The tale of 2 blogs

Once upon a time someone decided to start a blog. Then, a few years later, someone else did too.

So, what's the problem? I sure don't have one. I like reading different blogs.

MY problem WITHIN blogs is that I don't like:
1. Hypocrisy
2. Making a statement of "fact" based on speculation
3. The absence of retractions when they are needed

Doing any of those three things really says more about you than about the subject of your blog.


My solutions for the big bad blog world:

1. If you see someone doing something you think is wrong, then you can of course call them out on it. But you should also then REFRAIN from doing it yourself. Or, if you are also "guilty", leave the other person alone, already!

2. Preface your statements with "I think" when you can't give proof to back it up. You can even add in why you think it. For example: "I THINK LeRogueBlogger is from Canada because of all the 'ehs' in the posts" versus "LeRogueBlogger IS from Canada because I stamped their passport while they were simultaneously crossing the border and posting a blog on their iPhone" versus "LeRogueBlogger is a filthy Canuck". The first example employs CYA, the second sounds more credible and the third sounds like you had nothing of substance to say but just HAD to say SOMEthing.

3. If I come to your house and show you my birth certificate, then maybe a nice "whoopsie" is in order?

For all the talk about lawyers, to me it is really more of a "Blogger's Code". It is really hard to prove slander or libel, especially when the statements made are true.

Don`t save the drama for your momma

May the well never run dry: An Ode

Oh, dear awesome protege
Of the blogger 'cross the way
I just had to write and say
Sometimes you sure make my day

I adore it when you assume
I love it when you start to fume
Or try to use a nom de plume
Your absence would be a vacuum

Or maybe Ms. Kelly Clarkson said it best. My life (my life) would suck (would suck) withooouuut you.

Appreciate Depreciate Fabricate Emulate

A couple days ago SCATS put up a post about Staff Appreciation Day being put on by the PTA and how they are looking for volunteers.

Of course the comments ran faster than a 1st grader's nose in March. Actually, the blog was posted because of comments on another post that steered the discussion that way, so it's really no surprise that the hits kept a comin'. We even got to hear from a teacher in the district, and not one who just posted one rant and ran away. Heated exchanges ensued? Sure. But readable for good reasons.

I would have loved loved LOVED to have heard from someone who has a family member in the GCSD and could actually admit that their relative was a selfish slacker. It always seems like when I am talking to a family with a teacher in it, people tell stories about how their family member's colleagues suck, but not the family member him/herself. Oh no, that family member is a good one. Well now that can't possibly be true, can it? Someone has to have the loser family member! Really, the way some of these blog posts go, it should a lot of someones.

So my question to the people complaining about teachers - last I checked, there were a LOT of teachers out there. So it would stand to reason that you might know one outside of the setting of being the teacher of one of your kids. So what do you think of THAT teacher? Are you all complaining because you are related to or know a teacher who is a loser, or because you are related to or know a teacher who is the only NON-loser? Just curious.

Do I even need to write a blog today?

I wasn't going to write today, since I am still so shook up about the accusation of my morality. I thought, what if THIS is the post that pushes me on to the eternal naughty list?

But then I realized that this is the path all great bloggers have probably traveled and that I am in fine company even if I am not yet up to their level of greatness.

Personal attacks when they are untrue are called what?
Personal attacks when they are true are called what?
Personal attacks are the same as dissenting opinions?
I'm sooo confused, who oh who can enlighten me?

Boooooooooooooooo

All ya all are on good behavior today for the most part. I guess I will take the night off.

Or maybe I can hope some of you go to the wine tasting tonight, come home, and do some plastered postings for me to enjoy? Pretty please?

Do As I Say

If you head on over to Rebecca Jaffarian's blog you'd see a timely entry that has evolved into a few discussions. It started off as a not-so-subtle warning about personal attacks and how they are a no-no. Now, I've totally got RJ's back on the fact that it is HER blog and she can do what SHE wants with it. You all have the right to free speech but she has the right not to post it on her site. But sure it can rile up a few feathers when she calls someone out about personal attacks and uses some little jabby jabs of her own. And yes, she did. Again, why should she care if you don't like it though.

Get into the comments and there's a nice discussion on coffee - like the real coffee drink, not Ms. Coffee of the 3rd Ward. And then a totally understandable segway into some soft core blog bashing. I find it highly amusing that a blog that started by coming down on personal attacks is approving comments that are on the fringe of them. And again, you don't like it, so what, she don't care (<-- and what song was this adapted from?).

OK seriously, my interpretation of the RJ decree is that if someone comments on her blog and then you come along and make fun of that commentor or say something bad about the commentor, she won't publish it. No back and forth pushing like a playground fight. How the first jab is allowed to get thrown -or at least what I consider to be a jab, I guess she doesn't though- is up to her. That's why I don't like comment moderation, when you approve the comment some people will think you approve OF the comment. Especially when it is a comment that, oh I don't know, could kind of, maybe, possibly appear to go against your own rules from on high. It happens all over the place but here was just an example from today's comments. But let it be known that I know she can do what she wants as it is her blog and if that reason isn't good enough for the rest us, well, toughsies. Right?

FYI

Just to put it out there on how the blog settings are set.

I have none of those captcha word verification boxes or comment moderation for posts posted within the last 2 weeks from whatever day it is. That's just so that I don't have to worry about baddies posting on old posts that I might not get to check as often as time goes on. And by baddies I mean spambots and nigerian bankers and stuff like that. So if 3 weeks from now you think of a witty comment to add to this post, it'll have to go through comment moderation first...nothing personal.

If I am even around in 3 weeks. I may have filled up my calendar with so many OTHER volunteer efforts that posting new blogs and comments on old ones isn't an option.