If there is one thing I love about RSS feeds is that they help you get a lot of ideas about stuff to think about, and by extenssion write about. I was readingLorrel On WordPress where she was highlighting a post on another blog called “So: Why Blog”. The post was by Dr. Johnson’s Cat and was a reflection on how his personal blog journey has kind of developed. The part that struck me was this statement Dr. Johnson’s Cat made:

People starting blogs only to abandon them within months, or even weeks, is such a commonplace that you’re surprised this hasn’t become a a ubiquitous trope on sitcoms. Where indeed are the reality shows where the participants, instead of holding out to the last “What have we learned?” episode, instead wander off seriatim, not so much called back to real life as completely unsprung by despair.

It got me to thinking about how I personally, a well as those of my marketing demographic, approach life in general. The blogsphere is perfect for me for because I can express my opinion at length about any topic I feel like ranting about. I can say things, criticize people, expound on the mistakes I think government officials make, and complain about how Big Oil has American under a gun, and no one can stop me. And when I’m done, I can go back to life without doing anything to change things, but I feel better for getting if off my chest. This is my generation.

We are the people who keep Starbucks in Business; not because of the quality of the coffee but because it facilitates our self indulging desire to gather and complain about how thing can be changed (All for only $2.10 for a Venit Black Iced Tea, with .50 cent refills). We are the children of the generation that reaped the benefits of the Reagan Years, and taught us that the American Dream is a material goal that you can reach if you work hard enough and are willing to make sacrifices to attain your desires. We are the generation that looks at the state of things around us and say “That’s wrong, someone should fix this,” because that is what we were taught to do. There are people who’s job it is to make things happen, and when it doesn’t happen it’s not our fault for telling them they were doing their job right, they should have know better.

OK, so there is a lot of angst there, I took a breath and I’m better now. The reality is that the world we live in has a lot of things that face each of us every day, and make life hard. We try to set goals, and life spits in our face and prevents us from going on. But we soon tire of fighting the good fight, we are tired of getting kicked while we are down, and we no longer feel any kind of absolution by playing the role of the silent martyr that carries on and perseveres. So where do you go when you want to vent, to the safest place you can go and not have to worry about people getting in your face for expressing your feelings. I’m no expert, but it makes sense that blogs have exploded in number over the last few years, because now it is so easy to create one. And in doing so you create the safe place, that retreate from the madness of the world, to finally say what you want.

This is nothing new. When social web sites first started taking form, and with the introduction of things like on line chat rooms, people realized how freeing it can be to have their identity hidden and express things would not otherwise. Blogs are similar to this in that you can choose to reveal as much or as little as you would like about who you really are, you can hide completely as a different persona or be a different version of yourself. And, unless you encourage them to, the people you know don’t have to know about any of it. Technology is a tool, and blogging is just another part of that tool set the internet offers to people in this day and age.

Give this tool a generation of people who have been told that the world is their oyster to have if they just reach out and take it. The children of the career women who did the impossible and raised a family and had a career at the same time, are now taking the stage and letting people people know that the world is not what they were taught. The people who were taught in High School that the US is the strongest nation in the world, and is a force of good in the Global Community, watch in horror as their friends were sent to fight a war that went from honorable to horrific in a matter of months. The sons and daughters of the Parents that dedicated their lives to a company only to be laid off a year or two before qualifying for retirement, are faced with the truth that dedicating your self to your company will not earn you any job security at all if you cost too much for your company to keep.

These are the people who make up those blogs that have a post here, a post there, and have large gaps in between. These are the people who go to work every day, face the fact that the nation (in spite of fact pointing to the contrary) feels like it is in a recession and they are struggling to survive. Paying the rent, paying the bills, taking care of themselves and their loved ones, coming to a point where the stress needs a release valve of some sort. Then they have a shine jewel placed in front of them that gives them that safe place. No wonder we only blog when nothing is going on, and wish we could blog when we are so busy we can’t see straight. We don’t need to blog when things are going easy.

Why do we blog? We blog because we need a place to vent what we can not say to those around us. We blog to feel like, for once, we have have a say in something and not have to worry about dealing with the consequences of facing that person the next day at work or waking up to them in the morning. We blog because we have nothing better to do a the time. We blog because we feel the need to have our opinion heard. We blog when we have time to express our feeling in this way, which is an interesting commentary on how busy we are if you think about it.

