Four Score And 302 Blogs Ago-Why I Blog

Four score and 302 blogs ago, I began writing little diary entries for what I originally thought would be a new outlet to post up all of my poetry, both old and new; an online extension of Cops Hate Poetry, my poetry fanzine which I published from 1986-1991.

But you know what, dear readers? I was so wrong; just like all those Chicago weathermen who were unable to predict the weather forecast correctly between January 26 & January 27, 1967, which most called for a little snow, with accumulation between one and two inches. Most of us, who lived through that blizzard, when a blizzard was a blizzard back in those days, know otherwise!

At least former Chicago television weather forecaster John Coleman kept himself honest; he always told his viewers that if he was ever wrong, that he would stand on his head on live television and sure enough he did it several times throughout his career, but I’m straying as always.

I started my blog because another friend of mine at the time and also a very funny comedian Ray Hanania had interviewed me nearly a year ago on the subject of the arrest of popular Chicago poet J. J. Jameson, who of course turned out to be none other than Norman A. Porter, a wanted fugitive from the state of Massachusetts.

At that time, I remember looking at Ray’s blog-page and thinking how easy it looked to set up one. Now of course it was! After several minutes of trying to pick and choose a name for my blog…my real name was taken, I chose The MishegasMaster and the rest as they say, is history!

Over the course of what seems like a lifetime, I’ve written so much and covered so much ground, almost as much ground during my newspaper reporter days. Unlike my reporter days, with a blog I’ve been able to respond to my harshest critics who believe I am always too honest. As a reporter you’re not always able to do that or face the firing squad of editors and ultimately, the company’s human resources department, if such a department existed.

I’ve also written several fictionalized stories and serials too, two of which are still running regularly and a one maddening surreal serial that runs every so often, plus my regular Friday poetry series.

Along the way, I’ve rediscovered myself, redeveloped my writing skills through trial and error and most of all, I’ve found that after all these months of writing and editing myself, that there is always so much more to learn, write about, comment on, constructively criticize, defend, label and create! I’m proud of myself with the strides I’ve taken and made with this blog and the several friends I’ve inspired to create their own blogs!

Blogs are a wave of the future, though the future is now; a cliché perhaps, yet true. While on vacation last month in the Valley Of Golden Happiness, my mom, The Arizona Babe had given me a stack of newspaper clippings to read; she’s always saving things for me…ah, the acorns never drop too far from the loving tree, now do they?

Anyway, the one that really caught my eye was a column on blogging by Chicago Tribune writer Kathy Parker, who said in so many words that those who blog don’t really say all that much in their blogging efforts to begin with and equated the blogging experience to nothing more than a lot of wasted space.

It’s really funny how all that works. It’s true; anyone who is a non-writer can get online and become an instant writer via the blogging network. In a small way, I feel kind of irked by that whole idealism, having been trained properly in journalism school many years ago, yet it’s an opportunity for 10 million voices to be heard, organize and focus without being told what to do.

I can also understand how blogs have become a brand new outlet for freedom of speech and how it might or might not sway public opinion. In more so in the case of Kathy Parker who feels threatened by bloggers like me and others, so I guess it seems only natural that her insecurity would side with the uselessness we bloggers have to offer the free world!

Most of my friends who blog are not writers at all, with the exception one guy who did journalism school; the rest of them are ordinary citizens preaching to the choir and their friends, mostly. After all, it is your basic online diary for the entire world to see. And I do have my favorite blogs too, so try these on for size, won’t you?

http://energynorm.blogspot.com/

http://pietyhill.blogspot.com/

http://onlysummer.blogspot.com/

http://spacewine.blogspot.com/

Be sure and tell them The MishegasMaster sent you!