Who do I still think I am??

This one's about the words and the ladies.

30DBC PROMPT: "What kind of role or impact has blogging had on you, or what differences in your day-to-day activities have you noticed since you started blogging (compared to before you began blogging)?"

What's up folks? Action-packed prompts today, so I'm pretty excited. Let's go right ahead and do this.

Blogging has been a significant impact on my life, almost since the day I first started writing one and reading several others. I think what happened was I got really lucky first, and then hit on something later. Take a seat and allow me to explain.

I'd been a WDC member for quite a long time, and poetry wasn't working out for me anymore. I was bored with it. But I kept noticing my surroundings...a lot. Maybe too much. I felt all this energy and I needed to release it somehow. I ended up starting "I'm Studying You"  more or less to vent. At the same time I started reading maybe seven or eight other blogs (most of which were written by great people who've moved on from WDC), and we were almost like this collective of sorts (mostly) from around the nation. We laughed together, got sad together, and enjoyed bantering.

Now, I say I got lucky before anything else because that blog eventually turned into a soap opera of sorts when I began detailing my exploits concerning a romantic interest I had involving a girl who worked at a drug store in my neighborhood. I swear, people only read me some days just to catch up on my interactions with this girl, and if I posted something that wasn't related to her, they'd ask me about her anyway. And the more I saw this girl, the more I had to say...and I'm not tryin' to be cocky about it, but the more I had to say, the more people put their eyeballs to it. I never really understood why back then, much like I don't understand why now...the hardest part of writing used to be figuring out what I would blog about once we were "happily ever after", and now that the relationship's been over for more than a year, I'm kind of back in that same spot. The only difference now is that I take part sporadically in the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  and the "Blogging Circle of Friends " .

I don't really think that there's been a tremendous difference in my day-to-day activities in most respects since the first time I decided to write under the auspices of unsupervised internetical journaling, but I will say that I tend to pay a little more attention at times so I can better mine the details of my otherwise mundane life on the days I decide to type as many words as I can into a 8"x4" text entry box [Side note: Can anyone tell me why, when creating a new entry, the spot to type the title is underneath the actual entry we're typing? Makes no kinda sense at all.]. I can tell you I've come across some incredibly talented people along the way. It's been a rewarding endeavor, both being able to write and reading what others have shared. The interacting with people I may never otherwise have had the chance to has been one of the most ultimate learning experiences. And if I didn't like you, or doing what I do, I wouldn't be doing it at all...and you'd be doing something a lot more constructive with your time.

INTERACTIVE FUN DIVERSION!!

Did I just mention doing something more constructive with your time? Well, normally I don't care for diverting attention away from this page until you're fully and completely done devouring anything that passes for information I have to offer, but today I'm making an exception. Why? Simple and self-serving (to me, of course), really. I'm taking a poll on blogging and writing prompts in advance of me writing an Editor's Note for the next Blogging Bliss newsletter coming out at the end of this month. It's one question. You've got time for one question. I'll allow it.

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And if you'd like to make a poll-related comment or share a concern, please do so at the "Blogging Bliss Newsletter Forum" . It's open 24/7/365 for all of your forum needs.

BCF PROMPT: "November 12th, 1815: Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born. She was a noted women's rights activist. Why do you think women were not allowed to vote for such a long time?"

I've been waiting to haul off on this prompt since I saw it in my inbox last evening. Why weren't women allowed to do much of anything for so long? I'll tell you why. Because for the longest time, the views expressed and believed in by the American males of society mirrored the feelings expressed by this ass-hat last week: http://deadspin.com/sports-radio-host-goes-on-moronic-misogynistic-rant-14608078....

When a website like Deadspin gives up on transcribing a ridiculous monologue-turned-rant...when they can't even stomach the absolute garbage being spewed...when the places you can turn to for news and information the major outlets sweep under the rug throw their collective hands up in the air and say "I can't do this anymore"...you know shit just got real.