So what I’m really saying is, I blog because sometimes it’s easier to throw something out on the internet and vent my frustration in a safe way that (as much I am ashamed to admit it) doe not required action on my part in real life. So I can be as unbridled and as unrestrained as I and willing to let myself go. Then I go back to real life, having gotten my major issues aside, and function like a normal human being again just like the rest of us who struggle to get by in this really funky world that does not make sense a lot of the time.

Lorelle VanFossen is probably one of the most respected bloggers in the WordPress community. If you want to see an example of someone who knows how to take blogging seriously but still keep it fun and up beat, she’s an excellent person to watch in action. I’ve been reading her “Lorelle On WordPress” blog for about year now, it was one of the first RSS feeds I ever subscribed to.

I saw this post in my feed reader today that was titled “Want to Help Google Clean Up Splogs,” and was drawn into it right away. For those who don’t know what a “splog” is, it’s the blog equivalent of spam: when a post appears on your blog serving only to offer a link to another site or blog in attempts to bring in money to that blog (usually the ones I have to weed out are pornography related). So I found myself caught in a bit of a catch 22 on this one.

There are some people in the internet community who have put two and two together and come up with a really great solution. Splog = content that I don’t want on my blog website that is mass duplicated with same info designed to generate money. Google = one of the most powerful search engines in existence. Therefore they conclude that Google should offer some kind of way to filter out splog entries in blogs. However, in this case 2+2 does equal a good result. In fact it leads to something that has the potential of going to a very dark place.

The whole idea of blogging, at least in it’s current idiom, is that you throw an opinion out and let the world respond. Blogging is, by it’s very nature, an open forum. As an American, I take for granted every day the right that I have to express myself with out fear of retribution from my Government. I can post any anti-government sentiment I want on my blog and nothing can be done because I have the right to my opinion. If I choose to move to a remote cabin in Montana, call myself the “Ultimate Cheese Wheel Trinity” and start my religious group of dairy lovers, as long as we do not break any laws (such as stock piling fully automatic assault riffles, or dealing in drugs) we can proclaim our message of “cheezy goodness” (yes, I spelled it with ‘z’) via our blog and not have to worry about government intervention. But, what if someone finds that our message of “cheezy love” is too radical and dangerous in a day an age where lactose intolerant people have finally established a place of equal recognition and respect for the first time in centuries. They don’t want be subject to such a bizarre and blasphemous attraction to the gift of the “Sacred Cow”. What would the children think if they saw such a thing on U-Tube?!

OK, so I went over the top a bit there, but I think I got the point illustrated there. The real crux of the issue is that at heart of Content Filtering lies this really sticky debate about how to allow open communities to exist and at the same time impose some sort of way to protect that community. Once again we return to the basic conundrum of the American Way of life: Protecting my Freedoms may cost me some of my Freedoms, so where do I draw the line.

This is where I draw the line on this issue: If I want people to be able to post openly on my blog, I have to accept responsibility for the posted comments according to my personal convictions or moral standards. I should have the right to choose weather or not I want to give this responsibility over to a company like Google, but I do not agree with having to submit to an all powerful content filter in order to make other people’s blogs adhere to those other people’s set of standards. The same goes for spam and splogs, one of the largest money making industries in the Internet World. Yes, it’s vial and fowl in my opinion, but I have the power to eliminate this particular wrong doing from my blog is I wish. The last thing the internet needs is a content filter who’s control does not lay with the individual user.

***Updated latter that day****

So Lorelle very kindly pointed out that I did not have a clue I was talking about…..apparently splogs are Blogs that exist as a way of generating money. They are the same blog, with the same penny here penny there money earning set up, that propagates out into multiple instances to make it look like each is a different blog. So, in essence, it like a mass money making scam.

My co-worker sent me a link to this news article, and it made me go Ewwwww!!!!!! So, of course, I had to share it with the world. The caption at the subject of the mail was simple, “Don’t Shake This Man’s Hand.”

The MSN news article headline says it all:

Japan: 780,000 porn site hits earn demotion

click here to read the full article.

I think the best part of it, is that the guy still owes the government for the time he spent looking at the sites, while on the job (he was a government employee) in addition to the fine he has to pay.

My co-worker forwarded this to me today. It’s a WordPress blog called “Vista Sucks“.

If you read this post about What Laptop Steve Ballmer used for one of his recent Microsoft presentations, you will see something very peculiar about the hardware he has at the podium.

The day has finally arrived. Microsoft is now use Apple products in order to show case how to do things on a PC. I bet Steve Jobs is sitting in his office right now, thinking something like “And they said it would never happen.”

