| | Three Year Xangaversary Celebration: Part 1A SELECTION OF MY COMMENTS FROM 2004: in celebration of my upcoming 3rd Xangaversary
 Dear Readers, Subscribers, and Friends,
At exactly 11:12 am on the morning of May 31, 2004 I wrote my very first blog entry on my shiny new Xanga blog. I was invited to check out the Xanga service by Lisa (Ladyblue1), a poetess who belonged to "ElectricPoetry", my Yahoo Poetry Group. I already wrote a few blogs on Blogger, but I was impressed by the "comments" feature on Xanga. I've been here for three years. This morning, I finally decided to start cleaning up my subscription list. There are so many who have stopped blogging, and there are so many who do not, for whatever reason, respond to my comments on their blogs. I deleted about ten subscriptions this morning. Over the past month, I have attempted to "reconnect" with some of these bloggers, and after about 3 messages, without reciprocation, I have deleted my subscriptions. I figure "three strikes" and then you're out. The "reason" behind being able to comment, for me, is interaction. There are only so many hours in a day, and only so many comments I can write. I don't just leave a line or two, either. I actually read the blogpost carefully. I read older posts to get a feel for the "person behind the blog". I read the profile, and most importantly, I check to see if the blogger has a website, and I visit there as well. I absorb a lot before I comment, and I know I can get somewhat verbose, (the title of my blog is WhenWordsCollide after all) but usually the response I get from people is that they appreciate the time I take.
A blog is a website which hopefully stays online. I thought it would be fun to check out some of the comments I left when I first started blogging on Xanga. I can't post any from sites which are now gone. The following comments were posted from June 19 to July 18 of 2004. This is just a selection. I didn't blog for a month after I set up the Xanga account. I find it so very cool that I still correspond with a few of the very first people I 'met' here. I have not been spammed much, or stalked, or flamed. I try to treat everyone equally, with respect, courtesy, and graciousness.
So lets take a journey to the past. If you've ever gotten a comment from me, you will see that I haven't changed much in my method of operation. I always respond to the blog entry to which I am commenting. I plug whatever project I'm working on, with links. And I sometimes include an "answer poem" or something esle I have already written that ties in with what I've just read.
I didn't want to "edit" these, and throughout the next couple of weeks I intend on posting some more of my older comments. Perhaps you'll find yourself among the bloggers. I still occasionally read at least three of the blogs listed below.
Michael F.Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
June 19, 2004: Ladyblue1:
Hi Lisa, It's me. Michael Nyiri, ppf.
Who is the singer/song playing on your blog. I've been listening to it all morning. (I just keep going to your site to listen again.) The voice sounds really familiar, and I don't know the particualr song. Thanks, I was going to email you thought I would "communicate" directly from your blog. I like this feature so much I have started to "create" a blog at Xanga as well. Let me know by email when you get the message.
Sometimes the world seems to be closing in around us. Sometimes the edge of the ocean calls and it is soothing. Sometimes the only place to go is deep within our hearts, hearing the voice of humanity call softly, and whisper love in our ear.
I was surfing the net and came across your blog here, and heard a voice calling into the ether. Sometimes that voice chokes on reality, and the tears it cries are real.
I thought the words in your poems are heartfelt angry and painful, and you are so young. Take care of yourself, it's a cliche, I know, but I can feel for you and hope that everything in your life is filled with hope and care.
Michael F.Nyiri
poet,philosopher,fool
AllThingsMike ElectricPoetry
July 11, 2004: Phoenix808:
Dear Malia,
I wanted to drop by and thank you for "subscribing" to my new webendeavor, WhenWordsCollide on this Xanga webcommunity. I chose this entry on which to reply, not because of the inner thoughts with which you are exposing but because I remember going out and climbing up on the roof in times of stress and in times of happiness, to "get a little closer to the Godhead" and away from "humanity". Well, I won't take up too much of your time. I like the easy way the Xanga community makes it to easily locate someone who has left a comment, eprops, guestbook entry, or otherwise responds to one of the personal blogs. Your choice of music is well done. It doesn't distract from the experience of reading the entries, like some of them do.
