Saturday, April 27, 2013

SURPRISE!!! I'm back. At least for a few minutes.

Well, it's been a long time since I've been able to blog here, It's been so long that I even miss myself. It's heartwarming to see that some of the old faithful commenters still drop a note to say "Hi" and keep in touch.

I would tell you about my schedule but it would make you cry. I may be busy, but my life is going well, (With the exception of a few minor bumps), I've been having fun and I am happy, thank-you for being concerned. I've also have a few problems with carry-on sentences. I hope that all is well with you all-too-faithful-readers. Wow, are you patient!

I started blogging for quite a few reasons, I got sick to death of trying to watch television. Just when you get really interested in something they would pause for a few "Important Messages". I usually flipped through the channels while I was waiting for the "important message" to be over, but, by the time they were through with their message I would have forgotten what I was watching and be onto another program, only to be interrupted by another I. M. (Important Message) Dang, those messages are just too distracting, no more continuity in watching a program. But, I did get so good at channel-surfing that I could follow at least three programs at a time. The frustrating thing about that is, that ALL of them take a I.M. break at the same time, at the final less-than-dramatic-conclusion. Then it occurs to me that I missed out on all three stories by being distracted. The next morning I would ask someone how the stories ended. None of them knew, they all started switching channels just like me. It must be universal to do that. My wife tells me that it's only men that channel surf. But, what does she know, she actually watches a program all the way through with the sound on and everything.

The ads on TV can be very annoying also. I don't know Corky Cornwell that well but what I do know about him is good. Personally he's a good guy to be around. But dang, his commercials send me diving for the mute button. For some reason a guy dressed up in a clown suit yelling at me to buy something is not my idea of a pleasent TV viewing experience. I guess you would have to have seen one of his commercials. My wife can just sit there and watch one of his commercials all the way through without any squirms of anguish. I think that she must be deaf.

I watch "Storage Wars", or what ever it's called. I know that it's phony, but I get a kick of watching Brandy give Jerrod a bad time. Plus... Brandy is kinda fun to look at. (don't tell my wife, I have her convinced that she is the only person in the whole world that I recognize as being a female) They find things in these old storage lockers that any clear-thinking person would know that there is no way in heck would ever be found in a storage locker. Boy, they must think that I'm dumb to believe all of that stuff, but I love it when Jerrod opens a box and tells Brandy, "wow guess what this is". Ha, I know what he found... the same dang thing that he always finds... a commercial. Then I start channel-surfing and never get to find out what Jerrod found. My friends don't know either, because they started switching channels also. Sometimes I go back just to see Brandy give Jerrod a bad time, but then they open that suit case and find another commercial lurking inside. Back to surfing.

Well, most people would guess, by now, why I don't watch much TV anymore. Remember "Have Gun, Will Travel", "Maverick", Gunsmoke", "Ed Sullivan" or "The Johnny Carson Show"? You could watch the whole show with only one mid-program commercial. We ate dinner on TV trays at the living room couch. We would all pee before the programs started, because the bathroom would be to crowded at the mid-program commercial. Boy, Those were the good old days!

So... I started blogging to keep up with local community affairs. The blogs started out to be just news and conversation. They were not stuffed with commercials and other annoying interruptions. Boy, those were, also, the good old days! I always wanted to write book about "The Lost Years", back when loggers were heroes helping to build America by providing lumber and jobs. Not much is really known about the time between the early settlers and the Marijuana boom that infiltrated the South Fork canyon. So, I thought that I might try to learn to write... I'm not any better now than when I started. It's true... old dogs don't learn new tricks. I'm just as bad now as I was I high school when I failed English Composition. The only difference is, now, I just don't care. So, I write from the heart and the way I would normally speak, most people get it. I always get a kick out of people that point out how I should have said it... Obviously they know what I said or they wouldn't know what they thought that I meant to say. Dang, now even I'm confused.

