BlogVersed

It's confession time, blog o' blog o' mine. I been cheatin' on ya. I want you to know that you're the only blog that means anything to me, the other blog, that's just for fun, a brief fling, a passing fancy...

No, strike that!

Dear Blog, This is to inform you of the fact that I have been moonlighting. As you know, it is hard to make ends meet working just this one blog, so I've been forced to take a second blog. I'd be happy to quit the second blog if I were just getting paid more... hell, if I were just getting paid anything at all!

No, that doesn't make any sense. So, ok, it's like this:

Not long after I started this blog, I set up a page on MySpace. I have a link to my MySpace page, or profile as it's called, listed in my list of links down on the right, under the heading of Links in a Never-Ending Chain of Being and ME-ing. Or just click here if you want to go to My MySpace Space. And, on that page you'll find an area on the top right with links to my MySpace blog.

So, when I first signed on to MySpace, I noticed that they automatically include a blog as part of the package, in fact, there is no way to not have a blog, although you can simply leave it blank. Which I did at first, and then I just wrote something like, "Are two blogs better than one? For now, I'm just concentrating on one," and provided a link to you, my dear Blog Time Passing.

And I will write more on MySpace later on, but for now, suffice it to say that after a while I discovered that a number of people on MySpace use their blogs for poetry and creative writing. And that in turn got me to start jotting down some of my own poetry on a pad, using a purple pen for my purple prose, er, poems.

But, I must admit that I have very mixed feelings about all this. I have always loved poetry, but I haven't sought it out much as an adult because I find that I have difficulty relating to much of contemporary poetry, whether it's professional, that is, the published work of acknowledged
literary artists, or the creative output of amateurs. Basically, I'm kind of picky about poetry, and I think it's often a matter of personal preference, although this is not to discount the work of literary critics and theorists.

But being picky myself, the last thing I would want to do is foist my own foibles onto others. Lots of people don't care at all for poetry, and that's just fine. Others may be equally picky about poetry, and not interested in the work of an amateur. And make no mistake about it, I am an amateur. I make absolutely no claims to the contrary, nor do I make any claims about the merit of my work.

I bring this up now, first just to enter it into the record here at my Blog Time Passing, and second because what my writings might possibly offer is some passing amusement to readers of this blog. On this blog, I can at least rest on my credentials as a professor, scholar, and published nonfiction author, so most of what I post here has at least some formal credibility. But in devoting my MySpace blog to poetry, I've gone completely out on a limb, and started sawing away on the wrong side of the tree.

So, by now my desire to come clean may have stirred up some morbid curiosity, so I'll provide some direct links to my other blog. The name I gave it, by the way, paralleling the name of this blog, is Lance Strate's BlogVersed, and it has its own URL, http://blog.myspace.com/lancestrate. That takes you to the "View All Entries" page, with each entry listed in reverse chronological order, just like in this blog.

The features for blogging on MySpace seem somewhat primitive compared to here on Blogger, so there isn't the same flexibility about tags or labels, and the archiving function is harder to use. But my first entry is dated June 27, 2007, so you can use the archives function to go back to the point of origin. I also put a link to my first post, entitled "About This Blog," next to the title of the blog at top, since it is an "About" page. But for now, all of the entries can be found in the regular part of the blog, in reverse order. I have it set to the maximum number of entries, which is 15, and I'm only up to about 12 as of this writing, and don't intend to go past 15 for at least another week or two. I believe that after I pass 15, there will be a link to the earlier entries.

So, anyway, if you decide to take a look, you might want to scroll down to the bottom, and read the About entry first, and work your way up. Or not.

Unfortunately, certain options on this blog are only open to MySpace members when they are logged in. For example, every entry has a tag or label, albeit one chosen from a preset selection, and there is a page that lists every entry with that label. All of my entries are labeled "Writing and Poetry," so the only thing non MySpacers would be missing is an easy way to access an individual entry. Also, only MySpacers can leave comments, but everyone can click on "Comments" (or "Kudos") to read them. I regret that the set-up works this way, but then again, it's pretty easy and costs nothing to register with MySpace and gain full access, not that my BlogVersed is reason to do so. Finally, there is an rss option to click on, but like everything associated with MySpace, it's quirky.

So that's pretty much the story. I've also added a link to BlogVersed to my Links in a Never-Ending Chain of Being and ME-ing. So, if for any reason you feel the need to return to BlogVersed from here, you'll be able to do so.

And that's my confession, that I have made, so that I may be inscribed in the blog of life for another year. And now it's back to our regularly scheduled blog, which is already in progress.