The Interweb and Honesty: We Can Do This

Not only can the past never really be erased; it co-exists, in cyberspace, with the present, and an important type of context is destroyed. This is one reason that intellectual inflexibility has become such a hallmark of modern political discourse, and why, so often, no distinction is recognized between hypocrisy and changing your mind.

From the New York Times profile of Charles Johnson of LGF fame. Totally agree, and I think it is beyond irritating and pedantic for people on both sides of the aisle to continue to play “gotcha” with the other side’s writings. This isn’t the 19th century- that something is “written” no longer carries the stamp of permanence or thoroughness. When people tweet or write Facebook updates or blog posts, they should give no other promise than truthfulness to that moment. There are people who criticize Andrew Sullivan for swinging wildly through his positions at The Daily Dish. That’s crap. I don’t ever take any of his posts for more than what they are: the thoughts and writings of a man working his way through life, making judgments based in the limited information he has, then revising them when presented with new facts.

I can’t remember where I read it, but a blogger once said that he would make no promises to his readers of comprehensiveness, fairness, or permanence. He would promise honesty and attempted clarity. I make the same promise. I will do my best to be honest. In that honesty, I must admit that I am biased, unfair, fickle, emotional, irrational, weird, and incomplete in my scope. And that’s on good days.

So I hope that this blog will stay on your bookmarks and RSS feeds because of the trust I’ll build between us. Don’t come here to find the quick and clever lines (though I will strive to provide those from time to time), don’t come here to find answers. Come here because you like reading someone who’s wrestling with the suck, who’s got thoughts but isn’t always certain they’re right. I’m writing because I like that life is vicissitudinous and how that makes me grow. And yes, as long as I have a blog, “vicsissitudinous” will be a word.

Happy weekend, y’all.

Finding My Place

So I’ve done the legwork, spent some time setting this up, and I want to begin.

To fully suss out my web presence:

• My Facebook page is here. I rarely go there, since I really don’t have the time to “Ignore” a bunch of invitations to concerts and performances I have no way of attending.
• My Twitter is here, and in the sidebar. I’m not hip enough to have a smartphone at the moment, but when I’m at my computer I’m pretty active with it. Especially when there’s a sporting event to livetweet.
• My Tumblr is here. Not really sure where it’s going, but I find it’s a solid blend of the immediacy of Twitter with the fullness of a full-platform blog. I also need it for my Glee fix.

For awhile I tried to use Tumblr for my longer-form writing, but the medium just isn’t right, at least at the moment. So I’ve staked out this spot for the more ponder-able things I’ll put out. I’ll probably import some of those Tumblr posts to this blog to start.

For those who are confused by my URL and blog title, stop what you’re doing right now and get reading anything by this man, P.G. Wodehouse.