Another Reason to Blog

My last post on blogging was sort of a reflection on bloggers and their motivations. The inspiration for the post was the recent blog departure of fellow blogger and Memphis neighbor Mike Hollihan. I've met with Hollihan at a couple of local blogger meetings and believe that he's single-handedly responsible for the sense of community that I've discovered among area bloggers. It's that community (whether local or virtual) that is at the core of most blogging. The blogging community somehow unites people as they participate in this publishing phenomenon.

Anyway, I just thought of another reason why I blog. Last week, after picking up my four-year-old son from Pre-School, I decided to stop by KFC. I pulled into the drive-thru behind a couple of cars. One car in front of me was at the ordering speaker thing but the guy wasn't ordering. He was just sitting there. Thinking about his order perhaps or, the more likely explanation, he was told to "please wait" by the KFC drive-thru specialist.

Sure enough, after a few minutes he placed his order and drove up to the window. Thinking (wrongly) that the KFC crew had regained control of the kitchen during the downtime, I opted to stay in line even though the car directly in front of me drove off in disgust. Well, you know what happened next. I pulled up to the speaker thing and was told "Can you please wait." I know that is technically a question but it was not phrased as a question. It was a command. Questions usually allow for a response, as in an answer. The KFC guy wasn't about to wait for an answer and so I please waited... and waited... and waited.

After five minutes I'd had enough. So I grabbed my legal pad (doesn't everyone carry a legal pad in their car?) and my pen and began writing a note. It went something like this:

Dear KFC Customers,
This KFC is run by incompetent morons. I've waited nearly 20 minutes (a slight embellishment) at this speaker waiting to order my dinner. However, I was told to wait and so I did. But now I've had enough and I suggest you follow my example and leave this KFC now. Go to Popeye's (another chicken joint) down the street. Leave now while you still can.
Signed,
Ex-KFC Customer

My next step was to attach the note to the speaker thing. Of course I had a roll of Scotch Tape in my car too (I'm not kidding, I really have tape, scissors and a stethoscope among other things in my car) and I proceeded to tape the letter to the speaker, right over the speaker. At that moment the KFC guy decides that it might be nice to take my order and actually asked what I'd like to order. I ignored him and finished my taping and then waved and smiled at him as I drove away.

Now, maybe I'm stretching a bit to say that my actions were blogger-like but I felt similar feelings when I did that to those I feel when I blog. It was my Howard Beale moment (from Network). And that's a lot of what blogging is to a lot of people. Being able to say "I'm Mad as Hell" and have at least a few people hear you and possibly join in your shouting. I don't know if the car behind me took my anti-KFC advice but I'd like to think the KFC folks thought about their jobs a bit more after removing the letter and reading it.

Blogging allows millions of people across the globe to experience (at least in some small way) their own Howard Beale moment. We may not influence change but damn it feels good to know someone else is reading my bitching. Or maybe that's just me?

posted by Eric J | 04:09 PM

About Blogging

Why do we blog? My question isn't a result of personal navel-gazing but in response to a fellow blogger's recent decision to stop blogging. Mike Hollihan of Half-Bakered has decided to quit blogging, at least for now. His farewell post originally commented about his blog's lack of impact in the world or something along those lines. He's since edited the post to basically just say that he's done with the blogging thing.

And all this got me thinking (again) about why people blog. I've been blogging since June of 2002 (holy crap, I missed this blog's two year anniversary!) and haven't let up one bit since my first official post. I may have switched my attention from this blog to other blogs but I've been posting something, somewhere almost daily for over a year now. I blog because I love it. But as all bloggers know, that's not enough of a reason.

So, why do I really blog? Why does anyone really blog? Well, I'm convinced that it's really all about communication. We want to communicate and so we blog. If we're good enough, dedicated enough and have a little luck, we'll develop an audience. Maybe that audience is just a few friends or thousands of complete strangers, the point is we blog because we want to be heard and we want to be noticed.

If a blogger blogs and nobody reads it, does it really exist? The answer is no. Unread blogs will eventually die. There are (of course) exceptions to this rule but for the most part, audiences are oxygen and blogs without an audience will suffocate... or something. Sometimes I stretch metaphors a bit too thinly.

Anyway, blogs that are purely for personal consumption are called diaries and are best archived on a hard drive or Hallmark stationary. No, blogs are meant to be read and therein lies the blogger's dilemma. Does a blogger blog for his audience or does his audience read because he blogs? Maybe I'm confusing this but my point is that Mike, and others like him, often look at their blog as competing with other blogs for some sort of blog readership trophy or something. I don't see it that way.

