
Where does the blog go?
repost

Roger Green: a librarian's life, deconstructed.
repost
over 7,300 days
20 years a blogger. Am I out of my mind? Quite possibly. For two decades, every day, I have posted something on this blog or its predecessor, which is now included in this blog.
For a while, it made sense to me to try to get my thoughts down. But now, it’s become a bit of a sport. Can I keep doing this, and should I?
It was 20 years ago today.
The first Monday in May
I decided to start a blog
Stumbled into going whole hog
I’ve told how I started blogging before, but it’s anniversary time, so I can share it again. Back in September 2004, I ran into my friend Rocco Nigro. He says to me, “Are you following Fred’s blog?” Fred is Fred Hembeck of comic book fame but not that much fortune.
I said I didn’t know Fred had a blog, and I had never read anybody else’s blog, so the answer was No. I started reading it from the beginning on New Year’s Eve 2002 to the then-current day. As he went on, Fred used to write very long posts daily. I liked it.
I commented to Fred about things in his blog and started contributing ideas after a while. Specifically, I remember that I told him that Herb Alpert of the Tijuana Brass fame and A&M Records was going to have a 70th birthday at the end of March of 2005, so he wrote about that.
I was taken by the initial blog post by Steve Gerber, a Marvel comic book writer who scripted The Defenders and Man-Thing. As I noted early on, he posted on April 4, 2005: “I make my living as a writer. There is only one characteristic that distinguishes writers from non-writers: writers write.
“(That’s why there’s no such thing as an ‘aspiring writer.’ A writer can aspire to sell or publish, but only non-writers aspire to write.) Anyway, writing for a living requires writing every day. Writing every day requires discipline. Discipline requires enforcement.
“I’ve lost the habit of writing every day. I need discipline. I need enforcement. You’re looking at it.
“I intend to post something on this blog every day. If I fail to do so, that failure will be very public, and I’ll be embarrassed by it. I don’t enjoy being embarrassed. So maybe, just maybe, making this obligation will help transform me into a habitual writer again.”
Looking back at this, the peculiar thing is that I didn’t necessarily fancy myself a “writer,” but I did need to write to make sense of the world. So I started writing a blog post, and then I wrote another one.
At the beginning of May 2005, there was a bit of pain in the neck. Unless I misunderstood the technology, I couldn’t save a blog post for the first three years to publish the next day when I was on Blogger/Blogspot. Specifically, I was at a work conference in Lake Placid, NY, and I did not have Internet access at the hotel. So I would run down to the public library, write a blog post at lunchtime, post it, and then run back to the conference. This was when I could run. What a chore.
As I noted, there were two reasons I started writing a blog. I was on this TV show called JEOPARDY; the episodes were recorded in September 1998 and broadcast on November 9th and 10th. I realized that if I didn’t write this down soon, I would totally forget the experience. I documented what I could recall about 6 1/2 years after the fact.
Again, as I noted, the other thing was that my daughter was born in 2004. We had one of those books that cues you to note when her first tooth comes in or when she takes her first step or the like. I had every intention of doing so, but I failed miserably, so I decided to write about my daughter on the 26th of every month, and for 20 years, I have kept that.
I really liked some of the blog posts I wrote for ABC Wednesday, which was initially started by a woman named Denise Nesbitt. One would write based on an alphabetical cue. I did that for about 7 years, once a week; I even ran it for a time.
One of my favorite series of posts was an alphabetical tour of all the groups with some family ties, like the Wilson brothers of The Beach Boys or the Wilson sisters of Heart. I managed to get every letter except two; one I couldn’t find was Q for quirky (ABBA). But I did find the one for X, which was for the group X with John Doe and Exene Cervenka, who used to be married.
In some cases, I find that things I’ve written have triggered people’s interest long after I’ve written them, many of which are about genealogy. So, I guess I’ll keep doing this for a while.
in my not so humble opinion
Hey 19?! It seems unbelievable to write, but this is the 19th anniversary of my blogging for Ramblin’ with Roger. And I’ve posted daily, which is insane. Or I’m insane.
I’ve noted in the past how I started blogging. However, I may not have written why I keep on writing. It’s all about Aristotle. And Socrates. Of course.
Per this article: “Aristotle writes, ‘It is owing to their wonder that people both now begin and at first began to philosophize.” Philosophy and psychoanalysis alike began in wonder, wonder about the nature of reality and being, about the self, about knowledge, and about the meaning of our experiences.'”
That’s an excellent way of putting, “I’m just trying to figure it out.” The more I do it, the more it’s satisfying. I might list some songs that were hits in a given year, which you could find elsewhere. So, I try to explain why I think those songs captured the public attention and are interesting, weird, or disquieting.
“Socrates famously said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ Both psychoanalysts and philosophers are committed to examining and giving meaning to human experiences. By keeping a sense of wonder alive, we are all engaged in thinking about how we might live and what makes life worth living.”
I come to an issue with my history and my biases. But I try to leave room for the possibility that there is another way to think about a topic. At the turn of the past millennium, I worried that perhaps Black History Month, which sometimes became hoary recitations about Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr., was not all that interesting.
But a quarter century ago, I didn’t know about Tulsa or Wilmington or the Red Summer. Or pilot Bessie Coleman, the women in Hidden Figures, or half the people on this list. So, the movement to stifle people learning about this history because someone might feel bad about racism confounds me. (One is SUPPOSED to feel bad about racism, IMNSHO.)
