I’ve finally started working a lot more seriously on my blogging book — I’m Blogging This — the book’s blog is here. I want this book to be done in the next couple of months.
Right now I’m snooping around the web looking for people who have gotten themselves into trouble for using their constitutional rights to free speech. There are a lot of cases. I can feel the book coming together in my mind (although I haven’t written that much yet).
Consider this young lassie:
I started this website in February 2001. A year later I was fired from my job for this website because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID. Never write about work on the internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT WORK ON THE INTERNET. If you are the boss, however, please don’t be a bitch and talk with your hands. And when you order Prada online, please don’t talk about it out loud, you rotten whore.
I never knew a mother of a two-year old who introduces herself like this:
My name is Heather B. Armstrong. Some of you may remember me as Heather B. Hamilton. I am married to a charming geek named Jon. We live in Salt Lake City, Utah, with our two-year-old daughter, Leta Elise, and our four-year-old dog, Chuck. I am a Stay at Home Mom (SAHM) or a Shit Ass Ho Motherfucker. I do both equally well.
Getting fired — “dooced” — was what propelled Ms Armstrong to blog stardom. She has extended her 15 minutes by 1) posting photos of herself striking various inviting poses; 2) hinting at all the celebrities she hung out with when in LA; 3) writing really spunky and intelligent prose; 4) using “motherfucker” a lot. This is of course a perfectly irresistible combination. She has quit her new day job and is now posing, hinting and swearing full-time in return for advertising revenue.
I’m not really sure which of those strategies I should adopt. I don’t think I can do all of them (at least not at the same time).