« Small | Main | Books and Balls »

05 May 2003 — Longwinded (7)

Various weblogs I read keep pointing to mimi smartypants and singing its praises. I've read a few of the entries and admit they are good, but usually when I drop in I think to myself, "Sheesh! This entry goes on forever. I don't have time for this," and then I surf someplace else.

I did that again today, and then it hit me: the entries at mimi smartypants are no longer than the entries at foldedspace.org. Gulp. What if my readers do the same thing? What if they come here and say to themselves, "Sheesh! Not another huge entry; I'll just come back tomorrow."

I need to learn how to revise, how to edit myself.


Quite the busy weekend, and now I'm completely exhausted. I'm running on caffeine and fumes.

Friday night we met Dave and Karen for Lebanese food. All we ever go to is Lebanese restaurants anymore. Kris loves Lebanese food, and my craving for Asian cuisine is suffering because of it. Do we ever go for Indian food? Only if I'm tricksy, and I'm not tricksy very often.

Saturday and Sunday mornings were devoted to photography. Saturday afternoon, Kris and I picked up tomatoes and peppers and basil at the Master Gardeners show at the fairgrounds. In the evening, I raced to Portland to join Mac and Andrew for a movie.

X-Men 2 is not a great movie, but it's not terrible, either. It's mostly fun, though the acting is laughable in spots. And the script. It's certainly the most 'comic-booky' comic book movie I've ever seen. That alone should tell you need in order to decide whether or not you want to see the movie.

Yesterday afternoon I succumbed to the urge to make clam chowder. This always takes longer than I think it will (note to self: budget at least ninety minutes in the future). Since I'd already seen most of my other close friends over the weekend, I called Jeremy and Jennifer and they brought the kids over for dinner.

A very social weekend, but one with little sleep. And it's not over yet! I'm heading up after work to watch the first soccer game of the FC Saints' second season. I wish I were playing, but I can at least cheer the team from the sideline (and encourage Joel, who is taking my place in the goal).


Further evidence that once you've thought of something cool to put on the internet, it's probably already been done: Strong Bad episode guide.

Also: a list of fictional cats.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2005Community Garage Sale   The Oak Grove neighborhood hosts a community garage sale every year during one weekend in May. This is that weekend. I took a day off work to be here today, and I'm glad I did.

2004The Top of My Head   Biking to work. Calories in meats. Stinky size 32 jeans. Cookies for breakfast. Sun roofs vs. moon roofs. The Decmeberists are coming. New foldedspace weblogs. Printing from a Mac. Coming out of a funk.

2002Unchained   Finally the woman can resist no longer. She approaches the three of us, interrupts our conversation, begins babbling. She starts talking to us about the spirits inside of us, about our spiritual family. She tells us that we don't need telephones because we have the spirits inside of us.

2001Long Day   It's been a long day already and it's only about half over.

Comments
On 05 May 2003 (04:24 PM), Joelah said:

Go Saints! Our chief weapon is optimism! And surprise. Our... our two MAIN weapons are optimism and surprise. And nice purple uniforms. ...AMONGST our weaponry are such diverse elements as optimism, surprise, and nice purple uniforms.


On 05 May 2003 (05:58 PM), Dave said:

Your entry for today was 428 words, including the date, excluding the posts from years past. mimi smartypants most recent entry was 1,605 words.

I stopped reading at roughly 500. Brevity is the soul of wit.


On 06 May 2003 (07:16 AM), Amy Jo said:

NPR featured a story on Blogs this morning, specifically audio blogs. Thought you might find it interesting . . .

Audio Blogs: Online Diarists Sound Off
Web Journals Now Feature Voices, Other Sounds

http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1220496.html


On 06 May 2003 (07:50 AM), Tiffany said:

I never log on unless I have a while to read a long log, so keep them up!


On 06 May 2003 (07:54 AM), Tiffany said:

I never log on unless I have a while to read a long log, so keep them up!


On 06 May 2003 (03:29 PM), Dana said:

Who is your audience? Are you writing for your critics, or are you putting out a product and letting those who like it read it, and those that don't care for it find something else?

Remember, it's not like you're charging anybody for the priviledge of reading your eloquent prose or anything. The only reason to really care is if you either a) feel some obligation to entertain your readers, or b) you feel some obligation to increase your readership and wish to provide a more attractive/marketable product with an appeal wider than the niche you currently serve.

Knowing you, it's the latter -- you want more currency in the Great Wide World of Blogging, which means attracting more readers and references from other blogs and bloggers.

I think that's silly, but it is your blog after all. :)


On 06 May 2003 (03:58 PM), J.D. said:

Dana, you're absolutely right. And today, as I was rereading this entry, I thought to myself: wait a minute, why do I even care? This is for me. But, for a while, I allowed myself to get sucked into the mindset that I was writing for others.


Post a comment
Name


Email Address
(required, not shown)


URL


Comments




Remember info?