David Rodeback's Blog

Thursday, August 13, 2009

More Fleeting Wisps of Blogger Glory

People write kind things about the blog, which don't find their way into comments on particular posts. Here are three. (We're light and shortish today, as penance for Tuesday's 3022-word treatise on the health care debate.)

I'm working on blog posts about Silicon Valley (as promised), health care reform (again, and not for the last time), customer service (of all things), the upcoming American Fork elections (inevitably), and a proposed ordinance in American Fork which would require landlords to obtain business licenses. All these are coming soon, unless my senior editor (who is yours truly) kills any of them before it's posted. Today, however, I have nothing so heavy for you. In fact, we're so light today, we're almost fluffy.

I have for you three samples of nice things people have written lately about the blog. They're either from Facebook or from personal e-mails, and either they don't relate to a specific blog post, or they don't work as a conventional comment for some other reason. None of the writers is my relative, and two of them are people I never dated. (The third was engaged to a Marine at the time; don't try this at home.) One or two of the comments are very slightly edited to preserve anonymity and to standardize certain linguistic conventions I worry over more than normal humans do.

A reader from Idaho wrote yesterday, under the subject line "Thought Provoking":

I want to thank you for your views on life and government. I always enjoy reading your opinion. It forces me to pay attention to the world around me rather than hibernate in the safety of my own existence. I appreciate your interest and dedication. It provides fun topics of discussion between [my husband] and me in the evenings.

Thinks I, "Yippee! It's working!" The anti-hibernation effect, I mean. It's intentional. Spousal communication is good, too, but I wasn't thinking about it when I decided to be a blogger.

An American Forker whose name you would recognize wrote this earlier this month:

I just want to applaud you for your reports and ability to let regular people such as myself keep in touch with our city. . . . I have not attended very many council meetings, and you have to admit it's partly your fault for being so good at keeping citizens in touch with American Fork happenings. . . . I really appreciate your insight.

Sez I, "I've only attended a few of the meetings this year, but I have excellent sources (note the plural)." Increasing the discussion and available information about local issues is my most important purpose here.

Another American Forker wrote to his Facebook friends this week:

If you're not following David's blog, I would highly recommend it. Thanks for the lunchtime reading, David.

Writes I, "Now there's a coincidence. The writing often happens at lunchtime, too."

I also enjoy occasional reports from people who've added me to their RSS reader, or who tell me they didn't get their work done or have time for their own blogging because they were too engaged in reading mine. I'm also perfectly comfortable receiving comments in which people explain how much they disagree with me and why. And I'm grateful when readers with sharp editors' eyes point out typos, so I can fix them. I hate typos, especially when they have my name on them.

As I often say when replying to reader comments via e-mail, thanks for reading. Thanks doubly for commenting (those of you who do).

Now, which of the upcoming posts shall I post tomorrow? . . .

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