Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Blogger Beast


For twenty years I worked as a software developer which offered me limited opportunity to express myself creatively. Even though problem solving often requires thinking out of the box, I had no idea that I still had oodles of pent up creativity locked inside me until I retired. I was surprised how hungry I was to feed the need to create. It was like an ever-hungry beast lived inside me.

To quel The Beast, I made wreaths and floral arrangements, painted elaborate banners for my kids' elementary school, accepted more calligraphy jobs, took a Photoshop class, and several floristry classes. I even accepted a few event jobs where I provided all the decorations for weddings and bat mitzvahs. 
It turns out that these activities only whetted The Beast's appetite. Then I learned about the world of blogging. The Beast stepped up her appetite and became The Blogger Beast. 
There are times when I simply can not devote my time to feeding her, and then she slyly morphs herself into a hungry child, sweetly enticing me to feed her, one small morsel at a time. I have a choice; shall I let her go hungry or indulge her with fast food?
 
Though it hasn’t happened yet, will the time ever come when she will refuse to be fed? Will she become like a petulant child refusing to be fed?
 
I'm usually cooking up something for The Beast. On the front burner is the very next meal, almost ready to serve. On the back burner some ideas are simmering, in the fridge some thoughts are marinating, and on the counter I'm slicing and dicing the next post.
 
Sometimes I'm just planning the menu, figuring out what to feed her next. What would be delicious for my diners? Which ingredients would I like to surround myself with? How many courses should I make? It seems my Blogger Beast sometimes enjoys multi-course meals.
Then there are the times when I have to run out to get more ingredients.  If I'm lucky, I already have them in my pantry of photos, or at Getty Images or in Flickr's Creative Commons store, but sometimes I have to wait until I have time to go out to shoot. Other times I can borrow a cup of images from my neighbors like Fogbay.


Now that this is my 100th post, I realize that The Blogger Beast may not be a beast after all. Maybe she's a Blogger Sprite who only morphs into a beast only when unfed. She is a frequent presence showing me her point of view. She sits on my shoulder and points out yummy things to eat, whispering in my ear how it would make a great dish. She reminds me to carry my camera, just in case we happen upon a perfect ingredient for a future meal. Right now she is a great friend who is great company and relatively undemanding.

  

To celebrate my 100th post, I would like to have a dinner party with my blogger friends. I will of course invite Tangobaby who introduced me to the wonderful world of blogging.
Relyn will grace the evening with the uplifting, soothing, spa-like atmosphere as we come sit by her fire. Cuban in London will provide us with a great playlist filled with music a propos for the occasion. Lala will fly in from her Castle in Spain to set the table with style and grace.  No need to have wardrobe angst, The Sartorialist will provide heaps of inspiration. On the walls, we can have a never-ending parade of exhibits featuring Elsa Mora's intricate papercuts, or photos provided by Ramsey at Fogbay or Robin at Birdtweets. All will join the round table of discussion. Also at the table is the ever-interesting, multi-talented Ruth from Synch-ro-ni-zing. We can go on and on about how much we love Paris. While we are talking about travel, who better to join the conversation than the flight attendant at Postcards and Coasters and Tara at Paris Parfait? When the conversation turns political, Tara will chime in with her insightful knowledge Middle Eastern politics and culture. Gabby could regale us with some of his gripping tales. The conversation will, no doubt, turn to movies, at which time we can call upon Hollywood producer, William Horberg, for his considerable expertise in the all things film, cartooning and graphic illustrations. What a fine time we will all have in each others’ company.
This is also the perfect occasion to pay forward the wonderful awards Tangobaby bestowed upon me and others many moons ago. All of you here at the dinner party, I would like to raise my glass to you and express my admiration for your talents by giving you these awards. If you haven’t already been given this award, please come up and grab them.  If you’ve already been honored with these awards, a pair is always nice. The great news is that you will have no time limit for your acceptance speeches and you will have the opportunity to pay forward these awards to your favorite bloggers.

 


Thank you, Tangobaby for these awards and for your inspiration!

12 comments:

My Castle in Spain said...

thank you so much, dear Dutchbaby!! i accept it gladly and feel very honored..
now..let's get practical and tell me when is the dinner party ?
:-)

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! I felt like if I was reading about myself! Greetings to the Best, who perhaps is not a beast after all!

Relyn Lawson said...

