What the hell is this blog all about anyway?

A few days back, Boy Genius started to write about the blog phenomenon, and then segued into the liberal blog phenomenon, mentioning StudioGlyphic (what you’re reading) in the process:

I was talking with Pauly on Saturday, in very general terms about, to borrow a phrase, the viral phenomenon of blogs.

Pauly’s line, one that I feel is apt, is that “blogs are the new tattoos.” Everybody is going to have one, or already does.

Viral, actually, is a terrific adjective to describe blogs, as the Howard Dean campaign proved early on. For better or for worse, Dean’s supporters utilized blogs to at once rally and corral the troops.

I mention the “for worse” part because what this marketing strategy has wrought is the political regurgitation blog. No offense to Phil at Studio Glyphic, because I wouldn’t read him if he didn’t have interesting content besides the various links and quotes, but what has grown weary and tiresome in the blogosphere is the link-it-and-leave liberal blog (frankly, I haven’t come across a conservative blog, although I’m sure they’re out there too). Link to an op-ed piece from an unabashedly liberal outlet, quote the first two paragraphs, and that’s it. Congratulations, you now have “content.”

Ha ha, guilty as charged.

In my defense, I guess the number one reason for this blog is to keep a personal historical record. So years from now I can read back through some of these entries and know that during the WSOP 2004, my cat got neutered. That two days after I learned about Toyota’s hybrid supercar concept vehicle, the cutest member of Congress got elected. That George Tenet resigned as the head of the CIA around the time that I got back onto Empire to play online poker. I think the juxtaposition of the personal and public helps keep both in context. Why it’s important, I don’t know, but I’m a strong believer in context.

Which is why the quote/link post (in moderation) is okay with me.

At the same time, there have been times before I started this blog that I wrote things in email that I would have liked to have saved, or somehow put up for permanent display. More often than not, it was just good information, and not necessarily great writing. For instance, now that I have my Mutual Fund Primer on my blog, I can just point people to that and have them read it so that they can get some really basic background on using a mutual fund to save for retirement.

I also like to bloviate about how things should be.

Maybe this is the stuff Boy Genius refers to as the “interesting content.” Who knows? The interesting content I want to see on BG’s site is his hot neighbor. One of these days he’s got to take a shot of her so that the poker blog reading world can commiserate with him on his bad fortune.

At any rate, yesterday was the one year anniversary of this blog. With 809 posts, I’ve managed to post +2.2BP/day (that’s blog posts, mind you).

Craziness.

Happy anniversary.

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