Metapost: Defending Your Life

Quint: He's either very smart or very dumb.

—Jaws (1975)

-----------------------------

[Epiph basically beat me to this post earlier today, but mine is wordier. Plus, I'd already started this one  when I saw his. Thus, when you print our respective posts out, mine is a little more useful in the bathroom, if you know what I mean.]

The downside to having a blog that's read by people you know is that they want you to make them famous, without necessarily making them famous.

Since I tend to write about some aspects of my life obliquely, I get a lot of "that wasn't about me, was it? Was that about me? It was, wasn't it." There's a perverse brand of pride involved in someone identifying themselves as the idiot who did that stupid thing the other day. Especially since the answer is usually "No."

The other thing that happens is that people take my comments in the exact opposite spirit in which they were offered, Jokes are taken seriously, and of course the serious stuff gets a hearty laugh. "That was pretty funny, that thing about how dead babies are sad! Haw haw haw!"

Stuff like that is when I'm actually glad I don't get more comments.

Every now and again I toy with the idea of not writing about the stuff I do. As it is, I do a lot of self-censoring:

• I could write about the IEP Teams which came thisclose to getting sued if not for my intervention, who then complained that I was mean to them, but that could violate confidentiality unless I change a LOT of facts.
• I could write about any number of teams whose approach to a student has been essentially "We've tried nothing and it hasn't worked!" and who then complain because my recommendations weren't what they were looking for, but I really don't enjoy having to go on the defensive with the decisions I make. Plus, sometimes it's just my job to be an extra set of eyes and perhaps notice the obvious stuff that they might overlook. Is that insulting? Too bad.
• I could write about GF watching me carry toilet paper to the downstairs bathroom and then asking me, "What are you going to do with that?" (because there are so many options?), but we've gotta maintain the peace around here, yes? Ah, hell.
• I could write something darkly comic about how there's still a lot of lead in Baltimore's water, which adds up to job security for special educators in this town, but I already did that one.
• I could write about the stupid things I've done with contact lenses, but I covered a lot of that ground already, too.
• I could write about the fatuousness of the phrase "It is what it is", which has only grown in its ubiquity in this town, but still boils down to "I choose not to think too deeply about this topic, nor to discuss it with you." I'm not sure what good that would do, though.

I don't write as a means of venting, or therapy, or practicing for the next Great American Novel. I certainly don't do it to demonstrate that I'm the smartest kid in the room and here's why I'm right and they're wrong. I do it because I enjoy it. I like expressing myself; I like turning a phrase around a little bit; I like finding the quotations at the top of the posts (and you may not believe this, but Cheese was the one who inspired me to do that). I've gone over three years and well over 500 posts, and I've seen the quality of my writing grow. Some of the stuff from 'way back when is cringe-worthy, but I don't want to go all George Lucas on them. lest I be accused of revisionist history.

So at this point I have to regret nothing I've written, and nothing I haven't. It is what it is.

Heh.

Comments

[yellojkt]

That's why I don't blog about work. That and the fear of being fired. It's bad enough my parents read the blog. That alone creates a lot of self-censorship.

[Chrissy]

lead= job security.... ROTFLMAO

[SC]

Why would it be so hard to believe Cheese inspired you to do something? It's about time he got some recognition for being as innovative a blogger as he's been over the years. ;-)

Seriously, I think everyone eventually has a crisis of conscience when it comes to blogging. I know I've had 5 or 6. You just have to make sure you're getting what you want out of your blogging and when you no longer are you'll know it and you'll stop. Until then it's all good. And If people don't realize that bloggers are basically characters of themselves in their blogs and that most posts are heavily embellished that's their problem and not the blogger's.

Claude sez: It would only be tough to believe because there isn't necessarily anything on the Standing Cheese site, especially recently, that you could point to and draw a straight line between that and the film/TV quotations. But Cheese gets a kind of credit for it, and that's all I'm going to say about it for now. I may need the backstory for another metapost.