My Blogging seems to go in Phases. Sometimes, I'm Really into it and then Other Times, I Feel Board with it. And then there are Times in which I Only have the Energy to Focus on One Blog. I Really Wish that my Moods in Relation to this were more Predictable. So Often, it just Seems that there is too much to Think about and my Mind Shuts Down.
It is Hard too to Balance Blogging and Friendship. There are so Many People Out there that are just Plain Rude and I Find Myself Feeling Unloved by Fellow Bloggers and Commenters and on my Own Blog, I Like to sometimes Write in a more Personal Way, Like I am doing Right Now, and I Wonder if I am Being a Fool for Doings so in the Midst of all the Monsters, Creepy Crawlers and Wolfs Out there.
And then there are Friendships that have Died. That is People who I used to Respect, but that I now have such a Very Low Opinion of. One in Particular doesn't even seem to Realize the Full Extent to which my Opinion of him has gone Soar. He Actually Thinks we're Still Friends.
It's hard to Keep One's Balance at Times, but you Know what? I Really want to Thank those of you have been Faithful in Reading my Blog from Time to Time. You are the One's that I Think of when I Wonder if I should be giving you more to Read.
A More Recent Friend, whose Blog is Really Excellent is Radar. He is Long Winded, yet Writes about Christian Apologetics in a Way that is Quite Impressive. Here are Two of the Posts that I have most Recently Read and that Are Truly Excellent...
Atheism, the Irrational Faith. Recapitulation, the Ludicrous Lie.
Is the Bible Scientifically Correct? Introducing Please Convince Me Dot Com.
The Comment Thread from the First of These is what Inspired the Post just below this One.
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Lista: I find that I post in spurts, too. With life being what it is, I can’t seem to get around it! So, instead of fighting it, I just go with it. There are loyal readers at my place and I appreciate them.
I also had a “rude” blogger once (well more than once, but this guy was a real jerk). I got rid of him by just ignoring him. I stopped going to his blog and when he left comments on mine, I didn’t respond to him. He finally got the “hint” and never returned. Now, if he were ever to return, I would have to tell him not to come back. I think we need to live our values, plus if someone is causing us undue stress, we need to get rid of them. But, we can do this in a polite manner.
I’m glad you found another blogger friend. I checked him out but his posts are way too long for me! I’ll go back now and again to see if he has some shorter ones. In the meantime, you have fun. In the end, that’s what it’s all about. Having fun and making some connections.
RE: Is the bible scientifically correct?
I'll check back on May 22 ...
Oh, no, she's on to me!!!
Yep, I am long-winded. Believe me, it is nice to have a commenter who is a real normal person mixed in with all the trolls who frequent my site. You have also made some compelling arguments and therefore some of the trolls have gotten personal with YOU! It means you got to them. I therefore bequeath to you the Blog Badge of Courage!
Hi Pamela,
Thanks for the Encouragement. I have a Hard Time Ignoring, but there are Some Things that are so Rude that I Refuse to Print them. If they can Learn to say it in a Way that is more Polite, then I will Gladly Print their Comments.
I've been Known too to not Print more that 4 or 5 Comments from the Same Person in a Row. This Helps to Avoid those Persistent, Long Winded, Arguers that Disagree with everything that I say and Repeat the Same Arguments Over and Over again, while Sort of Dominating my Blog. I've been Meaning to add this Rule to my List of Rules, but just haven't done so yet.
I don't Read all of the Radar's Posts. I'm Wondering if I'm even going to Succeed at Reading as many as One a Week. We'll see.
Thanks for the Link, BB. I'll Read it Later. Boy I Better do it Quick if the World is Going to End that Soon. lol.
Thanks again Kimbal,
Or is it Radar. I Thought that was your Picture. You've Changed your Handle. Yeh, I guess those Blog Dominators are called Trolls. I Figure that a 4 to 5 Comments in a Row Limit should Cut Back on that.
Have you Ever Thought of Doing a Shorter Summary Blog for People like Pamela and I who are Reluctant to Read so much? Just a Thought.
Thanks for the Encouragement.