I see blogs, like this one (webraw/blog) and Mike's and Stephen Cavers's and Julia's and many others to be about communicating with friends and a few strangers. Or maybe a few friends and lots of strangers. But the point is that it's about communicating and sharing with people that you care about on some level. Of course it's much more than that but to participate in this public communication phenomenon is really pretty cool.

As a result of this blog I've met (both in person and online) some really cool folks. People I would never have met without this blog. People that I know will read this blog (maybe not as often as they did when I updated more frequently) and care about what I have to say and might even find it witty or insightful or downright stupid.

The more I blog and the more diversity I see emerging in the realm of blogging the more I'm convinced that blogging is simply about communication. If it's about anything else (at least primarily) then I think it becomes much more laborious and difficult to find the inspiration to maintain. If it's about popularity then you'll always find other blogs that are just more popular or better written or more frequently updated or whatever. If it's about changing the world then you'll realize that the world keeps on turning in spite of your blog.

Why has Mike given up the blogging ghost? I'm not entirely sure but if it makes any difference, I'll miss his musings about Memphis politics and the local media. That's all my blog rantings for now. Stay tuned because I bet I'll have some more next year ;o)

posted by Eric J | 03:52 PM

EBay Goes Analog

Read "Auction Stores Do EBay Selling for You" in PCWorld yesterday and I was impressed by the genius of the business. Basically, several businesses offer auction services for your junk... er... products by selling them on EBay.

You simply drive your goods over and fill out a form; then at the end of the auction, you get a check if your item sells or the item returned to you if it doesn't. At your request some stores will even donate a nonselling item to charity for you or donate the proceeds of a sale. However, the ease of a drop-off store will definitely cost you: Most stores charge a hefty 35 to 40 percent of the eventual selling price of your goods, plus up-front fees for listing and handling.

Now tell me that's not a great idea?

Imagine walking into your local UPS or FedEX Kinko's, dropping off that old VCR and you get a check when it's all done. I realize that to many, this idea is ridiculous. A true EBay savvy person would probably scoff at allowing someone else take a cut (in addition to EBay's listing fee) of an auctioned item but I'm someone who finds this idea appealing.

I've sold a few things on EBay and it was a fine experience but it just takes more effort than I'm willing to expend (maybe I'm just lazy). I have a crate full of books on tape and regular books just sitting next to my desk, waiting for their EBay moment. And I even took pictures of them all but I seem to always find excuses for NOT listing them on EBay.

1. I don't have time. Sure it only takes a few minutes but that's often a few minutes I really don't have.
2. I'm going out of town. With EBay you really need to be available during an auction to answer questions and ship the product when it's sold. Several times I've had time to list it but was leaving town the next day and so I delayed it yet again.
3. Good photos. I take decent photos but without the proper lighting and background, some of my pictures end up looking less than appealing. The auction services take the pictures (professionally done... or close to it) for you so there's no hassling with all that.

Is this a good service? I don't know but I'm seriously thinking about giving AuctionDrop a try. Anyone else tried one of these services?

posted by Eric J | 09:57 PM

Home Alone

So I'm home alone for about three days while the wife and kid are in Magnolia, Ark. and I realize that I haven't updated this lil' ole blog in a LONG ASS time. It's not that I haven't wanted to but it's just hard to adapt to a new routine. I take responsibility for not updating much BUT I believe some of the responsibility lies with Movable Type.

Allow me to explain (as if you had any other choice).

As much as I detest Blogger and it's unpredictable server behavior, it did have some features that made blogging extremely simple. One of those features was the "Blog This!" tool which allowed me to simply press a button my browser to blog a specific page I was viewing. If I saw an article that I wanted to comment on, I clicked the "Blog This!" button, entered some text and was done.

Now, all you MT-junkies should wait before you start screaming about "Bookmarklets" because I'm fully aware of this helpful feature. However, they don't work with Safari and that's what I use when browsing the Web at home. I like it. I don't want to use something else so I don't.

What I need is some sort of MT Bookmarklet plug-in that allows me the same functionality as the "Blog This!" feature for Safari. Any ideas?

Anyway, without this helpful feature, my blogging suffers. I plan to get back to more frequent blogging but I've said that before and look what's happened.

As an aside, I've regained interest in Blogshares lately. Not sure why but it's still pretty fun.

posted by Eric J | 07:07 PM