(by the way, what are these cats DOING on this book cover?)
I’d like to take a moment to talk about some blogging lessons learned:
1) I need to better "signal" to my readers when I say something that isn’t exactly true. It was nice of some of you to ask how my "date" went, but it was just a joke from the last post. I also didn’t receive an Amazon.com package from Anna Kournikova. I was especially surprised that someone thought I actually slept with Tom Cruise. I have an overactive imagination and to me — all these things are true, but not in what some may call "reality." I don’t want to become a "boy who cried wolf." Sometimes, I do write about real things. There is an actual Sophia — I think. My mother did say "bolo" instead of "blog." Should I put a little "kosher" sign next to each true statement in order to avoid confusion?
2) I need to be careful when writing comments. A very nice blogger deleted my comment and sent me a stern email after I wrote a joke about Japanese men. Now, I know for a fact that Japanese men would be the ones who would find this joke the funniest, but I understand the sensitivity. And by the way, some of my best friends are Japanese men — at least those that aren’t perverts.
3) I need to be more careful when choosing names of fake characters. In my post about the Coney Island hot-dog eating contest, I made up a Norwegian contestant named Holm Andresen. I knew someone in college named Andresen and "Lord of the Rings" was on the television at the time, which stars Ian Holm as Bilbo Baggins — so I used the name "Holm."
A few days later, I get an email from — B. Holm Andresen.
He wants to know, "Who am I and why did I say he was in Coney Island eating hotdogs?"
Fortunately, everything turned out OK. B. Holm is a really cool artist living in London, and we emailed each other back and forth a couple of times. He even helped me create a new fake Norwegian name. If you’re going to London, check out his exhibit.
Are there any other blogging rules I need to learn, like not going to your site ten times a day so I look like a stalker in your stats?
