Why Your Blog Failed

So the year was 2007. You received your shiny new Dell out of the box. You finally had WiFi built into your computer. The world was waiting for all your new thoughts. You were going to be the next great blogger. So you signed up on blogger.com. You were ready!

Fast forward six years. Your iPhone has the smallest keyboard that is able to also be functional. 140 characters is all the rage. Your old blog hasn't been seen in 4 years. The follower you do have is on a much cooler site now. And nothing happened. You were going to change the world. But instead, the world changed around you. My blog failed. Badly. Today was the first time I looked at it in years. It turns out it may get 5 visits a month. Usually it's to read my post about Facebook and how no one remembered my birthday once I was off of Facebook. Now, they might just see why blogs fail,and then read my post on Facebook.

Here's why I failed at my blog. Perhaps it will match one of your reasons:

1. No one else read it. So why would I keep writing. Let's face it, if no one gave us reinforcement of our actions, we would not do them. If most of America did not receive a paycheck, they are not showing up to work Monday because they love it. They show up because they need to function in society. No one cared, so neither did I.

 2. Posts were all over the place. The reason bigger blogs succeed is because they talk about one specific thing. I don't check out Down Goes Brown for news on soccer. If I want in depth Steeler news, it's not through thePensblog. No, I didn't specialize. So I had no audience. So, I had no visitors. So I stopped caring.

3. Everyone else stopped using blogger. Seriously. I know of no one else on this site. People moved on. So did I.

4. So no one will read this, either?!? Eh, I'm done.

Giving credit where it's due

The Iraq will be coming to a close. Read it.

Thank you military.

Good job with keeping a promise, President Obama.

Chivalry is not dead, but it's getting close

I've heard a lot of things about how the modern man needs to relearn how to serve the woman. I think there is something missing from our society and I think men do need to remember to serve women better as a whole than we probably do now.

But what happens when a man is not allowed to serve?

I witnessed this today as I was taking a trip to the airport. A woman with a very large piece of luggage had some difficulty getting on the shuttle. A man saw she was struggling, and offered a seat to the woman, who looked like she might need a seat. She refused, even after the guy stood up and pointed to the seat. So, he sat back down. He was just trying to be nice, but his kindness was rejected.

This is handcuffing for a man. Now, he might remember being rejected for his kindness. If I were him, I'd be hesitant to try and help again. If it ends in rejection, then what's the point?

The same goes for looking for a relationship, in my opinion. If I see a woman who is never going to ask for my help, I'm not going to ask her out. Why? Because if she does not want me or at least make me feel like I'm being helpful, then I'm not going to look at that and say, "oh there goes my future wife." I'm going to say, "there goes a woman who is on her own and could care less about me. There's a woman who does not need me."

Maybe the woman thought, "He thinks I'm old. I'll show him." Maybe she thought, "He thinks I'm weak. I'll show him." It could have been the thought, "He thinks I'm helpless. I'll show him." But the guy was probably thinking, "I'll serve this stranger and try to be kind."

I understand there is a spirit of independence among people, especially Americans. We can do it ourselves. But sometimes, it's being kind to just allow people to be kind to you.

I care by not caring

How much are we supposed to be caring?

To be honest, I am dreading the 2012 election. I'm a white, male, pro-business, pro-Capitalist, pro-life, pro-gun, pro-balanced budget, Christian.

I realized I probably offended you.

It might be time to show how much we care, by not caring.

We have to rank things on a scale of importance. Here is mine:

1. Sharing the Gospel (but this is my job, too)
2. How are my family and friends
3. If my car dies, how do I replace it?
4. I'd like to get married someday...
5. Why can't some of my friends get decent jobs?
6. If UCO Pittsburgh runs out of funding, what would I do?

Let's admit some things: our sphere of caring usually starts with our immediate lives. If people lose their job--which seems to happen more--they're not going to be worried about Middle East relations and our relationship with Mongolia as a country. Heck, they may even stop caring about recycling. When money was tight for me, I made $11 trading in aluminum cans to a scrapyard. Boy, it was not worth it.

Now, let me compare my cares with some of the cares I saw when I visited my relatives in the Philippines:

1. Will I work today?
2. Can we put food on the table today? What about tomorrow?
3. Will I make it if I get hurt in an accident?
4. Will I be able to afford to go to the hospital?
5. How can I get some better clothing? Something without holes?

So, maybe my resolution is to stop caring about the political news. As long as the government doesn't collapse, then today is probably going to be a pretty good day, all things considered. There is tragedy in our country. But tragedy is not having your parents still using AOL. It's not still having a regular TV. No, tragedy is not driving a 1990 Chrysler LeBaron, with the mirror taped to the door.

Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake." The peasants of France were starving, and inside her royal lifestyle, she had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world. She just thought they didn't have enough vegetables and meat with their meal, and said they should just go straight to the cake.

With over 1 billion people living on a dollar a day (it might be more now that we inflated our money), it might be time to care more about simpler things. It also might be ok to not care about certain things.



**Note and correction: Marie Antoinette may have never said let them eat cake. Also, it would have been from a lack of bread, not meat and vegetables.

Finally?!?

Obama releases his birth certificate.

Big deal. Who cares. This was the dumbest argument ever. I was ashamed it happened in the first place. This is almost as dumb as when people said Bush caused the World Trade Centers to fall and the levies to break in New Orleans.

Thank God this is done. Sick of it. We have bigger things to worry about, like the fact we're spending ourselves into destruction.

Also, no one wants Donald Trump to be president. No one.

Finally, happy Easter!

Why Can't We be Friends?

Were we not supposed to move on to a better world? Wasn't there supposed to be healing for the nations?

Egypt was the #2 receiver of funding from the US. Now they are in turmoil.

Unrest in Iran, Libya, Tunisia, and Bahrain.

No government in Lebanon. No government in Belgium.

The world seems to be coming unhinged.

I thought we were supposed to be better liked.

We're not.

We're running out of options. The world is looking for leadership. It might run to the most functioning form of government, best economy and least amount of debt:

China.

What's next?

One Year Ago, the Truth Came Out

In 2009, a scandal broke out in Europe, which most Americans were ignorant. Emails from scientists revealed there was manipulation of data in climate change research, showing exaggerations of how severe things really were and the urgency to act now on global policy to stop global warming.

But, then the truth came out, and it turns out scientists were lying. Chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri has come out and says he regrets the falsehood of saying there would be no more glaciers in the Himalayas by 2035. Read his full statement here.

Also from the Guardian, which by the way is a left-leaning newspaper in the UK, is an article about what has changed.

There still might be global warming, and no one is really pro-pollution and hoping we all die in the second great flood(which theologically couldn't happen, unless you don't trust the Bible...that's another blog post). But let's be honest, use all the facts, remember there is a lot of money and power involved in this topic on a global scale, and question with boldness. Putting our heads in the sand will not help anyone or anything. But neither does lying to prove what you are doing.

[Image from The Nothing Corporation]