A Long and Blogging Road
An Editorial
By M. Chad Durham
Ever since I started taking this blogging stuff seriously I've had mixed feelings about it all. The first thing that usually pops into my mind is but this--why didn't I find out about this years ago? Am I just that dense? Was I sleeping? Why in the world did it take a couple of ditzy broads (and I mean that in the dearest sense of the term) like Jessica Cutler and Wonkette to open my eyes to this brave not-so-new world?
I landed my first journalism gig at the ripe old age of 14 and by the time I graduated high school I was writing for two newspapers. I went to college on a baseball scholarship but I wasn't altogether that good a player. Consequently, the tiny little school that chose me was void of any thing that even remotely resembled a journalism program. That was probably mistake number one. I simply got out of the habit of writing. Or maybe I’d already written so much by 18 that I just didn’t really care to write?
Writing simply wasn’t fun anymore and by the time I wound up penning mundane training manuals and programs in Austin, TX, I’d lost all drive and ambition. I didn't have a clue about where I was going in life. All I really knew was that my girlfriend at the time was really dragging me down spiritually, emotionally, and, most of all, financially. You just can’t imagine how badly I wanted a PC. No. Strike that. I NEEDED a PC. Yet, when push came to shove, I didn’t have the cash or the credit to buy one. So when the Internet was making its big move, and I was designing elaborate databases and boring manuals, I was stuck doing all my writing at home on legal pads. Needless to say, I wasn’t getting a whole lot done. I knew I had to ditch the girl and the town. I was letting them bring me down so I had to make move and finally I left them both for good.
A few years ago I bought a real computer. I joke around and tell folks I had to sell my car to buy one. That’s not really a joke. It is absolutely true. I sold my Pontiac Grand Prix for $1500 and spent just about every penny on a new computer. A friend of mine gave me a copy of Final Draft soon thereafter. That slacker wasn't using it so I guess he figured, "Why let it go to waste?" With a properly equipped PC it didn’t take me too terribly long to hammer out my first REALLY BAD screenplay. Yeah. It was really bad, but it was all mine and it was finished! I didn’t just stall out at page 33—I FINISHED!
When I first started preaching full time in Odessa, TX, I sat down a built this HUGE Web site for our church. It was truly amazing and we were getting over 30,000 hits a month, but I used a software program that quickly became obsolete and since it was virtually obsolete to begin with, I had to pay a small fortune to keep it online. I later purchased a newer version of Final Draft on my own.
Nine screenplays, five treatments, two non-fiction Christian books, and one defunct site later I still wasn’t making dime one off my writing. Oh, it could be argued that, as a minister, I was getting paid, at least in part, for my writing. Every week I was writing articles and sermons and every week I was getting paid to do it but there’s so much more to being a minister than preaching sermons and the fact of the matter is that I just wasn’t even trying to sell my secular work. I’d share it with my wife and a few close friends and that would be the end of it; back to the fireproof safe it would go.
Eighteen months ago I was so stoked about seeing Daredevil I actually sat down at my keyboard and typed a review. I don’t know why I wrote a review. I didn’t have the slightest clue what to do with it after I was through so I just posted it on the message board at Grace Centered Magazine, a place I frequented whenever I was bored. I had some really positive responses. One lady even went so far as to say I wrote reviews like a pro but, flattery aside, I just didn’t think much of it at the time.
That’s when Lee Wilson entered my life. You can say whatever you want about Lee, his politics, and Grace Centered Magazine—just don’t say it in front of me! Lee sent me an Email telling me he was going to revamp the magazine and asked if I would be interested in writing movie reviews for GCM. Would I? Heh! Well, it took us a while to get going and for us to get on the same page but I prayed earnestly to God that He would allow me this chance to write again.
Wonkette popped up on FOXNews with Jessica Cutler. That morning was the first time I’d ever heard of a blog. Do you see the natural irony here? It took a sex-scandal to educate a preacher on the many wonderful uses of Weblogs. Cutler used hers to write about her sexcapades and Wonkette used hers to write about Cutler’s sexcapdes and they both used them to further their writing careers; Wonkette as a foul-mouthed political version of Rhona Barrett and Culter as… well, we’re not too sure what she’ll be just yet.
