Today I participated in the Gay Bloggers Photo Project, A Minute In The Life. This project was Corin's idea (of thecorky.com). I thought it was a great idea. The idea was to have as many gay bloggers as possible take a photo at the exact same minute all over the world. It was decided that July 31, 2004 at 12:17 PM Eastern time (in different time zones all over the world of course) would be the exact minute the photos would be taken. Then each gay blogger would upload their photo to the Gay Bloggers Tribe on Tribe.net. As you can see from my photo (click to make it larger) I was creative with my entry. However, others who participated took pictures of themselves at that exact minute. There are photos from many states in the United States and there's even a photo from New Zealand. I just checked the site and there are several photos already uploaded. I can't wait to see all the other photos that will be uploaded today. Should be very cool to see.
Question
Yesterday I admitted that I'm addicted to blogging. I asked myself why I felt the need to blog so much. Well, after thinking about it for awhile, reading more posts on the Tribe, and browsing the blogs I read (now up to 72) I think I've come up with a good answer to that question. Or at least an answer the makes sense to me.
Belonging. In my adult life I have not belonged to any groups, organizations, clubs, sports teams, or associations. I think I've found any group that I'd want to belong to. Well, I like bowling but they meet on days and times that I'm not free. I would also like to join a gay book group but I don't think I would like the books they want to read. I don't know why I haven't joined any groups as an adult. I think the sense to belong has always been in my nature but I've never had an outlet to belong. I guess you can say I am apart of the gay community but even in that community they don't accept everyone and it's very fractured into different groups. I don't belong to any of them. Even as children we want to belong, be accepted, be liked. That has carried over into my adulthood. Being apart of this rather small (compared to the masses on the internet) gay blog community fulfills some of that need to belong, to be accepted, to be liked. It seems as though all these guys (and gals) just accept you right into their blog family. It doesn't matter how tight your abs are, how big your cock is, what you write about, or how many hits or comments you get on your site. They welcome everyone. The gay bloggers group is like a kickball game in elementary school and instead of being the geeky guy they pick last, you're the popular stud that they pick first. That's what it feels like. You may not actually be the popular stud but it doesn't matter to these guys. I feel like I belong. Now if I could just find a gay bloggers bowling book club, I'd be really excited!
Addiction
“Hi, I'm Archerr, I'm addicted to blogging.”
“Hi, Archerr!”
Okay, I admit it. I'm addicted to blogging. And when I say blogging, I mean both reading blogs and writing entries for my blog. Before I joined the Gay Bloggers tribe on Tribe.net, I read about 20 blogs a day. I found the different blogs to read by clicking on the links provided on the blog pages. I love those referring links. Since I joined the Gay Bloggers tribe, I have been exposed to so many new blogs. And so many new people. I have been a bit overwhelmed by the number of blogs out there and the different topics these people write about. When I click on their profile and see I'm connected to them through someone else, I have to click on their blog link just to see if I might enjoy reading it. There are some 90 people in the tribe right now. I think I have 68 blogs bookmarked to read. How can I possibly read them all? When will I stop book marking them? How can I keep up? Well, it's an addiction. The first step to conquering your problem is to admit that you have one. I have a problem…well, maybe two problems. Not only am I addicted to reading these blogs everyday, I'm also addicted to reading all the posts on Gay Bloggers tribe site. I find myself checking several times a day to see if anyone has posted anything new or something interesting that I should respond to. And I check to see if anyone new has joined the tribe. I want to see if they have an interesting blog to read. This is getting out of hand. How much time am I spending on this little hobby of mine? I don't really know and I don't really care actually.
I use a Mac of course and I use Safari as my browser of choice. I have all my blogs book marked in one folder on Safari. Until yesterday I would have to click on the folder and scroll down to the blog I'd like to read. I would do this over and over until I've read all the blogs. Then yesterday I got my latest issue of MacWorld. I don't plan to renew my subscription to this magazine because I find more information online then I do in the magazine. I thumb through it and realize there isn't anything new I haven't already seen pretty much online. Then I get to this section on tips for speeding up things. There's a section about speeding up your web browsing using Safari. It's about using Tab browsing. There's a little feature of Safari that will set up Auto-Tabs for you. So I read the little blurb and realize I can speed up my blog reading by using this little tab feature. I turn on the tab feature and Bam! all 68 of the blogs I read are now loaded with tabs at the top of my browser. All I have to do is either read the current entry or click a little x if there is no new update on that blog. Oh my gosh! I can get through all the blogs really fast this way. This morning I got through all the blogs in about 20 minutes. Cool! I can add more blogs to my list! If you happen to be a Mac user who uses Safari, look into this little feature. It could speed up the time you spend browsing. Especially if you read several sites everyday…like I do.
Now that I've admitted to my addiction and realize the amount of time I spend on this hobby, the real question should be why do I feel the need to blog so much. There are so many issues attached to this question. I will contemplate this question and the issues associated with it and delve into my needs for blogging and why they are so strong at this point. I must get to the root of this question and, of course, blog about it. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Right now I need to check all the blogs I read for any updates and then I have to log onto the tribe and see if any new bloggers have joined and if they have a link to their blogs.
Big Brother
I watch a lot of reality TV and one of my favorite shows is Big Brother 5. I talk with Shawn about the show all the time. When I talked to him on Sunday and found out that I actually missed Saturday's episode, I was very upset with myself. There have been very few that I've missed since the show first aired. Anyway, I was able to catch up on last night's show. Oh the drama! There is one openly gay guy on there but the two guys who seem to be getting the most attention are Jase and Scott. They both are gorgeous men. However, I don't care for their personalities at all. They have been exhibiting an unusually large amount of gay tendencies since the show began this season. Towleroad wrote about this yesterday. The people over at TVgasm created this video that shows just how gay Jase and Scott act. It's quite revealing…possibly. I'm just sayin.
A Trip To The Dentist
This morning I went back to the dentist to have the permanent crowns put on. I had the first part done 3 weeks ago and I was in pain for the rest of that day. Today I knew there wouldn't be any pain so I wasn't anxious at all. I have to remember though, that I shouldn't make the appointments so early in the morning. My appointment was at 9:00 this morning. That's actually an odd time for my dentist. Usually they make appointments like 8:20 or 2:50. I rarely get one scheduled on the hour. They also usually run on time too, but this morning they were already about 10 minutes behind when I got there at 8:50. Anyone who knows me knows that I arrive early no matter where I'm going. I don't run on gay time for anything…social or otherwise. So anyway, I'm sitting there waiting to be called and I recognize someone who comes in as soon as I sit down. My dentist is in the neighborhood where I teach so it's not unusual for me to run into a parent of student I've had in the past. This guy was one of those parents. I was going to just enjoy the latest issue of Architectural Digest but instead I sat and chatted with him for a few minutes. Luckily before we ran out of things to talk about I was called for my appointment. I hate running into parents outside of school. There's nothing to talk about except their kids. Anyway, I went in, sat down, and they began putting the permanent crowns on. It only took a few minutes and the bite was fine. My cute dentist was looking good today. Too bad I wasn't having nitrous oxide or I could have felt him up again. I'm finished with the dentist until next June.