My Name Is Joelogon, and I'm a DCBlogs Live Feed Whore

Yes, it's true: Knowing that the dcblogs.com/live feed exists affects how I blog. Most commonly, it influences when I choose to blog about something.

For example, if I've posted something that I think is particularly well-written, incisive, funny, and generally deserving of love, attention and accolades, am I going to push it out of the queue for a stupid throwaway entry on how, after a night of drinking, I spilled soy sauce on my white couch slipcover? Even if, while washing it the next day, the stupid thing was so heavy and unbalanced that it caused my washer/dryer to hop six inches from its original spot, and it's too heavy for me to move back?

Of course not. That's what "Save as Draft" is for.

I'm not a political or world events blogger. I'm rarely writing anything that needs to pay attention to the news cycle or has to be timely in any sense --I'm just writing about stupid shit in my life, so I can save up my entries. Space out the interesting ones a little. It's not as if I'm not already a week or more past when the original event occured, usually.

The effect is pernicious.

Having an audience (real or otherwise) is a terrible, wonderful thing. Sure I'm blogging for myself -- that's why I stopped updating the paper journal that sits on my nightstand -- because I'm blogging for myself.

Why I waste time trying to come up with an edgy, attention-grabbing headline and lede? Because I'm blogging for myself.

Why I technorati tag entries? Because I'm... okay, you -- I mean, I -- get the point.

If I was less of a hack, I would figure out a way to tie the live feed in with Schrodinger's Cat. Or maybe the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. But I'm not.

(Actually, reading the Wikipedia entry on the Uncertainty Principle indicates that my intended line of reasoning -- that the act of observing something influences the thing being observed -- was incorrect, based on an incomplete understanding, so it's probably a good thing I'm a hack.)

Oh, and the original title for this entry was something boring like, "I Admit It: I Am Aware of the DC Blogs Live Feed", but any chance you get to work "whore" into a headline is an opportunity not to be missed.

Plus, it got you to click, didn't it?

Tags: dumb things, dc blogs, live feed whore