Ranting LJ Style: LJ Idol, Week 8

If you were to look back through my LiveJournal, you would see many
entries tagged "rant". This is because ranting is one of the most truly
useful things I've been able to do with LJ. It's been a chance for me to
express my feelings to anyone who cares, while not bothering anyone who
doesn't.

That's the problem about ranting face-to-face with someone: they're
either forced to be rude, or they're forced to be a captive audience.
Either way, it can be unpleasant for the listener. I've been on both
sides, so I know whereof I speak.

My first outlet for ranting was a little weekly commentary that I did
for several years called One Guy's Thoughts. It was a project I
basically started for myself. Inspired by Charles Adler at CJOB radio in Manitoba, I suddenly
realized I was allowed to have opinions on things, even if they went
contrary to popular opinion. These opinions are certainly not always
right, but I'm allowed to have them, so long as I don't start to vainly
believe my opinions to be the be-all and end-all of opinionitude. So I
started this commentary, and I grew to have quite a following ... Not
vast by anyone's definition, but more than the one or two I had been
expecting. A Web page, now under reconstruction, came out of it, and I
got some very kind and thoughtful comments from people.

But doing this week in and week out had its disadvantages. First, being
forced to "have" an opinion when I really had none seemed ... Shallow,
fake, insincere. Second, what of the times when I had more opinions than
just once per week? I tried addressing this latter problem with a
"thought of the minute" one-liner at the end of each commentary. I think
that lasted for, maybe, two commentaries.

This is where LiveJournal has become invaluable. Now I can publish my
opinions, right or wrong, to anyone who wishes to read them. Because
it's not a fixed format, I am allowed to have as many or as few opinions
as I want, and they're all archived for me, I don't even have to worry
about that! The friends I've made as a result have been terrific. I've
loved hearing from people who agree with my opinions, and I've loved
just as much hearing from people who have disagreed with what I've said.
Best of all have been the comments that I've made someone think. Now,
almost ten years after the first One Guy's Thoughts commentary, I am
still very surprised that anyone out there considers my material worth
reading. But I'm grateful, I'm honored. Writing is simply one of the
things I do, well or otherwise, and the thought that anyone out there
considers reading this writing to be worth seconds, minutes, or even
hours of their valuable time is absolutely indescribable. I enjoy it,
and if you do too, we all win.

Get Out and Vote

I haven't done many of the "vote for me" pleas, and I intend to continue
not doing many of them. But occasionally one must engage in this sort of
thing.Please read my entry on Ranting LJ Style, and if you believe it to
be worthy of your vote, then please vote for it. The ballot can be found
here</ a>. Be aware that there are four separate ballots, and hitting submit on
one of those ballots does not mean you've hit submit on any of the
others. IF you do not feel my entry is worthy of your vote, then please
do not vote for it, but if you feel it is, then please do. Thanks,
everyone!