March 1, 2006
Blog

Bernie envy.  Back in December the Sentinel’s Danie Harrelson detailed “Bernie’s Journal”, Rep. Buescher’s blog about life in the Colorado legislature.  So I logged on, read a few graphs and said to myself, “If Bernie’s broken the bald headed blogger barrier you’d better jump on the blog-wagon.”  

Ms. Harrelson mentioned the Bernieman learned all about web logs, i.e. blogs, from his daughter.  That’s the difference between Notre Dame grads and guys who went to Iowa State.  In their attempts to teach me about life in the digital world, my offspring have never been able to advance their father’s learning curve beyond re-setting the clock on the microwave after a rolling blackout. 

At a Christmas gathering, I queried my CU grad, computer geek, son-in-law about establishing a life on the web.  He wondered aloud about burstable bandwith, dedicated IP’s and co-located hosting and then, after noticing my deer-in-the-headlights countenance, suggested outside help. 

Enter Rick and Starr Nisley.  Rick’s business card proclaims he’s the Grand Valley’s Computer Wizard while his wife’s Crafted Web Designs is in the business of helping poor digitally deprived schnooks establish a web site.  Rick has a business style much like my own.  We met for lunch and avoided discussing things webbie, concentrating our visit on important matters of the day like college football and liar’s poker strategy.  Starr did the actual work.  That business philosophy of leaving the heavy lifting to the wife worked well for our radio stations, why not computers and websites?  

And so dickmaynard.com was born.  But a blog it isn’t.  Blog decorum dictates a frequent, we’re talking almost everyday, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links.  A real blog is Ralph D’Andrea’s eminently readable JunctionDailyBlog.com.  Mr. D’Andrea’s blog is so well written I peruse it daily even though it mostly deals with subjects i.e. city, county and state government, that rank on a personal interest scale somewhere between the latest issue of Martha Stewart’s magazine and Jude the Obscure.  It’s also fun to meander through Denny Herzog’s daily diary about life in the Sentinel newsroom.  Both blogs are available as “click-throughs” (an internet term I learned just last week and have been dieing to use), at gjsentinel.com. 

To be a real “blogger”, one must contribute new thoughts on a daily basis, much too heavy a responsibility for someone with an allergy to anything that smacks of “job”.   So, dickmaynard.com is a website.  With a website the rules say updates may be periodic, in other words, just take your sweet time to do whatever it is one does on the internet. What you will find at dickmaynard.com are a cache of Mileau’s dating back to the beginning of this weekly effort.  There’s also space where the Top 10 “jones” can be satisfied, an archive of the three years ago cross-country bike trip plus a random sampling of places on the internet where it’s fun to hang out.  There’s also a section entitled “Stuff” featuring articles, videos and various minutia possessing the possibility of being funny, interesting, or on rare occasions, both. 

Blogs, it’s been said, are today’s equivalent of yesteryear’s CB craze.  Remember when everyone bought a CB and then discovered there was no one to talk to so you sat in your in parked pick up truck and asked, “What’s your twenty?” to the neighbor across the street also parked in his driveway?  Well, think of dickmaynard.com as a CB minus the squelch knob and all that “Good Buddy” talk.