The Newest Opiner.

Hi, my name is Diane.  I’m a wife, mother, teacher, portrait artist, student, and blogger… although not always in that order.

I began blogging earlier this summer as boredom buster.  You see, my kids are in college, my husband works out of town, and school was out for the summer.  It was just my poodle, Pierre, and myself.   Pierre isn’t very talkative and for some reason Target won’t let me bring him shopping.  (They blame the health department, but I think they just don’t like his under-bite.) Thus the boredom that desperately needed to be busted.   

Blogging had been rattling around in my brain for a few months, so I decided to give it a try.   I chose to blog about teaching because if nothing else, I could at least share my enthusiasm.   Maybe someone would even read it! 

Once my blog was underway, I went looking for those readers.  I stumbled across an innocent looking forum: the ‘bloggers coffee shop’.  Did you know that looks are deceiving?  While the bloggers inside are very helpful, innocent wouldn’t really be applicable.  I was hooked!   There I met many bloggers, including two of the contributors to this blog.  They couldn’t chase me away, so they invited me to contribute to the Opine Apparatus.  (I think they just want me busy so they can hog the forum.) 

I share some of the same opinions of my fellow bloggers here at the Apparatus.  However, other ideas have some wonderful potential for dialog.   So, let me tell you where I stand on some things.  

First, I am a Democrat who comes from a long line of staunch Republicans.  They mean well, they just can’t help it.  I used to be a strong Christian, however fellow Christians cured me of the affliction (as well as the republicanism) so I’m not really sure what to call myself now.  I respect the religious beliefs/non-beliefs of others.  However, I do not respect those with the “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude commonly found in fundamentalist Christians.

I do believe we should be careful with our environment.  Even if global warning wasn’t true, and I believe it is, we should still be careful with our environment.  For example, as a teacher I’ve seen the rise of asthma in children presumably due to pollution.  Polluted waters and other ecosystems kill wildlife and disrupt the food chain. There are too many examples to mention in this post.

George W. Bush?  No.  Obama? Yes.  That discussion could take a while.

I’m looking forward to Opining with my fellow bloggers and others who leave comments.  For now, Pierre and I will go for a walk.

I, Blogger

Having lived most of my life in a metropolitan area, I knew that a "tagger" was a graffitist, and that the phrase "Taggers Unite!" was some sort of rallying cry that never quite went much further than its painted expression. Around the time I left the big city, I had seen the phrase "Bloggers Unite!" similarly sprayed here and there. I did not know what a "blogger" was, and had little interest in finding out.

I later learned through the pop culture god that speaks from a cathode ray box, that a "blogger" was a person who felt some need to share every intimate detail of their daily life with the world at large, intimates and strangers alike. What a bizarre concept, I thought, and then thought no more of it.

Some time later, a young lady in my area approached me to solicit a modest contribution from my business to support efforts to send a local team to an international sporting event, in return for which my business would benefit from a mention and a permanent link on the team's "blog," which was nothing like the bizarre concept I had earlier imagined. My business was featured in a "post" and has a permanent link on the "sidebar."

Fast forward to last fall, when I took up the unusual sport of scambaiting. I was looking for an easy (idiot-friendly) and economical (free) way to show off my exploits, and I recalled that "blog" thing that my business had been featured on, since I knew it was free, and I guessed it was simple. Off I went to check it out, confirmed that the price was right and that it suited my needs, and Breakfast With Scammers was born. But I was not a blogger; I was just using the platform because it was easier and cheaper than setting up a web site.

From time to time I need some technical help. One thing led to another, and on the eve of my 47th birthday, I found myself in a strange corner of the googleverse known as the Coffee Shop. (I do not include a link here out of concern for your safety; if you should be there, you will find it.) There, I discovered (among other things) the world of blogging and bloggers. I also discovered that I missed writing for the sake of writing. There is certainly some creativity involved in the fine art of scambaiting, but it's just not the same thing.

So, one fine spring day, Stranger In a Strange Town was born, intended to be an excuse to write that would chronicle my experiences in this strange new virtual world. As my personal therapy at the Coffee Shop developed in its disturbing and effective way, I thought it might be cathartic to deal with some emotional issues creatively; thus Stranger became an extension to my therapy.

Each of my blogs is somewhat limited in its approach and content; it would be entirely out of place to post a political opinion or some other rant on either one of them. Thus, when The Muller invited me to join Opine Apparatus, I welcomed the opportunity, as I can now spout whatever ramblings I feel the need to express, without compromising the artistic integrity of my existing blogs.

