Metablogging

Well, my fine furry blog monkeys, recently your Cap'n Neurotic has been pulling double duty as Cap'n Sleep Deprivation. And not the fun, "stay up all night long and feel goofy the whole next day" sort of sleep deprivation that I experienced all too often in the Parker days; oh, no, this is the "good grief, why can't I sleep through the entire night just once, and please, please, please make the pounding in my head go away!" type. Makes it hard to focus on much of anything. "But Cap'n Neurotic," I imagine your melodic monkey voices screeching out at me, trying to drown out the overwhelming tumult in my head, "if'n it's so danged hard for youse to make with the word writin' and all, whyfore ain't you just lyin' down and restin' a spell, 'stead of workin' on this here post-type thingy?" Because I couldn't bear to let my loyal blog monkeys down, that's why. Pain, shmain, I gots me some monkeys to entertain! So, if the post should just stop mid-sentence, pay no never mind, it’s just because my head’s exploded like that scene in Scanners. Man, Scanners, what a great, cheesy SF series that was. I wonder why they haven’t made any since Scanner Cop II: Volkin’s Revenge? I mean, c’mon, that was some good stuff, man! Psychics going around, making folks’ heads explode and stuff. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Boy, that train of thought really jumped its original track, huh? Let’s try to get this post back towards its original destination, okay?

One of the things I've enjoyed the most about doing this blog so far has been just witnessing the different reactions from friends, family, co-workers, and the occasional anonymous poster. I enjoy seeing who feels compelled to make funny comments, who likes to make serious comments, who tries to pass it on to people I've never met, who likes to coerce me into changing the blog to meet his own Eeeeeeeeeeevil whims . . . you know, things like that.

Speaking of the Eeeeeeeeevil one, it looks like his impassioned post earned him at least one of the votes that he wanted, edging Eeeeeeeeevil an inch past hapless victim, although at least one post-post vote went towards master manipulator. The votes are still pretty well distributed amongst all the choices; either G'ovich is perceived as a much more complex person than his post indicates, or else my descriptions of him have been incredibly muddled. From some of the conversations I've had with folks about my posts, I'm leaning towards the latter. I've been surprised several times by the messages that people pull out of my ramblings. That's part of the problem with trying to write about stuff that's been living inside my head for over a decade; I'm so close to it that it all makes sense to me, but I don't always get all of the connective tissue put down to make sure that others see what I see. Then again, most of the “Where the heck did you get that from what I wrote?” moments came from discussions with G’ovich, and I think we all know what that means: He’s messing with my mind!!!!!!!!!

After the Doc began his campaign to be the capital-v Villain of CoIM, I began to ponder if I should oblige him in his wish or not. Should I really cater to the desires of one so despicable that he would give fake directions to tourists? Should I not instead strive to thwart his desire for infamy? But then I thought, what if that's what he really wants? What if, in his infinitely devious mind, he knew that I would shy away from giving full confirmation to his Eeeeeevilness, thus humanizing him, thus making sure that others who deal with him were caught unawares by his devilish ways? Or is there yet another layer to this campaign that I'm not yet able to see?

Curse you, G'ovich! As if my head wasn't hurting enough already!

But if I could be sorta-serious and semi-sappy for a minute: thanks for all the feedback, y’all. Knowing there are literally more-than-one blog monkeys out there faithfully skimming these posts and acting like they like this stuff does this paranoid, delusional, rambling neurotic’s heart good.

Yesterday, Zinger sent me an email from the Dilbert newsletter about the new Dilbert blog, so I thought I’d end this blog post about blog posts with Scott Adams' thoughts on the blogging phenomenon:

People who are trying to decide whether to create a blog or not go through a thought process much like this:
1. The world sure needs more of ME.
2. Maybe I'll shout more often so that people nearby can experience the joy of knowing my thoughts.
3. No, wait, shouting looks too crazy.
4. I know. I'll write down my daily thoughts and badger people to read them.
5. If only there was a description for this process that doesn't involve the words egomaniac or unnecessary.
6. What? It's called a blog? I'm there!
The blogger's philosophy goes something like this:
Everything that I think about is more fascinating than the crap in your head.
The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making it to the end of the sentence that probably didn't need to be written anyhoo.

How’s that for padding my post? And now, my Ibuprofen is wearing off, so I suppose I should sign off before experience actual head implosion.