Sunday, March 15, 2015

There are still good blogs out there! and a business update

Sadly, I'm not one of them, though I'd love to be, one day.  I might lack the courage required of the wordsmith to post really flaying, soul-searching thoughts, or the depth required of capturing philosophical monologue. Perhaps I'm not well-read enough to know how to turn a phrase, or worldly enough to have any real stories to tell.

Whatever it is, I ain't got it.

However! I still read a number of blogs written by some amazing writers, folks who do have experiences and the skill to craft amazing mental pictures, tug at heart-strings, and occasionally make you pee your pants.

I hadn't realized that, perhaps, blogging is on the verge of becoming a flash in the pan, another medium corpse on the path of digital communication, since I've always thought it, basically, just people writing public journals (something that has gone on for quite a while, I gather).  But a blogger I read, Chad Love at "Mallard of Discontent", posted a melancholy piece on a recent trip to Vegas, and in so doing, mentioned that a number of other media seem to be taking over.

So, to do my part to help keep the medium alive (for the three or four of you who actually read this), here is a short list of some well-crafted blogs:

--Of course, the aforementioned Mallard of Discontent.  Chad Love always writes as if he is apologetically trying to capture the glory (or bemoan the loss) of the profound and nuanced outdoor writing of the early- to mid-20th Century, but what he really is doing is very clearly and articulately representing the kind of profound and nuanced outdoor writing that continues to exist, nearly timelessly, because he and a few other great writers continue to write. 

--My 2nd longest-distance online friend, Tom Gowans, at Hippo on the Lawn, who writes about his life in Angola.  Amazing, funny, sad, and a bit on the bleeding edge of life. 

--Phillip Loughlin's Hog Blog.  You may be cool, but you'll never be Carolinian GQ-published hunting guide who writes his own great blog about hunting feral pigs.  Seriously, don't let the title fool you, Phillip Loughlin can write.

Steven Bodio's Querencia.  I know more people are aware of his history and authorship than I am; I know that he writes a fascinating blog of snippets about dogs and dog breeding (from a wonderful angle), hunting and fishing, bird-watching, anthropology and the natural sciences, falconry, and intellectualism. 

If you've got blogs of the style and quality you see from these gentlemen, please let me know. 

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On the business-side of things around here, I continue to work on my brother in-law's belt.  The biggest -- and most nerve-wracking -- part is next: cutting the pattern I've designed into the belt.  Yes, aside from the panic that grips me for hours on end as I try to actually design the art work, it's almost the entire job...

Thanks to Dave for the snail inspiration.  More on the meaning later...
I've also almost got my first business for archery instruction via my online presence... almost.  Fingers crossed that the gentleman will call back.

3 comments:

Becks and Brown Trout said...

over on this side of the pond.. I notice the same thing, people taking to twitter and facebook instead,,,,

Andy

Hippo said...

With my older boy it is all Whatsapp or whatever the blasted thing is called. Every five seconds his phone bings or bongs as another message comes in. It's like Twitter, what, if anything, meaningful can one say in 120 characters? It's all just fire and forget nowadays.

Josh said...

Andy, thanks for stopping by! You and Hippo have stumbled upon the same thing I have -- COMS (Crotchety Old Man Syndrome). This case of COMS has us yelling a virtual acts, rather than at actual, live kids on our lawns.

Maybe, just maybe they've perfected language, and we just don't see it. Twain has been quoted as saying, "I'd have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time." Perhaps they are so far beyond us in understanding that we simply can never realize the depths they plumb.

Probably not, though -- and I'll go with that notion.