I will warn you that my writing is often pretentious, overly verbose, and sometimes deliberately vague, and I have a very annoying tendency towards ridiculously long run-on sentences, with way too many commas, and at least one semi-colon; this allows the sentence to continue even further beyond the point at which it has served any useful purpose. If you can put up with this, you might not mind me so much.

Endeavoring to Begin...Again.

Man, you guys had to come out with some bang-up intros, didn't you?  I seemed to miss the mark, so I'll endeavor to begin the begin again, but with brevity, so I can address your Bush comments as well.  Here's a bit more of an introduction:

Hi, my name Is Paul.  I'm married now for nearly twenty years and have two wonderful children, and that is all that is special about me.  I call myself a "recovering evangelical", for which I'd refer you to The Isle of Mulling for clarity (it's there, somewhere).  I also call myself a libertarian leaning conservative, which is nothing more than a Reagan Republican on governance and economic issues, and one who defers to personal liberty in everything.  In light of the Bush era, I believe that makes sense.  I'd say I have a hyper imagination and live in a constant state of flux (I flutter about in my interests) , which irritates the crap out of my family.  And that is the sum of everything one might need to know about me.

In regard to the posts, Endeavoring to Persevere:A Good Title for a Blog Entry and Why I Would Party With GW (Now), I thought it might be wise to qualify my own perception of Bush 43.  And I shall keep these comments short as well, for there isn't much to explain that hasn't already been said by brighter, more knowledgeable minds than my own.  The bottom line is Pres. Bush was no conservative.  Outside of the campaign rhetoric used to solidify his base support, there doesn't seem to be anything else to qualify him as one.  In a side-by-side comparison of the first term of the presidents since 1964 (Bush Beats Johnson: Comparing the Presidents), no one spent more money than George W. Bush.  He increased discretionary spending with each pork laden bill that came his way, increased entitlement spending with the Medicare overhaul, and spent enough money to destroy the budget surpluses he inherited from the Clinton era.  That just ain't conservative.  When you throw in the hubris by which the Bush Administration handled the weapons of mass destruction intelligence debacle, it's kind of hard for a conservative to hold his head up high when saying he voted for Bush (twice).  At the time, one might think Bush was the best of the two candidates running, but in hindsight, a conservative might wonder.

With that said, I can understand when you say you "don't have anything really nice to say" about Bush 43, Leon.  There are some nice things, but they can be overshadowed by the not-so-nice.  Cody, I can certainly agree with the "love-hate" aspect of your post.  I'm with you on that.  I'd like to contend that his presidency was better than the potential reigns of the other two guys, but the Clinton era seemed to turn out more conservative than Bush's, at least in my humble and uninformed mind.  Since perception is everything in politics, I guess that counts for something.

OK, now that should about clear things up, wouldn't you say?  (Yeah, clear as mud!)

Begin the Begin

by Cody Kilgore

Hi. My name is Cody. I am a single father, a runner, and a writer.

All of that may, or may not, matter no more to you than anything else you read here, and it barely scratches the surface of any description that aptly portrays me. If I were to add some depth to that, I guess I would also say that I am a lifetime Midwesterner, still in my forties, solidly upper-middle income earner (what the…?), a thinker, well traveled, and liberal.

There. That’s a little better. I could probably go on with a great deal more, things that I would like you to know about me, but I won’t for now. It’s not that important at this particular moment.

The reason why I give you all that is to give you a basis for understanding my perspective, and perspective is key here. When Paul (The Muller) and I first discussed the idea of this group blog, what we had in mind was a conversation by people of different backgrounds and perspectives. We thought it would be interesting to discuss and read what different people might say on a given topic as viewed through their own personal prism.

My personal preference, which is so because it is the central theme of most of my writing, is that we would be writing about the human experience, the things I believe are common to many, if not all of us, but are experienced and viewed only slightly differently from each other because of our unique experiences and perceptions. But, I think we are going to hit on a wide range of topics, within and outside of that range I intended, and I think that will be just as interesting to read and discuss as well. No sense in limiting ourselves.

My experience in blogging is but a few months old, and was out of necessity more than anything. I had a relative who refused to get on Facebook—where I was publishing all of my essays—and they asked me to find a more public outlet where they could read my work. So I started a blog, which is simply a mirror posting of those essays from Facebook.

But, in looking around at the work of other bloggers, I came across Paul, who is also a contemplative person (a muller!) and expresses himself and his thoughts well. Soon, we were connected on Facebook, commenting on each other’s posts, and growing as friends. I think we discovered things we had in common, things other than our writing. But that’s my take; Paul may tell you differently.

