In the Beginning

I remember when I first started blogging.

Yeah. This is going to be a blog post about blogging. Whatever. You're just killing time here anyway, so don't worry about it.

Anyway.

When I first started blogging, I couldn't get enough of it. I had a half-dozen posts started and in the hopper at any given time. I had to pace myself to wait to post instead of cajole myself to write something new. But I have over 250 posts now, and without giving you the day-to-day details of my personal life, which is just not my thing, I'm kind of running out of things I'm burning to talk about.

Sometimes, I think of something new and promptly forget it. Often, I could seriously give you a rundown of what I'm watching on television and all kinds of minutia on where the plot seems to be going, what's implausible, and what made me laugh. I could pass along all kinds of wisdom gleaned from watching Gossip Girl.

I don't think Mr. Poppins could tolerate that for long. And he, unlike many husbands, actually cares to read my blog. Not that we discuss it. We used to discuss the blog, you know, posts, comments, traffic, whatever. Now we talk about other things.

Most of you have heard all my stories. Some of you have heard them all at least twice. A few of you have heard them ad nauseum. And a few of you have been around so long that you figure heavily in the stories, can add to the retelling, or even have your own conflicting version. One or two of you have stories about me that I don't remember myself.

But mostly I don't tell stories about myself here. At least I don't think I do. Mostly I tell my philosophies and observations and expound on things I feel have some kernel of universal truth. That is, when I'm not just amusing myself, which, let's face it, is a lot of the time.

I think I'm so da*n funny.

Lately I've been maybe telling more personal stories. The rat incident springs to mind. But that's kind of against my own personal code where I don't use Secret Lulu for blog fodder. Mostly because someday she'll be responsible for my elder-care and I don't want her putting me in a state run nursing home and swindling my savings. And if she does happen to do that, I don't want any of you saying "I don't blame her."

Someday, that's going to happen to some people and, seriously, I don't blame their kids one bit. After all, they practically earned that money and they deserve some semblance of revenge. But I don't want it happening to me. I'm taking precautions here, people.

I try to think about what I write in terms of whether or not its my story to tell. Not just "is it my story" but can I tell this story without violating someone else's right to privacy, respect, and dignity. Would I want everyone reading this story if it were about me? Would that still be true in ten or twenty years. I'm willing to roll the dice--sometimes--when it comes to my own dignity but I try not to gamble with anyone else's.

That can be a little limiting. Although the Skipper story worked out okay. Still, I had a few worrisome moments when I was afraid that maybe, just maybe, I had crossed the line. I was a little ashamed of myself for that. I even asked Skipper if he wanted me to take the story down. Really, I should have asked him if it was okay to post the story in the first place or, at least, not made it explicit that he is The Dol's brother. My first instinct was correct, though, and he didn't. He found the whole thing highly amusing and got a lot of mileage out of it.

Also, for the record, Skipper used to do a dead-on accurate (although sometimes I gave him tips to improve it, so maybe not completely accurate) impression of me that was funny--at my expense, mind you--until I started dating Mr. Poppins and thought Skipper might do it in front of him. It stopped being funny then. Also for the record, when I asked--okay, threatened death--Skipper stopped doing it. It's been almost ten years and Mr. Poppins still hasn't seen that impression. Although Skipper's impression of Pandora, I'm told, bears a striking resemblance to it, only without all the references to Rhode Island.

The good news is RSS feeds and aggregators mean that if I don't post for a while, you all don't have to get annoyed because you keep looking here and finding me gone. Alice still gets annoyed sometimes. But, hey, go ask her about it.

Heh.

I think it might be nice, now that I don't feel so much need for control, to have a more collaborative blog. One where other people post things, too. The ENFPs, who so seldom post on their own blogs, spring to mind as likely candidates, but they're ENFPs and so, regardless of their blog posts being little more than biannual, they want their own.

Skipper threatened to start a blog about my blog. But, again, ENFP. Never going to happen. Still, I'd let him make fun of me here. After all, I'm an INTJ. I think people who make fun of me are funny.

As long as they're accurate, smart, and insightful, that is.

Comments

[Alice]

Is that two days in a row?
And whatever happened with that rat anyhow?

[Alice]

AND - can I guest post? Seriously, seriously. Give me a topic, I'll give you a draft. I have things to say, Poppins, a lot of things to say.

[The Dol]

I have to say that the whole thing about Skipper's imitation of you was that it made it even *funnier* when you would stand there next to him and correct details as he was doing it. That was part of the schtick and it was brilliant.

I love the idea of a collaborative effort on your blog. My hand is raised! I'll write! I just need rules, regulations, parameters, or I'll be freaked out. Is that the INFJ/P in me?

[pandora]

as the ENFP who can barely find time to post on her own blog, i'll gladly write for yours!

[The Model]

I'm with the Dol. I would need some parameters. But give me a topic, and I would definitely like to contribute (this is the part where I say "in all my spare time"). You know I like more of a dialogue than monologue--what springs to my mind is that it's like intercourse vs. masturbation--so I like the collaborative concept too. I don't know if that's very ENTP of me or not.

I would also LOVE to read Skipper's blog about your blog.

[Polly Poppins]

Okay, I've sent you all invitations to guest post, except for The Dol because she already has one. But Dolly, if you lost it, let me know and I'll do something.

Remember to not use your real names, code names only so people (ironically) know who you are. Any comments that come to your post will be forwarded to whatever email you put in, so I won't be directly managing your comment traffic. It's up to you to respond to people. or not.

Also, Pandora goes first because I already have her post and I'm putting them up in the order received, but no more than one new post every 48 hours so people get fair attention and don't step on each others traffic. I'm posting Pandora's post first thing tomorrow. The rest of you can feel the heat.

[Karita]

Heh, my Dad is an ENFP - he got all excited, got me to set up his blog for him, wrote some posts, obsessed over his stats... and then forgot all about it. He abandoned his blog in true ENFP style.

[Bookgirl]

Hey! As an ENFP blogger, I resent that! Oh, wait. I wrote 5 posts in the last year. Nevermind...

[The Dol]

i'm working on a post. i expect to spend way too long working on it. that's my style.