Feeling a twinge of jealousy in my heart, I was somewhat reluctant to do one of my own. It still seemed pretty silly to me. You know, the type of thing silly girls do; silly girls like Jessica Cutler and Wonkette. I had a journal all my own, thank you very much. Why would I need to keep one online? It’s not like this preacher was getting paid four hundred dollars for a little afternoon delight. Let’s face it—my life just ain’t that interesting.
More time passed. I hopped on Blogger and created one anyway. I didn’t know what to do with it at all. I mean… everything noteworthy went into my own personal journal. Just what exactly was I supposed to do with my newfound place in cyberspace?
I was writing something to this effect in my journal at my office when Michael Savage came on the radio talking to this girl about an article she’d written. I’m not very political, mind you. I just like listening to talk radio. After they came back from a commercial break Savage said her name. It sounded so familiar to me but I couldn’t figure out why. I must’ve wracked my brain all afternoon until I finally went home to hop on the Internet. It didn’t take me long to figure out that LaShawn Barber wrote for the same Christian magazine I did. She was one of the political writers at Grace Centered Magazine!
And she has this blog, ya’ see...
That’s when it occurred to me that I should use my blog to write about what I know best—movies. I also happen to love baseball. Remember? I used to play baseball until I hurt my shoulder. Naturally it seemed logical to take my two great loves (aside from my wife and child) and mesh them into one. The Hot Corner is what we call Third Base in baseball but you might also note that LaShawn calls her blog LaShawn Barber's Corner. I'm sure on some subconscious level even the title of her blog gave birth to mine.
Ever wondered why a non-political movie buff like me has links to two ultra-conservative bloggers placed so prominently in the right hand column? Now you know! This blog wouldn’t be here if not for them. I don’t even know LaShawn and I hardly know Lee, but they are the reason I’m here.
And the reason I have a new…
Well, I’ll share that with you next week. Sufficient to say, it has been a long and blogging road to get here today.
Thanks again for all your love and support!
By M. Chad Durham
Ever since I started taking this blogging stuff seriously I've had mixed feelings about it all. The first thing that usually pops into my mind is but this--why didn't I find out about this years ago? Am I just that dense? Was I sleeping? Why in the world did it take a couple of ditzy broads (and I mean that in the dearest sense of the term) like Jessica Cutler and Wonkette to open my eyes to this brave not-so-new world?
I landed my first journalism gig at the ripe old age of 14 and by the time I graduated high school I was writing for two newspapers. I went to college on a baseball scholarship but I wasn't altogether that good a player. Consequently, the tiny little school that chose me was void of any thing that even remotely resembled a journalism program. That was probably mistake number one. I simply got out of the habit of writing. Or maybe I’d already written so much by 18 that I just didn’t really care to write?
Writing simply wasn’t fun anymore and by the time I wound up penning mundane training manuals and programs in Austin, TX, I’d lost all drive and ambition. I didn't have a clue about where I was going in life. All I really knew was that my girlfriend at the time was really dragging me down spiritually, emotionally, and, most of all, financially. You just can’t imagine how badly I wanted a PC. No. Strike that. I NEEDED a PC. Yet, when push came to shove, I didn’t have the cash or the credit to buy one. So when the Internet was making its big move, and I was designing elaborate databases and boring manuals, I was stuck doing all my writing at home on legal pads. Needless to say, I wasn’t getting a whole lot done. I knew I had to ditch the girl and the town. I was letting them bring me down so I had to make move and finally I left them both for good.
A few years ago I bought a real computer. I joke around and tell folks I had to sell my car to buy one. That’s not really a joke. It is absolutely true. I sold my Pontiac Grand Prix for $1500 and spent just about every penny on a new computer. A friend of mine gave me a copy of Final Draft soon thereafter. That slacker wasn't using it so I guess he figured, "Why let it go to waste?" With a properly equipped PC it didn’t take me too terribly long to hammer out my first REALLY BAD screenplay. Yeah. It was really bad, but it was all mine and it was finished! I didn’t just stall out at page 33—I FINISHED!
