Now it's an OLD habit

ooh ooh oh oh you don’t have to Blog

But I continue to post. Not nearly as much as years ago when it was more popular with more readers. 

I never posted much on this blog. BUT WAIT MINUTE - I still have TWO active blogs??

Yes. Once in awhile I go back and read old posts. It's recorded personal history. Here's a past post on this blog explaining my blogging habit. https://blogicant.blogspot.com/2013/05/ooh-ooh-oh-oh-you-dont-have-to-blog.html

"the zig-zagging road of progress" - I recently read that phrase on a FB post. Is it a more accurate than "the long and winding road"? Are we even on a road? Maybe it's a muddy ditch. I don't know but that's a thought I had today so in a future time I could come back here and remind myself.

Maybe it's a stairway?

Pick up the pieces

Pieces.
Not those Reese pieces.

Pieces of an idea. Pieces of the past. Pieces of a blog. Going to pieces.

How about a piece of music.

magnetize your blog

Now wouldn't that be great.  A magnetized blog would attract the correct orientated readers and repel the others.  However, people are typically orientated in many more than two ways.  Also, magnetizing would not affect the non-ferrous readers so it's not a perfect solution.

cows of a leather flock together

I found this post sitting there unpublished. Why didn't I bother to click the publish button? Was I planning more prose for its perfection? Did the bat signal go off and I needed to respond? Did I fall asleep at the keyboard?

they look at me as if I've lost my mind

I don't post as frequently as I did years ago. I'm fine with that. This leaves me wondering why I should bother to keep this blog which I never used as much as my main blog. Has it become digital virtual clutter? Is there such a thing?

no ruffled feathers here

Perhaps this blog has become like the finger paintings our kids made in kindergarten that for sentimental reasons we have kept for years. I created this blog. While I'll agree it's not the most creative work around, I'll still claim it as mine. It's probably better than my kindergarten finger paintings.

But where are the clowns
There ought to be clowns
Quick send in the clowns

dreaming my life away

Really?

Sheryl Crow co-wrote and sang about change 1997. Now if any of you have extra change please send it my way. Of course, that’s not the type of change her song is about (but it would do me good).

My favorite line from her song is:

“Hello it's me, I'm not at home,
If you'd like to reach me, leave me alone”

Great answer machine greeting, but very few still have answer machines today and even fewer leave voice messages. It changed.

my butterfly friend

It seems change happens quicker than ever before. Do you agree?

It could be I just have more time to observe and think about it. You know, watch the wheel go around.

I know there are times when events make you so busy you don’t have time to notice any change other than the next thing thrown at you. Those extreme busy times can end well. Like a fast spin on the merry-go-round it might make you merry or sick.

No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go

Those words were written by John Lennon. His song, “Watching the Wheels” is about taking it down a few notches, chilling out, relaxing, getting off a merry-go-round operated by an insensitive corporation. Or to put it in a way more applicable to myself - falling off the ladder of success.

Now I started with Sheryl Crow and ended up with John Lennon. It doesn’t seem odd to me at all. If the type of change that would do me good involved less stress and lazy days then I find the two songs go well together. They could be on the same playlist.
(note on my inspiration - I thought of the “Watching the Wheels” song on a visit to Middle Age Ramblings blog)


Here’s the lyrics and a youtube clip of John Lennon’s advice:

People say I'm crazy
doing what I'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings
to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you're not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I'm lazy
dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice
designed to enlighten me
When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
Ah, people asking questions
lost in confusion
Well I tell them there's no problem,
only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind
I tell them there's no hurry
I'm just sitting here doing time
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go

 

still readable

Once upon a time bloggers stopped here. Their train doesn't stop here anymore. My train is only a train of thought and it's often derailed.
 
The above information may not be accurate.  This is the internet and you should not believe everything you read.

You know how those awful drug commercials need to read off the warnings. I believe our healthcare costs would be lower if we didn't have big pharma ads.

However those ads gave me an idea for this lousy political campaign season. All the political ads should require a statement, "The previous information may not be accurate. This a political ad with hype and disinformation."  

insert enticing title here

Well last year I posted twice on this back alley blog. I created this blog back when blogging was going strong. Now there are days when I wonder why I bother to blog.

I still get inspired to write down and share my odd thoughts. Do more odd thoughts show up on twitter these days? I'm not on twitter but I have read a few funny tweets I've found in tweet collections.

