By Dan KleinerI’ve always been very much behind the times for being a card-carrying member of the PC Generation. Some friends of mine say I’m 26 going on 70. I just think I don’t really like computers. I only found out about YouTube about six months ago. I’ve still never been on it. I do have a MySpace page, which everyone should check out simply to see how awesome the hot dog I am pictured with was. But as any of my friends can tell you, if you want to get my attention you might actually have to (gasp) call me.
I still remember where I was when I found out what a blog is. I was working as a high school sports reporter at the Lake Travis View newspaper, and my editor, Gary Robert Dinges III, had found out about a story he wanted me to go cover. I asked him how he found out about it (I was a little upset at myself for having been scooped), and he said “I saw it on Gary Feinman’s blog.”
I distinctly remember stopping, thinking about for a second, and then asking, “What the hell is a blog?” That was 2006. Now it’s 2008, and honestly, I’m still not 100 percent sure what a blog is. A couple of months ago I sat down with a friend of mine to discuss some things about an Internet company he’s trying to start some time next year, and he too was talking non-stop about blogs. So I went out to try to finally put to rest the mystery of what, in fact, a blog is.
Unfortunately, I have to tell ya’ll that I really didn’t figure out much. As far as I can tell, a blog is just basically my diary in print online somewhere, with a feature of some kind that allows people to comment on it. I’d like to share here a few snippets of the conversation my roommate and I had a little while ago. He, too, doesn’t really understand what a blog is.
D: Have you ever heard of a blog?
J: Yeah, isn’t that where people complain about something online and we are all supposed to care?
D: That’s kinda my inkling, but I think it’s something more than that.
J: Well, you always try to make everything more complicated than it is.
D: But it’s gotta be more complicated than that. Whatever the hell blogs are, I’m pretty sure they’re taking over the world.
J: They’re not going to end up creating the Terminator, are they?
D: Doesn’t seem likely.
J: Good, Lord knows the last thing I need right now is Terminators running around everywhere.
D: As far as I can tell, I think blogs are basically just sort of an online journal. Like, I talk about what I’ve been doing in more of a conversational tone.
J: Ummm, isn’t that what you do when you’re writing articles and stuff?
D: Well yes, but this is different. It’s more like my observations on things and how I feel about stuff.
J: Why would anyone care about that? They probably get sick enough of you from the newspaper.
D: That’s what I can’t figure out. I mean, I think I get the blogging thing, but I can’t figure out first of all how a blog is different than what people have been doing for thousands of years, and secondly, I don’t understand why anyone would care what my opinion is on things.
J: People are dumb. They don’t want to hear the truth, they just want to hear someone agreeing with their version of the truth.
D: That might be the most intelligent thing I’ve heard today.
J: Yeah, I’m full of gems.
This charming back-and-forth went on for much longer than that, but I think that captured the essence of it. So my roommates and I (there’s another one too, his name is N), concluded that a blog is simply me talking about my feelings. I guess I don’t do that much in the newspaper so this will be a new thing.
We also decided that there is no way this could possibly not get me in trouble. I’ve been trying really, really hard to keep my mouth shut about the things that tick me off about Wimberley, Hays County and the world in general, but I don’t really know what else I can blog about. But then again, Spring’s right around the corner. I suppose I could blog on wildflowers.
Dan Kleiner is the Editor of the Wimberley View newspaper. He graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a Bachelors’ of Journalism and began his professional career as a high school sports reporter with the Lake Travis View. After graduating to Assistant Editor, Dan took his first Editor’s job in Wimberley in April of 2007. Born in San Francisco, Dan grew up in North Palm Beach, Fla. and moved to Houston at age 13, where he graduated from Bellaire High School. He deferred his first year of college and spent a year teaching English and working at a theatre in Israel, and was in the Old City of Jerusalem the day the Intifada broke out. Dan likes Central Texas and doesn’t want to leave. When he graduated from college, he knew that no matter what, he wanted to continue to work and live in the region. When not firmly gripping the reigns of mediocre journalism, Dan enjoys playing bluegrass music on his banjo or guitar, watching the San Francisco Giants play baseball, playing croquet, running and reading scholarly papers about advancements in theoretical physics and particularly theories of galaxy formation. Whether or not he actually understands what it is he is reading was unclear at press time.
Dan will be adding a "light" touch to this site on a variety of topics. But don't be surprised, he does sometimes show a serious side.
