Tag Archives: blogging

General interest…

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So that wraps up the first installment of From the Mailbag. I don’t know if it was good for you, but I enjoyed getting away from my normal ranting and raving for a bit. So thanks to those who sent requests, questions, and suggestions. You guys always hear whatever happens to be on my mind, so it’s been interesting gleaning a little insight into what you’re thinking about too. I think the mailbag is probably something that I’ll revive from time to time since the metrics are telling me that people liked reading it as much as I liked writing it.

As far as what’s on tap for the rest of the week, I don’t have any really firm ideas yet. Thursday I’ll try to flesh out What Annoys Jeff this Week, but other than that it’s a wide open canvas. From the Common Market hovering on the edge of the abyss, to the President Clinton poking President Obama with a sharp stick, to dingoes finally getting the credit they deserve for eating babies, there’s plenty going on in the world that should keep me occupied for a few days… and if none of that interests you, well, tough. You had your opportunity to decide what topics show up around here and now it’s back to whatever warped version of reality pops into my slightly addled brain. Smell ya later.

Taking requests…

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There are about fifty of you who are going to get this delivered to your inbox. Another thirty or forty will see it on Facebook. A handful will be suckered here directly from WordPress because I used the magic keywords. For a blog with no theme other than whatever happens to be on my mind on any given day, I’m pretty happy with those numbers. Unfortunately, that also represents one of the real challenges for a blogger. Unless you’ve got an extraordinarily engaged group of readers it’s a bit of a one way conversation. Well tonight I want to change that up a bit and I need your help to do it.

For a limited time only, jeffreytharp.com is taking requests. If there’s an issue you want me to weigh in on, something rant-worthy that I’ve missed, or a topic you just want to see me ramble on about for a few hundred words, leave me a message down in the comments box. This should be fun for everyone, right? Look, I can’t promise that I’ll write a thesis on everything, but I’ll do my best to give whatever ideas you have the patent pending Jeff Tharp treatment.

So come on and help a guy out… Because if you don’t this is going to look like the douchiest post in the history of the internet and I’m sure none of us want that.

My incredible shrinking attention span…

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No one reading this is going to be surprised to hear me say that I’m a creature of habit. That’s one of the problems I’ve always had with writing. As long as I make a conscious effort to carve out time to do it every day, all is right with the world. Unfortunately, it’s perilously easy to quickly slide into the habit of not writing. For the record, being a not writer is far, far easier than being a writer. Because I’m fundamentally hardwired to seek the path of least resistance, not writing anything on Saturday quickly turned into letting it slide for the next two days as well. It would be a simple thing to let it slide for the rest of the week, for another month, a year maybe, all because it stopped being part of my routine for a few days. Whether it’s blogging, churning out pulp fiction, or the great American novel, writing is an act of self discipline, which is another skill I have yet to fully realize.

When the sun’s out, a few dozen odds and ends need doing, the television, a list of books you’ve been meaning to read, and rum punch on the deck rear their heads, it’s hard to overcome the sheer number of things competing for your time and attention. For me at least, it’s easy to write in the winter. It’s gray and cold and frankly there’s not nearly as much competing for attention. With a cold rain falling, it’s nothing to churn out a couple thousand words in an afternoon. Once the weather turns, I’m lucky to muddle through two or three hundred, before my incredible shrinking attention span hurls me off in another direction. At least I can admit I have a problem. That’s the first step, right?

Self censorship…

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Every now and then I manage to write a post here that strikes exactly the tone I was looking to hit. That makes it all the more troubling when you read it one last time before hitting the “publish” button and realize it’s chock full of things you can’t say out loud. I’m not confessing to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby or anything, but it was just one of those moments of clarity that screamed out that things weren’t quite ready for prime time. That wasn’t the first time I’ve had to self censor and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I share so much on here that sometimes it’s hard to remember that not everything needs said as soon as it pops into my head. Blogging is a real double edged sword like that. Things that seem like a good idea while I’m writing them, seem slightly less enchanting after they’ve gone live. I guess that’s the price we pay for instant communication.

As usual, I’ve filed my original post away in the archives and hope that it might someday see the light of day again. Unfortunately, that means for tonight you’re left with this post explaining why you’re not reading anything terribly interesting tonight. Sorry about that. Better luck tomorrow.

Diminishing Returns…

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If you’re a blogger, one of the best ways to know how nice the weather is is taking a look at your daily site visit logs. In the middle of winter, when the nights are long, your number of views goes up. Same thing at the height of summer. Everyone is inside hiding from the heat. In the spring and fall, though, those are the doldrums. That’s when the floor really drops out and people have better things to do that putz around the interwebs checking out what people are bitching and complaining about that. All of that might not be strictly true of course, but that’s the pattern I’ve noticed over three years of watching these things. Maybe you don’t notice it on big sites that get millions of hits a day, but around here we pay attention to things like that.

Now if I were an unscrupulous web denizen, I could fill my tag cloud with phrases like “hot lesbian cheerleaders” and probably bost my numbers a bit, but realistically I’d rather keep bringing in people who are interested and interesting. I’m not always concerned about quality over quantity, but that’s how things are here at least. I wonder, though, how much of spring and fall doldrums are caused by readers having better things to do and how much it’s caused by bloggers who are just as interested in doing something that doesn’t involve sitting in front of a monitor. Like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, the world may never know.

