I think I've spotted the newest trend: declaring your cussed independent nature by stating (in the comments to someone's blog*) that you "refuse to get a blog of your own."
*No one has said so on mine so far as I can recall, but I've seen this stated by many a pseudonymous email-addressed commenter in many other blog discussions.
Update: aaa-and... just to stave off the onslaught of pouts I can already see coming, I am not demanding that everyone who does not have a blog or a webpage or whatever go out and put one up. I'm just mentioning that there seems to be a tendency for some people to announce "I neither have nor want a blog" now that blogs are being "noticed" by OtherMedia, and are being talked about, and so on -- it's a way of making oneself stand out from the crowd along with all those other people standing out from a crowd.
Me, I have a blog because -- no, this is not going to develop into a tedious "why I blog" credo with a lot of boring blather about "connections" and "community." I have a blog because it beats talking to the teevee, here alone in my apartment with my cat, and because I like to write and spout my opinions and stuff. I can't keep a conventional "what I did today" diary because I would die of boredom, and I love the way you can manipulate colors and fonts and things on the web without having to go to the art store and buy expensive paints and stuff, and the fact that I can get feedback from other people all over the world without actually having to meet them in person is an added bonus. (Meeting most of my commenters is beyond my budget, needless to say -- and my relationship with humanity is neatly expressed in this famous quote of Jonathan Swift's: "I hate the animal called mankind, but I like the occasional Tom, Dick, and Harry.")
Posted by Andrea Harris at June 8, 2003 12:36 PMDamn. And here I hopped on the blog bandwagon hoping just for once it'd make me cool. Now I find out that it's hip not to blog. Guess that's the peril of always trying to define yourself by what other people do.
At least my mom still says I'm cool
Posted by: marc at June 8, 2003 at 01:24 PMYou'll always be cool in my town! (Grant you, I live in Orlando.)
Posted by: Andrea Harris at June 8, 2003 at 01:39 PMAs long as there're jackets. Can't be a cool club without matching jackets. Or better yet, vests like The Warriors.
Special handshake optional.
Posted by: marc at June 8, 2003 at 01:52 PMI often wonder how some of the bloggers get anything else done. It seems to be a very time consuming exercise for some.
And then there is that nasty firewall at the office.
Posted by: David Block at June 8, 2003 at 02:03 PMYeah! Do the too-cool-to-blog wretches have matching jackets? I think not.
Posted by: McGehee at June 8, 2003 at 02:09 PMWhat about those of us that don't have blogs because we would rather read than write?
If I thought I was interesting enough to have a blog, I'd bother to learn how.
Oh, yeah! Well I don't have a blog and ... oh, wait. Nevermind.
Posted by: bryan at June 8, 2003 at 09:29 PMWell, that's not too-cool-to-blog, that's too-pathetic-to-blog. We let those guys hold our jackets.
Posted by: McGehee at June 8, 2003 at 09:32 PMThis is starting to sound like Art Fern:
"Got no blog? We don't care. Got no life? We don't care. Got no comments? We don't care. Think you'll troll someone's site? That's when we care."
Posted by: CGHill at June 8, 2003 at 11:05 PMHmmm. I'll bet Andrea also doesn't remember "Go one mile until you come to the..."
(entire studio audience): "fork in the road..."
Posted by: McGehee at June 9, 2003 at 05:42 AMWELL! I also refuse to get a blog because I want to be a cussed independent just like everybody else!
Posted by: Ken Summers at June 9, 2003 at 09:08 AMOOPS! Ignore that last comment! It was supposed to be anonymous!
Posted by: Anonymous at June 9, 2003 at 09:10 AMI remember the fork in the road commercial (though I can't remember what product it shilled), but I am drawing a blank at Art Fern.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at June 9, 2003 at 11:44 AMJohnny Carson skit character. Late Early Movie host, or something like.
Posted by: McGehee at June 9, 2003 at 12:09 PMCoolness is so fleeting. As soon as something becomes cool it immediately becomes cool to be "too cool" for it.
Posted by: Lynn S at June 9, 2003 at 03:23 PMTea Time Movie. Turn right at the Slauson cutoff, get out of your car and cut off your Slauson.
Posted by: CGHill at June 10, 2003 at 10:09 AM