The Witness of the Stars...

That's the title of a book I have in my fledgling little library here at home, and it just happens to be of some significance to this blog if you'll go check out the world map over at the site meter, which button is provided in the bottom left sidebar.

CTO and I were doing a little update and maintenance to Webster's when I happened upon this interesting (somewhat weird) occurance...

Anyone who knows me well knows that I put little emphasis on weird occurances like this one, but I thought it pretty interesting anyhow, and I thought that some of you might get a kick out of it. If you'll go to the updated world map by clicking on the site meter button in the left sidebar, you'll note something of a strange alignment of the dots representing the latest visitors to this blog.

The alignment is strange in a couple of senses. First, it looks a whole lot like the alignment of the stars in the constellation Scorpio. Second, since my birthday falls on November 9th, I am, in fact, a Scorpio. Couple these facts with what my long-time friends and closest confidants know of me – amateur astronomy is one of my passions – and the 'siginficance' of the event becomes more clear.

I have no idea what the date: 8/04/07 has to do with it, but there has to be something significant to it, right? I guess I need to get my 'star chart' out and find out what this all means, right? Lol

Anyway, I thought it was kind of a fun deal that y'all might get a needed laugh out of. You'll note some changes we've made in the sidebars. And we have another change that we'll be putting up shortly so stay tuned.

-DW

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Something Worth Sharing

You'll recall that I expressed a desire to be back at it after returning home Thursday night if all went as planned. Well, all didn't go quite as planned, which was as much my own fault as the fault of anything else.

We finally got back home yesterday at around noon or so. I got on the computer and made a couple of quick rounds, after which I started to work on a couple of items that I'd promised to get to this weekend...

But here I wish to share with you what ultimately delayed our return home by at least sixteen hours or so. Our original designs were successfully completed within the original allotted time frame, so we should have been home on schedule had I not decided to extend one entertainment portion of the trip.

One of my purposes, besides the pressing issue I told y'all about, was to take the kids fishing that evening – something that we haven't done as a family in quite a few months, and that's not like us. As it turned out, we were having so much success (and fun) catching fish that we decided to stay longer than we'd originally planned to. To give you some idea of how many fish we caught, not to mention the ones that 'got away,' I spent two solid hours cleaning them after dark, and I'm no novice at filleting fish.

By the time I finished cleaning fish, a measure of fatigue had crept up on me. That coupled with the fact that the kids were eager to spend the night at the other place finally convinced me that we should wait till the next day to make the drive home. The kids would have preferred that we'd stayed for the entire weekend as they were really wanting to do some more fishing and four-wheeler riding. But I told them we'd do it another time since I had work to do at home.

But anyway, we had a good time fishing even though we lost probably twenty or thirty dollars worth of new fishing lures. Even ol' Sam (my 2 year old) caught a fish all by himself. And come to think of it not one of us got skunked this time around.

-DW

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So Much To Say; So Little Time to Say It...

My friends, thanks in large part to your contributions to this blog, I have many things I desire to post on, and as immediately as possible. This post is simply going to be dedicated to informing you of what kinds of topics you're likely to see here in the next few days, beginning this evening hopefully, if all goes as planned...

First of all, I want to get back to the Ron Paul series we started a while back. I think that two or three more posts should suffice to complete the series to my satisfaction, unless of course there are questions raised that need to be dealt with in an additional post or two.

Second, y'all be sure and check out John Savage's interesting analysis on his recent poll that I recommended to you some time back. I'll be addressing his analysis more fully in a post forthcoming. Also, John brings to the fore an interesting idea in this post that I have been contemplating myself. As I said once before, my idea for it will take a good deal of research on my part prior to adding the feature I have envisioned emanating from it here at Webster's. And so far I've had very little, good, quality, uninterrupted time that I could devote to that specific purpose. But I'm just going to have to resolve to make time for it; that's all there is to it.

Third, Katie's Dad helped to convince me that I should pursue an idea for an entry on the immigration situation in his comments to my post "So You've Considered Moving to Oklahoma, Have You?" Look for something rather unique in that vein in the near future. And btw, Edmund and Mike, I need to get back with you guys on the video thing. I will have CTO provide you with a link to what he's developed so far. In any event, we've not forgotten it, just haven't had time to work on it lately.

