Who Do I Think I Am??

It's not just a blog...

It's an adventure!

It's an empire!

Well, no, not really. I mean it could be, sure. Just not yet. But what it really is, actually, is an extended Facebook status update. Really.

"What on earth do you mean?" I can hear you all asking. "Why is this relevant?" and "Why do I care?" are other mumblings I hear under your collective breaths (by the way, need some gum? ).

I'll tell you. Many of you are familiar with blogging. Many more of you are more familiar with Facebook. Blogging has been around as an acceptable form of social media for quite awhile; Facebook, while not as long, is arguably more popular and probably used more than any other form of networking. That's the start.

But I'll tell you, I don't care what any Wikipedia entry tells you, all Facebook is is condensed blogging. Ergo, blogging is Facebook for people with longer attention spans. Plain and simple. Facebook limits your status update to a certain amount of characters. Just like Twitter, text messaging and proper morals.

Allow me to analyze this a little further. When I check Facebook, I go back a little bit to see as many updates as I can handle, comment and like when applicable, and then screw it...I'm playing Madden Superstars or Bejeweled Blitz. Not that I don't care about every single one of my 1100+ friends, because I love most of you (ok, almost love almost most of you), But you use your space to create what I need to hear, and then I move on. It's a single-step interaction operation. Blogging, however, expands that window. You can't fit a story into a sentence...sometimes more detail is necessary to fully convey something properly.

EXAMPLE #1:
On any given day, a typical status update from me could look like this: Today at work I managed to make my boss call me an a-hole not once, but twice!

That's great and all. It has all the necessary elements you need in a status update: a summary of your day, some humor, and some intrigue. But therein lies the rub: intrigue. Now you want to know, and that status has done exactly what the status-pusher wanted: Comments, or what is commonly mistaken for "interaction". Which can be great...good statuses have like 40-50 comments, with approximately half coming from the status-pusher themself. But ultimately, even with mobile apps and all the on-the-go technology at hand, it's very time-consuming if you let it be (and dammit, you're interesting, so why wouldn't you want it to be??). The back-and-forth of commenting is worse than having an actual conversation (assuming you have actual conversations with anything more than your plants or pets).

Hence, my opinion on the beauty of blogging. Sure, it takes a little more work up front, but doesn't anything else that is ultimately more rewarding in the end? See, if it wasn't interesting to you, you wouldn't have made it this far. And if it is interesting, but you're not moved enough to say anything, you move on. And even if you do comment, it typically doesn't quite go back-and-forth so much. If it does, it's generally easier and more acceptable for the bloggist to answer multiple comments in one witty "follow-up/summary" comment. More of a win-win for everyone!

EXAMPLE #2:
If I blogged about what I did to my boss for her to call me an a-hole twice in one day, you'd already know the whole story. That eliminates the comments like "What did u do?" and "OMG 2 funny!". Whatever conversation is amped up from there, a little more intellectually. Again, all the better for those who care more than others about that kinda stuff, I guess. Like dorks like me.

SO WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THIS TODAY?
Besides the fact that my boss really thinks I'm an a-hole? That everyone has their limitations. Some are fine with 15 second bursts of info, some want a minute or so more, and some will tune in long enough to get the whole story up front. Congratulations for having the attention span to make it this far! And every story has a moral at the end, kinda like a fairy tale if you will. What's this one? Watch this video first, and then tell me. It's "Just" by Radiohead, by the way, for those unenclined to watch linkage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_qMagfZtv8

The moral is, you don't always get to hear the ending. Sure, I'll tell ya, but all ya really need to know is that I'm a snotty lil prick to my boss sometimes, and her reaction is generally priceless. Plus, I need to keep a job, and detailing my hystericalness isn't always an appropriate way of doing so. Even if I'm the only one who thinks it's funny. But I'm guessing, in this case, I'm not the only one.

VITAL STATS:
My boss called me an a-hole twice, while I managed to get all my work done today in a timely fashion.
http://www.omahasteaks.com is usually great food...but avoid the Crab-stuffed Sole. Unless you like bones in your fish, and seafood in general. I'm writing this on a partially-filled belly. And if you've seen this belly, you'd say that's probably a good thing.
This was written during taking peeks at the Sabres game. They're up 1-0 after 2 periods over the Rangers, who they're trailing for playoff position. They're playing it like a playoff game...close and tight. By the end of the game, I'll be fully standing about six inches away from the tv.
I don't know who Aram Khachaturian is, but bless him for this orchestrial piece of genius I have loved since the days of my youth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqg3l3r_DRI (It's clean; children are allowed to look at a picture of an ugly old guy while some horns and woodwinds yammer on melodically).

That's all I've got for today folks...gotta Sabres game to get back to before I hit the sheets in anticipation of work at 6am. Gonna be a long one. Unless, well, never mind.... ...you probably already know...

GOODNIGHT NOW!