So I got paid yesterday! This is cool, because it was a day early (when you work for a small company, and the boss is out of the office for pay day, this happens). So I go to put my hard earned money in the bank and had an interesting experience. The Van in front of my car start to smoke and the driver ran from the car. It’s a good thing he did too, because a few seconds after he did, the thing caught fire. I took a few pics with my phone (still waiting for my cell provider to deliver the e-mails from my phone to my e-mail account, and here is what I saw.

It was so cool, in that “Thank God it’s not my car” kind of way. The fire crew truck was there really fast. A guy came out with the big skill saw and cut off the hood to get the fire underneath, and they turned the hose on it. But not before filling the air the smell of burning plastic and rubber.

I think the weirdest part was as I deposited my check, the bank teller asked me if there was a fire going on outside. I pulled out my phone and showed her the pictures, and she was shocked. Apparently that is her bumper just off the picture to the right of the van. She finished my transaction and went to go check on her car.

It’s not every day you get to see a car catch fire.

My wife got a digital camera for her B-Day. Now we can take pictures and stuff and not have to wory about developing film.

Huzah!!!!!

OK, so I just finished my rant about money, and I decide to look through a few of my friends blogs because I have not made the time to do so lately. A friend of mine used to have a really funny website, but life got in the way and he only recently put a new one back up. I read this post he had up about things he had learned at this point in his young life and he is totally right. As a member of that not quite Gen-X but not quite Post-Modern/Gen Y age group, I tend to get caught up in all things I can’t control but feel that I should. And my default reaction when this happens is to freak out about how I’m inadequate to enact change in my own life, but not actually make any concrete moved to enact change in my life because I’m too busy analyzing it and complaining about it. Be offers some really great perspective that touched about everything I have been feeling this past week with my wife in North Carolina. Funny how I have to finally face myself now that I’m alone.

Anyway, read this post! It has some really great advice for people in their mid to late 20’s…well actually for anyone who is frustrated with their own inability to control their life. If I could only keep these things in mind as I try to sort out the place I’m in now and how to get to the next place in my journey of life.

Hate is a strong word. And to be honest, it is very hard to tell the difference between hate and envy at times. Or maybe the reality is that it is easier to hate something that is intangible than to deal with the fact that you are inadequate in and of ourselves to master said object.

No matter what happens, I keep finding myself under the gun when it comes to money issues. Just when I think finances are about to equalize and we finally have gotten on top of things, I apparently forgot to read the fine print on something somewhere and end up having to pay a fee for something. Case in point, if you make the minimum payment that is listed as due on your credit card, that is not necessarily what you have to pay in order not to receive a finance charge (especially it a late payment fee was assessed and that put you over your credit limit resulting in an over limit charge as well). And in these instances there really is only one place to put the blame for my financial problems. As much as I would like to put the blame on other people, I know the fault lies with me. It is my fault my wife and I are in the situation we are in.

Here is the rub: We have enough money to barely get by with what we need, but not enough to get far enough ahead that we can get out from under this huge big weight it feels like is pulling down on my shoulders. And there is not more emasculating than knowing that you can no longer afford to get your wife birthday presents, because if you don’t bite the bullet now with some of your bills it will take twice as long to ride of them. And each months I think this is the last time we have to do this, and we end up being just short of our goal. Just short, in this game, means a lot of money shelled out this month that we were hoping not to.

I wish we could just get over the hump. Once we are there, that will free up enough money each month to do things like get our cars registered (if they pass smog check). And to boot, the AC when out on my car for the second time in a week. Usually I would just ask my Dad if I could go out to his place to get it fixed, but that cost more money in gas that I have this month. I’m actually kind of glad that my wife got to go to North Caroline to visit her Grandmother, because they are celebrating their birthday together. Had she stayed here she would have had to endure another birthday where I could not get her anything.

And I refuse to take the out of blaming credit cards on my debt situation. Had I not gone into credit card debt, I would not have been able to afford for my wife and I, gas to get to work, or other things that I must have to keep from going into worse debt. I knew that it would not be fun to dig back out, and that it would take a year or so, but in the economy and job market I am luck to be able to make due with what I have. I work hard, and I life a modest life, I should not have to constantly fight this dam hard to have a peaceful life.

So the question is: Is it because we don’t have money, or is it because I can’t manage to manage our money correctly? I honestly don’t know. I know that we do not live a life of luxury, and I can see places we could not spend money, but I don’t see us being able to save enough money by doing so to make a dent in other things.