When I first started preaching full time in Odessa, TX, I sat down a built this HUGE Web site for our church. It was truly amazing and we were getting over 30,000 hits a month, but I used a software program that quickly became obsolete and since it was virtually obsolete to begin with, I had to pay a small fortune to keep it online. I later purchased a newer version of Final Draft on my own.
Nine screenplays, five treatments, two non-fiction Christian books, and one defunct site later I still wasn’t making dime one off my writing. Oh, it could be argued that, as a minister, I was getting paid, at least in part, for my writing. Every week I was writing articles and sermons and every week I was getting paid to do it but there’s so much more to being a minister than preaching sermons and the fact of the matter is that I just wasn’t even trying to sell my secular work. I’d share it with my wife and a few close friends and that would be the end of it; back to the fireproof safe it would go.
Eighteen months ago I was so stoked about seeing Daredevil I actually sat down at my keyboard and typed a review. I don’t know why I wrote a review. I didn’t have the slightest clue what to do with it after I was through so I just posted it on the message board at Grace Centered Magazine, a place I frequented whenever I was bored. I had some really positive responses. One lady even went so far as to say I wrote reviews like a pro but, flattery aside, I just didn’t think much of it at the time.
That’s when Lee Wilson entered my life. You can say whatever you want about Lee, his politics, and Grace Centered Magazine—just don’t say it in front of me! Lee sent me an Email telling me he was going to revamp the magazine and asked if I would be interested in writing movie reviews for GCM. Would I? Heh! Well, it took us a while to get going and for us to get on the same page but I prayed earnestly to God that He would allow me this chance to write again.
Wonkette popped up on FOXNews with Jessica Cutler. That morning was the first time I’d ever heard of a blog. Do you see the natural irony here? It took a sex-scandal to educate a preacher on the many wonderful uses of Weblogs. Cutler used hers to write about her sexcapades and Wonkette used hers to write about Cutler’s sexcapdes and they both used them to further their writing careers; Wonkette as a foul-mouthed political version of Rhona Barrett and Culter as… well, we’re not too sure what she’ll be just yet.
Feeling a twinge of jealousy in my heart, I was somewhat reluctant to do one of my own. It still seemed pretty silly to me. You know, the type of thing silly girls do; silly girls like Jessica Cutler and Wonkette. I had a journal all my own, thank you very much. Why would I need to keep one online? It’s not like this preacher was getting paid four hundred dollars for a little afternoon delight. Let’s face it—my life just ain’t that interesting.
More time passed. I hopped on Blogger and created one anyway. I didn’t know what to do with it at all. I mean… everything noteworthy went into my own personal journal. Just what exactly was I supposed to do with my newfound place in cyberspace?
I was writing something to this effect in my journal at my office when Michael Savage came on the radio talking to this girl about an article she’d written. I’m not very political, mind you. I just like listening to talk radio. After they came back from a commercial break Savage said her name. It sounded so familiar to me but I couldn’t figure out why. I must’ve wracked my brain all afternoon until I finally went home to hop on the Internet. It didn’t take me long to figure out that LaShawn Barber wrote for the same Christian magazine I did. She was one of the political writers at Grace Centered Magazine!
And she has this blog, ya’ see...
That’s when it occurred to me that I should use my blog to write about what I know best—movies. I also happen to love baseball. Remember? I used to play baseball until I hurt my shoulder. Naturally it seemed logical to take my two great loves (aside from my wife and child) and mesh them into one. The Hot Corner is what we call Third Base in baseball but you might also note that LaShawn calls her blog LaShawn Barber's Corner. I'm sure on some subconscious level even the title of her blog gave birth to mine.
Ever wondered why a non-political movie buff like me has links to two ultra-conservative bloggers placed so prominently in the right hand column? Now you know! This blog wouldn’t be here if not for them. I don’t even know LaShawn and I hardly know Lee, but they are the reason I’m here.
And the reason I have a new…
Well, I’ll share that with you next week. Sufficient to say, it has been a long and blogging road to get here today.
Thanks again for all your love and support!
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