My blog is not a popular one, and not many people know about this website. So I don’t have much of a reason to complain about hate emails and comments, or even spam.

But I do get some hate emails from time to time, and I notice they are either about song or a movie I “trashed” or about race/interracial relationships.

This is a bit confusing, because I don’t remember trashing many songs, films or novels apart from “Twilight”- and nobody complained about that. Even people who like “Twilight” like Twilight spittings, or at least don’t complain about them.

But I got one angry email concerning my not-so-favorable review of Avatar, and some people complained about my reviews of other movies, albums and novels- even if I stated I liked them. That’s right. An angry Pearl Jam fan, for example, advised me to “get back to Britney Spears” if I “can’t stand Eddie Vedder and his band”, despite the fact a) Pearl Jam is one of my favourite bands b) I like Eddie’s voice, lyrics and songs, c) it’s not really “his” band- it’s disrespectful to call it like that.

Also, some people thought I had problem with Toni Morrison (even though I said she’s one of my favourite authors), or “House M.D.” series (because I “dislike British actors (wtf?!?) or white women/black men interracial relationships”).

Which brings us to another issue: race. Race is often an issue, but the thing is, I don’t write about it. I simply don’t know much about race dynamics or have any experience with it to write about it. I did state my opinions here and there, but I never wrote about it. Yet, there are people who think I’m “siding with the enemy” (whatever that means), who think I should mind my own business, those who dislike my support for interracial relationships (or those who are angry because they think I’m against interracial relationships), and, most often, those who believe nobody should write about racism because it’s a no-issue anymore.

What is interesting about hate mail of this sort is that these people often get my gender and race wrong (which makes any of their arguments pointless), but they also often remind me I should STFU because I have no experience with race relations (well guess what- I don’t blog about it!) So I guess it has a lot to do with my involvement on other blogs that deal with race relations and racism.

What is interesting to note here is that these trolls are different than people you regularly meet online, so I guess they make a small percentage of Internet users. Still, I don’t understand why they bother, or how they (like those who think I’m trashing movies I actually like) always manage to miss the point. Completely.

Another interesting thing about authors of angry mails is that they often use contact form or find my email address without a problem, while my other visitors ignore them and post comments instead. Haters rarely comment (not that I complain), and general visitors don’t use contact form or emails. So I do find that interesting.

This post is long overdue.

Why I blog

1. I don’t. As you can see, I don’t update often. And it’s a direct violation of #1 rule of blogging: Update as much as possible. Blog often. I know all of this, and yet, I don’t have a writing schedule and I don’t take it too seriously, which results in frequent blog abandonment. Sometimes I forget to blog, and sometimes I feel I don’t have anything interesting to share.

2. I like owning a personal website. That’s how it all started, after all. I opened my first website around 2003, back in the days when blogging wasn’t popular. And I used to hate blogs and blogging, because I didn’t understand the appeal. Many people used blogs as their personal diaries, and I was never into sharing private details online. And I never enjoyed reading other people’s diaries.

But blogs soon became much more. People used them to raise issues, state their opinions and make their voices heard. This made blog reading much more exciting, but writing a quality blog proved itself to be more difficult.

My blog is tricky to define. I see it as a general (non-themed) blog, one of those you see on many personal websites. But on the other hand, it’s far from being a diary or a collection of personal reflections. This makes it, I guess, difficult to find the audience. And yet, I do have visitors- more than I had in previous years. Which brings us to:

3. Visitors. I don’t blog to get hits, but it is refreshing to see there are more visitors lately. This positive trend started about the time I decided to do something about this blog and write about subjects more people might find interesting. The site is far from being popular but for the first time, there are returning visitors and people who actually notice if I don’t update often (thanks for reminding me, Natasha and Zek!)

On the other hand, this requires a certain responsibility. Responsibility to update often and give your readers what they want (in terms of blog posts/articles). I am still learning how to be responsible when it comes to blogging.

4. Practicing my English. This one is self-explanatory. But no matter what, I don’t think my English will ever be decent enough so I could write- really write- serious stuff, such as essays or stories. It’s not a surprise but it makes me pissed.

5. Meeting new people all over the world. Not the same as “visitors” , but closely related. I can’t afford to travel (and I hope it will change!), so at the moment Internet is the only way to meet people from all over the world.

So, these are my reasons.

Dear readers,

I am sorry for not updating in a while. It happens. I was a) busy and b) suddenly sick of the Internet. Yes, yours truly was actually losing interest in the Internet. I suspect it was temporary, but still…

It happens, I guess. I completely lost an inspiration for blogging- and those senior readers know it happens to me from time to time. I don’t like to blog randomly, without any idea or structure within a post, so when I’m not inspired to write something coherent, I don’t write at all. I guess it’s the same for other bloggers, but those smart out there always have an idea for at least 3 posts in advance, so they can always use those ideas. Others simply don’t care about writing randomly. Or not updating often.

All in all, I’m here. Sorry for my late replies to your comments/emails/blog posts. Hope to be more regular these days!

And now, something really cute:

What to do when you want to post really random stuff? Join Tumblr. Seriously.

And that’s exactly what I did. See my page: Jefflion Randomness

I was completely unaware of Tumblr until a few days ago. Another bogging platform? No thanks.

But then again, I realized it is a handy little thing if you wish to post small, random things that simply do not fit into your main website. Random pictures, or short news you found somewhere. So I took it as a cross between regular blogging and Twitter.

The best thing about Tumblr is the fact you can reblog anything you like without much effort. Needless to say, I tried it and it’s useful for collecting interesting stuff all over the place.

I don’t really have a plan for that blog/website/account. All I want is to post quick, interesting and RANDOM stuff that don’t really fit in here- but are too “big” for Twitter. Sort of things that would fit my “Trash” section here- which brings me to question: what to do about it? Any ideas?

If you are a tumblr.com member, feel free to add me. Expect WTF content, stuff about archaeology and astronomy, animals, and posts about my favourite actors, musicians and movies.

jefflion.tumblr.com

In short: No, I did not abandon my site. You may all relax. All three of you, my regular visitors!

I just turned around and it’s April 16th already! So, what’s up, you may ask? Not much (as usual). I got sick and I was feeling crappy. My throat hurt and I sounded like a 60 year old guy on crack (not my usual high pitch voice- yes, in case you didn’t know, my voice is like that, well, not all the time, but I can reach some reeally high notes, especially when talking to hamsters or other animals. Yes, I talk to animals. And no, I don’t expect them to talk back, not in human language at least. Stream of consciousness paragraph ends… Now).

I am feeling better now, but I still need a few days to get into shape.

Now, about the news.

I got a new hamster. Yes, that’s right, I have a hamster again! I wanted to buy a male, because they tend to be tame and bite less than females, but I got a female instead! Her name is Polina (as you might guess, she was supposed to be Pol, read as Paul), and she is long haired Syrian. She doesn’t bite, but she is still a bit scared of me. Oh well. At least she lets me hold her a bit. I didn’t know females can be that visibly longaired!

Once again, I am sorry for not posting that long. I don’t like when I don’t update often. I do have some ideas for posts, mainly rants about crappy movies (when you’re ill you get to watch many of them), but I just didn’t have time (or energy) to update. Hope you understand!

PS- It’s nice to notice Jefflion is getting more hits, even if I don’t update. “More” means “around 15″, but I don’t complain!

Here’s what my stats have to say about searches:

Top Searches: eddie vedder, how to know if a guy is a virgin, mira buva, how to tell if a guy really lost his virginity, download mask paint shop pro.

So yeah, Eddie still rulez (apparently), even after he transformed himself into Dude Lebowski.