Je Ne Sais Quoi and The Usual Sunday Night Agenda

I heard something breathing outside my win­dow last night. While hea­ring deer breathing/snorting late at night, as they con­gre­ga­ted on the lawn, was not uncom­mon in my old home it’s not something one would expect in this small city. It’s quite unli­kely a large group of deer would take a trip into the city at night, con­gre­gate on the minus­cule back lawn of this buil­ding, so I remain in the dark as to the source of the gut­tu­ral res­pi­ra­tory sound.

I clo­sed the win­dow and hoped for the best. I’m pas­sing it on. In the case of my disap­pea­rance someone might want to pass this infor­ma­tion on to the offi­cer in charge of the investigation.

I don’t want to lose you here. I tread care­fully though this mine field. A field more often full of crap than not. And by crap I mean shit. I know how you all feel about this kind of thing, and rightly so, but What Makes for a Good Blog, a small piece I came across thanks to Mark at Stoneman’s Cor­ner, is a worthy little read.

Just a sam­ple to entice you.

“Good blogs are weird”
“Good blogs reflect focu­sed obses­sions.“
“Good blog posts are made of para­graphs. Blog posts are writ­ten, not defecated.”

Come on you actually have to agree with the last one now. Don’t you?

Good “non-post” blogs have style and cura­tion.
Good blogs make you want to start your own blog.

A short worthy read, and pro­bably one of the only “what makes a good blog­ger” type posts I’ve read in a years.

This person’s expla­na­tion of a good bloo­ger defi­nes most of the blogs I read, and all of the blog­gers I star­ted rea­ding going on 4 years ago, those I con­ti­nue to read to this day at least, even those who are not wri­ting currently, but whose blogs I still check back on perio­di­cally to see if they have resu­med. These peo­ple have that.…

Je ne sais quoi, it is. It can’t be lear­ned. You either have it or you don’t.

I’ll be revie­wing a book called Scratch Begin­nings sent to me by the author Adam She­pard. It soun­ded inte­res­ting, so I agreed to check it out. I recei­ved the book ear­lier in the week. Hey, don’t anyone tell him I’m not a book cri­tic. A life cri­tic maybe, but cer­tainly not a book critic.

Frus­tra­ted with the mate­ria­lis­tic indi­vi­dua­lism that seems to be sha­ping every thir­teen year old to be the next teen diva

Frus­tra­ted with the poor atti­tu­des that seem to have swept over my peer group, Frus­tra­ted with hea­ring I don’t have rather than let’s see what I can I do with what I do have

He had me at frus­tra­ted with the mate­ria­lis­tic indi­vi­dua­lism, so it will get read for cer­tain. I will be back later in the week with my first book review.

Tomo­rrow is a holi­day at my uni­ver­sity — can you believe it.
If it’s as nice as to day I’ll be hiking from 7 till noon-ish again. You all enjoy the day.

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14 Comments

  • Wow, you’re a cri­tic now! I look for­ward to a review from a smart rea­der. The post on what makes a good blog sounds true.

    • I am star­ting on it after I finish some work. I squan­de­red away my mor­ning on a hike.

      I am a cri­tic. The guy is going to be at Bor­ders in Geor­ge­town in Novem­ber on his book sig­ning tour. I told him if I was there that day I’d try to make it.

  • Your posts are dense riches :) When you began to say you read a post about what makes a good blog I had a moment of panic that some­body had sto­len your body though the first para­graph could only be writ­ten by the real thing

    Tomo­rrow are the movers. Wed­nes­day is the clo­sing. After I hand deli­ver the check – I leave for SC on Thursday

    Have to read that what makes a good blog now as it’s so dif­fe­rent than the usual. And yes sounds true

    • I knew the crin­ging would start at that sen­tence, so I tried to pat the fire of dis­taste out ahead of time.

      I liked the “blogs are writ­ten not defe­ca­ted” part.

      I will be thin­king of you during this very sig­ni­fi­cant, scary, yet won­der­ful week.

  • Trez Beans Mon Ami*******

    When I caught my Breath I called Coop Precious*******

    ;) )

    I thought I was Sco­ring Big on da Weird + my Obses­sion from making damn sure Bush + McA­NUS + his Brain­washed Flock are Banished to the Hin­ter­land for at least 8 Years if not Fore­ver*
    Howe­ver I am some­ti­mes Prone to Kick the Living Sh!t outta those Assho­les* Trying to Knock some Plain Good Ol’ Fashio­ned Com­mon Sense into their non-existant Brainz via Gentle Cajo­ling + Sweet Para­bles doesn’t seem to be working*

    ;) )

    + yes in clo­sing I know it’s Hard to believe but I too some­ti­mes get Sexually Frus­tra­ted* Just ask Hanna********

    Peace*

    • Poor Hanna, she seems to have to deal with much these days. ;)

      Pre­cious, something I’ve never been called. I am not sure if I am to thank for that or not.

  • I’m rea­ding this during the light of day or the “something breathing outside my win­dow” would scare me.

    How do you end up with free books again?

    I’m off to defe­cate a post now.

  • It was a little dis­con­cer­ting. Shut­ting the win­dows seems to be the cure for it.
    The guy wrote me and asked me if I would read it — I’m not one to turn down a free book.

  • Deer some­ti­mes escape into the city, but not in breathing herds.

    I have no other choice than to shit out my blog. Most blogs I read are like mine. Shitty. You are a dif­fe­rent cali­ber of blog, but hey I surf bet­ter than you. ;)

    Hea­ding down to NC to surf then we’re going to the cha­pel to watch someone get married. Weird, a friend get­ting married.Gives me the creeps.

    • You do surf bat­ter than I. I will give you that, but then again you live on a beach. You think that has something to do with it?

  • A good mor­ning hike — or a hike at any time of day — is not the squan­de­ring of time.

    Wha­te­ver that guy said, your blog is, in the ver­na­cu­lar of today’s tee­na­gers, the shit.

  • Finally a what is a good blog post that’s right. You can’t make up a good blog it is just what it is.

    That old song per­so­na­lity comes to mind, hold while I fid the lyrics.

    ’cause you got per­so­na­lity,
    Walk, per­so­na­lity
    Talk, Per­so­na­lity
    Smile, Per­so­na­lity
    Charm, per­so­na­lity
    Love, per­so­na­lity
    And of Cause you´ve got
    A great big heart
    So over and over
    Oh, I´ll be a fool to you
    Now over and over
    What more can I do ?

    • Jacob, you are loo­se­ning up. It took a cou­ple years, but I think you’re ready for the big time now.