E-tail therapy and other tidbits

The other day, I bought a Demeter Fragrance. I have a couple already--Wet Garden and Green Tomato, but this time I got New Zealand. I thought, hey, I've always wanted to go there; I can at least smell it for now. I'll be getting a free Dirt candle too, yay. I like the smell of dirt. I wanted to take some of the Alabama red dirt back with me here to Minnesota, but then I thought about all the microorganisms living in that dirt, and what might potentially hatch. I decided against it.

Besides the New Zealand fragrance, I finally got around to buying those Jean Ritchie CDs I've been meaning to buy for a while now. I got the double album None But One / High Hills and Mountains, which is a collaboration of Ritchie and a lot of other folks. I also got Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City because it has the song "What'll I Do with the Baby-o?," and I like it.

WHY are plane tickets to Toronto so bloody expensive?!?! I cannot find one lower than $598.00, and I've searched CheapTickets, Hotfares, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and even that place that won't tell you the time of the flight until after you pay for it, so you might get all redeye flights. Should I just forget it or what? I really want to go to the AoIR conference and present my paper, but that's an outrageous price to pay.

Why will Winamp not generate playlists from my mp3 files? When I go to Misc --> Misc Options --> Generate HTML playlist, it gives me this browser window that says "unknown." Paul is always generating random playlists, and it's cool to see the eclectic mixes that come up. I want to play too!

Whenever I look at the URL for Phlebas, which is "phlebas.blog-city," I sing the URL to the tune of "Detroit Rock City" by KISS. Just had to get that off my chest. :-)

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Back to thinking about what you say...

(posted here because I missed the opportunity to comment on original post)

I don't know if I agree with the overwhelming importance of watching what we say in a blog. Of course, we should be responsible and ethical. We should not, under any circumstances, compromise OTHER people's privacy with what we say, but I think discussing your own life should be free and not guided by fear of public reaction. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, and as a writer (and an artist), part of what we do is just throw things out there and let people react. Some people don't understand that, and I realize it takes a fair amount of bravery to do so.

My blog is both personal and professional, and I see no difference between the private and the public me. I'm not some celebrity and most people couldn't care less about me or what I write. And even if I were famous, maybe that would be refreshing, someone in America NOT concerned with their fucking image--should I buy this car, should I wear these clothes, should I use this computer, does my Southern accent make me sound dumb. I'm SO sick of this America. Nothing is real. It's all image. If something happens to be real and genuine and honest (and therefore challenging to a plastic culture), people are pressured to make it acceptable by dumbing it down to an unthreatening commodity to enhance their image. And the moment blogging becomes so "safe" as we have to be extremely concerned with what we say for fear of what other people think (in other words it becomes an image we project), it ceases to be real and it goes into a closet, much like the homosexual closet. And, I would argue, loses its cultural validity and most of its originality and fun. If your privacy is so valuable that you fear exposing it, maybe you shouldn't blog. Or maybe you should consider why you blog in the first place.

I blog like I cook. I don't measure things. My southern roots show up in that everything has pork in it. I throw garlic in, some onions, some salt and pepper and everything comes out good because I do it by "feel." In my blog, I throw in my sex life, I throw in my depression, I throw in my personal journeys, my yeast infections, my diabetes, my prejudices. It all comes out good because it, much like a Southern meal done right, is HONEST. I refuse to measure my words for fear of compromising my success or my privacy or whatever illusion our Puritan, marketing saturated culture passes off as such. Blogging is, IMHO, first a creation, and therefore an art. To be relevant, art cannot be measured for image-sake. Art is not calculated. Art just is.

My two,

Scott

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