spazeboy

Sunday Drivel

This will be the second post in a row in which I quote CGG, but the occasion this time is that she’s been published in the Hartford Courant along with her co-blogger Genghis Conn. This Wednesday, the two of them are participating in a Key Issues Panel sponsored by the Courant–click for details.

Ladies first:

The second quote is from an anonymous user commenting on a blog post I wrote last month. This person took issue with both the content of my post and my ego, and ended his or her comment by saying, “Just because you post your drivel doesn’t make you better than anyone else.”

My anonymous friend is right. Bloggers don’t have any particular authority or experience that makes our opinions more valid than anyone else’s. We just happen to put them online.

I’ve had this blog online since June something of last year. It’s been certified at 45% drivel. Mmm mmm good!

Now Genghis:

Site traffic is part of the addiction. There’s something immensely satisfying about having a good day, traffic-wise. After all, every writer wants to have his or her work read by as many people as possible. I must check my site meter 100 times a day. In fact, I’m checking it as I write this. See? It’s like a nervous tic.

[...]

Blogging has taken me to all kinds of places I thought I’d never go. I’ve been present for little pieces of history, like the 2006 state Democratic convention, Joe Lieberman’s headquarters on primary night (I felt the world shift a little as he announced his intention to run as an independent) and the U.S. Senate debate in New London, where a media pass I made out of cardboard somehow got me in. I’ve talked to candidates for U.S. senator, governor, state representative and many others. I love politics, and blogging has allowed me to experience and, to avery small degree, shape the political world of my home state. No wonder I’m addicted.

I’ve got the same addiction (for lack of a better word) to traffic. I always like to know that I’ve got a readership–it keeps me going. And being a blogger has been amazing. I’m in the IMDB. I’ve met all kinds of candidates, befriended legislators, and pissed off Joe Lieberman. In the right kind of crowd, I’m told that people point and whisper behind my back, “is that Spazeboy?”. Weird–you can’t expect me to stop and talk to anyone who’s a fan of my drivel can you?

Last but not least, Colin McEnroe:

Therein lies a paradox about blogging. In many ways, it’s all about an individual inscribing his ideas on the public mind, through will, aggression and ego. In other ways, it’s a medium characterized by selfless communitarian spirit. I have spent quite a bit of time among them, and I am struck by the degree to which they support and celebrate one another. I don’t think David Broder and Joe Klein take pleasure in one another’s successes the way, say, Connecticut Bob and Spazeboy do. There’s a sense that a rising tide lifts all blogs. At least twice, when bloggers and their families have faced personal crises, the Connecticut community has raised money for them, quickly and unstintingly.

I can’t know for sure what Colin is referring to, but my guess is that he’s writing about my fundraiser for Spazemom and the MLN Community fundraiser for Maura. We are kind of an odd little family, us progressive Connecticut bloggers (there are some conservative ones–and we may experiment with crossbreeding soon), but it’s a family I’m proud to be a part of.