Artoo-Beatoo: R2-D2 Punching Bag

 

 

From an industrious Swedish man, we have the blog about cool stuff masquerading as nerdy. Until last June GeekAlerts was exclusively in Swedish (www.smidigt.se, for all those capable) but luckily Robert Birming, the creator, finally put up an English version.

“I noticed that quite a lot of the traffic came from English sites, from authors who liked the content although they couldn’t understand a word of what I was writing. So I finally decided to start GeekAlerts as an English version of Smidigt under the slogan ‘Gadgets and design Geekiness’”.

Robert not only has two versions of the site, but also does almost all of his own heavy lifting regarding site maintenance and especially finding fresh content for the site.

“I answer all of the emails and I try to reply to all of the comments. …I have a loooong (sic) list of RSS feeds that I try to check on a daily basis…I’m really not reliant on tips from readers at all, although I really appreciate getting them.”

That’s where the industrious part comes in, because all that surfing and replying can be mighty time consuming. We’re talking between three to six hours a day that he uses of his own free time to maintain his sites. And he doesn’t even have a tech job, so none of it is company time. In fact, he’s a musician. He finds that immediacy is what keeps his readership loyal.

“I think and hope that it’s the somewhat unique content that drives the readers back. You will often find stuff on GeekAlerts that haven’t yet been covered by other blogs.”

Who doesn’t want a Simpson’s Donut Maker? No, I’m serious.This may reflect poorly on me, but I think that you don’t have to be a geek to dig most of the stuff posted on the site; after all, I thought all of it was cool.

Quiddity: The essential nature of a thing

It would be easy for this blog to stand out simply because it’s about weird stuff that you secretly believe in but don’t want to admit to your friends/never thought to fear/ imagined could be so fascinating. I think I was understandably about the motivation for the blog when I found out that Megg, its creator, likes to shop at the gap, wear pink and is a school employee who doubles a documentarian of the strange.

“I mostly blog about things that people think are bizarre because it’s hard to bring such topics up in everyday conversation… A lot of people who email me think I’m a goth or involved in the paranormal. Nothing can be further from the truth. I just find that stuff fascinating to read about.”

The blogs that last the longest are the ones that people love to write, because this makes them great reads. Megg’s been doing this for seven years, and her dedication keeps her audience interested.

“Quiddity actually used to be an online diary (at pitas.com) of my boring life. I changed it to a blog because I kept finding so many weird links and online articles that I wanted to share with my friends. It was also a great way to discuss politics and pop culture with people who shared my same interests.”

Megg brings up a good point: blogs are invaluable social networking tools that can be used to bring people together, especially those that wouldn’t talk face-to-face. Not only that, but no other communication medium is as convenient as simply logging on and searching for your interest to find people that are like minded. In this case, minds that like delightfully twisted stories of little kids building coffins for their dying school teachers.

“It featured a photo of them smiling next to the coffin. It was sweet, but kind of creepy.”

Try To Get Good Grades

 

I have received an email from Jesus Christ. That can mean any number of things, but today it means that the creator of ‘What Would Jesus Blog?‘ was nice enough to respond to my interview questions. Written from the perspective of the Son of God, this blog discusses all things normal and mundane, but puts an understandably religious slant on them. By virtue making them no longer mundane, and instead decidedly hilarious. I know not the author’s real name, but he was willing shed some insight about why he decided to create the site.

 

“I like to write, and ‘What Would Jesus Blog?’ sounded like a fun blog to write for. I’m one of those people who need creative outlets. My blog is one of those outlets.”

 

Often times when people approach religion while laughing they are doing it just to provoke a reaction in the followers: to pick a fight or point out mental deficiency. That isn’t the feel of this site at all, and that seems due in no small part to the author’s sincere appreciation (perhaps not a belief in, but a profound respect of) Jesus and his teachings.

 

“People get more offended by Jesus than most other people in the history of mankind, which is fascinating because Jesus is such a likable figure. God is love. I think lots of people have problems with Christians, and Jesus gets blamed for their actions. However, Jesus always had the ability to offend, and my blog is no different.”

Of all the posts that Jesus has done, which does he prefer the most?

 

“I’d pick the post involving prostitutes at a church:

http://whatwouldjb.blogspot.com/2006/01/baltimore-hooker-incident.html”

There you have it. Pretending to be a deity and waxing philosophical, or just reviewing music and recommending movies, this blog shows that you can exercise your creative freedom and prove time and time again that being a lover might not be as sexy as being a fighter, but it’s a lot less bloody.

 

I love you,

Jesus Christ

“Just another wordpress.com weblog”

This is a good statement that leads to an even better question: where are we as a society to find value (if any) in the blogging phenomena? Millions of people everyday all over the world plugging away at keyboards, detailing everything from their deepest sexual secrets to the quality of the tuna sandwich they had for lunch. If we are to assume that there is meaning in the liner notes of other people’s lives, as I am doing by starting this blog, what is it? Is there any point to being another drop in the millions deep bucket of online journals?

Let us first seek value in the expertise of amateur, starting with Wikipedia.com. Straight from the user written pages of the ultimate do-it-yourself site, we find: “Most commonly an amateur is understood to be someone who does something without pay or formal training.”

That’s a perfect definition because ideally that’s exactly what blogging is about. It continues, “The word comes from French, and can be translated as ‘lover of’, reflecting the amateur’s motivation to work as a result of a love or passion for a particular activity.” Yep, there’s a lot of that going on. Hopefully the rest of this blog will be an exploration of what’s important about people writing about what they love for free.

First, a caveat, which is that the Internet is a veritable goldmine of amazing truths and boring fabrications. There is so much that is the same out there, that here, the focus will be on things that standout for some reason and thereby enrich our understanding of the potential of the internet, and personal online journals. That is not to say, however, that there is not a value in the seemingly arbitrary ramblings of folks that could be classified as ‘nobodies’. On the contrary, I believe that often these are the fastest way to read our cultural pulse, but like everything in life, it’s important to strike a balance.

Hello world!