Finally, I think I've pretty well covered what you can expect to see posted here over the next few days. I want to thank everyone for the ideas they inspire, either at their blogs, or in their comments to my posts here at Web's, because without them I would simply be at a loss - I simply don't have a deep reservoir from whence to gather ideas for posts in the absence of feedback from the readership like some of my friends seem to have.

We have a pressing issue (don't worry yourselves, it's not life threatening or anything like that, just pressing) that we need to resolve around here. After having successfully completed this mission, I should be able to devote some quality time to honoring these commitments I've purposely entered into here. I imagine it will take us the rest of today to get this issue resolved, and as I said, I hope to be back here working on these other items thereafter.

If everything goes as planned, I should have three good solid days at my disposal to work on them. And I should hope that I wouldn't squander any of that time. But I get a little lazy from time to time to be honest. And that's the reason I make these announcements; because it will serve to motivate me to get to work when I might get a hankering to just relax a bit.

Y'all be on the lookout for all of that, and I'll see ya later...

-DW

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Entertainment Media - A 'Carnival' Atmosphere

I hope and trust y'all will not mind my going in something of a different direction temporarily until I get myself caught up on what's been happening on the blogosphere (or my chosen corner of it - btw, it's ok to refer to a given section of a 'sphere' as a 'corner', just think of it in Biblical terms and we'll be alright) during my four or five day absence. At the moment of the writing of these words I've now been online for about two hours reading a few entries from other blogs (Vanishing American in particular) and I find myself rather struck by how quickly information is disseminated across this medium.

Much in contrast to the soap opera style 'news' and 'information' shows on today's mass media outlets where one may return after a long stint away and generally take up right where he/she left off weeks, months, or even years before, my chosen corner of the 'blogosphere' is a different baby altogether, as y'all well know. And this entry will be dedicated to speaking to that topic...

Over at VA's is posted a Monday entry on this very topic: Fluff and nonsense. VA notes in the post that though there is certainly an element of demand for what is termed 'cotton candy news,' in spite of that she also encounters, as I do, a lot of people of different walks, educational backgrounds and so forth, who generally despise this kind of 'news.' This causes her to question on some level why it is that the MSM engages itself in this kind of insignificant news coverage.

Personally I think a lot of it has to do with the education and experiences of the media people themselves. In short, it's what they know, all they know, and all they've ever known. And when there's a shortage, or a perceived shortage of 'newsworthy' stories to cover, these media outlets invariably revert back to what they know and understand best - entertainment.

Of course VA is discussing in the post a general problem across the MSM, but she does mention two specific examples - Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton - of the MSM's incessantly engaging itself in this kind of 'news coverage,' and she wonders on some level why this is. I think the 'cotton candy' euphemism is an appropriate one, and if we take thought to where it oughta lead us, it strikes up a pretty fitting analogy as well I should think.

We've often heard today's 'news' and news coverage referred to as a circus. But a carnival or a fair might be a better way of describing it in some instances. There is an atmosphere as well there should be at these carnivals of fun and entertainment. We associate certain ideas with certain things, and the carnival atmosphere is meant to be one of fun and entertainment. But why is it that news coverage seems to be increasingly more 'entertainment' oriented at the expense of the dissemination of knowledge of the useful kind?

I've said this before but I'll repeat it here. I think this is a more pervasive 'trend' than many of us realize. It seems to me to touch virtually everything; this 'entertainment' style of the sharing of information and knowledge. Those of us who complain about it are simply not interested in those kinds of 'facts,' or that kind of 'news' because we see it for what it is - irrelevant to real news and current events.

Now, I'll say here that I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is from Adam. I do know who Paris Hilton is because I've heard her name mentioned countless times. But beyond her being the heiress to the Hilton hotel dynasty (or whatever it is) and the fact that she was recently jailed for some kind of personal misdeed, I know very little of her as well, and that's the way I'd prefer to keep it so I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't try to educate me on this point. lol But my main point here is that I for one am apt to know a lot more about some relatively obscure character in American history, what they did and didn't do, and so on, than I'll ever likely know about Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton despite the MSM's incessant coverage of these irrelevant types.

