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In the Annals of Mists of Blogospheric Pre-History

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A Successful-Blog Birthday Post!

by Robert Hruzek (posted from somewhere in The Middle Zone)

It’s a birthday party for Successful Blog, eh? Two years… wow, that’s practically ancient in blogging time! (Gee, it seems weird typing “Successful Blog” without adding a link. But then, presumably you’re, you know, already there, right?)

Hmmm… (sound of scratching head) how can I adequately express my appreciation to the kindest, most understanding, and wonderful person I know in the Blogging world today? (Sound of getting whacked on the forehead – which is why I have a flat forehead.) I know – I’ll tell you a story!

Once upon a time, far, far back in the annals of mists of blogospheric pre-history (which equates to about 10 months ago in real time), I first ran across a very special person on the Internet. Well er, no, I didn’t really, um, run over her (because, you know, that would be bad); I mean I discovered Liz Strauss and Successful Blog.

Now, not knowing that much at the time about blogs and blogging in general (I had been at it for about 7 months already, but hadn’t made much of an impact – but I was learning), I didn’t really understand what I had um, stumbled upon (and that was before somebody patented the idea!). But it didn’t take long to realize that here was someone really special.

Here’s just one example.

During one of the first few times I participated in Open Mic Night (Tuesday nights – be there!), I committed a big fat hairy flub (that’s a BFHF, for you acronym fans) – right there in front of everyone. And what’s worse, I didn’t even realize it at the time! (No, Silly, I’m not going to tell you what it was! Suffice it to say That Which Shall Not Be Named was an obvious and heinous breech of blog etiquette.)

Now, as you know, putting anything out there on the Internet is like engraving it in stone. It’s there for all to see – and pretty much forever…

So anyway, instead of slicing me off at the knees (so to speak), or flaming me (hey, I didn’t know Liz back then, and didn’t know that she would never) – no, the next day she sent me a private email and just came right out and asked me: “Hey, Robert, what’s with that?”

‘Course, yours truly here (nickname: ol’ “On the Ball Bob”) responded with my usual helpfulness; if I recall, it was something brilliant like “Er, duh, wha-?”

But when I went back and looked at the offending moment (preserved, as I said, for all eternity), it was pretty clearly something I wished I hadn’t said. (Oh, that my power of foresight was as good as my power of hindsight.)

Yikes! I felt about as tall as my F12 key, and my embarrassed response was immediate. “Oops! You’re right – it does come across badly! Please erase it, and thanks for letting me see what you see.” – or words to that effect (sorry; best I can recall, since some of the ol’ grey cells have taken early retirement…)

What impressed me the most was that it was such a kind way of responding! It truly brought home to me the importance of words and their meanings, along with lots of other great stuff, like clarity, honesty, authenticity, and (especially!) forgiveness on the Net.

In fact, besides the incredible support Mrs. MZM gives me (which is a LOT, bless her!), that one incident has meant more to my writing and personal growth than any other single lesson I can think of!

Having spent the last 10 months doing my best to keep up with Liz (do you really live in my computer?) I finally gave up and settled for just contributing when I can. The conversations, the Open Mic Nights, the support, the advice (and let’s not forget SOBCon!) – it all adds up to one very special lady, and one very special place!

Happy Birthday to Successful Blog! (And of course to you, Liz – a tip o’ the hat to you!)

Robert, Middle Zone Musings

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Thank you, Robert! This story is close to my heart and I so love THAT HAT!
Liz's Signature
birthday balloon The party is Oct. 24th! Come for the surprises! Bring a link to your success!!!

Change the World: Choose the Ending

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Hey, Robert, How Can We Change the World?

changetheworld8

Yesterday, Robert Hruzek’s email arrived in my inbox with a question. Do you think this might make a Change the World story? I read it though and wrote back immediately. It’s obvious that my answer was to the affirmative.

So I’m passing along this actual event from the lives of our own, Mr. Middle Zone Musings and his dear lady. The narrative offers a twist for the ending. It carries Mr. Musing’s thoughts on how the world might be.

Choose the Ending

by Robert Hruzek

You know, it’s easy to say what one would do in a certain situation, isn’t it? To paint a rosy picture that “surely” would have been, had it really happened (yes, I know — don’t call you Shirley).

C’mon, admit it; we all like to think the best of ourselves. And you know what? We should have a positive self-talk and self-image; that’s just good mental health. But what’s the reality?

Allow me to paint a scene for you.

The other day Mrs. MZM and I had lunch at one of our favorite beaneries, Cafe Express. It’s one of those (relatively) new kinds of restaurants where you place your order, wait for your pager to buzz, and then pick the food up yourself. Condiments are over here, drinks are over there; help yourself, and thank you very much. (Hey, I’m not complaining; I happen to like it.)

We decided to eat outside on the patio so we could enjoy the beautiful weather we were having; a nice little umbrella-covered table in the corner was perfect. We had just barely gotten settled when the little flat wireless-radio-controlled-butt-massage-thingy (I always put it in a back pocket — it provides a cheap thrill!) went off, so off I went to collect our food.

And finally, to complete the scene, there was a bus boy cleaning the table next to ours.

OK, got the picture? So here we go…

As I returned and approached our table, I was still a few feet away when we heard a medium-loud “pop” (sort of like a “quiet” firecracker). We both looked around to see what made the unusual noise, but nothing was obvious — no cars passing by (there was a street right next to us), no pedestrians within reasonable distance, and no one sitting nearby seemed to notice — there was nothin’.

