Blog Summit

Once again, I haven't blogged in what seems like a month of Sundays. Not that I haven't had anything to say.

My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.....

I've just been busy - and you can call me Mr. Lamar.

I ended up going to the Sorensen blog summit and I'm glad I did. Met a ton of new people and saw some people I hadn't seen in a while. Let's see if I can remember them all - James Martin from VA Progressive, Virginia Centrist, Brian Patton, Waldo Jaquith, Steve Sisson - The Blue Dog, Romeocat from Cathouse Chat, Bob from Commonwealth Commonsense, Jon Henke from QandO, met Chris from Spank that Donkey in person, and saw Norm, Rick, and Shaun again.

I think that is most of the people I spent any amount of time with. Oh, I did sit at the same table on Friday night (the dinner was excellent) with Del. Brink and Del. Amundson from VA Extra Innings.

It was a little bizarre at first meeting other bloggers, but for the most part when I talked to someone I felt like I had known them for a long time. I think I was most surprised by Virginia Centrist. For some reason I thought he would be an older guy. Of course, I think it was James Martin that said the same about me. It may also have been James that wasn't sure what side of the aisle I sit on until recently. I'm going to have to do a better job of letting people know I am to the right, way to the right.
The first session I went to was with Waldo and Jon about promoting and enhancing your blog. Learned quite a few things - some of them I may even use. No one is a big fan of Blogger, but for me the price is right and I don't blog enough to justify spending much time moving.

The second session, and first on Saturday, was about ethics and blogging. The most interesting topic to me was about anonymous/pseudonymous bloggers. I tend to agree that anonymous comments should be somewhat discouraged; however, it is the message that should be paid attention to and not the messenger. I don’t want to go on about this much, but I don’t think there is an issue with pseudonymous bloggers. If you don’t trust me because you may or may not know my real name I really don’t care. Jaded JD has his thoughts here.

The third and final session was about blogging and journalism. It was an interesting discussion. I don’t consider myself a journalist, but I think there are bloggers out there who should be. The discussion did somewhat inspire me to try to do some original stuff. We’ll see how long that inspiration lasts.

I enjoyed all of the speakers, but I enjoyed AG McDonnell and LG Bolling the most. Bob Holsworth did an excellent job also. Mike Shear did a good job also. Others have more detailed accounts, but Shear thought by the end we might be throwing rotten tomatoes at him. Jerome Armstrong was just ok. He was the least polished public speaker, but I did find it interesting to hear from the far left (just to the left of Pluto as the Blue Dog might say).

All in all it was a good time. I did feel vastly outnumbered, especially on Friday, but Saturday was better with Norm and Shaun there. You know you are surrounded by liberals when you hear about how great LBJ was and when someone refers to the Presidents social security plan as “dismantling” social security. Yes, allowing people to keep the money they earn in their own account would be disastrous. Why, just the thought of allowing to someone to have more control of their own money makes me sick……