Fireworks and Potato Salad; It's Party Time
Estimated Days Until Blogger Burnout: 3


We are rolling steadily toward the one-month mark for this blog. I thought it would be a good time to reflect. Of course it would be more historical relevant and neatly symmetrical if I wated for the actual one month mark, but a combination of ennui-fueled impatience and basic contrarianism won out.

And now I'm Ed Koch, former NYC mayor, walking down the streets of Manhattan accosting passers-by, shouting: "How'm I doin'? Hey there! How'm I doin'?!"

It sounds sort of funny, flippant even. Incongruous at least; politicians aren't supposed to sound like that, so unguarded and plain-spoken. But if you look at it long enough, it's kind of... OK not "kind of", it's really really needy. It's desperate. He might as well be screaming "Validate me! Oh, validate me!"

Well, that's blogging in a nutshell, isn't it? It's this one, anyway.

And since I'm being reflective, I must say I realize now that the premise of this blog has always been flawed. It seems to me as I slowly gain experience amongst other bloggers that their initial impulse is to impress their friends. First posts invariably start with "I told Tony I would never do anything as lame as blogging, but here I am. Hi Tony!" And then Tony responds along three or four other people who know this person in real life.

Of course from there, a blog can go in any one of a million directions from well-constructed, tightly themed observation to gibbberish secret code inside-joke-a-thon relevant to no one.

So even though I erred by keeping this to myself (Mrs. Pops is still none the wiser) and thus denied myself a built-in audience, I must say how pleased I am to have denied myself even the option of making this the Me And My Best Pals blog. I don't even know anyone named Tony.

This is of course not to slight my new friends, my well-earned blog-reading friends, who have flocked here in the almost-month since I started this thing. The letters and postcards from around the world I have received have been overwhelming and touching.

I am a little embarrassed by the spontaneous formation of the Pops' Bucket International Fan Club. They can be found at www.popsbucketintlfans.co.ca . Apparently I'm huge in Canada. The main issue being debated in the forums now is whether they should call themselves Bucketheads or Bucketeers. I must, for obvious reasons, remain officially neutral.

They say they've been having some server trouble, so it may be difficult to get the page to load. Keep trying.

I suppose in the interest of balance, I should include something self-critical amongst my congratulatory remarks. In rereading some of my posts, I see in hindsight that some of my words do not match my intent. I can think of several reasons why this is so. First: I spend all my time with kids under 6. My communication skills are not what they used to be. Second: I am, in fact, stupid. No, that's a little harsh. I should point out that I used to be quite smart. But go back to the first reason to understand what brought about the second. Third: I invariably bang this thing out completely on the fly, without research or editing or drafting of any kind. I would change it, but I fear I would undermine the reckless, breathless, fly-by-night tone of my posts and thus alienate by adrenaline-junky readers who come here for their daily fix of verbal bungee-jumping. Everything I do, I think of the fans first. You are who made me, people.

Plus, I'm really lazy.


This Post on the Narcissus Scale: 9.9 (shattering records)


Pops

- posted by Pops @ 12:41 PM