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Captain Pike's Ship Log II

An Ego-Maniac's Resolution

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by
Captain Pike
, 01-04-2008 at 05:58 PM (2069 Views)
Well it seems that I've been tripped up again by my own ignorance.
Putting one's categories atop one's blog allows for a dandy way to peruse the entries.

I want to write today about how my ego gets me to do stuff that, later on, embarrasses me!
I just figured out how the previous and next blogger control buttons work, this enables me to move up and down through a person's particular category.
Reading through B-Mental's blog entries, it is as though my mind is fertile soil and all kinds of new growths have sprang up -- responses I'd like to make. They're sprouting, I suppose from seeds which have fallen off the crops making up his blog entries. These make for interesting avenues I'd like to explore, sometimes personally, that is, not as a posted message for anyone to read.

Now, this cross pollinating process doesn't just happen with Pete's stuff, the same goes for a whole handful of other people here. You know you are, I'm not mentioning any more names because, leaving someone out is more hurtful than the good that comes from listing them individually, if that makes any sense. Oh, OK... some of their initials are {mtpspur, Pendragon, Countess, MAXIM, SleepyWitch, The Fifth Element ,motherhubbard, jon1jt, kiz_paws... (sorry, kiz, I put you last) } the list goes on; and then there's a bunch of others I admire, but, I've not "spoken" to personally. The thing is, and this keeps happening to me, I'm, I guess you'd call it, embarrassed about myself, again. I don't take the time, to read through the threads, before I'm "out there" responding! Just figured that my opinion is so damned necessary, RIGHT NOW, that I've gotta go respond before the phone rings, for example. I'm always getting preempted by something here.

Let me give you an example. I first figured out that B-Mental had something to do with offshore oil drilling when I read his entry on his birthday, about rough seas. I felt it necessary to talk on about how I used to be a professional guy too -- traveling, willy-nilly, around here and there, the answer to somebody's problem. At least I held back on telling everybody (through his blog) that I was familiar with the high seas through Sailing Ocean Yachts (oh, am I grand!), which is true -- my parents always had a sailboat, and in their last years as an active couple, it was in the ocean. I might have even gone into how I wanted to buy a cruising boat and take my last kid and my girlfriend for a year tour of the Caribbean, until I broke my neck.

Wa,...wa,...wa, I can always get some sympathy if I end my sentence with "until I broke my neck"! So anyway, I made the biggest post of all. Just like back in grade school, always wanting to be the center of attention. Too bad though, cause, by the time I got to high school, the only clique that would except me was the druggy crowd.

The embarrassing thing is, what I'm the most interested in, is me! So, I've got some issues. But I think you guys are really the greatest! And interesting? Sometimes, I can't wait to get back online, to see how this or that turns out. I think there's a lot of crap floating around the Internet -- and this is the thing that gives it a bad name. But somehow, the world seems navigable, to me as I get to know some of you.

Whether it's traveling through India by train, or seeing the Northern lights with someone, stopping off in the East Village for a beer and some onions in a barroom frequented by most of my favorite authors and some pretty cool presidents. And then negotiating the choppy Gulf of Mexico (after having just gotten away from the land of the midnight sun) and then seeing how a real man makes his way toward retirement, still in love with his wife and willing to be there for his kids! Wow, I really had, A Wonderful Life!

I resolve that in 2008, I will give back the respect which I received when I first came here, to the newbies (and the old-timers --ha, ha!) who arrive here, brimming with talent and ego, just like me.
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Comments

  1. Shalot's Avatar
    You know - I am so guilty of posting in other's people's blogs about myself in response to what they've typed. I somehow am incapable of just typing something TO that person that doesn't involve a little story about me. I'm doing it again right now. However, at least I posted. Me, personally, I am so thrilled when those same six or so blogging friends of mine post a response to my blog, no matter how short. and if he/she starts talking about themselves, I don't care because I am just so happy to get a response.

