Does Posting Junk on Facebook Count as Blogging?

I make a lot of brief comments on news stories I find online on my Facebook page, as opposed to doing so with Blogger because Facebook is quicker, easier, and more widely read than my blog. 

The only problem I have is that blog writing is already substantially shorter and less formal than the traditional article writing I used to do ten years ago, and now with Facebook, I'm abbreviating it even more. 

In short (no pun intended), I'm not really getting much writing done at all.  I'm falling in to the same trap as so many these days who share their thoughts in shorter and shorter bursts - you can see how Twitter has made this epidemic with nothing but bad acronyms and a new sort of digital photography that makes the grammar junkie in me just cringe. 

I think those of us who still care about the English language, intelligent conversation, and the value of reading need to be careful about how far we go to embrace the shortening of the American attention span, and take the time to stop, think, and write something worth reading when we find something worth saying. 

I can’t believe that guy was married to Madonna

That was our reaction after seeing Sherlock Holmes and taking note of its director.

The film was brilliantly edited, with clever dialogue, a crisp pace, and a fascinating plot. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law are outstanding in it.

In short: Go see it. You'll enjoy it.

Offline Blogging

I couldn't find an open wireless network at the moment (we're having dinner at the Johnny Rockets before we head off to see Sherlock Holmes), but with the MS Word blogging feature, I can easily write an entry and save it for upload later without having to cut and paste or anything.

It's sunny and 75˚ in the west valley today. Brutal weather for January.

I just found something really cool in Word 2007

You can create blog entries right in MS Word and have them posted directly to your online account (assuming you use a common blog provider).

I think it's fantastic that I can use Word to write blog entries. Score one for Microsoft – this is a great idea.

Avatar: James Cameron's Magnificent Hatred of All Things American

As one friend of mine put it, the plot of Avatar "...breaks no new ground."

That about sums it up.  While the movie is wrapped up in brilliant special effects, it is, in essence, a re-telling of so many films that have been designed to make us feel guilty to be American that I had a hard time picking just one film that Cameron ripped off.

There's the "evil corporate greed" theme, the "no-blood-for-oil" theme, the "save the forests" theme, the "oh my we are so mean to the indigenous peoples" theme, the "imperialist American military is bad" theme, and so on and so forth et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

It's pretty sad when the only bad guy Hollywood wants to use in film these days is ourselves. 

Oh, and a memo to Blizzard Entertainment:  Cameron also ripped off about a dozen elements from your World of Warcraft franchise.  You might want to either sue him for it, or hire him for your upcoming movie.