If I'm a gambling man (which, thankfully I'm not), my money's on three things: 1) Damon Bruce has never heard of Title IX athletics (http://www.titleix.info/); 2) Damon Bruce lives on a much different planet than you, I or most of us live on; and 3) by all accounts, Damon Bruce should be looking for a job that he no longer deserves due to his shortsighted worldview. At least that's how I see it.

This man has set the "women in sports" debate back thirty years in just eight-and-a-half minutes. Unreal. Now, here's the sad reality: inequality still exists between women and men, and not just in professional and amateur athletics. I haven't read any other entries on this topic yet, but I can already tell you what someone like ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy , a person I respect an awful lot here on WDC, will say about this prompt, and I agree with her. It's a known fact that women make significantly less than men when doing the exact same jobs. Put everything on a level surface: education, experience, and expectations...and males are compensated at a much higher rate, while also likely enduring less pressure, discrimination, and other drama than women do just to get to that point. And why is that?

Power. The perception and deception of power. Men think they need it to be successful, and have been accustomed for years to it being almost a birthright. Part of power is limiting what your opposition has access to...you wouldn't hand over control of something if you didn't have to, would you? Especially if you knew ceding some knowledge could and would be turned against you and rightfully so by a class of people you deemed "inferior"? That's it right there in a nutshell. Men have always been for the most part portrayed as strong and stubborn, rockin' the upper hand. I don't have to get into statistics or biblical theories or anything like that. You don't need me giving you a lesson on the women's lib movement. The easy answer is that men are jerks...but you know how when you're a kid and you're learning long division and your teacher quizzes you and you're supposed to "show your work", to determine how you came to your solution? History is the proof. Hopefully there's only one Damon Bruce out there, but even one is too many.

And I know I went way off-topic with this prompt, but you'll have that. I'm not trying to start any gender wars or cave in to the "wussification of America" or anything like that. I'm proud of the fact that as a society so many long strides in understanding have been made that we're at the point now where we can look past gender when it comes to decision-making. We don't care if it's slacks, a pantsuit or a dress you're wearing. For the most part, the wisecracks and innuendos have turned into genuine expressions of encouragement and healthy debate. Now, let's start compensating everyone on a consistent basis.

Sorry to get so serious for a few moments. I'll try not to let that happen again.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

Did I say fully? And completely? I don't even care if this is like the 12th time I've posted this song before.

Either it'll move me...or it'll move right through me.

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I woke up this morning, peeked through the blinds and saw that there was accumulated snowfall. And if you've been following me for any extended period of time you know that as much as I don't like precipitation, I hate talking about it even more. It's weather. It happens. You can't stop it. You can't vote it out of office or switch tables when the smelly kid that it is sets its lunch tray down...because in this case, no matter where you go on the cafeteria of planet Earth, there's always gonna be that kid. But today, I'm gonna mention that naughty four-letter word beginning with "s" (that other one...not the one that rhymes with "hit") only because of a column I was fortunate enough to come across this afternoon on Trending Buffalo: http://www.trendingbuffalo.com/life/five-things-winter/. I like winter too, but not as much as Greg Bauch...it's my fourth-favorite season.

Here's your daily (ok, tri-weekly at best) evaluation of the random emoticon system of WDC. This is only a test. There's still no hockey emoticon. I'm assuming that's why I haven't read a post from brothernature in awhile. I could be factually incorrect though. No wait, I'm right...I haven't read anything Joel's posted lately, but then again I haven't read much of anything lately. The test is now complete. If this were an emergency, I would've cut this entry short at puck drop five minutes ago to listen to the Sabres game. However, the Sabres are awful this year, so there's not much of a priority there. If I'm lucky, I'll fall asleep during the third period of another blowout loss. And if the Sabres ever become Stanley Cup contenders again, you can be sure I'll be emailing The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress a minimum of once a day until we the people have a hockey emoticon we can all be proud of and share with the world.

Ok, well, now that I've taken up enough of your time, I'm gonna step back and see what everyone else has to say about today's prompts. Peace, be nice to one another, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!