Tue, April 8, 2003

Allow me to bask in my glimmering instant of fame.

It's probably the greatest amount of celebrity I'll ever reach, and it won't last long. Well, it's already over. But I'm proud of myself, because I won't achieve fame the way Tom Cruise or Wayne Newton can (that being TALENT, PEOPLE!!!). I have to resort to my bag of tricks, which includes very little but mostly relates to the Internet.

In another article (see link), I outlined the confluence of circumstances that brought the Daily(?) Beallsvonian to my attention. For the uninitiated, the Beallsvonian is the weblog of online blog-darling Joe Wright. He's a cool guy I know, and qualifies by his own description as a solid acquaintance. He writes a smart and funny blog (see link) and that I identify with, because my recent redesign of this site was intended to increase its blogness. A true weblog is like an online diary, so this will never be that. But in terms of collecting random hasty rants by yours truly, it has a blogesque quality about it.

Anyway, Joe's blog (or "Big Joe" as he likes to be called; actually I never asked, but I've heard people call him that and he didn't hit them – not while I was watching anyway) is funny and smart and in the entries I've read so far, occasionally talks about books (which I enjoy) and sports (which I know little about, but enjoy reading people's opinions on). Joe is a better blogger than I, in that he's prolific and he has a fairly sizable reader base. (I'm trying hard to improve on my frequency of output, but my reader base is still 35-40% Mom.) As you can imagine, I had dollar signs in my eyes right away.

In the interest of attracting a few new readers, I featured Big Joe's site in a column of mine so I'd show up as a link on his page. (This was far less debasing than asking him for a link, and fit more snugly within the boundaries of the Solid Acquaintance relationship.) I clicked the link to his site a few times to make sure that his referrer-tracking JavaScript would put me on his page, paused to read a few new entries on his site, and that was that.

But the next day... what to my wondering eyes should appear!

See, Big Joe, like me, checks his site from time to time. He noticed that a new link had appeared and he followed it. So far, so good. But, he liked what he saw! And he decided to place a permanent link on his blog! But, dear readers, it didn't end there. Joe wrote a whole entry about my site in his blog. And he said really nice things! (Follow the link to his site to read, and while you're there read a few of the other entries – they're guaranteed to please!)

So, now I'm famous. It's like The Sweet Smell of Success, or at least what I remember of it. I'm loving every minute of it. I got a table at dinner with no reservation!

(In the interest of clarity, please don't read the hyperbole above as sarcasm. I'm sincerely delighted and honored to be Joe's solid acquaintance, and thrilled to have received such considerate praise from such an erudite blogger. If I ratcheted up the embellishment, it was only in service to my Sweet Smell of Success parallel. I see the whole story as a shining example of the power of the online community.)

Well, the power of the online community and the great good that can be done by two solid acquaintances.

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