And what I mean to say here is that I'm not nearly as comfortable in the carnival atmosphere as I used to be. That kind of 'fun and entertainment' is to me reserved for special and limited occasions. While I'm there and while I'm purposely seeking entertainment and pleasure I'm also willing to pay exorbitant prices for cotton candy and candied apples, and etc., as well as to pay twenty or thirty dollars for a fifty cent toy in a 'game of chance' where the deck is stacked heavily in favor of the carnival and against the individual player. I'm willing to do this because I seek entertainment in that instance, but that instance is very short-lived.

The same principle applies I think to the media and the kind of news it generates nowadays. I only wish to be 'entertained' occasionally, and it's on those limited occasions that I'm willing to pay the exorbitant rates that go with that entertainment. This probably explains why I don't particularly care for cable news. Occasionally I'll turn it on when I get the hankering to be entertained. But having been thoroughly entertained over the course of a couple of hours or so, then I'm generally good for weeks or even months.

I suppose, on the other hand, that this form of media (the blogosphere) might be said to be a form of 'entertainment' itself. And that some of us just prefer this kind of entertainment to that which the MSM engages itself in providing. In this case the MSM has its audience and participants, and the blogosphere has its audience and participants, and both have their games and sideshows that draw and captivate the attention of the attendees and observers. And in this case it all depends on what interests the individual attendee; does he prefer to shoot darts at a wall full of balloons at a dollar a dart, or had he rather shoot a basketball into undersized hoops, or to toss rings onto bottle necks, or whatever?

VA devotes most of her thoughts on this to the idea that the 'educational' establishment has more or less contributed to the desire among many to be entertained in this manner and in this kind of a 'carnival' atmosphere. People are generally going from game to game, bag of cotton candy in hand, seeking to be entertained at the expense of seeking out and desiring useful knowledge. And I think that this all begins at home where parents, seeking entertainment and fun themselves above all, and working a significant number of hours (for those who actually do still count it their duty to provide for their own entertainment) to satisfy their desire to be entertained, pass this on to their children who grow up in a home atmosphere where self-indulgence is paramount to everything else. Then they attend schools and churches where this self-indulging entertainment values system is promoted and encouraged as well.

But I would make a great distinction between the two forms of 'entertainment' if in fact both may be described on some level as such. True, I'm entertained by what goes on in this corner of the blogosphere much more that what goes on throughout the MSM. But I'm not simply entertained by this, nor is it simply entertainment that I seek in frequenting it. No; what I seek overall is to absorb and to disseminate useful knowledge. And this more or less determines what blogs I find to be interesting, and what blogs I find to be less than interesting. Generally speaking, if the contents amount to little more than an extension of what the MSM is providing, then your blog isn't going to interest me much. I can be entertained that way through that source if that's what I seek. But if that's the kind of 'entertainment' your blog is intended to provide, you're going to have a hard time competing with the 'big boys.'

In any event the question still remains, why is it that the MSM engages in this kind of 'entertainment news' so frequently? And as I said before, I think part of the reason lies in the fact that this is all they know; this is the kind of 'news' that the MSM and most the folks involved have been used to providing for decades now, and it's just natural that they'd revert to it very frequently when they feel there is a shortage of 'newsworthy' stories out there to report on. It's also notable that to the MSM that which is considered 'newsworthy' would be determined by their predispositions about the value of a given piece of news. While I may question the value of reporting incessantly on the personal misdeeds of one Miss Lindsay Lohan, who is just a name to me, I think that the MSM folks may well believe that their interest in Lindsay Lohan translates to our interest in her. If they think it newsworthy to report on her life, then we must think it newsworthy as well, right? Wrong!

I could give a hoot about what Lindsay Lohan is doing these days, whoever she might be. But if you wish to discuss with me the goings on with folks who have an impact on all of our lives to some extent or the other, then I'm likely to be more attentive.

But since I have a very short day ahead of me today, as far as my work goes, I'll be back in a couple of hours to post a couple more items as well as to continue to play some more catch-up on the blogosphere. Until then, y'all be good and keep on entertaining yourselves with useful information and knowledge.

-DW

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