But now that it’s cold again, I’m expecting your jerks to check in more often, mkay?

Stream of consciousness…

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As much as I’d like to say I’ve been using the last five days to churn out my magnum opus, the real story is that I’ve mostly just been to lazy and disinterested to write much. Those are two attitudes that rarely lead to interesting posts. In fact I’m probably as bored writing this as you are reading it. Sure, there’s plenty enough going on. The Occupy people are mostly getting what they deserve. Europe is poised on the brink of catastrophe (when aren’t they). The Middle East is a tinderbox (as usual). The federal government could shut down later this week because Congress hasn’t gotten around to approving a budget and the Supercommittee on deficit reduction can’t seem to find their collective ass with their shriveled, tired, old hands and a flashlight. So basically the world is a hair’s breath away from spinning off into any number of possible nightmare scenarios. As much as I should be paying attention, I can’t seem to muster so much as a healthy give a damn. At this point I’ll consider it a victory if we just manage to keep the lights on and food on the table. How’s that for lowered expectations?

None of that really explains why I haven’t been writing. As far as any explanation is really possible, it’s mostly because I’ve momentarily run out of witty and sarcastic things to say. I’ve pretty much taken a stand on all the issues I feel strongly enough about to bother mentioning. Although it doesn’t seem like it sometimes, I’d really rather avoid beating the same tired horses over and over. When something interesting enough to catch my attention passes by, you can believe I’ll be back in spades telling you why it sucks. Since in all likelihood that will happen tomorrow or the next day, this entire post has served only as a placeholder until I can think of something more interesting to discuss.

Lost in the machine…

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I had a fairly hearty post written up for tonight, but at the moment it is lost somewhere in the machine. I swear this isn’t the blogger’s equivalent of “the dog ate my homework.” I really did have a post and now it’s really, really vanished somewhere between WordPress, my laptop, and the vastness of the world wide web. I’m sure it will turn up somewhere sooner or later. I’m going to do a restart and see of anything jars loose. Thinks have been ever so slightly buggy since I installed Lion, so I’m hoping a restart fixes whatever glitch I’m having.

In the meantime, here’s a great read from a Freshly Pressed blogger railing against “The Lack of Holidays in August.” Head over there and give him a like, ok?

Brass tacks…

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For those of you following along at home, the great packing saga of 2011 is coming down to brass tacks. By this time tomorrow, the only thing not boxed will be the cable modem and sundry electronic gear… and by this time Monday, everything should be on a truck and headed in a north easterly direction. I’m sticking in town for a couple of extra days to wrap up the loose ends, but have every intention of being on the way myself by Wednesday. There’s still a metric crapload of things that need to get done between then and now, but for the first time, I’m starting to feel like I’ll have it all done by the time I collapse tomorrow night.

I’m going to do my best to keep posting throughout this ordeal, but if things go dark around here for a couple of days, you’ll know that I misplaced some charging cables or accidentally sent my modem with the movers. Stay tuned, this story is about to get interesting.

Behind the scenes…

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Some time around 10:00 PM CDT yesterday, the total number of views for 2011 climbed past 2479. There’s nothing particularly special about that number other than the fact that it is also the total number of views Get Off My Lawn had in all of 2010. With the fifth month of 2011 barely halfway through, I’m very pleased with what has the potential to be a doubling of views year-over-year. Of course that largely depends on my continuing to write and your continuing to have at least a passing interest in whatever happens to be on my mind when I sit down at the keyboard. I know that little “about” tab at the top of the page says “I’m not writing for an audience,” but if we can level with one another, no one puts something on the internet without at least hoping for an audience. If the metrics are any sign, it seems that I’ve found my niche. Fortunately, snark is a strong suit for me.

In fairness, this is more a post in tribute to you readers who check in every night  or a few times a week who keep those numbers up. Now that we have the worst of this job search fiasco behind us, I hope you’ll be entertained with the growing saga of how to find a house to rent when you have two larget but harmless dogs, the pain and agony of dragging a couple of thousand pounds of personal effects halfway across the country, and starting yet another job for which I have no actual education. It should also be interesting to lean if I still remember how to live on the east coast, fight may way along I-95 twice a day, and kick the pace of life up a couple of dozen notches. Trying to figure out how to pick up life where I left off five years ago should prove hours of entertainment for all of us.

With the move date closing in, I won’t promise to keep up the every night posting schedule, but what does make it to the screen will have a story worth telling.

Sometimes…

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The worst part about blogging, aside from the unforgiving bouts of writers block, is the inevitable moments when there are a lot of things banging around between the ears, but not one that’s quite ready to be rereleased out into the blogosphere on it’s own. Nothing earth shattering – no news on the hiring freeze, no real leads yet outside DoD, but the faintest flicker of hope that after there’s an actual budget things might start moving again – though there will be no breath holding on that coming true.

Outside of that, it’s spring in West Tennessee. I’m ignoring house cleaning in favor of yard work, and that’s generally a good thing except for the coating of dust, dog hair, and pollen that seems to be collecting on everything inside. Maybe I’ll get around to dealing with that at some point. Or better yet, maybe I’ll get around to hiring a cleaning to come in and give the place a once over from time to time.

Not much of a post, right? Stream of consciousness is fun. Maybe next time I’ll be back to ranting and raving