blogging Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Where does the blog go?

repost

Where does the blog go? Some say, “I really like that piece” or “I don’t enjoy that post.” I’ve never thought my blog could be fairly represented in a given blog post or even a handful, but rather the body of work.

Somebody tells me that they like the music or hate the quiz; that’s fine, I shrug. I have zero capacity for writing to the audience, except when they Ask Roger Anything. I write what I need to write.

In Februarys in the recent past, I haven’t spent much time writing about Black History Month. But, oddly enough, even though I didn’t announce as such, I probably wrote more about the topic in 2025. It was, maybe subconsciously, a reaction to the reactionary anti-DEI nonsense.

In fact, I would just as soon never write about race or politics at all, a strange thing, I suppose, for a political science major. Unfortunately, politics define the allocation of precious resources. When the political leadership is… let’s say problematic… not saying something suggests my agreement with the status quo.

Process

I’d be in real trouble if I had to look at a blank screen without knowing what I was going for. This is why I tend to lean into events: my birthday, family birthdays, anniversaries, and major holidays. That’s about 20 posts each year.

I also tend to want to do a musical piece once a week. In 2025, I will write at least one post a month for the years ending in five in the 20th century. The R&B and country charts also started in the 1940s, and the adult contemporary chart in the ’60s. So that’s a total of 28 posts. Let’s add at least 4 Christmas music posts. I throw in a few Ask Roger Anything, plus linkage, and that’s another 28 posts. All I have to do is figure out what the other 285 will be: easy peasy, right?

I’m trying to figure out how to continue the blog. Certain posts I can write quicker than others, and I can free-associate on quizzes. The music pieces need links, and opinion pieces require links to verifiable sources.

One thing that occurred to me is that I will need to write shorter pieces and maybe even use some graphics, as The Post. This violates my self-imposed rule of at least 300 words, but I need more time to work on The Project.

I might want to make a few more deliberate attempts at having a repost of a couple of items each month or so. It’s not that I’ve never done a repost before. I reposted information about being in JEOPARDY and the derivation of the word lunaversary.

I always tackle Emmett Till quinquennially. The interesting thing about Emmett, whose death was 70 years ago this year, is that there’s always new information about the event or a greater understanding of how it played out.

I repeat myself when under stress.

There are a few pieces I want to, at least one in May, because when I first started blogging on the Blogger/blogspot platform, I didn’t know how to do pictures or graphics. Yeah, there was this software – I think it was called Picasa – and I followed the instructions, but could not get the images to work regularly. So a lot of my early posts don’t have graphics at all. I was also unaware of things such as SEO. I need page breaks and descriptors. The truth is that I don’t care much about that stuff, but it’s probably good blog hygiene, whatever that means.

Writing about the daughter has gotten a bit harder because I’m trying to figure out the line between telling an interesting story and her privacy. I desire not to embarrass her too much, but I have to bug her a little because it’s the joy of parenting. I had a lot of pictures of her early on, but I haven’t used a contemporary image of her for more than a decade.

20 years a blogger

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.

Steve Gerber

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.

Logistics

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.

Why?

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.

Hey 19: that’s Roger’s blog years

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.”

Keep learning

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

Do I Understand…?

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.

Process

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.

Need a new shiny object.

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.

Until it sucks

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.

Unexpected stuff, plus ARA

Deep Throat

One of the vagueries of blogging involves unexpected stuff, like this image from NASA.

I received this email on May 28: “As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe the boundaries for what we allow– and don’t allow– on Blogger. Your post titled “Antoinette” was flagged to us for review. This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains sensitive content; the post is visible at
http://rogerowengreen.blogspot.com/2005/06/antoinette.html. Your blog
readers must acknowledge the warning before being able to read the
post/blog.” We apply warning messages to posts that contain sensitive content.

“If you are interested in having the status reviewed, please update the content to adhere to Blogger’s Community Guidelines. Once the content is updated, you may republish it at [URL]. This will trigger a review of the post.” For more information, please review the following resources: Terms of Service: https://www.blogger.com/go/terms
Blogger Community Guidelines: https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy

Sincerely,The Blogger Team”

So I looked at the article, which was about the Tony Awards. I assume the offending part is: “My buddy Fred Hembeck has been extolling the wonderfulness of one Mark Evanier for some time, and Mark has a lot to say about the Tonys that I found interesting… He also writes about medical marijuana (6/6) and Deep Throat (6/3), topics covered recently on this page, and how the rich get richer, and the myth of the “death tax” (6/6), which I would have written about had I had something cogent to say.”

Could it be a passing reference to Deep Throat, which was not about the 1972 movie but about the guy who fed information to Woodward and Bernstein about Watergate?

Resolution

After musing about this for three days, I decided to submit the piece for approval, unaltered. The response?

“Hello.

We have re-evaluated the post titled “Antoinette” against Community
Guidelines https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy. Upon review, the post has been reinstated. You may access the post at
http://rogerowengreen.blogspot.com/2005/06/antoinette.html.

Sincerely,The Blogger Team”

At some level, the situation is comical. There’s no THERE there. And it did not prevent you from seeing a blog post I wrote EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO.

Conversely, I’m troubled by the kneejerk reaction of some anonymous person, or bot, who decided that something I wrote was salacious/pornographic without even understanding the context of Deep Throat. It’s the dumbing down of America.

Another matter: A guy wrote, “I’m working on cleaning my website, and I need your help in removing a link from your site. Your site is probably perfectly legitimate, but I’m just trying to eliminate as many links as possible.

Here’s the page on your site with the link: https://www.rogerogreen.com/2022/04/27/april-rambling-shadow-docket/

“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.”

I almost forgot: Ask Roger Anything!

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.