April 10, 2001 (idea)

And there was great rejoicing. Yay.

Not bad, I think, after a tenure of six months. Hell, I know there are plenty of you guys out there who have blown right past me, but putting together 250 writeups of reasonable quality and with moderately defensible factual content in less than a year seems like pretty good work to me. For those of you interested, my ascendant node was one for the Sesame Street song AB-C-DEF-GHI. And for those of you interested in punishing me for such blatant nodevertising, it's spelled R-O-O-K.

(Actually, I feel a little left out, since I have yet to acquire an XP stalker. Everyone who's anyone seems to have one these days. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.)

^
I
To the individual who gave me 20 downvotes: Thanks for making me feel like one of the gang. Hope you had a good time. PS: I was just KIDDING.

And it sure has been an interesting six months. I've had a pretty good time here, writing and ranting and drinking wine. It has proved, in many ways, to be much more challenging than I had anticipated. I've been writing for years (both as a career and as a means to vent), and the idea that I could get feedback from a broad group of individuals (as opposed to the 2-3 people that regularly visited my website) was intriguing. And, hey, I've done OK. At least I haven't been, to date, shown the door.

But I've been entirely unable to get a grip on what the nodegel wants deposited in it. Things I write that I think are good head down into the -2 rep range, while pieces I've just thrown together off the cuff find their way up to the 20s. And when I try to engineer a writeup in such a way as to get a large number of votes, this is invariably the result:

Begin possibly delicate segment:

Topic

(thing) by Rook

Rep: 3

Some facts on a topic, arranged as best as I could contrive given my available time, flavored with a bit of personal reflection.

(thing) by SomeOtherNoder

Rep: 45 C!

Pretty much the same thing, but incorporating the word "lesbian."

End possibly delicate segment

But don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining. I think that, when you get this many people together, people with different ideas and different perspectives, you get a beast that is hard to quantify. As individuals, we run the gamut from perverts to prudes, but E2 is both somewhere and nowhere between. It's an interesting sociological experience, if nothing else.

He said, "I don't know man, she's kinda funny, you know?"
I said, "I know. Ev'rybody funny. Now you funny, too."

And so far, for me, it's been more or less just that--ranting and wondering about how those rants are received. Oh, I like to think I've made some contribution to the E2 universe, but the thing is, I haven't really had the time to make the move from E2 contributor to respected E2 citizen (I do have a toddler running about, mind you). It bothers me. I hate being an anonymous noder. Well, screw that. Time to pay the membership fee and get in the door.

Yes, I would like to buy a fish license, please.

As a Catholic, I know that penance is the best way to clean the slate. I therefore offer the following:

O, E2, I am heartily sorry for having neglected you, and I detest all my skulking because of EDB's just punishments. But most of all, because it offends you, dear users, who are (in the main) good and deserving of more of my attention. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, to hide no more and avoid the near occasions of hiding.

(Well, if my casual flirtation with Gnosticism doesn't do the trick, that should probably push me over the edge into excommunication. Hope there are no priests or bishops out there....)

I also pledge myself to the following resolutions:

1. To be a better pipelinker, no matter the cost.
2. To say at least one witty thing per day in the catbox, even though my computer (gotta love this 'ol 486...no, wait, you don't) hacks and wheezes if I say too much.
3. To absolutely, positively stay away from GTKY nodes, and instead strive to maintain focus while noding.
4. To help, whenever possible, new noders, even the ones who are so damn prolific they'll end up lording over me from the top of the user list. I should always offer constructive criticism before casting that downvote.
5. To work hard and earn my bullshit, to the intermediate-term end of placing a picture on my homenode (and that will be the thing, I prophesy, that will ultimately get me shunned).

Circles, leading me back to you...

Well, I guess this is supposed to be a daylog, so maybe I'd better begin my new noder's life by focusing on that. Well, let me see...woke up, re-diapered my daughter, watched some cartoons, ate some food, changed some more diapers...well, you get the picture. I promise that any future daylogs will stick far more closely to the advertised theme.