You greasy bastards. Still one of the greatest movie lines of all time.
Its also a good theme for my blog birthday-which occurs today. This blog is 7 years old today. A milestone of sorts-and the adventure has definitely not gone as I thought it would back in 2005.
I began this blog out of a sense of frustration responding to a huge personal disappointment in my life; created by nothing but sheer stupidity on the part of other people-who then, as was recently demonstrated here-thought they had some sort of God -given right to interfere with my life. They didn't then-and they most certainly don't today. My disgust with their simplistic trying to slot people into molds, set me off on the path of blogging to begin with. That particular personal disappointment was a “Y” of sorts in my life-and the path taken since then, was definitely the one less traveled by. But it has been, on the whole, pretty interesting. It has made, "all the difference".
They say you are supposed to write about what you know. For me that comes down to my life-which has been a fascinating ride, most definitely not your standard issue, Mark 1, Mod 0 useless life in suburbia-and politics. I had to deal with some of the suburbia during my 3+ year exile in the whining states of America. But even there, I found ways to get out and about-and do a lot of things that many others didn't get the chance to do. Perhaps you may have noticed that I was able to get to Hong Kong and Singapore-for brief stints-slipping the surly bonds that bound me. And my two summers in Romania are indeed a highlight in my life as well. As for the politics-American politics, that is probably the subject area I am most passionate about.
Sure I could take one narrow subjects area and focus on that-but there are far better experts already doing that. I prefer to write about the things that strike me-while maintaining an preference for the American politics. Since those particular politics have become pretty screwed up over the years-there is a lot to talk about. I've tried to also chronicle the travels and travails of my life-leaving more than bread crumbs along the way; in today's society that's probably no longer a smart thing to do. But it is my adventure, my tragedy, my boredom and excitement and to share it with someone has been more than a little therapeutic.
Like all bloggers, I had that fantasy that someone of influence would pick up on my writing and become enraptured with it, enough so to enable a transition to a living based upon it. Sadly, as the years and the hit counter have proven-that’s not going to be the case. Its probably like my oppressors listed above-blogs have a self fulfilling tendency to slot people into types. If you do not fit one of those, it does not matter how well you write-the crowds just are not there. It is especially not helped when as the later years have proven-the sorry state of American politics and the basic average stupidity of my countrymen, has fueled an anger in me. I have a short temper to begin with-and seeing some of the really silly events of the past few years has brought that anger to the surface.
Speaking of hit counters, I looked. I have written 2673 posts and received 6059 comments. Since I have had two blog sites-its hard to estimate my total number of visitors, but if Site Meter is to be believed its about 250,000. In blog terms that's a small number. I am proud of the fact that I have not (yet) had to moderate comments-I think its a bad thing in the long run. Given recent experiences though-I may have to re-think that policy. I hope not.
Several of those 2673 posts have been controversial-and I've had more than a couple people take their anger out in my comments page and via e-mail. Heartening though-if not a tad bit of disturbing commentary on American society, are the e-mail's of support I have also gotten. Folks who wanted to comment-but were afraid to because of fear the thought police would come hunt them down. That's remarkable when you consider that a lot of what I have written has been expressed in similar strident forms elsewhere-and you don't see the folks out with torches and pitchforks there. But I do understand-the fear of intimidation can be real. But I look at it, if you going to go around watching everything you say, you are not going to get anything said. So for the thought police lurking around reading this-go suck my……..
ANYWAY.
I’ve also tried to have fun-acknowledging that my tastes are not those of the typical purebred American boy. Contrary to popular belief, I love women. Oh that I surely do.
I don't like feminism though-about that I have been pretty consistent. I do not like it one little bit. I also think the vociferous defenders of the rising income inequality in the world need to be singled out for a well deserved verbal beating. One reason I envy Matt Taibbi is that he has aggressively taken on this subject-pointing out that Goldman Sachs folks may have been individually just fine-but collectively, they were still evil.
Now that I am back overseas- I will continue to write about the ups and downs of the overseas life. Which-for all its issues-still beats its domestic counterpart by many many miles. The world is big and I still need to see a lot of it.
However American politics-and my fascination to all things military-inevitably draw me back to those topics. And to those loyal readers who have been following the goings on here for a while-there will be little change in this pattern for the future. So like the Friends of Bill keep saying ( as they screw up another generation of the illegally coerced)-keep coming back.
I’ll keep trying to figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up.