on dreams
I only remember bits and pieces of the dreams I had last night. I do remember in one dream I had a baby that I was very protective of. I didn’t even want to let people hold the baby. Weird.
and now a rant ...
I was speaking with my fellow neo-beat last night and I realized what it is that I miss about the web. Remember when all everyone had was pages on Geocities and that was all the rage? Remember when the web wasn’t so pretentious? Remember when people didn’t try to label or pigeonhole your site as one form of presentation or another? We need to take it back to the old school.
I remember when I came to the web. All I wanted to do was write poems and stories and share my experiences with people so that perhaps they may be able to relate to me and learn something from it just as I had. I tend to think that the world is about sharing. We all need to share with each other and from those experiences grow richer in mind and heart. It doesn’t happen like that anymore.
It seems like all anyone cares about is who stole whose design, who is getting the most hits and/or comments, who writes better than whom and who has a better site structure than whom. That is so tired. Wake up people.
Here is this medium. It is so vast. It has the power to unite us all and help us to grow as humans. We are still learning new things about it every single day. Yet we still feel the need to create classes amongst each other. The often mentioned “A-list” is a perfect example. Saima said it best. They are just blogs people, get over it. Yeah. Get over it. Since when did being on the web become grounds for some kind of pseudo-celebrity that one uses to seem superior over others? Sure, some people have been on CNN and TechTV and other stations because they are adding something to the medium but does that make them better than anyone else?
I still read Metafilter on a daily basis. I don’t post there as much though because I am really turned off by the attitudes over there. Some people have it in their heads that Metafilter is the gathering place for the “upper echelon” of uber geeks and anyone else that comes by is not worthy of attention. It says at the top that it is a community weblog but I didn’t see much community over there when the “cam girls” paid a visit. You have never seen so much venom in your life. People saying things just to be mean and insulting. Even Matt, the creator of Metafilter, likened the cam girls’ visit to people crashing a party. What? The Metafilter regulars said that they were turned off by the behavior of some members of the cam girl party but instead of trying to make their point in a valid way they resorted to insults and calls of “who invited you to post here anyway”?
If we are all about building community then we all have something to learn from each other. We shouldn’t be shutting our minds to those that have thought processes that flow differently from ours. Even if the only thing you learn from another person is that you want to strive like hell not to be that way, you have gained something from your interaction. Stop being so fucking uppity. It’s sickening.
Everyone has a voice. The web has given us a place where everyone can be heard. You can share a bit of your life and time with people who live an entire world away from you. You can help others to understand why it is that you don’t like bananas, or why you think designer labels are stupid, or how it feels to be in an MRI chamber or how it feels to hurt after a break up. One form of expression is not any more special than another.
Just because I don’t post a lot of links to shit people have already linked to multiple times on other websites does not mean I don’t have anything valid to share. Just because I sometimes have to reference an HTML bible to figure out how to do something with my page does not make me any less a part of this than you. Just because I like to write about stupid people I encounter, places I have been and what it’s like to live in Las Vegas doesn’t mean my points are not valid. Just because I don’t always use proper punctuation and grammar doesn’t mean I don’t have anything profound to say.
Just because you have been blogging since Jesus was a child doesn’t make you better than anyone else. Just because you kiss Jason Kottke’s ass doesn’t mean you are better than anyone else is. Jason Kottke is not better than anyone else. Stop worshipping people on the net like they are god and start contributing something yourself so we can all link to you too. There are more than just a few people on the web, yet you would think it was a small club the way reading circles are so incestuous. If you go against the grain of what is technically considered a “blog” then your site isn’t a blog. It’s a journal or a vanity site or whatever else it can be labeled as except a blog. Guess what people? Not everyone cares to link to the same shit we can all find on FoxNews or MSNBC or whatever other news channel you choose to link us to. Be like Laura. Link us to something we might not otherwise find. Be like George. Explain to us why you are linking to what you are linking to and why it should mean anything to us. Inspire dialogue. Be like Cecily. Be like Anitra. Be like Stephanie. Plainly stated, be original.
This is like the Matrix. There is no blogging formula. We are all free to do what we want to do with our space, so let’s do it.
Everyone is so afraid to step out of the box. Fuck it. I’m stepping out.
I don’t care what you think anymore. I don’t care if you don’t like what I have to say anymore. I don’t care if you never read this again. If even one person is impacted by something I write, then I have accomplished what I came here to do. Sharing.
It’s a concept. You should try it.
You can flame me in the comments. kthxbi.
edit: this post and the subsequent posts on the same topic generated a lot of discussion. maybe i will get off my ass and enter all the comments in by hand because I feel like they need to be shared but that day won't be today. -10/5/02
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