Godspunchline was great in that it gave me an opportunity to write, which I love doing (but can't get anyone to pay for doing it). The problem was that, despite an overwhelmingly loyal readership of three, I often times treated it like a puppy that had outgrown it's cuteness. Abandoning it for months on end with no literary nourishment. I believe my main obstacle in being a more attentive blogger was the fact that I had set up the website using Microsoft's Front Page. I know nothing of HTMLing or CSSing or PHPing. I'm a one-trick pony, I just know how to write, but Front Page wasn't the right stable for my one trick (talk about sticking with a metaphor!).
Anyway, as any non-maliciously neglectful owner would do, I gave godspunchline away to people that would take better care of it, in this case, the penis pill industry.
And so, I languished in the real world with thoughts and ideas, but no outlet for them. Then one day my brother started a website.
Behindthehype.com became the new cyberhome to my wit and insight. What I didn't know at the time was how temporary a home it would be. More of a by-the-hour motel than a home really, and as such, I left soon after arriving, at a time I felt was appropriate for me. I posted under the name "Lenny," and some of my real gems still reside on that site, including my vivisection of Sarah Palin following the Vice Presidential debate back in October.
Though if you do check it out, the one sticking point I have is with a post attributed to me that was published well past my departure, the one about the "Top 19 Movie Titles". While all the words contained within are mine and I own up to them, and while for all intents and purposes the article was complete, or at least very near completion, the reason I never published it during my tenure was because I didn't really like it. I didn't feel it was my best work, an example of which is the aforementioned Palin article, nor did I feel it was my best premise, or execution of a premise. Both of which I feel are embodied in my "The Perfect Halloween Movie" article. So again, if you check out my writings at Behindthehype, I have officially disavowed the "Top 19 Movie Titles" article.
The difference in my content output between GP and BTH are particularly night and day. GP was a personal site and afforded me or some might say hindered me in the fact that I was it's lord and savior. What I did and wrote was law. Meaning if I wanted a 20 word post about the new pair of Pumas I just bought, there would be a 20 word post about the new Pumas.
BTH wasn't my site, if was/is my brother's and as such, no stupid personal shit, other than opinions of course. It was/is a pop culture centric site, and as such gave me a more specific vision with regards to my chosen topics. Also, since the purpose was to turn BTH into a money-making endeavor I strove to produce well thought out and many times thought provoking essays that might make people want to come back for more. I put time and effort in these articles thinking that people might actually read them and not wanting my writing to reflect poorly on my brother's venture. I think that it shows in my BTH content.
At BTH we published using Word Press. A hell of a lot easier than Front Page, but still no walk in the park. So when I left BTH, I wasn't compelled to start my own Word Press blog. Here I was, back to that old familiar.
Not too long ago, a friend of mine who was teaching as part of the Semester At Sea program directed me to his Blogger blog. I wasn't in the right mindset to have the necessary awakening until I happened upon a Huffing Post blogger by the name of Scott Mendelson who has a blogger site (Mendelson's Memos - my god, the alliteration is a thing of beauty), and it was at that point that it hit me to try setting up an account for myself.
And so I did.
And here we are.
This blog is going to be a hybrid of my two previous writing experiences, a mix of GP and BTH. Basically, this blog is just going to be a free for all of ideas, including personal anecdotes, with no particular theme, like GP, but less frivolous (my "Lenny's got a blog..." post notwithstanding) and (hopefully) more thoughtful, with a greater pop culture tinge, like BTH.
There were two on-going series/columns at BTH that I plan on continuing here at APFL. They were the "Guilty Pleasures or: IYDTYCEAD" a.k.a. "Guilty Pleasures or: If You Disagree, Then You Can Eat A Dick" series, and the "Oh Snap!" series, which never really got off the ground due to an article titling veto. But to be sure, my Little Miss Sunshine article is, at least in my mind, part of the "Oh Snap!" series.
Questions? Concerns? Comment below.
- Lenny
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