I started reading other blogs, some anonymous, It was very entertaining at first. NO commercials! I soon noticed that, even though there were no commercials, the anon ones were overtly for, or against, something without saying who they were. I was always struck by the cowardly approach that they took. They would bitch endlessly about what was happening in their world that they didn't like. They were either for or against something like the commercialization of the "Balloon Tract", the bums in the wetlands, or the pros and cons on making a railroad into a playground for the yuppie set. I always thought that there should be a yuppie tax to pay for all of the supposed entitlements. But, that just comes from working my ass off my whole life instead of trying to find a place to ride my bike. I usually laugh out loud when they refer to themselves as "Thomas Jefferson", or some other famous person that once wrote anonymously... More often than not out of a fear for their lives. I keep recalling the time that Dan Quail compared himself to John Kennedy. Lloyd Bentson easily put Quail in his place by saying:  "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." I think of that everytime that the anonabloggers refer to themselves as some great figure in history. We all know who the great figures in history were. "Anonymous" is just "Anonymous". Believe me, they are no Thomas Jeffersons.

I have a tendency to mostly read the blogs by people that sign their name. Eric Kirk, Kym Kemp, Fred, Rose, Hank Sims come to mind, among many others. I don't always agree with them, but I always admire that they sign their names to what they say. But, how do we keep honest people on the blogs? They need an income somehow, so they sell out to advertisers. Sadly, the advertisers are clumsy. They place their adds across your field of vision so you have to read it to get rid of it, or you have to move it all over to see past it. I really don't know how they expect this to gain any customers. Myself, I make a mental note to NEVER buy anything from an advertiser that is so pushy as to interrupt a good blog read, then I do my best to avoid their product. Maybe I'm alone in this way of thinking, but I keep remembering all of my fellow channel surfers that leave the advertisers behind, most often to not return. If I had a blog I would not allow any advertising on my blogsite. Oh, Hey, I do... Do you see any advertising on this page? You are very, very welcome.

The other thing that bothers me is all of the new technophiles that think that they can produce a blogsite. They use some neo-whatever for a program that won't operate in any kind of existing equipment. Then They have the audacity to blame your tools. "What??? You don't have Google Chrome or Fire Fox? Boy are you dark-ages". The latest was to criticize my Android system phone. "What???, you don't have Android Four-Bazillion? how archaic". (It's a poor workman that blames my tools)

Maybe I did this post just to bitch, I don't really know, but I'd bet a lot of people "Get It".
 P.S I still have a great post in the wings... I promise. You will be amazed. Back when I was a kid they called that line a "Cliff-Hanger".

13 comments:

Fred Mangels said...

Brandy is kinda fun to look at..

Brandy is just darned cute! And I do tell the wife that. Every time Brandy shows up on the screen I say, "She's so cuuuuuute! What a hottie!".

Anonymous said...

A funny thing happened on my way to Ernie's Blog. Yesterday after reading this post I marked "pertinent" and this morning the check mark was gone. So this morning I checked pertinent and interesting and when I came back those check marks were gone also. hmmm. Maybe there should be a check mark spot for "broken" cuz the counter doesn't work either:)

Oregon

Ross Sherburn said...

I still watch reruns of Gunsmoke & Have gun will travel................

Ross Sherburn said...

Front page shows zero comments,until you go to post?

Ernie Branscomb said...

It ain't a perfect world. Maybe a blog with NO advertising just dosn't count.

Anonymous said...

I only mentioned the counter because it was fun to how many folks opened your blog. One time it got up almost a bazillion but haven't seen it work for over a year now.

Oregon

Eel River Ernie said...

Ernie, Welcome back, makes sense to me, I await your next post with baited breath!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Ernie, I get it. I work in high tech but I do not feel the urge to go buy the latest gadget that is marginally if at all better than what I already have.

Now let me offer you a solution to your IM problem. I have not watched a single ad since January 2002. That was when I first bought a Tivo DVR. I recommend it highly.

Ernie Branscomb said...

Anon
It seems that a person like me, that owns a Radio Shack, would think of something like a Tivo. However, I don't think that much of anything on telivision is worth Tivoing. Besides, what would I have to bitch about?

Rex Sherburn said...

Glad your back. I like listening to the story's from the good old days. Esspecially the ones my dad forgot, and you remember.

(Ross's Son)

Ross Sherburn said...

Rex,good to see you "aboard" !!!
Too bad Ernie is slacking..........

Rose said...

Love you, Ernie.

Anonymous said...

How about reading a book? Books can be entertaining and there are no commercials. I have not read blogs for a long time, Ernie, until I read your post today. Hi, to Janice and you!

Carol