Friends and Associates
When I began thinking about creating this blog, I thought of it as a place for me to keep a journal. Observations and recollections that are not worthy of developing into articles or opinion pieces, that do not fit into any of the book manuscripts I am working on (and off), or are not substantial enough to publish anywhere else, but stuff I still want to make note of in my daily round.
My primary form over these many years has been the journal. I have thousands of pages of journal entries that will never see the light of day. Some of them are of such a nature that I would not want them to see the light of day. This blog then would be a way for me to do a journal and not have to worry about any formalities more serious than spell-checking.
At the same time CODOHWeb > www.codoh.com < was being cleaned up by a team of volunteers. It had fallen apart around 2002. I had taken it off-line. There were some 7,000 broken links, and maybe 3,000 images that could not be accessed. In the beginning my hope was to clean up what was there and maintain it as an archive only. But the fellows working on the site are so good that I began to think that maybe I should do something more.
I would announce this blog on CODOH’s home page, and that would give CODOH a bit of life. But then that rare thing (in my case) happened—thought produced an intelligent idea. One evening sitting here at the computer I realized that most of the revisionists I know are more interesting than I am. The intelligent thing to do would be to invite them to participate in this blog.
My blog would be transformed into a group blog, a kind of revisionist center where friends and associates, who are more or less of like mind with myself, could toss their own ingredients into a community revisionist stew. Each would post whatever had his attention in the moment. Group blogs are all over the place, but it only occurred to me about ten days ago that I should make my personal blog a group blog. Autobiographers might be egomaniacs, but some of us can escape the disease occasionally.
Two days ago I began canvassing people, asking them if they were interested in joining this group, which is hardly a group at this stage of the game. Nevertheless, two have signed aboard, one has already posted. This means that from here on out you will not have to depend on me alone to provide you with revisionist entertainment, or entertainment that may not be revisionism exactly, but that will emanate from a revisionist personality.
Is this a plan—or what?
My primary form over these many years has been the journal. I have thousands of pages of journal entries that will never see the light of day. Some of them are of such a nature that I would not want them to see the light of day. This blog then would be a way for me to do a journal and not have to worry about any formalities more serious than spell-checking.
At the same time CODOHWeb > www.codoh.com < was being cleaned up by a team of volunteers. It had fallen apart around 2002. I had taken it off-line. There were some 7,000 broken links, and maybe 3,000 images that could not be accessed. In the beginning my hope was to clean up what was there and maintain it as an archive only. But the fellows working on the site are so good that I began to think that maybe I should do something more.
I would announce this blog on CODOH’s home page, and that would give CODOH a bit of life. But then that rare thing (in my case) happened—thought produced an intelligent idea. One evening sitting here at the computer I realized that most of the revisionists I know are more interesting than I am. The intelligent thing to do would be to invite them to participate in this blog.
My blog would be transformed into a group blog, a kind of revisionist center where friends and associates, who are more or less of like mind with myself, could toss their own ingredients into a community revisionist stew. Each would post whatever had his attention in the moment. Group blogs are all over the place, but it only occurred to me about ten days ago that I should make my personal blog a group blog. Autobiographers might be egomaniacs, but some of us can escape the disease occasionally.
Two days ago I began canvassing people, asking them if they were interested in joining this group, which is hardly a group at this stage of the game. Nevertheless, two have signed aboard, one has already posted. This means that from here on out you will not have to depend on me alone to provide you with revisionist entertainment, or entertainment that may not be revisionism exactly, but that will emanate from a revisionist personality.
Is this a plan—or what?
posted by Bradley R. Smith | 10:58 PM
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