Yeah, kind of a depressing item from a disgruntled Canadian journalist who got stuck with the “Who Is Rance” beat.
The fun of Rance was always in reading Rance’s writing, not in reading words from people who used to read Rance.
Yadda yadda blah blah meow meow… hey!! Is that a cut? That’s a cut! Oooh, the ll’il impertinence! But… he does have a point. I guess.
And so the online whirligig slowly revolving to an end, in spite of the promises of the Administrative Staff that Rance his own bad self will be posting in a few days. Sure, get our hopes up.
It may seem like a sad end, but actually as a direct result of reading Rance‘s blog, several other people/animals/imaginary beings/Norse gods have decided to start writing journals. Some of them are real-life journals, some of them are romps in the imaginations of one or more people. Some of them defy categorization. All are enjoyable in their way, by someone, somewhere. Possibly on drugs. And that’s perfectly fine.
You may think it’s a self-indulgent act to “”blog” and be a “blogger” and live in the “Blogosphere.” But actually it’s just a new way for people to write about themselves and the worlds (real or imagined) they live in, and that kind of thing has been going on since first we put stylus to tabula rasa. So it’s not an entirely bad or boring thing that more people are finding an outlet in blogging – in fact it encourages people to improve their writing ability and communicate with other people.
And that is not a bad thing, my friends. Not a bad thing at all.
Also, reading Rance’s blog (and by extension, one or two satellite blogs) has put me in contact with a variety of interesting beings, including at least two talking birds and a number of other diverting characters (ditto re: real and imagined).
And that is again not a bad thing.
So while I may be sad that the liveliest days of reading Rance’s “piss and vinegar” filled thoughts are in the past, I’m happy I had the experience.
Except… godDAMN, what am I going to do with my 27 DVP‘s? That’s not even enough for a pony keg ‘a Bud.
I am thinking it is likely Rance’s readers will get the long kiss good night, but we’ll see. I never considered asking the Administrative Staff if I could cash in my DVPs for a lovely parting gift. Perhaps some of us can pool our points and have that wrap party at Red Lobster.
Reading Rance and some of his readers’ excellent blogs (like yours) inspired me to start one myself. (I registered for an account, but have not started the actual writing, much less figured out the html razzmatazz.)
By the way, your “into the the britches” comment–hilarious. Who says we are not entertaining?
A long-time writer friend, an admitted Luddite, e-scolded me last night for blogging. His same email included the newly-launched web site address of his brother though so I think it is bit of a mixed message. As I had just started another blog (take 5, they’re free) I was a bit abashed. Then I found this link and thought I would share it: http://tinyurl.com/43cqb
Hope you enjoy it, too. Once I get over my hurt I will respond to his complaint, so am open to any ammo for it.
Hah! That eats-blogs-leaves article was funny. Blogger recently switched their tacky looking ads for a pretty nifty search bar; now you can search anywhere in the current Blogger page, and click the “next blog” link for a lucky random hit of bloggy goodness.
Note to self: need to tinker under the hood in the comments templates again.
waxwing, don’t let your Luddite friend get you down. He didn’t mean it, but maybe you’d better peck some sense into his head by showing him some really good blogs (not this one).
Photoblogs, for example. There’s some amazing ones out there. Travel blogs – people go on round the world trips and manage to log in as they go and add updates, even images. Yes, 90% of the blogging community are producing self-indulgent crap (self included) but the ten-percenters more than make up for it.
Have your friend check out joi ito’s blog or ginmar’s blog from Iraq – there’s good work being done out there, and some of it is actually in a good cause.
And you just keep on writing. So there.