OK -- now it's your turn

Since my friend Moof decided to tag me, and the protocols of the process demand that I pass the tag on, here I am offering my responses and then sending it on. It was difficult to decide whom I wanted to impose this on, so my selection is somewhat arbitrary. Anyone else who wants to play, please do so. I would actually rather it worked that way. Anyway, for what it’s worth, here it is:

1) Are you happy/satisfied with your blog’s content and look?
Generally speaking I think it looks OK. As for content, my impulses vary to some extent. At one level I, as a longtime newspaper columnist, tend to write items that are reminiscent of some of my column style. At other times I feel frivolous and even playful. Then, at moments, I am thoroughly pissed off about some aspect of life in the greater world. I get impulses at moments to write more private thoughts about life, love, sexuality and personal matters, but despite posting a blog, and being a journalist on the side, I’m a rather private person and I don’t know how much I want to reveal of me.

2) Does your family know about your blog?
My wife, Wendy, knows about my blog and reads it fairly regularly, and likes it. She has recently become a blogger herself and is just feeling her way around the process. As for extraneous family, I have mentioned it to a couple of people and have sent the URL, but have never had any response particularly. …

3) Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?
It’s a public blog and I am entirely used to having my thoughts and views out there for public scrutiny, so there is no embarrassment whatsoever.

4) Did blogging cause positive changes in your thoughts?
I have met some terrific people including some that I have become extremely fond of, via this means at least. I have also personally met a couple of blogging friends, and that was kind of cool. Otherwise, I love the feedback so that if I mount an idea I can get a response. Sometimes I will be hit with considerations or arguments I hadn’t arrived at, so it can be enlightening. You know, those “oh, yeah” moments. I also love the international aspect of blogging and realize that whatever place we might be citizens of, our ideas aren’t entirely disparate.

5) Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or do you love to go and discover more by yourself?
I regularly open the blogs of those who comment on my posts. Aside from the fact I always appreciate comments – the more the better – I like to find out what the posters of the comments are all about if they are new. Often I find somebody I like and I will become a regular with him or her and he or she, often, with me. We find one another, and we discover our compatibilities, or lack thereof. Being human, there are attitudes I like, and attitudes I dislike, but it is rare that I have come up against an individual who irks me. Sometimes I get a bit paranoid and find that if somebody hasn’t commented on mine for a while, if they used to be a regular, I will wonder if I have written something to offend, or have made a comment on an entry of theirs that has offended.

6) What does a visitor counter mean to you? Do you like having one on your blog?
I like having a visitor counter on my blog. I like to know if I am having impact one way or another, so I check it periodically to see how I am faring. Pretty good so far, considering I have only been using this individual blog since March of this year.

7) Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
I have seen pictures of some, and am always delighted by pictures, since I am a very visual person. By the same token, I will periodically post pictures of myself. If I do not know what the blogger looks like, I will try to imagine. Especially so if they are female. Hey, men are pgs, what can I say? My mind’s pictures, depending on the nature of the blog, may even be of an undraped nature.

8) Admit it. Do you think there is any real benefit in blogging?
I believe there is benefit. Benefit at a personal level in that I am gregarious and like to meet new people in both real time and via this mode. At an intellectual level, I like to exchange ideas and to get fuelled up by some insights others might have. At a creative level, blogging keeps my writing skills honed. This is important to me since writing is what I do. Finally, I love it my writings are picked up by other sites and reprinted because then I know I am having some impact with my ideas and, who knows, there just might be a publisher or agent out there who loves what I write. I have a couple of manuscripts kicking around, after all.

9) Do you think that blogger’s society is isolated from the real world or interaction with events?
Quite the opposite, in fact. I think bloggers are interacting with the real world at a much more intense pace than the average bear who nods out in front of the TV. Blogging is interactive; passive viewing of events is not.

10) Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?
I have never been roundly criticized, not that I would entirely mind if it is a constructive suggestion. However, as I cruise blogs I find that if I find somebody going to an area that offends me, I tend to simply avoid going there. Exchanges of ideas shouldn’t be hostile, but should always be reasoned and reasonable. Sometimes I have avoided sharing certain personal convictions because I think they might offend. This isn’t out of cowardice, but more in the area that people are entitled to their own ideas, as I am entitled to mine.

11) Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
I have no fear of political blogs, but I usually just don’t go to responding to comments or attitudes that don’t particularly register with the way in which I see the world. One favorite blogger contact of mine has some views that, while not widely divergent from my own, will sometimes express herself in cheapshot (I think) ways. In such cases I just don’t rise to the bait, and instead will make comments on other ideas she has raised. Most of her ideas are great, and she is very bright. I just know it is unlikely she and I would vote in quite the same way.

12) Were you shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
I wasn’t aware of this but, if it happened in a totalitarian jurisdiction, it wouldn’t surprise me. I had one blogger contact from a certain Middle Eastern nation who offered comments about the government of his nation that surprised me by their candor and openness, and did think he was playing a rather dangerous game.

13) What do you think will happen to your blog after you die?
The thought has never crossed my mind.

14) What song do you like to hear? What song would you like to link to on your blog?
I don’t like blogs with musical intros. To me that is like elevator music, and as much as I love music, I don’t like having somebody impose their taste on me.

15) The next “victims”?
This is cruel and I think I would love all of my blog links and many others I connect with as well to do this, but I might make some suggestions. I mean, after all, I got tagged by my friend Moof, and since I can’t get her I will pass the gauntlet to:
Tai …
Wolfgirl …
Josie
Wendola
DJN
AlieMalie