September 14, 2005

What is the essence of blogging?

Steven Taylor is putting together a talk about blogging and wants readers to help him generate material. He's got a few questions, which you can go over and try to answer. One of the questions is:
If you are a blogger, do you have a post that either exemplifies blogging at its best (or worst) and/or do you have a post that helps explain blogging?
I have a special fondness for my post "Tattoos remind you of death." I think it's mostly that the article is the most bloggable thing I've ever run across.

I think the post of mine that's gotten the most attention is "How Kerry lost me." Did George Lakoff teach a "Language of Politics" class about it? I like the idea of a blog post becoming a text.

I'm fond of all the simulblogging (or TiVo-blogging) things I've tried to do — and will try to do again today. But I must teach a Civil Procedure class at 11. And I must get a tooth pulled at 2. I'll probably tooth-blog later today. Help! I've never had a tooth pulled and I'm terrified!

UPDATE: The link to Taylor's blog isn't working for me right now. I'm guessing he got some big links and things crashed over there. Here's some advice from me about blogging: Stay with Blogger! Do not scorn the BlogSpot! You never have to worry about too much traffic. You don't pay for it and things don't crash. You may have heard of various problems people have had with Blogger, like last spring, when there was once a day when you couldn't get your posts to appear, but there has not been a single problem since then. Think how many blogs they are managing! Why do you imagine that you'll be better off with some smaller scale outfit? Or do you just hate seeing "blogspot" in your URL? I say wear the "blogspot" with pride! Start with Blogger, stay with Blogger! Don't be a URL snob. Get a word you like in front of the "blogspot" and be happy to join the millions of well-served bloggers like me. And Duncan "Open Thread" Black.

MORE: The link is working for me now. But still: Go Blogger!

9 comments:

Monty Loree said...

ann: the essence of blogging is how you would feel if you couldn't blog any more.

Now that you've been blogging for 2 years and are a heavy blogger, how would you feel or what would you do as a replacement if you had to stop blogging?

This is a hypothetical question.

Ann Althouse said...

Monty: I would have to write something else, probably. Or go back to my drawing notebooks.

goesh said...

The essence of tooth pulling is to pay up-front so the Dentist will numb you so much you won't be able to feel your whole face for several days, thus no pain from the extraction. Be sure to use a strong, warm saline solution to rinse the following day, several times.

Blogging - where else do I get to blather and ramble and mutter and have an occasional person read it? My wife certainly doesn't listen much to me.

Ann Althouse said...

Somross: I have never submitted to having my consciousness removed by medical personnel. I didn't do it for two C-sections and I'm not going to do it for a mere tooth. It means too much to me — my consciousness, not the tooth. Actually, the tooth means a lot to me too. I'm very sad about losing a body part. It reminds me of death.

Meade said...

You'll be fine, Ann.

Just keep reminding yourself how good it is to live in this modern age of endodontistry with novocaine, nitrious oxide, and valium. Oh, and licensed trained skilled professionals instead of moonlighting barbers.

I had a tooth implant two years ago. All of the pain and suffering came with the bill.

Ruth Anne Adams said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anna said...

I am a proud member of blogspot! I am also a recent convert to blogging and find that it is addictive. I am a stay-at-home mom and blogging, both writing mine and reading others', allows me to interact with a wider variety of people than those in my little world.

Ann Althouse said...

Well, I got the tooth pulled, with just novocaine and nitrous, and it was pretty intense, involving sawing the tooth into pieces to pull it out in pieces! But once you're in the middle of it, you just have to keep going. It didn't exactly hurt but it was harrowing, even with nitrous. The good part is, I feel fine now. But the novocaine hasn't worn off yet. I'm contemplating getting the painkiller prescription filled, but probably won't. When they handed me the prescription, I said, "Is this the stuff Rush Limbaugh was addicted to?"

amba said...

In response to the "stay with Blogger!" advice, if your URL bothers you (or if you think it will make people have trouble finding you), you can use a BlogRolling allied service called DomainDirect, which gives you your own simple URL and forwards automatically to your "real" one. For example, Ann's, if she cared, could be simply, "www.althouse.com". You can choose to have either the DomainDirect URL or the "real" one displayed in your address bar. (This is actually more helpful with a service like TypePad, that has overly complicated, impossible-to-memorize blog URLs, than with Blogspot.) I did this, and -- disclosure disclaimer -- even placed an ad link for the service on my blog.