The internet, social media, gadgets all move too fast. You just start to get the hang of it and the world is on to something else. A day late and dollar short, it has been said.

nothing is going to stop us now

Well my laptop battery running low often slows me down.

The song that shares this post title doesn't hold special memories or was one I even listened to much.  The reason it found it's way into this post is the title and pace of the song.  There is an inspirational motivational feeling to the song.

So now in 2015, approaching 30 years since the song's release, I'm still motivated to post in this sidelined blog.

I can't always take a picture either

When I setup this blog in the back alley of my main blog, I tried to see how many comments I could get on a single post.  I left the single post up there by itself for many months.  That first post has and probably will always have the most comments on this blog.  Finally it became time to move on to another idea, so I started to add more posts over time.  But this is not my main blog so I seldom post here.

Today this blog serves as a place for posts about blogging.  Typically I'll focus on my inabilities to create a good post.

Another popular post among the thirty or so posts laying around this back alley of a blog is "Scaramouche scaramouche will you do the fandango?"

I believe it's the title that people were browsing over to on that post.

So what brings you here?

late night bloggers

Warning: the following may cause dizziness. You know it’s not a party until someone pukes. Hopefully this post will stir (spin,shock,slap?) you to think. At least you will be thinking about something.

Jumping Juxtaposition

While on G+ today I concluded something after a deep thought surfaced.

The opposite of something is not nothing, it’s everything.

She pauses and says, 

“there is something we need to talk about.” 

“What have we been talking about nothing or everything?”, I question.

Don't you consider something special very nice? Everything can not be nice. What is special about everything? 

That special something. 

Nothing is further from the truth, but something can be close to me.

Something is behind you. Not everything can be behind you. 

It’s always something. It can’t be everything.

I don’t believe you can get something from nothing. 

Everything is possible but nothing never happens. Something is happening here.

Jingle Blogs Jingle Blogs

Posting through the snow

need more views today

over fiber optics I go

posting all the way (ha ha)

making writing tight

What fun it is to post and link

A parody tonight

Oh jingle blogs jingle blogs

jingle all the way

Oh what fun

It is to write

this low ranked blog, hey

jingle blogs jingle blogs

jingle all the way

Oh what comment will I see

on my post today

you call yourself a blogger

Well do you?

I often do but it does depend on the situation and who is asking.  For some it would not matter if I said blogger or mad scientist.

What's the difference between an occupation and a hobby?

A better question is, what's the difference between an obsession and a hobby? 

Nobody likes being confined to a box.  Definitions can be influenced by opinion.  You know what they say about opinions.

This blog started with an idea I had while blogging in my other blog, A Few Clowns Short.  Most of my interaction (my definition of blogging requires an exchange of ideas/stories/thoughts between the blogger and the reader - IMHO - oh there's the opinion again) happens over at my other well posted blog.

On A Few Clowns Short I have become comfortably posted.  Actually that's true most of the time.  Occasionally, I just want to write a thought or two over here.  Over on this blog the posting is bit more like a message in a bottle on a big lake.  I've received a few very interesting comments but then I've asked a few interesting (?) questions here.  For example, 
What would Bonzo do?

ooh ooh oh oh you don’t have to blog

ooh ooh oh oh you don’t have to go

I continued blogging as something to do. The initial blog, A Few Clowns Short, came as my grand idea of creating a sharing place for the group of us who had lost their job. 

Create something and post it for the world to see. Now that’s sorta cool. I’ll be honest I thought there might be some ad money in it too. I made a buck or two but like most of the bloggers I’ve come to know, I don’t blog for the money. I could not justify blogging for just pennies. There was something else happening. A creative escape?

oh baby please don’t go

No it’s certainly not money. It’s the enjoyment of sharing thoughts, ideas that cause others to interact. Having someone I have never met write back saying I gave them a laugh is almost like having a group laugh at your joke. A virtual stage and a virtual audience set-up just for your performance.

Other times it can just be a relief to rant some issue out of your mind. You might find a kindred spirit telling you know they agree with your rant.  A digital high-five.

every breathe I take every move I make

The feedback from strangers is intoxicating at times. This is especially true when the number of readers are increasing. The strangers become friends even though you only meet via words. A story, a comment, a reply, they are only words strung together. But you could say a best selling novel is only words strung together.