To some degree, I see this in a theological light. There’s something called the liturgy, which the church gets through a portion of the Bible every three years. The idea is that you’ll hear scripture from 36 months earlier and, because of your lived experiences, perceive it in a new way. “Love your neighbor as yourself” might mean your friends and family in one reading, but you might cast a wider net in a subsequent perusal.
Returning to some mythical “good old days” is unappealing. Maybe you want the US in 1984 when the country won many medals at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (because the Soviet bloc boycotted in response to the West’s refusal to participate in Moscow in 1980.) But would you want to go back to 1984 technology?
Writing this blog is an education to me. I hope it’s of some use to you as well, at now and then.
A Steely Dan song
blogging about blogging
MAK, with whom I traveled to Las Vegas, has an inquiring mind.
Do I understand that you have a couple of blogs ready to go at any given time and ongoing drafts?
Well, sort of. When we left for LV on Sunday, I had 41 blog posts scheduled. On Friday, I had 36, having written one while there.
But many are specific to a particular date (two about the daughter for the 26th of September and October, one regarding my mom’s birthday, one for Veterans Day, one for the 25th anniversary of my appearance on JEOPARDY, posts for November 1 and 2).
So, while they’re ready to go, it’s not at “any given time.” The great thing about writing ahead is that sometimes I change them. Indeed, my November 1 and 2 posts generated a third one.
Several sooner-than-later pieces (music, movie reviews, Ask Roger Anything answers) exist. Some I could post eventually. And about five that no one will see until I die so I can haunt you after I’m gone.
I’ve learned that when I have an idea for a post to write for a specific date, such as November 11, I’d better write it right then, even if it’s September 17. Otherwise, I might forget that great idea. No, not the idea, but the approach.
I don’t publish in the order that I write. Also, I often switch the order, so something urgent to write about might bump a post already in the queue. I do that a LOT. As a result, most of the time, I have no idea what’s being posted on most days, which is a lot of fun.
I saw Barbenheimer on successive days, but I didn’t post reviews of them back-to-back. My working theory is that if someone doesn’t like one type of feature, maybe the next day will be more their cuppa.
The Ask Roger Anything and Sunday Stealing features serve the same function: generate ideas to write about, but my approach is quite different. For ARA, I’ll look up things, such as the law for ADA compliance. Conversely, Sunday Stealing is essentially free association. The former might take a couple of hours, while I can usually do the latter in half an hour.
The reason for the linkage is that there are too many things I could write about, but I don’t have time for that. I don’t always agree 100% with every POV, but they interest me in some way.
I tend to write as fast as two-finger typing allows. While I might start a post on one day and finish it the next, posts that, for reasons of time, go on past that tend to make me cranky. The blog post I wrote in Vegas took four days, making me cranky because my brain wanted to go on to the next topic.
I once noted: My late blogger buddy Dustbury “noted that he and I have something in common: we are both magpies. As he put it: ‘The Eurasian magpie… is wicked smart, especially for a bird… I am not quite sure how ‘magpie’ became a descriptor for humans who flit from topic to topic unless it has to do with the bird’s tendency to be attracted to Shiny Things, but I’m pretty sure I fit that description, and I have several readers who seem to do likewise.’”
I seldom know what will land with the audience and what won’t. I was pretty sure Roger in a pink do-rag might resonate. But a piece I wrote in 2014 about Spaulding Krullers – think donuts – continues to generate comments in 2023.
I have – let’s see – 111 posts in drafts. The vast majority will NEVER see the light of day.
Here’s a bonus of writing it down. It’s a repository of my personal information. When DID I see that movie? What year did that cousin die? It was not the original motivation, but after nearly 18.5 years, I searched my blog at least twice a week.
There is an article I came across, How To Know It’s Time To Quit Writing. “You don’t find any joy in it anymore – when you sit down to write, it feels like a struggle, you have no motivation, and even when you do manage to get words out, you don’t get that rush of satisfaction like you used to.”
It still brings me joy most of the time. When it doesn’t, I’ll probably stop. And BTW, congrats on your second post in less than a month. As I told you, quoting the late Steve Gerber: “There is only one characteristic that distinguishes writers from non-writers: writers write. (That’s why there’s no such thing as an “aspiring writer.” A writer can aspire to sell or publish, but only non-writers aspire to write.)”
Note about the photo taken from our car, my wife driving, on October 8, 2023, just north of Catskill, NY. Five minutes earlier, the rainbow was quite strong. This is Fading Rainbow from a Moving Car. I like it anyway.
Deep Throat
Sincerely,The Blogger Team”
Sincerely,The Blogger Team”
Here’s the page on your site with the link: https://www.rogerogreen.
“Once you’ve removed the link(s), please send me a quick note so I can create a record of it. Thanks in advance! I hope to hear from you soon.”
This was one of my linkage posts, so sure. Whatever. It’s good to know my blog is “probably legitimate.”
The initial motivation for this post was to get you to Ask Roger Anything. I’m particularly looking for musically thematic pieces to write.
Now when I say Anything, maybe you should make sure that the questions don’t use the words ass (an animal) or bitch (an animal) or Uranus (a planet). God knows, I mean Allah knows, not that, I mean heaven knows SOMEONE will misconstrue my intent.
I’ll answer your questions in the next month or so. And I have received a few questions already. Please pose your questions in the blog’s comments section, email me at rogerogreen (AT) Gmail (DOT) com, or contact me on Facebook. Always look for the duck.