Look for the oddly appealing here. I can only hope I’ll find it, along with you. Also, please excuse any site screwups. I’m still trying to figure out layout dealies, and I’ve got to consider what new sections to add as I go along (I’m thinking some school writings, maybe some poetry. Who knows. I’d also like to be politically active (and by that I mean opinionated). If you’re liberal and can’t stand a dose of strong medicine, you may want to avoid this. I will try and warn you if I’m about to go off. Or maybe I won’t, and just let you read and be offended. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Forgetting the parenthetical errors in the above paragraph, I now realize I started Fringe with the least idea of what it would be, or what it would become. Indeed, I so quickly jumped into the political realm that I nearly left my fiction, my critical essays, and poetry behind. That first year was politics all the way.
Is my purpose here a defined thing? Part of me thinks that my goal is to just have a voice. But that’s not enough. I suppose I have the luxury of maintaining a little distance from myself in that respect. Keeps me always searching, always striving for the best of myself. And it keeps traffic light. As much as I enjoy having readers, I don’t know that I want the responsibility or the care that comes with extreme popularity. Not that I wouldn’t try to do my best, given more traffic. But truly, this is only a hobby, a side sport that keeps my mind and writing sharp.
As for Greg, who is looking to make journalism and blogging part of his daily career, it’s a slightly different story. He’s managed to secure a niche market and his readership has slowly but surely climbed up the ladder of success and web traffic. He may be troubled by questions of focus, but I think he’s got the right blend of fluff and serious stuff. And he has sage wisdom that applies to anyone, whether blogger or just amateur writer for fun: Know thyself.

Call it fate, call it karma, call it the ever-elusive whim of the blogospheric deity (if you’re into that sort of thing). Somehow, amid the bustle of post-Christmas happenings and pre-New Year celebratory city explorations, I managed to meet up with DC blogger Greg Piper, whose previous experience meeting me in person apparently didn’t sour him to future contact with me and my abrasive and annoying personality.
Pause to save and take this up later.
I’m back. I’m riding along I-5 heading back from downtown Seattle, an afternoon of the usual banter from bloggers long acquainted with each other’s websites behind me; a late lunch at Pike’s Pub, then slow meandering down past the Lusty Lady (those marquee holiday puns really heighten the erotic spirit of the season) to the Online Cafe, where the geek factor rises by at least ten points. IM’ing two to five feet away from each other is either the mark of total social ease or total social ineptness. I remain optimistic, and hope that it’s social ease, otherwise my future with women remains as foggy as Greg’s (Ouch! –Ed.). Credit for tracking down all these links goes to Greg, who is quicker on the draw than I’ll ever be.
Truly, blogging is the new paradigm in online meet-ups; Greg and I meeting in Seattle is probably a bit unusual in that we both are currently located on the East Coast, but the concept of bloggers meeting–specifically, meeting through their blogs–isn’t all that unusual. Given the availability and ease the medium offers, it’s heartening to see it, and being in the middle of the action, so to speak, is worth even more than a tantalizing evening with Seattle’s finest ladies of the night.
As I’ve stated in a previous entry, Greg Piper is a fine gentleman in person (I, on the other hand, am not), accomodating and generous (I’m expecting that PayPal donation any day now). He agreed to meet my brother Noel and I for lunch, which entailed beer and burgers and talk of resurrecting Rosie O’Donnell’s flagging fame and lax heterosexuality through a blogging campaign.
Yes, this is what some bloggers talk about when they meet in person.
As usual, I had left my camera behind, but fortunately Greg had his trusty Minolta SlimFast (or whatever it’s called). Take a look at these handsome fellas!

By the way, more photos from our adventure are up at Greg’s site. Honestly, we’re not gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that)!
Leave it to a 12 cents/minute charge at the internet cafe to draw us away from our amusing online repartee and back into the bustle of Seattle’s downtown and our separate ways.
It’s been a fine holiday for me; with added treats like meeting a fellow blogger on the streets of this Left Coast haven of commerce and capitalism, I can easily call myself a blessed man.
Okay, I’m turning off the cheese faucet now.

The watchers are being watched. They probably don’t like it. I expect that, in due course, they will respond by lobbying the government to bring bloggers under ‘democratic control’ which is the widely accepted procedure for laying low the competition. When that happens, we will all know that we have truly arrived.

While not all the “watchdogs” here are liberal (take note Mr. Ashcroft), I would say it’s a fair bet that most, like media institutions and (once)hallowed bastions of politics, do indeed lean in that direction.
What is interesting is the double-edged sword wielded by those who fear the changes that honest people are attempting to bring about. On the one hand, government regulation or ‘democratic control’ is another way of calling in the Magnificent Seven to fight against the evil robbers. It’s nice to have the government at your disposal in times like these.
Yet these very same people will turn right around and accuse the government of too much intervention. Or worse yet, they complain when the government makes a decision–in the best interests of the people, no less–and takes action, even when that action may mean drastic measures both inside and outside the country’s boundaries.
The clear message these cowards are sending is the symptomatic buildup and subsequent breakdown of government is only for their purposes, ie, the few. The end of their rhetoric is their unchallenged authority on every front that suits them and their desires.
Bloggers should be careful. If this indeed does become an issue, a few thousand webpages will need to be more upright than ever before, and maintain against the tide of those who would see truth silenced and integrity destroyed. We need to remain vigilant, indeed, increase our vigilance, and vocally stand against the onslaught of our nation’s ideals and principles. Whether Democrat or Republican, the powers who would rather see us snuffed out don’t care about political ideologies, just cold hard cash and the ability to control what people think. The “New York Times bust” of Raines and Boyd is only a small part of our responsibility to keep watch on the watchers, and shout from the blogtop when it all goes down.