Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Archives for February 2010

Blog Spotlight: Bluishorange Birthday

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Today I’m giving a presentation about blogs – at my office!

Ten years ago at this moment I had no idea what a blog was. I don’t know if I had even heard the word. I would have told you it was crazy talk that I’d be throwing the word “ubiquitous” around a conference room paired with this zany, made-up word.

Ten years ago around this moment a 21-year-old in Texas named Alison started a blog called Bluishorange.

Bluishorange has been one of my favorite, go-to, must-read blogs in each one of those ten years. I’ve known Alison for longer than my wife! I have read literally every post she has ever written for ten years.

Alison shared her thoughts on the milestone, as well as an archive of her “Best of” posts.

My favorite posts are usually when Alison tells a story, or when she finds some thread in her life that is also woven into mine. Here are ten of my particular memories from ten years of blogging, in no order whatsoever:

  • her obsession with X-Files
  • an imaginary album cover
  • wading through waist-high floodwater
  • her breasts on a beer coaster
  • five things you didn’t know about her
  • a letter to Charlie Kaufman
  • 9/12/2001
  • a photo of her taking a photo
  • a story about her drawer (and jail)
  • why she watches tv (not for Jesus)

    Okay, one more: when she compared bug spray to whiskey.

    Happy birthday, Alison!

    Have you read Bluishorange? When did you start? What’s your favorite post?

    • February Funk

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    I have a well-documented history of spending February indoors avoiding people and neglecting my creativity. I watch movies, play video games and berate myself for watching movies and playing video games rather than writing magnum opus blogs and an album.

    That the month is bisected by my dating anniversary with E – now eight years – doesn’t help matters. In fact, sometimes the intersection of anniversary with my shut-in status just re-emphasizes my desire to live the rest of my life as a hermit.

    If January is for resolutions, February is for malaise and self-hatred. I’m not sure if it’s a Virgo thing, but it’s as reliable as the sunrise.

    It helps my hermit case that I’ve just now shaken the remainder of a nasty bought of possible laryngitis. Also, our block remains under sixish inches of ice, and getting anywhere in the city has required about a mile walk to a reliably non-detoured form of public transit.

    Happily, this year I pulled myself away from Netflixing through Lost and playing Creeper World long enough for a Valentine’s brunch with E at one of my favorite upscale pubs, Nodding Head, where we were serenading by the jazz stylings of one of my favorite musicians, Alexandra Day.

    So, there’s my one social engagement for the month. There are ten days left, and I am already chalking them off as lost. Maybe if I can embrace the vast nothingness of this awful month then I can find some small delight in any minor progress I make as a person from within its icy grasp.

    News by appointment, or news right now?

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    Do you get your news by appointment, or do you get your news whenever you want it?

    It’s one of the big questions behind the rise of social media as a news source as well as in the transformation of journalism from pull to push.

    Yesterday I encountered a useful real-world example.

    In a meeting at work I mentioned I would follow-up on a task Wednesday, and I was met with a collective giggle. Didn’t I know there was another big snow storm coming Tuesday night? It made for a perfect opportunity to lament my not owning a tv and abstaining from local newscasts. Silly me, for eschewing appointment news!

    Except, is that why I didn’t know about the storm?

    Not really. I went to bed early the night before, and hadn’t checked my Twitter or RSS feeds when I awoke. My phone’s weather widget wasn’t on. Sure enough, when I returned to my desk and checked, all were abuzz.

    The news was delivered to me as soon as I engaged my social networks – off-axis from the typical news appointment of 11pm or 6am. Why would I make an appointment to watch television or read a newspaper when I could get the news when it was convenient for me?

    In this instance I looked behind. But, did my co-workers know that Representative Murtha had just passed away? That appeared on my feed midday – but they would wait to make a news appointment to hear about it.

    Similarly, I’ve heard about hyper-local news midday – like construction accidents on the next block – when co-workers would have had to search the bowels of a network site for the story. Or, wait for their nightly news appointment.

    Maybe it’s funny to hear this from a journalism major, but I reject appointment news – local newscasts with watered-down reporting and over-hyped weather are dead to me. I even reject having to visit a news website to look for relevant stories. I’ve stopped making time in my life for that.

    If news is relevant to me it will get filtered to me when it’s relevant.

    What about you? Do you consume local news differently than you used to? If there was major breaking news affecting your zip code, where would you hear it first?