Hey You,
Glad to see you are up and blogging agin, if that is what you want to do.
"Now, if he were ever to return, I would have to tell him not to come back. I think we need to live our values, plus if someone is causing us undue stress, we need to get rid of them."
You've penned alotta words about aggressive and passive behavior in the past and I would encourage you to find your own balance in both why you blog and how you respond to commentors.
See the label "Balanceing two Extremes(90". It's your blog period. Do with it as you feel compelled to. I would venture a supposition that if you fret and stew about how other's behave or react you will burn out from frustration, but if that's what you wanna do, do that too?
Don't mean to be preachy or come off as a know it all, just thought I would throw the thoughts out there for whatever they may encourage.
Blogging to me can be framed in a song,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO3ZBb1wRaY
Gotta go start my pizza sauce. The weather is springing upon me, the ground is gittin warm, the tomato plants are screaming to git outta the greenhouse, the basil is itching to leaf out and I need to git me sum sun. Okay it takes me about 5 months to make may sauce, but that iz the way I do it and it ain't no crime.
Ya all take care. (Still out there ain't I.)
Hi Man of Wonder,
The Words you Quoted were Pamela's not Mine.
"I would encourage you to find your own balance in both why you blog and how you respond to commentors."
There is One Particular Blogger that has Made me so Mad that I am Sometimes Rude to him. I'm Guessing that that is what is Motivating your Comment. I Guess God is the One who Judges and Brings about Consequences, yet I Find Myself Wishing that I could Get Certain Jerks to Stop Behaving like Jerks and I Think I Even Feel Angry at God at Times for Allowing Jerkiness to Continue.
Don't Worry, though. I'll Work it Out Eventually. Thanks for Dropping By. Nice Song.
I'm just Reading Through these Comments again and I'd Like to Share a Few Additional Thoughts.
Pamela,
I just Don't Know how these Daily Bloggers do it. You Know, I Actually Think that Rude People and Stupid People Inspire me to Defend what I believe and this isn't Always such a Negative.
I have Many Blogger Friends, Radar was just a New One.
Kimbal,
Thanks again for the Blog Badge of Courage. For some Reason that reminds me of something I Learned in a Writing Seminar, which is that Rejection Letters are Badges of Courage and that Most Writers Accumulate Lots of such Badges before they Actually Publish anything.
Now for Man of Wonder,
I Wonder why you said "If that is what you want to do.", as if you are Doubting it for some Reason.
I'm also Puzzled as to Why you Said "I would encourage you to find your own balance in both why you blog and how you respond to commenters.", as if you do not Agree with the way in which I have Responded to Commenters. My First Though was that you were Thinking about how I Respond to a Certain Person who is no Longer on my Blog Roll, yet I guess it is Possible that you are Thinking of Something Else. At the Moment, you are being more Vague than Black and White.
I could probably write quite a bit in an Attempt to Analyze that Song, yet Maybe I'll Hold Off on that a little. No, it Ain't no Crime to Make Pizza Sauce. Sounds Good to Me.
By the way, I like Griper's blog, I will link him this weekend.
Lista, I do appreciate your thoughts and as fellow Christians we can support each other in prayer. I take this blogging as a mission field. I am a bit rough with some of the trolls, but it goes with the territory.
I used to walk the streets of gangland Chicago and Gary and East Chicago with a partner and a big black Bible talking to folks about Salvation. In that world you walk and talk as if you belong there and you show no fear. Being a "man of God" the gangs were a bit superstitious and we had very little trouble. Woolfs and creepers are nothing compared to a bunch of Latin Kings standing on the corner blocking your way to the next street.
You know what you do? You don't walk around them and you don't try to walk through them. You stop and talk to them for awhile, bring up Jesus and then mention you have some people to talk to up the block. They reconfigure and let you pass.
In the blog world no one even blocks my way. I am a Big Mouth For God. BTW I checked out your "puppy" and yep, why not post a picture of Shasta grown up?
