I've been blogging for almost 2 years now. In that time I've occasionally started writing something and never finished it, an occurrence that seems to be increasing lately. Here is the list of topics of unfinished posts sitting in my queue, from oldest to most recent. If you'd like to see what I have to say on one of these topics, feel free to try to heckle me into finishing it.
not smart enough - 5/16/06 - A rant about how on multiple occasions involving different people, I've encountered "I'm not smart enough to debate you" as a cop-out way to avoid an intelligent discussion. I feel like it is a dirty tactic but struggled to express it and didn't want to do a half-ass job on it because I'm afraid it will be too likely to come across as me saying I'm smarter than everyone.
oblivious - 6/1/06 - After reading an O'Reilly column about how various entertainment technologies have everyone avoiding reality, I was writing something about how that seems like an inevitable consequence of the American way. If I were to finish this, I'd probably point out that O'Reilly often seems just as oblivious as those he's criticizing.
influencer - 7/12/06 - This will be a nice one if I ever do it. I want to highlight to a few people who have had a major positive influence on me. It started as a list of my favorite teachers/professors but I felt like I had to include a few others that changed the way I think about the world, hence "influencer." Anyway the idea was to write a little tribute to each of them and then email them to tell them about it. Kinda sappy but I figured they'd appreciate it.
What if I was good at poker? - 8/8/06 - Pretty simple idea for a post but I haven't written anything about it really. I wanted to imagine what my life would be like now and in the future if I was a lot better at poker.
Poker Manifesto - 8/30/06 - Another idea for a poker post where I haven't actually put my thoughts together at all. I wanted to expound on an idea I threw out briefly, of poker as a crappy shortcut for life.
Pat Tillman - 10/21/06 - I want to finish this one more than any other, and yet I think this will be the hardest to finish of any of them. I have a lot I want to say about Pat Tillman, but I always feel like he deserves better than what I've written so far, and I keep trying to hold myself to an impossible standard.
Liberal Bias: Media and Academia? - 10/23/06 - Since I started working on this one, Glenn Greenwald has covered some of the media bias topics that I'd want to address, but I also want to address a general topic of anti-intellectualism. I'll get to this eventually I hope, but there's a lot more work to put in to this.
Political - 10/28/06 - In my recent post I covered a tiny bit of what I want to address here. Back when I avoided all politics out of a combination of laziness and disgust, whenever I heard someone criticize a politician or a political party, my instinctive response was "well the other guys are just as bad." I understand why I made that ignorant generalization, but sometimes it just isn't true, and now I think it is pretty important to recognize differences. This post by Glenn Greenwald was the inspiration to finally make me want to write more about it.
6 comments:
pat tillman wouldnt leave a post about you unfinished...
it is sort of wussy, but like you pointed out i think the influencer would mean the most to those who you cited, especially if you dont talk to them regularly or if they would be somewhat surprised.
those two would be my first choices also, followed be not smart enough
not that interested in "influencer".
here's why:
standing in a group of friends, i complimented one girl on how nice she looked. she shyly thanked me as another friend turned to me and hissed, "gee...thanks!" or some equally sarcastic "what about me?" quip. i thought, "she looks especially nice, and i say what i mean. i don't offer platitudes." but instead said, "what?!?! well, she does (look nice)!!"
later i realized that my mistake was in my delivery. while my compliment to the girl was sincere and i wanted to share it (with her), doing so with an audience present was in bad form. i should have procured a moment alone and offered my compliment. instead i made myself and the motive or meaning behind my words the focus, almost taking away from the sincerity of the gesture.
this is your blog and what's important to you goes into it, but think how pleasantly surprised and touched these individuals would be if you wrote your words on paper and sent it to them directly. instead of, "hey everybody! come see how good i look!" you'll be all, dead-poets-society-mr.holland's-opus-appreciative.
i agree, but i want to know who and how. maybe you could write to them first, then just kind of do a list or something less significant here
ex-gf, it might also be because you are talking about a compliment paid to a girl in front of other girls. its not surprising that your praise started drama and jealousy among girls.
i do agree with your point that it might be better via personal letter, but i dont think a public post by adspar would be wrongly received.
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