Beth and I went downtown this past weekend to hang out at the Irish Festival near St. Patrick’s Church on Church Hill. It was a warm day and there were crowds aplenty enjoying themselves as they tried to get from one side of the street to the other by burrowing through some of their neighbors.

I can do this for about an hour before I start to get really, really tired and cranky. Having a camera in my hand does tend to prolong my participation in these kinds of events however. Beth was happy to find a present or two and some Brunswick stew. I don’t wait in lines to buy food (at least until the next depression). But I did get some photos!

(There’s a photo here of St John’s  Church where Patrick Henry gave his  famous speech. )

On a separate and unrelated subject I have deep-sixed the Keyword Luv plugin. I did this for a variety of reasons and none of them will make sense to some of you.

But what else is new?

Basically I feel like KWL is messing up my  entire blogging experience and my blog as well.  It draws comments based on its existence here and what it does.   It’s like free advertising.  Most of the comments drive me crazy because they are so transparently fake.

And here I am trying to create a blog that is moves to a deeper level of human feeling.  It hopes to visit our common humanity once in awhile.   So why would I encourage these comments?   My mistake.

And what must Google think?  It is trying to create search results  based on genuine interest and not commercial gimmicks.  My stats don’t look that impressive since I installed this thing and there is a gradual decrease in monthly visits.  Could there be a connection?  I don’t know but I guess we will find out.

The bottom line is that I’m losing interest in posting and wondering why?   The combination of falling stats and inane comments may be two of the biggest reasons as I try to introspect about this issue.

Beth and I will be going to Virginia Beach and Washington DC in a week or so and there will be some better opportunities to post.   I’m hoping that the vacation plus  the goodbye party for KWL will reinvigorate my desire to blog.

And, as always, I will share my thoughts and feelings here.  Because that’s what this blog is supposed to be about.  It’s a personal blog and a diary of sorts with lots of photos.

I need to do a better job and stick to the mission.

Click on the thumbnail photo to enlarge and for a slide show

St patrick day

What is blogging?   Is it a passing phase in the continually changing consciousness of the nation and the world?

OMG did I say that?

Yes.  And it is a question worth asking.  I have been a blogger for almost two years now.  It has been an enjoyable experience.   And one that suits the kind of mind that is. . .

Not too analytical

Not too smart

Not too  goal oriented

But one that enjoys people and enjoys creating moments.

Not necessarily big moments.  But moments that can be enjoyed and appreciated in a photo or a poem or a description of something.

Blogging can drive you batty.  And I have seen some very talented people fall along the way because they couldn’t quite figure out what they were doing.

People arrive and read your post.  Then they leave without any kind of response.  You have no idea how they felt about what you were trying to say.  Maybe they will return.

Maybe they won’t.   Maybe the plugins will work tomorrow.  Or some mysterious bug will mess them up.  Or the company who runs the servers will decide to shut you down for some obscure reason.

How do you get a handle on that?  Well I don’t think that you do get a handle on it.  You just wait to see what happens next.   It’s a lot like life.

And I am here to document that with you.  I enjoy waiting for the next surprise.

A little moment.  And perhaps next time…

A big moment.   You never know.

Lord of the Rings Online/ Mines of Moria is a wonderful fantasy-filled game full of mirth and adventure.  And now they have added a blogging area for their fans to express themselves.

It is a Wordpress blogging area.  Isn’t that convenient?

It is for this blogger who has four Wordpress blogs and doesn’t need to spend time learning another way of doing things.

This is so cool.  You can have fun in Middle Earth and then blog about it.  I spent about thirty minutes this morning coming up with this. ..

http://my.lotro.com/davidlind/

and   had a bump in traffic because of it.  I really enjoy this game and recommend it to those of you who love Tolkien and the little hobbit fellows.

It really is hysterical watching hobbits try to run in this  game.  Their tiny legs go back and forth is frenzied  fashion as they dash across the tundra.  But I shouldn’t make fun of them.  Some of my best friends are hobbits.

Please make a friend request if you visit my lotro blog and play this game.  I will put you front and center.

