Celebration Day

{A-la Ben Stein} Woooooowwwwww.........

The Tenth Anniversary of my tenure as a fitful blogger just had to coincide with a genuinely historical event - am I a lucky stiff, or what?

I'll deal with said historical even presently.  We kick things off with my debut blog, which appeared on MySpace on this date a decade previous.  As a total greenhorn, I quite naturally didn't see the full potential of what blogging had to offer for perhaps six months or so.  I simply spent that time throwing random stuff at the walls, just to see what would stick.  I soon found out two things - readers of my earliest efforts dug my overall writing style; and politics was a good avenue to instigate some legitimate back-and-forth, so long as nobody got personal / nasty.  I welcomed any and all commentary / criticism, again so long as it was not personal or nasty.

Thus was born my first point of pride as a blogger; from that original MySpace blog until this very post, there have only been TWO incidents that went to flame, out of perhaps 550-625 blogs over ten years.  All credit goes to my readers - the respect that they consistently show to my humble ramblings is the real reason the incidents of flame are a rare occurrence.  And as such, I always try to bring home the blogging-bacon in creative ways, even if I'm dealing with "hot button" subject material.

In time, I gradually became aware of the underlying potential of blogging as a powerful networking tool, and quickly set up links between all my networking nodes and the blog, which did wonders for both my blog readership, and various other endeavours {like my music} I had going at the time.  This was way cool as far as it went, but I got the biggest kick out of the simple fact that I could keep my writing chops sharp {as the tagline here has it}, and really turn my brain inside-out any time the mood struck.  And rest assured that "the mood" struck pretty damn frequently in those days.

At the zenith, I had no less than six blogs going simultaneously - forcing me to become an adept "plate spinner," until I got tired enough to just use MySpace as the nexus, with the others more or less becoming satellite "mirrors."  It didn't hurt either my readership, or the myriad other threads tied into my blogoshpere.  Good thing too, 'cos I came perilously close to total writer's burnout more than a few times, before things got streamlined.  The last thing I wanted was to end up like good ol' Uncle Ernie {"Tommy" pun intentional} Hemmingway, drowning his sorrows by deep-throating tequila worms 20 out of every 24 hours. 

I resolutely run the gamut, in terms of subject matter -  everything from food to cars, celebrities to obituaries; hobbies to music; religion to yes, politics; hell, I've even posted several humorous and/or totally whimsical installments, which always go down well {don't as me why, though}.  In short, I've covered a LOT of subject matter on these humble pages o' mine.  And again, gauging by the feedback I've received, I have to say that my modest efforts have had a positive impact about 97% of the time.  That's the most wonderful Gift I've ever had as a writer, bar none.  Thank you all for facilitating said Gift, from the bottom of me heart, Boys and Girls.  I couldn't have earned such a precious reward without each and every one of you lot supporting this mess so staunchly.

Which is a perfect segue to the historical event I mentioned in the first paragraph.  The start of my 11th year as a blogger sees me as a tiny part of The Donald's Presidential campaign - and totally DAZZLED by the HUGE coup he's pulled off.  Forget all about all of the spin and rhetoric the lame-stream media is trying mightily to induce and govern.  I can guarantee you virtually none of the pundits of any stripe even know just how massive a true masterstroke DJT's debate performance last evening really was.  In a nutshell, my Main Man The Donald stole the lame-stream media's thunder a million times over - by quietly arranging a LIVE-FEED podcast on Facebook!!

Better still, the podcast was 100% free of commentary / instant analysis and all the other bullshit that are the l-sm's stock-in-trade.  Quite simply, The Donald took his case straight to the public - pure and undistilled - and thoroughly bitch-slapped both the Hildebeast AND the lame-stream media in one fell swoop.  What's more, DJT was wearing stainless steel gauntlets, whilst doing the bitch-slapping.  While I don't have any figures handy, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that DJT's gambit absolutely buried the l-sm, in terms of overall viewership.  

And here's the brilliant kicker - any type of media viewership generates a certain amount of advertising revenue, either directly or indirectly.  Zuckerberg may loathe The Donald's politics, but he's absolutely nobody's fool when it comes down to quickly glomming on to a potential online revenue bonanza, offered up on a silver platter like this.  No sir - ol' Snarky-Mark & The Dumbbell Bunch damn well know which side their bread's buttered on, and likely will discretely continue to curry favor with DJT going forward, even if they have to hold their noses, and gag themselves with {plastic} spoons whilst doing so!!

Item:  about 30-45 minutes into the debate, the Facebook feed developed a minor glitch, and seized up for perhaps 45 seconds or so.  When the feed was restored, there was a rather humorous byproduct of the glitch - the rest of the podcast featured a steady marquee-stream of Facebook emoticons.  I might be totally wrong in thinking that both the glitch and the byproduct were evidence of an attempted hack, but I'm basing my speculation on personal observation.  The truth could be the polar opposite of my surmise here; perhaps we'll have the gist within a week or so.  Circumstantially at least, I'm betting on my surmise.

And there you have it, my Good Friends.  My second decade as a humble blogger ought to be even more of a hoot than the first, if last night was any indication.  As always, time will tell {about the circus and the wishing well}.  

To close things on a high note, let me go on record by stating that I can't decide if'n da Hildebeast looked more like Boss Hogg, or the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man, last night!!!  

What say you?

Next several rounds of Colortini's are on me, my Good Friends.  Please feel free to indulge deeply.  

More shortly.