What do you think?

I've noticed for a while that on my blog the longer posts about controversial subjects seldom get any reader comments. While the shorter, funnier posts get lots of comments. Why do you think that is?

I'll continue to post both kinds of posts, because both kinds of posts reflect my personality. I'm just curious why this is happening. It seems counter-intuitive. (And the idea of my counters being intuitive just freaks me out!)

Why?

As yesterday's post may have tipped you off, I had a migraine. Have had them for, I dunno, 25 years now? (oy that sounds like such a long time). So today's post will be short too, though not as minute as yesterday's. Oh and if it doesn't 'hang together' well, at least you'll know why. Please excuse.

So why am I blogging? I mean at ALL, not just today after a migraine when I still feel mentally fuzzy? Because I'm good at writing - something I have known all my life - and don't have the discipline to write the stories, plays and poems in my head. I'm kind of hoping that blogging will get me in the habit of writing generally, which I can then transfer to creative writing. I read a piece on Andrew Sullivan's blog about how "addictive" blogging is, and I must admit that that was the final impetus to get moving. He, of course, was talking about addictive being a bad thing (which it is, of course), but I'm hoping to put that addictive-quality to good use. We'll see how it works out.

What took so long?

I just re-read yesterday's post and was surprised how it ended. How gruff I sounded! Then I remembered: bluntness is my stock-in-trade!

I have friends who have blogs. They were my friends first, and then later started blogs. (not sure why that's important, but there you are). And one friend in particular has chosen to be quite circumspect in describing any information that could be traced back to him personally. He gives pseudonyms to the people he mentions in his blog, for example. I realize that he does that to protect his identity against theft or just generally against yahoos (not the website).

I hadn't really considered that before I started reading his blog and for some reason it stopped me from starting mine. I had thought of blogs being much more like the http://www.andrewsullivan.com/ site or http://www.andrewtobias.com/ site. (See? I like my bloggers GAY and named ANDREW!). Both bloggers write about what they know (politics and politics/finance, respectively) and about themselves. They give their names, their partners names, etc. Neither writes about personal stuff very often, but when they do let it all hang out. I thought everyone blogged that way, until I read my friend's site.

So I was in a quandry. Which way would I blog? My friend's or my Andrews'? Because I couldn't figure out the answer to that, I delayed beginning this blog until yesterday - when I just couldn't stand it anymore! The truth is, I have no idea how I'll handle the personal information issue - but probably somewhere between the two. It doesn't bother me that people know I live in central Ohio, but I don't give my name. So, I'll find my way through the issue and see how it goes. I also won't give a link to my friend's blog, so I don't give out information about him that he would prefer to keep private. But he knows who he is. (Hi!)

And when did I become so indecisive?

Welcome to Blogifesto!

Don't worry, I'm not in the habit of inventing words. But for some reason the word "blogifesto" just seemed like the right name for my blog. I had another name for this blog for months and I didn't write a single thing for it. But when I thought of "blogifesto", it seemed to sum up what I was hoping this blog would be AND it made me laugh. (If you read this blog much, you'll see how often laughter motivates me. In a good way.)

I intend to write on all sorts of some subjects - serious and otherwise. Politics is something I find interesting, and this being a presidential election year, I'll definitely write about that. Religion is also something that is important to me, so that will definitely be a writing subject. But so will the movies and TV shows I watch and books I read. Any and all subjects are fair game as far as I'm concerned. And while I welcome comments, any comments that I find rude or confrontational will be deleted. Don't like my blog? Don't read it, just don't lecture me about it in the comments.