Blogging: hard work
My original plan was to keep myself in shape with writing by doing at least one reasonably-sized post per week (give or take a couple of days). My two rules were not to reveal any personal info (I know people are probably posting their sequenced genomes for download on MySpace now or something, but I don’t care about shifting community standards – I have real people in my life to talk about personal things, and plenty of people talk about their more exciting lives better than I do, so there), and no blatant fluff pieces. This doesn’t sound particularly ambitious, but I’m already dangerously close to missing a deadline, so perhaps as I sit here, twitching gently from my unconscious consumption of a large quantity of discounted halloween candy, this is the time to highlight some other blogsters who have been doing an excellent job of “keeping it real”. My three favorites:
Girls Are Pretty: Living proof of human victory over writers’ block: a (week)daily blog that never ceases to delight, disgust and confuse. Ostensibly a “comedy” blog in the same way that half the humor shows on cable are (wherein strange things happen, and some people find them amusing despite the lack of discernible jokes), this long-running blog is more about squeezing an incredible rainbow of ideas out of a simple concept. Each weekday on the blog has been given a name – such as You Weigh 800 Pounds Day!, Nearing The Conclusion Of Blind Man’s Bluff Day! or Your Boyfriend Is Blind And High-Maintenance Day!. Most of the stories feature sexual deviance, murder (or more non-specific death) and the futility of the human condition – not really a recipe for humor, but definitely a nice 2 minute break for your workday.
The amazing thing is that, with very few exceptions, the GAP author has made a new and completely unique post every weekday for at least five years. True, most of the posts are nothing but lightly fleshed out concepts, but hell, he doesn’t skimp on the concepts – considering the originality of the the ideas, it’s kind of hard to believe that this is the work of one person. Not to detract from the writing – some days are more inspired than others, but for the most part it’s quality stuff despite its fecundity. Also of note is that 1. there are no ads or other revenue generating ventures beyond a sponsorship plan and a link to the author’s book; seemingly all hosting costs are eaten as well, and 2. despite all this, he seems to be a relative unknown even to internet ephemera nerds. God knows why he does this (diligent self-promotion, a bet or some kind of gypsy curse are my best guesses), but it’s wonderful that he does.
Bikesnob NYC. Sort of the cycling community’s equivalent of the Mysterious Restaurant Reviewer, BSNYC has appeared out of nowhere as a sort of counterweight to cycling’s recent popularity and the resulting number of vanity sites for bikes . His blog shifts between singling out bikes for mockery and owners for abuse from craigslist or photo sites, and writing about various cycling issues. An excellent writer, but I worry that he will eventually run out of things to write about. Then again, it seems like there is a limitless pool of idiocy both within NYC cycling (which seems to simultaneously push every limit for decency and common sense, both as far as riders and riding conditions) and the cycling industry / “scene” / whatever.
Prancehall. Kind of the BSNYC for grime aficionados, this semi-anonymous writer (who has outed himself as a writer for Vice Magazine UK) has been posting several times a week for years now. Feature run the gamut from bizarre inside jokes / London humor which takes a couple of months of dedication to the lingo to get, to links to mp3s, videos and reviews that prior to the internet would have been only known to people in certain London neighborhoods, not unlike grime itself.
Ok. Posting obligation technically completed. Real non-recycled post coming up next, trust.
Filed by d at October 23rd, 2007 under Uncategorized