Thank you again for subscribing, and it looks like you have a good head on your shoulders.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet,philosopher,fool
Dear Shola,
Firstly, Thank you for posting a comment on my Xanga endeavor, WhenWordsCollide, which is part of the AllThingsMike Universe. After blog after blog after blog, I found this place thanks to a fellow Xangaphile? or Xangaphobe? and I am using it for blog entries for all my endeavors. I really like these "comments sections" which make the website/journal sort of like a vast message board. When someone "drops in out of the blue" it is really rather nicely surprising, and reading the comments are (so far, anyway) like opening Christmas presents. I thought "Bowling for Columbine" should have been given away as a "free rental" at the video store. Everybody should be able to see that film. Remember, Marilyn Manson, like Alice Cooper before him, whom he emulates, is merely putting on a "show" with his persona. It is part of the music he makes. The human being is a thoughtful individual, as the section in the film shows beautifully. I thought the scene with Chuck Heston was sad, however. I could tell by watching him that he has Alzheimer's. He is acting like he's "reading a script" from somewhere deep in what is left of his consciousness. I asked my roommate (whose mother recently passed at 82 after battling the disease for many years) if he could tell Chuck was suffering with Alzheimer's in the movie, and my roommate thought so too. I also agree with your assessment that "life can send you something valuable from the most unlikely places!" If life could only send more people something valuable who don't seem to understand that this value does in fact exist, then the world would probably be better off.
Sincerely,
Michael F. Nyiri, poet,philosopher,fool
I just love this new "Xanga" community. I never "met" anyone at Blogger, they didn't have these "comments" sections which turn the whole webauthoring experience into one large message board. I got your address from a comment on another address, etc, etc, etc, and have been "wandering around" for a half hour or so, and didn't want to leave without "posting a comment". I know that the "eprops" feature doesn't work when just posting in a guestbook, so I picked this older post (so perhaps you'll never read this, but that's the way things go, I guess.) because it mentioned both Reagan and Liberals. I consider myself a liberal, and I thought I'd post for you an entry I posted on one of the friendship groups to which I belong the afternoon Reagan died. Also hope you aren't having anymore problems with "hackers". I recently had to re-install the Windows XP operating system in my main computer after I "picked up a virus" from websurfing, even though I have all the antivirus software and firewalls one could think of. I hope I didn't "catch anything" by clicking on the link you provided for somebody calling themselves old and smelly. Well, anyway, here's my "reminiscence" of Ronald Reagan, written the day he passed away. From a liberal standpoint.
I just got back online after a wonderful day at the movies, and then
I came home and turned on the television after my roommate Joel told me that Ronald Reagan had died.
Firstly, I am a democrat, but in 1972, I was a Young Republican campaigning for Nixon's second term. I saw Reagan speak at a campaign rally at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was still governor of California.
I loved Reagan's films, especially "King's Row" in which his character loses his legs after being run over by a train, and when he finds out screams "Where's the rest of me." (The title of his autobiography, by the way.)
Just last week, I rented the TV movie with James Brolin, and he did a wonderful job of "disappearing" into the role of this very famous, very public individual. I thought the movie version was a credible biography, and enjoyed hearing the story again.
My thoughts, knowing personally what Alzheimer's can do, are these.
(My roommate Joel's mother Lois, whom I had known for several years, suffered from the disease, and I saw what it did to her over the past seven years before pneumonia struck her down, as it did the former President.) Reagan was 93 years old, and had suffered the disease for over a decade. It was said on some of the news retrospectives that he actually had the disease in his last two years in office. It is interesting to note that he was 77 years old when he left office, the oldest President we have ever had in this country.
He is also, along with FDR and Washington, the most popular President. I can talk about what I didn't like about his politics, but as a memorial to the man, I always loved to hear his speeches. I cringe when I hear Bush Jr. talk on TV, but Ronald Wilson Reagan always had the ability to soothe me and to compose me , no matter what he was talking about. He was, truly, the "Great Communicator" and he had always had this gift for words.
When Reagan was the governor of California (an actor in the governor's mansion, hmmm, that is so familiar to us Californians) he actually wrote his own speeches. He really knew how to communicate to his consituents, and to the populace at large. He was, like me, a "fan" of the common homily, and even though he could "skirt the issues" at times, he had a ready rejoinder to almost anything that was thrown his way.
I respect him and his Presidency, even though I don't respect some of the events (Iran Contra scandal, trickle down economics) that transpired during his Presidency.
America lost his "communication" skills with the advent of Alzheimer's. I feel sorry for Nancy, who truly loved him, and who dedicated her life for the past decade or so to caring for him. I wish her strength and pray for her.
The world has lost another, but it will go on. Reagan will be ubiquitous on the television for at least a couple of days, as are all our icons when they pass.
We shall, as they, pass, in time.
I salute the memory of the man who defined America for the eight years he was in office.
I miss him. In heaven he will finally "remember" everything.
Michael F. Nyiri
poet,philosopher,fool.
I'll have to come back and check out some more of your witticisms and observations.
Yours Truly,
Michael F. Nyiri,poet,philospher,fool
AllThingsMike ElectricPoetry
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I have written 650 comments in the first half of 2007. I wrote 2275 comments in 2006. I wrote 3150 comments in 2005. From May till December, I wrote 600 comments in 2004. To read your own older comments, go to the "Your Comments" link in your profile information module. MFN