Hi Radar,
I don't Know if you have Read the Comment that I Posted Yesterday or not. I Felt Ok about it at First, but then Thought Better of it and Deleted it. I've just got some Things to Work Out with Griper. I've Got some Lack of Forgiveness Issues in Relation to him and He has not Brought Out the Better Side of me. I've been Very Rough with him to the Point in which I'm a Bit Embarrassed and I'm Thinking now that I may not have been Behaving as a Christian Should.
As I Think on that, I Realize that you are just the sort of Person who could Probably Make me Feel more Motivated to Try Harder to Act more Like a Christian should and this is Why I Really do Appreciate both your Friendship and your Prayers.
I'll be Praying for you too and Yes, this is Most Definitely a Mission.
I don't Really have Trolls like you do and I Believe the Reason is because of Comment Moderation and the Decision to not allow Anonymous Comments. You've made Different Decisions and Thus, the Trolls.
You are much Stronger then me, though, cause I Get Really Down at Times and Stop Blogging. I've always had Trouble Finding the Strength from Within that Comes Directly from God. I Rely a Lot on People and am Effected a lot by People. It's not good, but I Can't Seem to Get Past this Weakness.
Jesus was Rough with the Proud and more Gentle with the Humble, so if you are Rough with the Trolls, you are Actually Behaving Like Christ.
Woolfs and Creepers may not be Able to Block One's Path, but they can Block One's Motivation and if this Happens, the Result is the Same.
Well, it looks like Blogger.Com Finally Got the Mess Cleaned up Relating to the Deleted Comments. I had Reposted them Using Copy Paste from my Email, yet Today, I had to Go and Delete those because when the Original Comments Appeared again, what I had Done was all Duplicates. Oh well.
I've got just a Couple more Thoughts Relating to this Particular Post. One Concern that I have is that when ever I mention Frustration, someone Seems to Think that Maybe I don't Really Enjoy Blogging and I sort of Wish that that Subject would not Keep Coming Up, since if I didn't Want to do it, wouldn't I just Stop?
For Some Reason, though, I have to Keep Giving myself Permission to not Read Everything and to Allow Days to Go By in which I do not Read much of Anything. I Complain when Something Like this is Out of Balance. I do not Complain because I want to Quit.
I think too that Sometimes People Misunderstand my Motives. Some People Think that we should just Blog for Ourselves and I do Sometimes, yet I also Sometimes Blog because I am Hoping to Make Some Kind of a Meaningful Impact on Someone's Life. If such is even Remotely Possible, then Perhaps even a little Stress might be worth it, just as Radar says, Blogging is Like a Ministry.
With any Luck, maybe I'll Post Something Tomorrow.
I'm having Trouble Posting a Comment on Radar's Blog. I hope that I don't also have Problems Posting to my Own Blog. I had to Sign in before I was able to Succeed at a Preview. Now let's see if it Posts.
This is hitting home for me lately. Sometimes you put your heart and soul into a blog and you look at your hits and you feel maybe you're boring people or not tapping into something. Perhaps I pay too much attention to my sitemeter and need to as they say blog for myself. Been in a bit of a blogging funk lately as many times even when I post about a hot topic traffic is slow and so I kinda lose interest and do something else with my day. You wonder what kind of an impact you have when there are literally millions of blogs out there. I always kind of want to semi-retire from blogging but then I keep coming back.
Z-man,
I Find Comfort in the Fact that when I Comment on Blogs that have more Hits, maybe more People are Listening to me. There is a Place though for Slower Blogs, Z, for the Faster Ones are More Difficult to Converse on and the Few People that do Visit the Slower Ones do so because they are getting something out of their Visits.
Just After I Left you that Comment, Z, I Checked my Hit Counter and even though there were Only 4 Hits by then, they were Good Ones; 5 Page Views, 4 PV, 3 PV & 5 PV; 5 Minutes, 4 Minutes, 35 Minutes & 1 Minute. The Point is that they were not 1 Page, Zero Minute Hits. Sure I got some of those Later in the Day, yet the First 4 Hits were Good Ones.
& yet I find it amazing as you do when people say they only blog for themselves and don't care about things like hits and influence.
This is my other blogger account name, just so you know that radar = AmericanVet. I have to have a divide between my two blog "jobs" so to speak, as I am mostly PolySci on the other ones.
