Friends are funny, no?

Friends are funny, aren’t they? At least mine are. Most of the time. Occasionally, though, someone’s ‘hilarity meter’ will get all bonked up and they will be unable to determine what is actually funny and what is most definitely NOT.

One such ‘friend’ forwarded me the following story from Dilbert.com, which can be found here.

When I see news stories about people all over the world who are experiencing hardships, I worry about them, and I rack my brain wondering how I can make a difference. So I decided to start my own blog. That way I won’t have time to think about other people.

People who are trying to decide whether to create a blog or not go through a thought process much like this:

1. The world sure needs more of ME.
2. Maybe I’ll shout more often so that people nearby can experience the joy of knowing my thoughts.
3. No, wait, shouting looks too crazy.
4. I know – I’ll write down my daily thoughts and badger people to read them.
5. If only there was a description for this process that doesn’t involve the words egomaniac or unnecessary.
6. What? It’s called a blog? I’m there!

The blogger’s philosophy goes something like this:

Everything that I think about is more fascinating than the crap in your head.

The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making it to the end of the sentence that probably didn’t need to be written anyhoo.

If that doesn’t inspire you to read my blog, I don’t know what will. You can find the Dilbert Blog at http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/

Then this ‘friend’ said this: “The quote about the crap in [other people’s heads]... that was you. All YOU, girl.”

Indeed, it may very well be. I mean, think about it. Let’s pick two people at random. What are the chances that the thoughts in one person’s head are in fact more interesting than the thoughts in the other person’s head? Now let’s choose 20 people. Surely, there must be someone in the group whose thoughts are more interesting than everyone else’s. Right? Following the same logic, there must be some subset of the population whose thoughts are actually more interesting than the thoughts of the general public as a whole. But let’s assume that there is another subset of the general public consisting of people who understand that they are not a part of the original, aforementioned subset, and yet aspire to improve their mental faculties and broaden their intellectual capacities by actually seeking out the thoughts and opinions of said subset.

A dilemma presents itself: How to get inspirational and interesting thoughts from one subset of the population to the other in a cost-effective, time-sensitive manner? Such a medium exists in today’s world. It’s called a blog.

It’s true that there are many blogs out in the blogosphere and some aren’t worth the hard drive space on which they are saved. However, judging from the hit counter on MY blog, that appears NOT to be the case for mine. Apparently, my blog is indeed frequented by a number of patrons, and since I sell no liquor there, cheap or otherwise, I must assume they return for the encouraging words.

Oh, wait. There’s more to the conversation…(NOTE: NNF is short for Not Nice Friend.)

Me: you know i may have to trash talk you now on the blog, right?
NNF: oh...
NNF: go for it.
NNF: can't wait to read it.
Me: you say that now...

Did you catch that? The NNF ‘can’t wait’ to read the blog. Thank you, my friend, for proving my point so eloquently. Couldn’t possibly have done it better myself.

Happy reading. :)