Margaret and Helen

Great blog, good humor: Margaret and Helen.

Bloggers: Could U Tighten It Up?

I have a tip for my beloved fellow bloggers. Like I'm in a position to give blogging tips with my huge, worldwide following of . . . six? But, seriously, people: is there any way to shorten some of those posts?

Is it just me? I don't read posts that require me to scroll, and scroll, and scroll through laborious amounts of text. After a few short paragraphs, I've got to move on.

Just my two cents. In case a really long-winded blogger ever lands here.

Of course, your blog is your domain, a place where you can be exactly who you want to be in this world. So, if extremely long posts are important to you, write on. Your readers will have more patience and a much longer attention span than I have.

Apologies to the Blog-o-Sphere

I've committed the unforgivable blogger sin: I stopped blogging. I didn't mean to do it. It just happened.

Oh, there are plenty of reasons for it:

• I had so many thoughts and ideas spinning in my head that I couldn't sort them out. Things happen so fast. There was the election, the GOP meltdown, the economy, wars and terrorist attacks, a psycho-Elvis-wanna-be Governor, healthcare issues, the often sorry state of "modern" medicine, etc.
  
• I haven't felt well in recent weeks. (That's code for 'barely functional.')
• The holidays . . . busy trying to make gifts.
  
• I started a new blog project, TraumaBody. For a couple of weeks, that's all I did. Then I crashed. Productivity comes in spurts. My passion for the project is so huge that it wears me out.
• Lots of ISP and power outages in this cursed cold and icy winter.
• All else was failing, so I got wrapped up in bead weaving. I love bead weaving. Aside from being relaxing and gratifying, it's probably a waste of time. Not much return on investment. (Could I sell you a bracelet?)
  
• And so it goes . . . .
  

Anyway, at least one prominent blogger has removed my blog from her blog roll. It doesn't take much to lose ground in this environment. I'm surprised anyone still has me on their blog roll. To those of you who do, it feels like an act of downright kindness that you've kept me on. Thanks--I needed that. I really needed that.

I just keep doing what I can as best I can. The chips will fall where they may.

Virtues of Blogging: More on Republican Ranting

Blogging is good. Conversations are good; good for people, good for democracy. This is the free press that democracy requires.

The Republican Ranter replied to my post of yesterday and owned up to being a bit pudgy. He also made it clear that he is against the Iraq war and volunteered for Sen. Chuck Hagel (a strong and outspoken Republican opponent of Bush policy) prior to Hagel's retirement. More promising, though, is the fact that he's only 18 years old, and that means his attitudes and political affiliations are still developing. I strongly dislike some of the material on his blog, but he's listening and engaged. For that, I applaud.

The Detroit News printed an article yesterday on the diverse faces of patriotism. Republican Ranting blogger, Nathan Inks, is covered in that article. Now, here is a lesson in the power of blogging. He started the blog a year ago to fulfill a high school assignment. He culls political stories from around the country, cites them, and comments. He has as many as 3,000 hits a day, and his blog is read by members of Congress and the Department of Justice. DOJ notwithstanding (what's that about?), his success is most impressive--and his blog is worth watching.

First Entry: Iraq Vets on CSPAN

I am now officially a blogger. Wa-hoo! So many topics, so little time . . . . I'll have to take it all in small bites.

I just saw a couple of Iraq war vets on CSPAN and Googled their names (John Crawford, Paul Rieckhoff). Wow, there are great sites and blogs that may give a sense of what's really happening on the ground over there. We're seriously -- very seriously -- screwed, and I want to know what the soldiers are thinking.