It wasn’t long after getting a few regular followers that I just hooked. A few times I’ve considered dropping the whole thing.

when I read the post you wrote
It made me mad mad mad
when I read the stories that it told to me
It made me sad sad sad 
I still love it so
I can’t let it go 

I can quit anytime. yeah right

Bring back that linky feeling

(if you can sing - sing this to the tune of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling")

You never reply back anymore when I like your post
And there's no updates like before in your feed list
You're trying hard not to post it
But baby, baby I know it
You've lost that linky feeling
Ooh that linky feeling
You've lost that linky feeling
Now it's gone gone gone oh oh oh

Just when I started to get the hang of this blogging game, facebook and twitter popularity grows even more. I know there is a limited amount of time people have for browsing the internet.

...‘cause baby something beautiful dying...

I’ve had many bloggers just drop off my comment section. Sure there will always be the fading of interest over time. They say we are creatures of habit. I would modify that to “creatures of short habits”.

Would it be fair to say these past bloggers and followers are cheating on the blogs over on facebook?

The drop off in blog visits has been caused by more than facebook time. Reading facebook with an smartphone app is easy. Do followers read blogs from their smaller smartphone screens? I don’t think so. Web access via smartphone vs. laptop is killing the blogosphere. I like to think only the better blogs will survive.

Of course, fewer and fewer music listeners play the Righteous Brothers too.
 

Bring back that blog linky feeling

Hey look I'm over here

Hey look at me. Look, see what I did. Read what I wrote.

Blogging

Self promotion

Social networks

We seek attention. How do you do it without being annoying? Spam is annoying. Ads can go either way. I have enjoyed many entertaining ads. I have muted other ads.

There's an idea I presented over on my blog "A Few Clowns Short". It's a simple link-up your post idea for bloggers. You might want to jump in or you might not. It's your call, your time.

BIONIPT

I’d love to change the blog

but I don’t know what to do.

So I leave it up to you.

(I’ll probably be still saying this ten years after)

As I sit picking away the moments that make up a dull day, flashes of the past play games with the present. Have you ever stopped, looked around, smelled the wind, and wonder how you got here? No, me neither.

 

Why am I soft in the middle now? 
Why am I soft in the middle the rest of my life is so hard?

Call me Al.

Is it still a dream after it's written down? Maybe a still dream.

Watch out 

You might get what you're after 

Cool babies 

Strange but not a stranger 

I’m - an - ordinary - guy

I don’t care to burn down the blog. Just trying to keep it alive.

Watching comment numbers fluctuating like the price on a gas station pump can be discouraging. You start to question your approach, your ideas.  I want you to take me to funkytown. Oh wait, that’s too old. No one does funky anymore.

Do I let the background music change my direction?

Tell me where is sanity?

Playing the. iPad

Not my iPad.  I still prefer a real keyboard on a laptop.  This iPad with its touch screen and light weight beats the laptop for games and simple apps.  I don't imagine tablets will replace laptops for any high volume of writing.  Sure, I know there are optional keyboards that can be attached but doesn't  that ruin the mobility benefit of the tablet?

Ok I gave it a try.  Time to go back to angry birds.

(note:  I was not successful in posting this short post from the iPad.  I was able to write (very slow) the post but not preview or publish it.  I'm guessing you need to download a blogger app for it.) 

but I don't have a title

why are these people following me?

I don't have a title but I still have lots of hats to wear.  Mostly baseball style hats.

I'm fortunate not to have a hair problem (on my head - other parts well we don't want to go there).  Do you think I could sell this hat to a bald guy with the promise that it searches for hair while it is being worn.

I told you I didn't have a title.

 

thoughts without detail

I can't read your mind.  There are many minds I would not want to read.  It would be interesting to read a visitor's mind while they read my post.

Given enough details of a situation and a few visual cues, many people are able to conclude at least a general idea of a person's thoughts.  This is very useful if that person intends to kill you.

I've been known to seek more details.  Details can support your ideas, provide insight, prompt new ideas or clutter your mind.  Have you heard of "analysis paralysis"?  You don't need every last detail before taking some action.  You also will shorten your lifespan constantly running wild in the dark.

So what's brewing in your mind now?

checking a problem

Yesterday I noticed this odd box outline showing up on my post after it finished loading.  It shows up on two of my blogs.  After checking different posts and using another browser, I determined it only shows up when you view a single post.

This post will hopefully remove the element that might be causing it.  I don't know what is going on for sure.  When I right-clicked on the box like object it showed as a frame.  Using the "open frame in new tab" reveals that is appears to be related to facebook.  This outline of two boxes did not appear until yesterday and it appears on older posts that never had any problem before.

Very frustrating problem that is ruining my blogging mood.