Friday, September 26, 2003

The Blog Goes Ever On And On



So this week I hit the blogging wall for the first time - No new posts for most of the week. I've joked about how most blogs I've encountered have two entries - the first one states "Hey, I'm Blogging!" and the second one states "Well, its been three months since the first post, but I'm blogging again!". It makes me think of all those CB radios they sold in the 70s that sat in closets.

Not that I've run out of things to talk about - I've finished two books on tape, a novel, work is going suprisingly well, I have my regular gaming groups, I have yet to even talk about comics (my guilty pleasure), and I have a discovered an interest in local politics (and I have some facts I want to share). And it hasn't been that I've been too busy. Its just been that I haven't gotten to the keyboard with the intention of forming coherent thoughts (curse you, Civilization III!).

I have done too much blog-reading of late, and there are a number of left-o-center political blogs (like here and here). As a general warning, though there seems to be the same echo chamber in political blogging that you see over in talk radio. Actually, echo chamber is probably a bad analogy - that creates a cacophony of undifferentiated noise. Instead think about how a laser works - light bouncing along the length of a partially-reflective gem, until all the wavelengths fall into the same patern and it bursts loose in a coherent stream. As a result, blogs have a tendency to copy each other, one blog pulling stuff from another, and may result in the same tendency that an opinion gets transformed into a fact, or a rumor that suits the political agenda becomes an assumed truth (example - Drudge and the rightish websites covered the fact that the Dixie Chicks are leaving Country Music. T'aint true (though if you read the Chicks sarcastic retort, you thinkthink, if you don't have a sense of humor). Anyway, the resignation hit the Conservative Webs because it reinforced a long-held value, but as far as I can tell, none of them have printed a correction. (Drudge is always amusing - his big scoop of the moment - General Clark said NICE THINGS about the PRESIDENT! Wow, that sure disqualifies him for office!).

And the above goes for the conservative political blogs as well as the libs, of course. I just have a hard time wrapping my brain about the right's concerns ("Clark is evil! He's just a stalking horse for Hillary! (Now, Red America, we made a deal - I get over Florida, and YOU get over Hillary - Have you forgotten to take your meds again?)).

I'm probably going to have to start a backlist blog of information (like a normal private journal), and slot it in during the week. More later.