99 Red Balloons

This is my 99th post. I was going to wait and do something for the Centennial Post, but after my Montreal Canadiens had a tragic end to their 100th season, and I lost a pretty daring, yet silly bet around it, I think the 100 mark is one of tradgedy, and curses. Not luck and prosperity.

99th post musings after the break.

I have had a lot of fun doing this. The best part is the blogroll to the right here, full of people that I read and comment on regularly – some because I always disagree with them, others because we are up the same creek (and paddles are inc). Either way, I read, I comment, I learn, I enjoy. It has been a fun journey.

I know that previous paragraph sounds awful melancholy, and I assure you (much to your chagrin?) that I am going to keep blogging. You can rest “easy”.

I have learned quite a bit in this little adventure.

1) What is a small issue to me, might be a huge issue to you. And vice versa. I was flabberghasted it was even an issue, and made the mistake of pingbacking Scott on those thoughts. His readers are often academic, reading over and above the obvious. While I still contend it isn’t that big of a deal, I did a poor job explaining why and made it a little too ranty (for my own style). That post still has the most hits ever on this blog – too bad it isn’t for the right reasons. On a side note, the gentlemen who I internet-attacked-and back Matt, from What Would Matt Do, has a firm place on my blogroll – I love reading his rantish posts – definitely entertaining.

2) Posts you have the most fun writing, may or may not ever get read. I loved writing and linking words in that post. I have no clue why, but I was smiling the whole way through. The points beneath it I think carry some merit, but I don’t anyone got through the rap portion of it. Barely anyone clicked the links. Meh, don’t write for your audience when blogging, write for yourself. If you end up with an audience then good stuff, if not, at least you expressed yourself in a form you wanted to. At least I got to live the dream of a rap artist for a day. The second upside is that the #1-3 Google searches that lead people to this blog are rap related. So I did find my audience in the end.

3) Blogging is still a medium that is mostly a one way conversation, and thus, is exposed to similar negatives as message boards. Had a few comments that were trollish along the way, so I tried to kill them with kindness (notice the word ‘kill’ is still in there) and not get into typical WoW forum back and forth verbal jousting with a complete idiot. I even received hate mail a few times for my views. The upside? More often than not commenters have intelligent, engaging contributions. I have learned more about the industry reading blogs in the 6ish months I have been blogging than I did as 20 years as a PC gamer.

4) You can’t change people’s mind if they don’t want to be changed. Logical arguments don’t necessarily work. People are passionate about their gaming, and hence, their viewpoints on it are ardent. Like trying to convert a Habs fan to a Bruins fan - state your points, counterpoints, and constructive arguments and let it go – even if folks don’t agree with you your point was made. The ideal isn’t to change everyone around you to what you believe, but to understand why people believe the things they do. You grow and learn more that way.

5) You can make friends here, too. I have a few internet only friends from my years and years of online/PC gaming. I wish I still travelled all over the USA for my work, because there are a lot of beers I would like to buy a lot of people. While I have a great group of friends on this blog, and in real life in my community, no matter how personal or fun blogging is there is nothing like sitting face to face with someone and shooting the breeze. For those non drinkers out there (somehow, I doubt Cap’n is) coffee will work too. Or a fruit smoothie if volleyball is involved.

So post 99 was uneventful, fluffy, and a good par for the course for a late Friday afternoon (if I do say so myself). Most of all I’d just like to thank everyone for visiting here, adding your thoughts, and enjoying the company.

Special thanks to Joe for setting up this blog/domain for me. Be kind to my WoW character.