I hope more people come here to check on you as a result of visiting radaractive. Usually now I get an average of 400-500 hits a day there but occasionally a controversial post will shoot it way up for a day or two.
Actually, I am kind of long-winded in person, too. Get me talking about science or religion or politics or history or sports or music and away I go! I like to think I am a big mouth for God.
radar using my other computer with different ID.
The Thing is, Z, I do not Think that the Number of Hits Necessarily Equals Influence and I Know that I have said that to you before. I Do Agree about the Influence though.
I've heard People Say all Kinds of Things that don't make any sense, such as I don't Care if you Trust me, I don't Care what you Think and I don't Care rather or not you Like me.
Oh yeh?! A Person who does not Care about Trust, about what People Think and about whether or not they are Liked is a Person who does not Care About Friendship. If such a Person does not Care whether or not I Trust him, what it is that I Think, whether I have a High or Low Opinion of him or whether or not I Like him, then he does not Care about my Friendship and he does not Care about me.
Some People Care about Nothing that's Important, but only about themselves.
As to Blogging, though, I Think Caring too much about what is Outside of Ourselves Gets Tiring after awhile and that is why there are Periods in which Blogging for Oneself becomes all we have the Energy for.
Hi Radar,
I have Picked up a Few People from your Blog, yet I fear that my Blog is too Slow in Order for me to Hold their Interest. I've been Feeling Pressured to Post because of that, yet your Blog Keeps me so Busy that I am too Tired to Tend to my Own Blog. I hope that there will be a Few who will Continue to Come By In Spite of my Slow Pace. I Encourage them to Read Further Back into my Blog and Check Out my Labels, for it is not as if there is not Stuff here to Read.
I Guess I Could Post Pictures of my Dog. I'm just Afraid to Open up too much of a Can of Worms, for if I do, I have to Feel Up for what ever Conversation might come as a Result and since I am not a good Multi-Tasker, if One Blog Takes Over a lot of my Time, I Get Caught Up in it and my Own Blog Shuts Down.
When I Post Something Light Like this One, I Invite People to just Relax and Say whatever, as long as it is Low Key and not Controversial.
For Z again,
While I was Listing Things that People say they do not Care about, I thought of Something Else that has more to do With Influence. Some People will Say, I do not Care rather or not you agree or rather or not I Persuade you. They Talk as if they Think that the Goal of Persuasion is a Negative. They seem to Think that the Attempt to Persuading and the Act of being Pushy are the Same Thing, but they are not.
Somehow, the Ideas about what is Loving and Caring and what is not has Gotten all Mixed Up. People Think that to Try and Persuade is Pushy and Rude and Uncaring and that to just Leave Alone is more Loving, yet in Truth, to Try and Persuade when someone is in Error is the More Loving Thing to do.
If I Care what you Think and rather or not you are on the Right Path or not, then that Means that I Care about you. If I do not Care what you Think, nor whether or not you are on the Right Path, then I do not Care about you.
Yes, some People would just whether be Left Alone, but Leaving each other Alone is not Friendship, it is Isolation and Solitude.
Don't you see, at Least some People who Only Blog for themselves Think that this is more Loving than "Pushing their Ideas on Others". In Reality, though, Simply Sharing One's Opinion is not at all Selfish and they have Got the Idea of Love and Selfishness all Turned Around.
What is even more Crazy about such People is that most of them do Share their Opinion just as much as anyone else and then Go Around Accusing Others of Trying to Persuade, as if such is a Negative and then they Deny that they are Doing the Same Thing, even though in Reality, both People are Doing Nothing more then Expressing their Opinion.
I don't know what it is that Causes this Behavior. Perhaps it is a Form of Manipulation in Order to Get the Other Person to Stop Talking and just Allow her to have the Final Say. I don't Know, but it's Quite Hypocritical.
Gee, I'm glad I don't have a blog! :)
Most of What I have just Said is Relating to People that I Interact with on Other People's Blogs, just as much as my Own, so not Having a Blog would not Remove these People Problems.
I'm Glad that you are Commenting Again, BB. It's so Nice that you Dropped by.
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