Cooking is the perfect metaphor for blogging. I love it. You are such an honor. Oh, what a dinner party we are going to have. Shall we schedule it for this summer? Say, sometime in July? ;^)

LoisW said...

Beautiful post! What a wonderful way to honor all these great bloggers, many of whom I also read and love. I recognize the Blogger Beast... at times he has taken over my entire home!

Sherri said...

Love the title "blogger beast"... that's how my husband would describe it. :) Thanks for inviting me to dinner. I follow some of these blogs and would be honored to spend an evening over dinner!!

Ruth said...

I was happy when the Beast transformed into a sprite, that made me smile. It's what we make of it!

You are such a lovely, authentic blogger, and I would be honored to come for this special dinner, thank you! What can I bring?

paris parfait said...

Oh thank you! I am thrilled to be among the honoured guests at your table. What a delightful dinner party! Congrats on your 100th post - here's to your next 100 and beyond! xo

A Cuban In London said...

What a fantastic article on the pleasures of blogging. I feel so lucky to be counted amongst your cyber-friends. It is also coincidental that I was meme-tagged a couple of weeks ago by Lizzy and that post is coming out tomorrow night at 11:59pm GMT. The write-up comes with a playlist which I have just copied and reproduced here almost verbatim (minus the reasons why I chose each song). I hope it will please our lovely crowd.

On another note, did you know that 'beast' is feminine in Spanish? 'La bestia', we say. So, there you have it, you've been saying 'she/her' all the time and you were speaking my language :-). Many thanks for your images, your beautiful writing and your contributions to my blog. Find the playlist below.

1- La Martiniana, performed by Susana Harp.
2- Sounsoumba by Oumou Sangare.
3- Solitude Standing by Suzanne Vega.
4-Friendly Pressure by Jhelissa.
5- I Am Stretched On Your Grave by Sinéad O' Connor.
6-Raised on Robbery by Joni Mitchell.
7- Corre Lola Corre By Ojos de Brujo.
8- Oh Well by Fiona Apple.
9- Cristal, performed by Mercedes Sosa.
10- I'll Be All Smiles Tonight, performed by Martina McBride and The Chieftains.
11-Cupido by Maria Rita.
12- It Ain't Necessarily So, performed by Aziza Mustafa Zadeh

Greetings from London.

Gabby said...

Sweet thanks!!!!! I wish we could actually all show up and laugh together! What a time! Let's gather, say, on Crete or Santorini, or in the Seychelles. Or in Paris. To die for.

FogBay said...

Hey, it's a Beast Feast!

Congratulations on your 100th post, that's a lot of work and very worthy of being celebrated. Thank you for inviting me to your virtual dinner party. We all look forward to the next 100 posts. I'm now going to open up iTunes and sample some of Cuban's music recommendations.

tangobaby said...

Well, this is delightful. And I'm so glad you've gathered such a wonderful group of friends to celebrate your Blogging Sprite inside. (Much more fun than a Beast!)

Dutchbaby said...

Thank you all for coming to my party! If I didn't specifically mention you, please don't feel like you are not invited. Come and join the fun! There's lots of virtual room here. We'll all scoot a little closer together and even push some more tables together. Let's have another round of vino.

Dear Lala,
Thank you for setting a beautiful table for us. I think there will be a real dinner party here in July; come on down!

Dear Kacper,
I can't tell you how relieved I was when I read your comment. So I'm not the only one?

Dear Relyn,
I'm salivating already.

Dear MiddleAged,
Please feel free to bring your beast along. She can have a play date with my Blogger Beast/Sprite.

Dear Postcards,
Everyone at the table would love to hear your travel stories.

Dear Ruth,
How kind of you to offer to bring something. I didn't have to think long: eggs! Please!

Dear Tara,
Thank you for dropping by even though I know you are very busy with your daughter's wedding festivities!

Dear Cuban,
No blogging party would be complete without your wonderful selection of music. I followed Ramsey's lead and went to itunes to listen to most of the tracks (some were not available). It's a great playlist, perfect for the event. Thank you very much.

How did you guess that I went back and forth with the gender of the beast? I finally decided it was female. I'm happy to speak your language for a day.

Dear Gabby,
Now were talkin' - any of these destinations will be just fine with me. Haven't been to any of these except for Paris. I like how you think!

Dear Ramsey,
I'm so honored you came out of your shadows to come to the party. The place looks beautiful with your photos and we love learning all about San Francisco history - especially the macabre stories :)

Dear tangobaby,
See what you've started? How fun is this?

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