mind isn't even interesting to me, so I tend to assume no one else needs to know about it either - but then, in this increasingly community-based age, I also feel the need to push for the importance of the role of the emphatic individual, even in an increasingly community-based age

Tho it is interesting to see how much of what sorts of things that cross one's own mind might also cross others' minds, and how much of what crosses one's own mind is actually really fucked - this being a case where public blogging of candidates might be a good and useful thing, hopefully not leading to the tyranny of the literate

I guess if you judge art by the artist (or are picky about whose energy you get exposed to) then a blog on their part might be a good and useful thing and/or might discourage one from listening to / looking at / reading things one might otherwise have listened to / looked at / read. But if you judge art purely by how it makes you feel, you might want to put off riffling through the artist's brain 'til after you've made up your mind about the art

art art art art art art art
pfffft
-5-

Posted by: 5 @ July 2, 2004 08:56 PM

Dude, you're nervous? I've got to come up with some place sufficiently cool yet not pretentious place to take you. We're talking pressure. Plus, I'm still trying to figure out something smart to say. I'm working on it. Maybe by Friday.

(and on topic): Would required blogging kill some of the best parts of the craft? The spontaneity, the recklessness? The idea of writing for pleasure? Which is not to say that some people (perhaps yourself included) don't agonize over their posts, and put serious time into them, but that's not what draws me to blogging, or what keeps me blogging. Which is not to say that I don't occasionally put time into the blog, it's just not ... weighted like my professional writing is.

As usual, I have no point. Bygones.

Posted by: Jen @ July 4, 2004 07:51 PM