2003-08-04 - 12:54 p.m. My name apears in a place I did not put it. So I was reading some diaries this morning and I stumbled onto something rather interesting which can be found right here My teacher said to do it on something you are passionate about so guess what I picked, online diaries. Yeah, I'm a bit obsessed, but I thought it might be a little more interesting than say the hundreth rendition of say, what there is to do in Australia or something like that. I don't exactly know what sources there are either, but since it is an informative speech, I am supposed to have them, it can't be all my opinion. I imagine most of my speech is going to be like this: Blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. (Andrew, 2003) Blah blah blah blah-d-blah, blah blah (Gumphood, 2003). heh. That would be funny. My teacher going, "Gumphood, what the hell is a gumphood? Well. Not only did this go straight to my head, but imagining myself being discussed in a class!!! I liked that idea of being this pseudo-architect for this interesting internet sub-culture of capitalistic life. I like the idea that the weird things that I do are discussed by other people. Which lead me to an idea for an entry. What would I tell a classroom full of kids about diaryland and weblogs. I am Gumphood. I am a screenname of absurdity. I have chosen this name to have my life identity remain somewhat ambiguous, however, my �real� life is so much of who I am its almost impossible to take the �gump� out of Boston. Hence, my real life blends very much into the online personality that I am. Knowing that I am an attention seeker, I know that I would also write on my own. I always have. I just wouldn�t do it as often. Before Diaryland was email, and I would usually spend hours looking for interesting things to send and email my friends. Creating topics to discuss and ideas to explore. However, I bugged the shit out of them. Not all together, but I would run games and competitions via email trying to keep their interest. I ran this one game that I called �Sam�s Game� (sarcasm--I am great with names) where I would post two pictures. The goal of the game was to either prove or disprove the predicatbilty of Sam. Sam would pick which ever photo he liked more, while simultaneously his friend and strangers would try and guess as to Sam�s preference. My personal theory of the results turned out to be slightly flawed. However it did seem that Sam wasn�t completely unpredictable. The strangers did worse than his friends, though the trend of correct to incorrect was around 50/50. Overall the results wer inconclusive. What the point of this is to show that I, Gumphood, had a desire to have some sort of interactive forum. What I think the weblog does is it allows feedback on topics, how ever constructive or destructive it may be. Where as some may say, �We love Gump� someone else might say, �This entry slightly redeemed the awfulness of all your previous entries.� What this allows is a writers gauge of the work that he is doing. Recently an article came out on the Video Game �Warcraft: The Frozen Throne.� The author noted that something very interesting happened to that sequel to Warcraft. While the first game was released, reviews and articles were written about it. Then people began playing it and things were slowly changed via updates. However the people working on the sequel were about half way done with writing it when the game was released to the public. They saw the mistakes of the first and fixed the second half of the video game. The article went on to say how almost every problem was addressed in the second half of The Frozen Throne. He surmises due to the feedback and comments made on the first game. I think that the weblog can serve the same function. As Mr. Dinguspie pointed out there are several different categories that blogs fall into. (btw he has requested more female readers) There is the daily diary. What you ate, how you felt, what your boyfriend did, how hot Orlando Bloom is, etc. This is common, and interactive helps mostly to deal with certain problems. One of the nice things about this place, is usually everyone is nice. I like these a lot cause they usually show the greatest humanity. I also love 12 year old girl�s diaries who confess things that I remember worried about when I was 13. Comments also help to prevent suicide. There is the political diary, which just basically states a platform of views. This diary is mostly propaganda like and meant to inspire debate. This is better than a lot of sites too. I mean I can�t go to Howard Dean�s site and leave a note about him being a cocksucker, cause stricter gun control laws. Usually most of these sites aren�t interactive, and that makes blog slightly superior. The insane/experimental/poetry diary. These are the art forms of diaryland. They usually warrant no comment, mostly because you are at a loss to understand them, and yet I find them satisfying to read when well done. But a bad poetry diary is like a hooker with genital warts. You are better off jerking off looking at a trash can. There is the creative diary, which I have on of as well here. I think these to be the ones that gain the most from comments. They tend to avoid personal info and instead offer an idea or a story to ponder. These are the hardest to do, and often times unsatisfying to the writer, if people loose interest in the idea. With a person, it�s a lot harder to say, �I am just sick and tired of that Gump.� Where as with an idea or a fictional story its a lot easier to stop reading. Then there is the functional diary. Reviews, interviews, referrers, templates, and help diaries. The are the worker drones. They are interactive, but hardly �fun� They are needed though and diaryland wouldn�t be the same with out them. Finally, I believe Dingus described my diary as a multimedia extravaganza, or, recruiting tool for a cult. Diaries that are funny, but people enjoy and come at you from diffrent directions. I don�t disagree. Frankly I have always thought of mine to be a catch-all circus. I want to incorporate all different types of aspects to involve more of the readers. I want my readers to never know what kinda of entry to expect from me. Sure, I don�t always hit the mark, but I think that people are mostly entertained. Kerbang is my biggest critic, and he ever reads some of my diary. He even took pictures for the insanity. I guess initially when I started I wanted to have something that people would enjoy looking at and offer a perspective on life from a different angle. I think the response has been pretty good, though not overwhelming. I am glad that people have seemed to like me for who I am and are kind enough to leave comments. So back to the point, what I would tell people the Blog or diaryland is that its interactive art. I wouldn�t consider all of it art, but at times that�s what it is. Even when you read a book, the author can�t respond or answer questions. With this format, I can immediately respond. I love questions. I love it when someone has read something I wrote and wants to know more. I think that it�s important not to blow diaryland out of proportion, and think this the train to fame. Lots of people want attention from others, and the blog allows a localized taste. Some of the users did achieve a certain amount of notoriety, however its not something to expect, or even work towards. If your goal is fame or popularity, this shouldn�t be your venue. I like writing here, and even if my friends mocked me and everyone stopped reading I would still update. What makes it different is that people do read and do comment. Also it�s the only place I can get away with terrible spelling and substanceless nonsense in stream of consciousness format. My biggest hope now is that whenever you see the buddy list turn red, and Gumphood updated that you don�t expect what you are about to read, and that you like the entries some of the time. Thanks for reading. Sometime I will answer the question �What is a Gumphood anyway?� Oh and as for the cult its not getting that big. I think only ten have joined. Ten isn�t a cult. Ten is a small party, that has to get a half keg because everyone is either too poor or too much a drunk to deal with a full keg. | |||||||||||