I cannot predict where my blogging adventure will take me.  It’s just a matter of following the fun and trying to share it with anyone who is interested.

I am a very impatient person in some ways.  I have a very difficult time with twist ties for example.  I throw them in the back of the kitchen cabinet and hold the bread by one hand while I spin it around with the other.  Then I lay it in the cabinet on top of the spun part.

It works for me.  But every once in awhile Beth will retrieve the twist tie and put it on the bread again.  Then I will have to go through the process once more.   We battle over twist ties.

In a similar way I have trouble clicking on things and waiting for them to go back and forth from the server.  If I wasn’t pretty passionate about blogging I would have given it up a long time ago over this one issue.  But I perservere.  Only when it comes to leaving comments does my impatience get the better of me.

Many times I will start to leave a comment and become discouraged by all the clicking that is involved.  And I am really hoping that some day they will come up with a one click plugin that allows you to start your comment in about five seconds.   You won’t have to type your name or anything else.  But it doesn’t exist now so don’t even bother Mr. Spammer to leave a comment about your wonderful one click comment deal.  Because it only takes one click to delete it.

There is a way, fortunately, to get to some cool posts on some nice blogs with just one click and I have installed it here in the sidebar.  It’s called TheGoodBlogs and I have been enjoying it today while finding some new and  interesting blogs.

It reminds me in a way of Blogger back in the day when I started blogging and had a Blogger blog.  And right at the top of it you could click one time and go to another Blogger blog.  I can find some cool blogs with Entrecard now that I have the toolbar and that only takes two or three clicks.  But two or three clicks with all the delays while things fly back and forth cuts down on my discovery process sometimes.

Earlier when I sat down and  clicked once  I found. . .

Pekky In The City: The Chronicles.

She writes. . .

I was waiting for the subway in one station when I saw something that caught my eye.

If you ride the subway (and chances are good you do if you live in New York City and especially if you commute to Manhattan often), you know that vandalism in the subway stations is really common, and it is especially true when it comes to the sticky announcements. Faces with painted mustaches, with bubblegum on it or with written things are among the things you see in the subways.

So, this is what caught my eye: I have no cable TV but I know Showtime has all these popular shows, which are all lumped together in the same announcement. So you see the pictures of the protagonists of Californication, Weeds, The Tudors, State of the Union, Diary of a Call Girl and Dexter. In each of these, the vandalist wrote the moral flaws of these characters with the words “Hero?” under them. I don’t remember what did he put in State of the Union, but I can tell you about the other five:
Californication: “Sex addict. Hero?”
Weeds: “Drug Dealer. Hero?
The Tudors: “Poligamist. Hero?”
Diary of a Call Girl: “Prostitute. Hero?”
Dexter: “Murderer. Hero?”

Well, Showtime seems to have a knack for anti-heros these days. Or maybe they are reflecting 21st century obsession with anti-heros? Are we recognizing we are humans or are we, as a generation tired of heroes who save the days in traditional ways, but we just don’t want someone we identify with?

She asks a good question. . .

“are we, as a generation tired of heroes who save the days in traditional ways” ?

If you are more concerned about global warming than the Chinese attacking our allies I guess the answer is “yes”.   And the movie industry is for the most part more concerned with epic weather than naval battles in various oceans throughout the world.

There was a movie not too long ago that depicted NYC under water.  Maybe that’s why nobody writes graffiti about airplanes being flown into their tallest buildings.

What’s a couple of skyscrapers when you have an entire city under water?

Actually I DO still think about that building complex including all the smaller buildings that were leveled and have written a poem about it but I can understand the logic behind the alternative  view.

“Different enemies  require different kinds of heroes”

– Davidlind   Halloween 08

All of these thoughts resulted from one click on TheBestBlogs network in the sidebar.  At first I thought it was about “Perky” in the city and she had my undivided attention.   Whereas multiple clicks can be a pain in the asterisk and lead nowhere.   But just one click and  I may end up in  thought for at least a minute over an interesting blog.

If only leaving comments was this easy. . .

Now I need to go make a sandwich.  Providing nobody has been messing with the bread. . .