I have met others in blogosphere, most of whom are casual acquaintances, but connections nonetheless, and when I think about Paul and those others I have met, I begin to understand why it is I have gotten more involved in blogging than I initially intended, and in this project. It is a way for me to connect. And I am betting that same thing motivates so many other bloggers as well.

We are naturally social creatures. Without the nurturing that human contact offers us, we can be deprived of the stimuli necessary to enrich and develop us, and thus become very base and even cruel creatures. Solitary, we cease to care for ourselves and care for others in any balanced manner. We marginalize people (and other living things), dehumanize them. Things get out of whack. Hence—in my humble opinion—the explosion of social networking and blogging. It’s people reaching out to people, not simply people wanting to be seen. The internet has made it that much easier.

One of the things I have learned in my study of literature is that the writer always has a motive, and the most primary motive of all is that of connection with the reader. It takes many forms; it can be manipulative, guiding, explorative, enlightening, provocative, insulting, supportive, or simply amusing. But, there is always authorial intent in some form or fashion, and never is that intent to distance the reader from the writer. It is always intended, in the end, to connect.

People whose blogs are seemingly only a peek into their daily lives are doing much more than that; they are sharing their experience, hoping that it is of enough interest to you to at least take the time to read it. And each and every comment they receive in response to their writing is an affirmation of their life they are allowing you into, and a shared and common experience between you. It is fulfillment of that implied contract between reader and writer, where the two meet mutually in thought and experience. One validates the other.

So I no longer snub my nose at the blogosphere. I understand. And I understand because I took the time to try, which is one of the great hopes I have for this little experiment we have started. I was once given some great advice from a friend who quoted to me “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Those few words have been important to me in my recent years. They have helped me learn a great many things about others, but, even more importantly, they have helped me learn a great many things about myself. I look forward to this blog being an opportunity for me to see some things through the eyes of others. I think it will be interesting.

I hope others will find it interesting as well, and that some will find it interesting enough to want to join in. I think the architects of this experiment (I dare only to speak for myself) hope that we can welcome in others, of any faith, sex, sexual preference, background, socioeconomic status, geographic location…anything that defines us and our experience. Diversity is the spice of life, and I hope this blog reflects that.

So many words for such a small purpose. Let’s go back.

Hi. My name is Cody.

Why Do It?

I've had people ask me, "why do you blog?"  In most cases the person will ask because they can't believe I'll spend valuable time doing something that seems so nonproductive.  And it really is nonproductive because I don't get paid to do it and it does take up quite a bit of my time (just ask my family!).  If you were to Google that question you'll get several different responses, but I think it's because it makes the blogger happy.  That's not just my anecdotal assessment, a study was done on the subject as well (Can Blogging Make You Happier?).   So, I guess the real question is, "why does it make you happy?"  Glad you asked.

There's really three reasons.  First, I like the creative outlet it provides.  It's my contention all people need some form of creative expression.  That doesn't mean people need to sculpt or be a musician or write, but people do seem to inevitably find some way to express themselves in non-conventional ways.  Just ask a fisherman if he thinks there's an "art" to good fishing, the non-curmudgeony ones will tell you there is.  I think listening to music is another form of creative expression, albeit indirectly, in that there is often a visceral reaction people have to music.  Another creative outlet would be writing, and judging by the shear numbers of blogs out there, many people would agree.

Another reason I blog is for the opportunity to express my thoughts and opinions.  Do I think I've anything to offer in the way of talent or expertise that others would care to read about?  Heck no!  What I do have is the desire to express myself, that's it.  As you know, everyone has a butt and opinions, and both stink! (I cleaned that up a bit)  Funny thing is, people still like to share their thoughts regardless, and I'm no exception.

The third reason I blog is for the discussion it leads to.  Why do we share our thoughts unless we want the dialogue it leads to?  If I opine it's because I want to know your thoughts as well.  It's the discussion that really brings me to the keyboard, much like a provocative question with friends is used to jump start a good chat.  It's through the discussion that we open up and share and allow others to get to know us better, and in turn get to know others better as well.

It's really as simple as that.  Oh, and I do it because it's fun.  Blogging that is.  And if I was to blame someone for introducing me to blogging, it would be my fellow contributor, Leon.  I happened across his blog one day and thought, "That looks like a lot of fun!"  Thanks for the intro man, and when I get in trouble with Lori (my lovely wife, and your friend) for blogging, I'm blaming you. Blog on!