Oh, well. I sat down and we prepared to eat — and then I noticed a tiny white dot on Mrs. MZM’s left cheek! I looked again, and there were more white dots on her face — along with several in her hair, on her blouse, the pants she had on! Finally, as our eyes followed the trail of white dots down to the ground, we saw what had made the sound.

It was a mayonnaise packet.

Yep, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen; yours truly had sprayed mayonnaise (and with explosive force, no less) all over Mrs. MZM when I had stepped on a packet inadvertently dropped by the bus boy. In fact, we found even more of the white stuff all over my shoe, the table, the chair I had already sat in, and judging from the spray pattern, no doubt the buildings across the street!

Sheesh! Now what?

Possible Ending #1

Mrs. MZM jumped up with an angry exclamation and attempted to dab the offending condiment off her clothes, her hair, and her glasses. Her frustration was obvious to the neighboring tables as she did her best to recover with some sort of dignity. Alas, it was a losing proposition.

There was nothing that could be done about the prominent stains on her clothes, though. Well *sigh* at least it had started out as a beautiful day!

Possible Ending #2

Once we realized what had happened – Mrs. MZM burst out laughing!

We then spent a hilarious few minutes checking each other over for tiny white dots (the folks at the table next to us probably thought we were inventing a new dance step), just to make sure we got them all.

Finally, we sat down again and munched happily on our burgers, enjoying the rest of the beautiful day.

The Power to Choose

So lemme ask ya!

If you had the power to choose, then which one of these endings would you have picked?

OK, got it? All those who chose # 1, raise your hand. Fine, now all those who went for #2? Hmmm! seems kinda lopsided to me. Amazing how we all seemed to choose the happy ending.

But here’s the real money question:
If this had happened to you, which ending would have ACTUALLY happened?

Extra Special Super Duper Bonus Points:
To make it really fun, ask a friend to answer the question for you!
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So what really happened, you ask? Well, it was exactly as presented above, with ending #2, of course! Ah, Mrs. MZM – ya gotta love her!

Lucky for me it didn’t spray all over some big bruiser suffering from hemorrhoids and bristling with a bad attitude because his favorite team had just lost a key game – I might have been hurt!
–Robert Hruzek, Middle Zone Musings

We can change the world — just like that. Thank you, Robert!
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Robert Hruzek Is a B.A.D Blogger!

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Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Robert there?

BAD Blogger Button

It was a while ago when Robert emailed me that he was ready to be be a B.A.D. blogger. He warned me, though, that if I was as bad at small talk as I profess to be, the resulting conversation could be rather slow. He said that was because he’s writer, not a talker. I told him I wasn’t worried about my ability to people talking with me.

You might call it irony — that we started by talking about bridges — the bridges in Chicago and in Portland. I live in Chicago, and we have lots of them over the river that flows backwards through our city. Bob remembered them and then told me about the bridges of Portland.

I kind of liked the idea of two bloggers who don’t take to small talk starting out by talking about bridges. It seemed to lie a perfect writer’s segue.

Somehow from there we got talking about “the mysteries.” We discussed people who use the details of their job to cloud the issues by making what they do sound “mysterious.” You’ve run into them, I bet. We mentioned the print buyers who say, “Oh no, that will never work on the press,” nixing what they don’t want to do by using the mysteries of the equipment most people don’t know. We talked about folks across every industry who do the same thing.

Then, Bob told me about his grandmother’s attic where he found a love of reading. He said she had a window there with hundreds of books and magazines. He said he’d sit in the window and read. I could picture him perched in the daylight of the attic window, nose in a book, unaware of the rest of the world.

When he spoke of blogging, Bob was speaking of the cosmopolitation nature of the community. “I’ve met people from every corner of the world . . . It’s fascinating . . . I can travel with my computer . . . It’s really fun.”

So was talking our way across bridge with a guy who doesn’t like small talk as much I don’t.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

It’s truly addictive to find a voice I didn’t know I had. — Robert Hruzek

Stop by Robert’s Blog, Middle Zone Musings, and say hi!

Thanks, Robert, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Great Find: Very Short Story Contest

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Can You Say It in Six Words?

Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings is having a contest that opens Monday.

Great Find: Very Short Story Contest at Middle Zone Musings
Permalink: http://middlezonemusings.blogspot.com
Audience/Topic: Folks up for a quick fun contest.

Content: Robert is taking his lead from a Wired article, Very Short Stories. He suggests you read the article for examples of how to write a story in just six words. Here are the rules as he states them:

  1. Read (if you like) the stories in this Wired article to get a feel for how it’s done.
  2. Write a six-word story (a kinda obvious step, I know). In fact, write a group herd bunch – the more the merrier. (There are really only two rules to this contest: a) use exactly six words, and b) because this is for general consumption, I would appreciate it if you would please keep them G-rated!)
  3. For those of you with blogs, post your entry on your blog, and link back to this post here at Middle Zone Musings. Then send me an email to let me know.
  4. For those of you without blogs (and why haven’t you started one yet?), you can enter your submissions via the comments on this post. No need to email me in this case.
  5. In return, I will link back to your post (or mention you by name, if you don’t have a blog) several times during the week, and once more in the archive post.

Good Luck and enjoy the contest!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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