I have a friend who is thinking of starting up a weblog. She has some pretty interesting things to say and a particularly different point of view that not many people in the world get to see. Our conversations about blogging has opened up some more questions about how I feel towards blogs and why I write here. It seems the original reasons still exist, I have friends and family all over the world and it has been a good way to keep in touch with them. Our emails are not to fill in the details as much as conversations about life in general - conversations we would have if they were connected to my life locally and I saw them every other day. Of course, I still don't have as much info on their life but I tend to be the one to write the long, drawn out, babbling emails with a thousand questions anyway.


As I think about why I write this thing here, and who reads it, and all the consequences that have occured because of it, I have stumbled across some pretty interesting points of view around the net.


There are the regular articles that talk about the evolution of blogging such as Heather Svokos' Herald-Leader article, Rebecca Blood's history and perspective and the impressive (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything.

As well, there are the numerous critiques of weblogging in posts like Quantum Tea Thoughts' Cardinal Sins of Blogging and Why (some person) $%*&ing Hates Weblogs. I agree on some points of both of these critiques, specifically Quantum Tea's #2 and #4 - although I have to say, what's wrong with the colours in #9?


I've been writing this for about 4 years now and although I'm still here, do I want to be a "blogger"? I love weblogging and I love weblogs. I love seeing the world through other people's eyes, especially new parents. I appreciate that they write these things, even if their design and literary talent threatens to deprofessionalize the media.

What I don't like about blogging these days is the validation therapy that some seem to thrive on. Is this all some sort of self-absorbed babble? I don't think so, or I certainly don't think this is what it is about for me. I don't scrutinize my stats page to see from where and with what link people are reading my blog. To tell you the truth, I get a little freaked out when people I don't know are reading it and frankly, it surprises the hell out of me - why are you here? what could be interesting about what I write?


When I was in the Vagina Monologues it was nice to look back and see the progression toward our performance. Now that Franklin is here, the archives are what ultimately keeps me writing and are very precious. I am looking for a way to print out and bind my archives. I want a book of my weblog.


In the end, I do tell people about dirtyolive.net, but usually only when it's a part of another story. This has become a part of my life and it is hard to separate it from everything else. I've also met some pretty amazing people and have grown closer to friends I think I would have lost otherwise. That said, this really isn't that personal - could you imagine how freaked out I would get if I had published my latest feats in acrobatic masturbation?

I have a friend who is thinking of starting up a weblog. She has some pretty interesting things to say and a particularly different point of view that not many people in the world get to see. Our conversations about blogging has opened up some more questions about how I feel towards blogs and why I write here. It seems the original reasons still exist, I have friends and family all over the world and it has been a good way to keep in touch with them. Our emails are not to fill in the details as much as conversations about life in general - conversations we would have if they were connected to my life locally and I saw them every other day. Of course, I still don't have as much info on their life but I tend to be the one to write the long, drawn out, babbling emails with a thousand questions anyway.


As I think about why I write this thing here, and who reads it, and all the consequences that have occured because of it, I have stumbled across some pretty interesting points of view around the net.


There are the regular articles that talk about the evolution of blogging such as Heather Svokos' Herald-Leader article, Rebecca Blood's history and perspective and the impressive (Weblogs and) The Mass Amateurisation of (Nearly) Everything.

As well, there are the numerous critiques of weblogging in posts like Quantum Tea Thoughts' Cardinal Sins of Blogging and Why (some person) $%*&ing Hates Weblogs. I agree on some points of both of these critiques, specifically Quantum Tea's #2 and #4 - although I have to say, what's wrong with the colours in #9?


I've been writing this for about 4 years now and although I'm still here, do I want to be a "blogger"? I love weblogging and I love weblogs. I love seeing the world through other people's eyes, especially new parents. I appreciate that they write these things, even if their design and literary talent threatens to deprofessionalize the media.

What I don't like about blogging these days is the validation therapy that some seem to thrive on. Is this all some sort of self-absorbed babble? I don't think so, or I certainly don't think this is what it is about for me. I don't scrutinize my stats page to see from where and with what link people are reading my blog. To tell you the truth, I get a little freaked out when people I don't know are reading it and frankly, it surprises the hell out of me - why are you here? what could be interesting about what I write?


When I was in the Vagina Monologues it was nice to look back and see the progression toward our performance. Now that Franklin is here, the archives are what ultimately keeps me writing and are very precious. I am looking for a way to print out and bind my archives. I want a book of my weblog.


In the end, I do tell people about dirtyolive.net, but usually only when it's a part of another story. This has become a part of my life and it is hard to separate it from everything else. I've also met some pretty amazing people and have grown closer to friends I think I would have lost otherwise. That said, this really isn't that personal - could you imagine how freaked out I would get if I had published my latest feats in acrobatic masturbation?

As Franklin and I were on our way to daycare the other morning I listened to the CBC morning news, specifically the incident in Fallujah. I had flashbacks of growing up in our kitchen, watching my parents focus on a random spot in the air while concentrating on the latest news from the Middle East.


I remember how I would try so hard to understand what was going on. I would memorize the names and the places that were mentioned and try to pick out phrases that I would be able to piece together in make some sort of coherent story. I was adamant that someday, someone would figure out how to explain all the different sides to the wars and there would be peace.


Nevertheless, I could never seem to gather enough of the history. I wasn't able to catch why certain parts of other countries were now involved when they weren't before. Why was this group now mad at this group? Who was Bashir Gemayel again? Amin Geymayel? What Americans? What was going on?


I remember trying to get my father, who I thought would be all knowledgeable as he is from Lebanon, to help me write my 11th grade paper on "The War in the Middle East". My parents said it was too complicated and that it would be too hard to do in one 2000 word essay. I was frustrated.


Now, listening in the car, even though I have read and heard all that I can of the history surrounding the news that I hear, I still don't understand. How do you explain to your child, who has lived in North America all her life, that there are some people who live in such desperate situations that they feel killing and dying are solutions? How do you explain that there will never be a person that will be able to stand up and make it all go away? How do you explain that there isn't a right side and a wrong side?


I still don't understand and I can't explain to you clearly enough how much this frustrates me. What's even harder though, is how do I explain this to Franklin?

D and I have entered the world of rapid spell and decipher communication. Franklin can pretty much understand everything we say so in order to talk about something that might set him running off to get his shoes we have to spell out the trigger words:


"Hey D, when do you think we could head to the P-A-R-K to play with C-A-S-E-Y and C-O-O-P-E-R?

Maybe we could call J-O-H-N-N-Y soon?"

or

"This C-U-P has been used to water the cilantro, can you get him more J-U-I-C-E in a different one?"

- because, if you actually say the word juice around Franklin you will incur the wrath of all things impatient and utterly desperate as he is not able to quench his thirst immediately, even though he wasn't thirsty a second ago.


The most fun is trying to decipher all these new phrases. What seems quite clear to you as you spell it out takes some time to process when you are on the receiving end of the sentence. You end up looking up in the air and nodding out each letter as you mentally write them down on a chalk board somewhere around 2 feet above your head. When you finally get what the other is trying to say it's a eyebrow lift and light-bulb moment:


"Ahhhh, We have to return the B-O-B the B-U-I-L-D-E-R video... got it, right.. OK!"


I'm sure D and I will get used to this, hopefully sometime before Franklin learns to spell. I won't be surprised if it takes that long though.