"Speak Up!" Is Addictive

Another Sunday night is here and it's usually the time when I sit back to ponder what I accomplished over the past two days. If I subtract the hours I was asleep, I probably had approximately 30-32 hours available for me to use.

Let's see...we went out for Chinese on Friday night. I did my usual weekly 'chore' (grocery shopping) and found time to read newspapers both Saturday and Sunday morning. I took our son to buy a 'school photo-worthy' shirt for his class pictures and took him to some other places during a quick errand run. I continued dubbing our home movies over to DVD--a tedious process. I bought a copy of Frank Rich's new book "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" and read the first chapter last night. I've been watching football both yesterday and today--well, it was playing in the background (like it is now). However, the activity that occupied most of my waking moments was participating on the DDN's online forum, aptly titled "Speak Up!".

I first visited this site earlier in the year when I signed up for a user account for accessing the paper's online services. Previous to this, I've never been that involved with any online message boards and conserved my words for emails and IMs. I started off as a 'lurker'--someone who simply went through the listed subjects of discussion to read the exchanges between the more extroverted users. As a political 'wonk', I gravitated towards titles reflecting that particular type of activity might be present. As I started my reading, I noticed that there appeared to be two distinct online 'tribes'--corresponding to the major competing political ideologies of the day. Needless to say, I began to empathize more with the 'blue' group and was able to identify the 'red' members very readily. I can't remember what my first posting was about but I did receive a 'high five' from one of my future compatriots for my support on that issue. That kind act reinforced my desire to join in on this 24/7 discussion on a more regular basis.

And how true that has been! As I'm writing this, I'm checking the boards every few minutes to see the latest responses and check if anyone is taking me to task personally. I've taken up a 'vigilant' posture--if someone posts something that doesn't jibe with my understanding of our current version of reality, I take it upon myself to address the poster's issue and either correct them or refute their assertions. There are a few from the 'red' tribe that add items just to stir up a response from us (I won't mention their online 'handles' but if you look through the exchanges, they'd be recognized rather easily) and some of us 'blues' have started to do the same thing. Some exchanges get rather heated and people do step right up to the line drawn by the site concerning appropriate behaviors. I have to take mandated breaks from "Speak Up!" when I'm at work (my employer would not like me spending my entire day in contentious online debates) so I cannot keep up with other users who are retired or have more amenable working environments than I currently have. As with other 'manias', this one shall pass...

I wasn't selected as the winner in last week's "Open Mike" contest so my identity still remains cloaked in mystery. My submission had the person saying "he was what he was"--a take-off of one of his more famous catch phrases. The winner mentioned spinach and the deceased's long-suffering girlfriend. I got a headstart on this week's entry (pictured below) on Friday evening--as of this posting, I've submitted 16 different entries. I now have to wait until Tuesday to see if I've again earned the board's favor.

Right now, I'm not looking so good for winning my third straight fantasy football game. Two players that I was undecided about had very good games today; unfortunately, I benched them right before the 1:05 kickoffs in favor of more dependable guys who didn't perform as expected. As of 4:00 left in the 3rd quarter of the Bears-Seahawks game, I'm down by 26 points (my opponent and I each have one player involved in this game and we have others that don't play until tomorrow evening). Granted, one of my Monday night participants is Donovan McNabb--the highest rated player in our league--but he'd have to have an extraordinary evening (300+ yards, 4-5 passing/running TDs) just for me to get close. My opponent has one of McNabb's favorite targets (WR Donte Stallworth) as a starter so Donovan's success will probably involve him. I believe that the Warbirds winning streak is history...ah, but it's only a game!