Beyond Blogging

These days, bloggers are everywhere.  How boring. I can remember when I first heard the word--it was so odd, almost extra-terrestrial. Same with the word Google. What could they possibly mean, those very strange words? How different, how exciting!

Now everyone is a blogger. (And most are blahgers, meaning blah blah blah. By the way, I put myself in that category.) Every job board is seeking bloggers to blog about all kinds of things, mostly having to do with green, social, sustainability and political issues. Another popular blogging request is about interior decorating. What's to say about that? Get a couch, get a few chairs, a dining room table, a bed, maybe a dresser...you're good to go.

 Nobody is seeking bloggers on the subjects of death and dying, for example, something that happens to everyone, yet few people are prepared for it and nobody ever wants to talk about it!

Perhaps I will start a Death Blog.  To make it palatable, maybe it should be about the funny side of death.

To be continued...

The Big Zero

In the past two months I have written 24 articles, with accompanying photos, for a website called Portland Examiner.  They have mostly been about food purveyors since my "beat" is grocery stores, and a couple are about people since I got a new beat called Everyday People. Now, when you Google my name they come up. For all this work, I have earned the sum total of: Zero.

This is the sorry state of freelance writing these days. Job boards that once ran ads for paying customers like magazines and associations have become the middle men for websites selling content and ad space. The writer gets "exposure" and a percentage of the take, which often comes out to: Zero.

Sites like Red Room and Suite 101 and Examiner and Demand Studios and Rafter JumpOn all exclaim excitedly, "Now you can make money from the comfort of your home by telecommuting!"  And they pay you : Zero.

So I might just as well write on my own blog where I can say whatever I want, have just as few --or just as many--readers, and earn the same amount: Zero.

Do Ya Think She's Jewish?

There's all this debate about whether Elena Kagan, Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, is or is not gay. All I have to say is --please.

The fact that she refuses to divulge her sexual preference, and that the White House also won't talk about it, makes me sick! Have they never heard about being gay and proud?  What the heck is going on in this country? Everyone and their mother is gay these days, and here is this brilliant woman who is allegedly gay-- many of her friends have admitted it-- and yet it is an issue they will not go near during the upcoming hearings that will determine whether or not Kagan becomes the 112th justice of the court.

What I'm wondering is if she's transgender. Lose the earrings and it's John Goodman.

Smarty Pants

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how cliches are overtaking our language, culture, and thinking? No matter where you are or who you're talking to, words like "sustainable," "green," and "organic" fly out of people's mouths like watermelon pits at a picnic.

And suddenly everyone who is anyone is savvy. So far today--and it's only lunchtime-- I heard a "savvy young writer" being interviewed on the radio, read a Q & A with a "savvy broadcaster" in the newspaper, saw a "savvy chef" on one of those moronic morning TV shows, and just now, came across a  review of a book by yet another savvy writer, although this one is also "up-and-coming," online.

Ditto for Elena Kagan, the woman just nominated by Obama to be the newest justice of the US Supreme Court. Were I fixing her up with a friend for a blind date, I would describe her as short, smart, fat, and dykey-looking with bad hair (oh relax, she is NOT reading this!), but according to today's Portland Press Herald, Kagan is "sharp and politically savvy."

Just to be sure, since I thought maybe I'd missed something, I checked the dictionary and confirmed that savvy means someone who years ago would have been called "a regular Einstein." But in today's hectic, fast-paced world, it isn't enough to be just knowledgeable, or even smart or brilliant; these days, you gotta be savvy.

I'm not sure, but I think I might be too old to be savvy since everyone who is seems to also be young. Even fat Elena Kagan, who at 50 would be the youngest justice on the court, is a mere baby while I am suddenly "a woman of a certain age."  Which makes you wonder: why are there no men of a certain age?

Imagine Waking Up Here

I stole this photograph from another blog! It's so beautiful, I wanted to share it with whoever stumbles upon my page. That's one of the good things about the Internet.