    Actually, I don't think I've typed anything in your blog Captain Pike, so I am going to use those previous and next buttons and peruse it for a while. So, I may post a couple here and there. Toodle Pip! (sorry - this goodbye phrase appeared in a thread and I've just been dying to use it).
  2. B-Mental's Avatar
    Ahoy Captain! Avast ye scurvy dog hearkening the B in such o' manner is offense punishable by walkin the plank. Nice entry Capt. P. I'm sure you speak for many of us in this last entry. I am like Shalot, and I enjoy any and all comments. When you posted on my blog about knowing Fourchon, it was nice to know that I'm not the only one on the site that knows where it is. I think the blogs are just a closer knit version of lit-net. It is a little more agreeable in these warmer waters. Now, what about that trip around the carribean? Some things might change, but I bet it would still be one helluva trip. Cheers, B.
  3. mtpspur's Avatar
    I am painfully and yet pridefully aware that every posting I do gets back to all about me. Very hard to maintain a sense of reaching out when you aren't quite sure what the response may garner. Am catching up on the blogs today and tomorrow but while I'm at it I thought your Christmas radio show participation had to have been a grand time. So you're not alone. And I always look forward to your life stories as well as others and they too should by now know who they are.
  4. Countess's Avatar
    Hey Captain Pike, in NA they say "Share your experience, strength and hope". How can one share one's "experience, strength and hope" if one doesn't share about oneself? We relate to each other out of the self, so I don't think it's wrong to talk about yourself if you are relating your experience to theirs. Anywho, happy NY. I DO miss your anecdotes about NY.
  5. applepie's Avatar
    I think we are all pretty guilty of this Captain Pike. Some of the fun is learning about others through what they have to add from their own experience. I'm sure if you look through your own blog, others do the same to you:lol:
  6. Dori's Avatar
    I'm guilty. Although half of my posts are usually ones concerning recommendations and myriads of links to amazon.com and free online texts (to various translations, of course!), the other half are about me (and that's the way it should be! ). For example, I will talk of myself right now: of course the following is just me joking around with my friends, but I like giving them things (anything that I wont make use of, a dollar perhaps) and then stating out loud "I sometimes feel oblidged to be selfless at times. What can I say? I'm a philanthropist." Hahaha. I'm probably the most arrogant and self-centered of my group of friends.
  7. kiz_paws's Avatar
    Well, you owed no explanation, as far as I was concerned, Cap'n. Your opinions are value in my eyes, and I like to read about you and how you think/feel and all of it. I don't care what folks write in my blog, I know that I am amongst friends. I do hope, though that what I say in a blog will be taken the way I intended, and not misconstrued -- that is the difficult thing in writing as opposed to speaking. But anyhow, we are all in the same boat there, right? So carry on, no need for any resolution, and I look forward to your next entry! Yay and Happy New Year to you and your family!
  8. 's Avatar
    Hello, Captain,

    I wanted to comment on your entry with a clear head and was also a bit busy and hence so late a reply.

    While thinking out the reply, I felt that I should first look for any chinks in my armor; and I could see so many dents there, that I feel that there is only a bit of armor (that also, wafer thin) in between all these dents. Also I don’t know for sure that this bit of armor that is there and what I like about myself, whether it can withstand a major crisis in life. Nevertheless, this is what I will say.

    I think, a real person, as God would want us to be, has to be very selfless. A truly selfless person would naturally be very compassionate and courageous in all demanding situations.
    On the other hand, a normal person is generally more interested in self than others (except maybe his/her children) and moves around with an ego. He likes to be appreciated, to be well known, would have tendency to show off, to act superior once in a while. Everybody who writes in lit net wants to be read by others. To feel happy, to feel blessed at our success is a good thing. But letting the success go into our heads, to have bloated ego, to feel self-important, pompous and looking down upon others with contempt or superiority is not a wise thing. I don’ put you in the category of these persons.

    I like this line in your blog: I'm just starting to realize that I don't know as much as I thought I did. But I'm still learning -- still teachable.
    It is also very much valid for me.
    Also, if you call me great, than you are 10 times greater.

    Maxim


    P.S.: Your writing MAXIM in capitals in your entry amused as well as embarrassed me. I had made a very casual entry into the forum by typing Maxim in capital letters. The name was taken from Maxim De Winter from Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier as Kathy ( Kathycf) rightly pointed out. One day, many months later, I just typed ‘Maxim’ in Google search and understood what AimusSage meant when he welcomed me in introductions by saying ‘Although it's probably a great character, to my personal and completely strange amusement the first thing that popped into my mind was a totally different Maxim.’ I have sometimes felt I should have chosen a simple name like’ lazyfellow’.