Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Was it something I said?

Must have miffed my first liberal.

Couple of days ago Bob Higgins of Worldwide Sawdust posted a comment at my entry, Sunday Headlines:
I have placed a link to your blog on my site at Worldwide Sawdust.
Please review my site and consider linking back to me.
Thanks
Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust
Very polite. I visited his site and saw Bloggin' Outloud listed on a blogroll called Blog Review. Probably a probationary rollcall for those blogs he's checking out. Great idea, actually. I might steal it. I noticed I didn't fit into many of his categories of interest, so I wrote back to him thusly:
Bob,
Thanks for commenting at FBO. Appreciate the link. Don't know if you realize I'm probably a little more conservative than your blogroll. lol. Have a great week. Drop by any time. lgp
I meant this only as a point of conversation. I was actually considering giving him a link. Question: How do you take my response? I didn't sound sarcastic did I? Bob must have taken offense as I'm no longer on his blogroll and I received this little (dis)missive in reply:
I am not afraid of differing opinions which is why I include links to conservative sites on my blog. What I will not include on my site or in my life is fraudulent so called Christian sh*theads.
LOL back at you.
No need to reply
Bob
Note: I re-sp*lled the colorful metaphor. And responded once again. (I'm a "blue" or "R" in those relationship quadrant dealys, so I care what people think - a bit too much maybe?):
Bob,
Thanks for the email. I like differing opinions as well. I hope you don't see me as a fraudulent Christian sh*thead. That would be the first time I received that epithet! lol. I'm actually a pretty good guy. You might have misunderstood my email (electronic medium is a tedium :-) - I simply meant to express a little question as to if you knew I was just to the right of center. As I reviewed your blog I got the impression you are a little bit left of center (am I close?). Normally, when people put me on their blogroll and ask me to consider doing the same they are part of some conservative blogroll that I'm a part of. I've not had many liberals take an interest to be quite frank. Not that I'm opposed to that - again, I'd be happy to consider a reciprocal link if you are open to discussion. That might be fun. I got the impression from your email reply that you thought I was being sarcastic and that you're miffed with me (again, correct me if I'm wrong as email isn't the best way to communicate - that's why many use abrv like lol and smileys to soften what might come across stern). I am never sarcastic in correspondence - I always assume people are sincere in their dialog requests. I like humor and have some fun on the blog and with my replies, but I never intentionally put people down. Thanks for hearing me out. Let me know if you're still open to discussion. Again, thanks for dropping by FBO. (btw, how did you arrive?) lgp
Now I ask you...

Was it something I said? I've not heard back from Bob, so I'm not sure where he wants to go from here. I'm open to suggestions. Until then, I guess I'll have to be satisfied knowing that I'm on at least one liberal blog, My Left Wing. That is, until I tell them I'm not really a liberal.

5 comments:

  1. See, and I just about refuse to put anyone on my blog roll if they ask. I don't have a particular reason for it but I equate it to asking to be put on my Christmas Card list.

    Entirely too much energy is spent on these things, I've occasionally considered deleting the whole thing for that very reason. Do you ever look at anyone else's blogroll as a general matter of course? I don't.

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  2. I didn't see anything at all wrong with your reply. You were courteous, it just appears to me that he's a wee bit on the touchy side.

    I can be rather sarcastic, but I try to make it pretty obvious when I am.

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  3. You know, some people are just touchy. I think your response(s) were fine. Maybe it wasn't the email but something else? (not sure what, haven't seen anything particularly offensive or obnoxious here of late. ;) )

    Be the duck.

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  4. Beth, Nothing too obnoxious. lol. Duck for sure...I've heard it said: "What you think of me is none of my dang business." :-)

    LadyGunn, Agreed. I like sarcasm but try to make it obvious. I guess that's the hard part.

    Tommy, Now THAT is spot on. Christmas card list. Ha. And no, I really don't review blogrolls other than to see if I'm on them :-) I've been accused (G ;-) of having the longest set of blogrolls in the 'sphere. So I eventually want to make them in a little scroll window like TWC or put them on a separate page like Pettifog. Hmm, must muse on this. Any other suggestions?

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  5. I don't think your writings to Bob were offensive at all. Let it go. ;-)

    Now, about the blogrolls. I do peruse other people's blogrolls for possible blogs I might be interested in reading. I assume that if you care enough to "roll" 'em, then maybe I'll like them too. I don't assume they are all conservative, but I expect that there will be other redeeming qualities if they are not. ;-) That said, when trying to peruse your rolls, I got lost in the forest. But then, I really restrict my blog roll to only those that I like to read on a daily basis. The others? Meh. If I happen on one that I really like, I'll blogroll them but never ask or expect that they reciprocate. If it's meant to be, we'll develop a dialog and it will happen in due time.

    Now, this is why I am some microscopic organism and you are something much more mammalian in the ecosystem. But none of that matters to me. At all. But I do like to look at my map stats to see where folks come from and look forward to the day when I'll have representatives from all around the world.

    Okay, I'll go now. Thanks for hearing me out. ;-) Keep up the good work!

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Keep it clean and positive. (And sorry about the word verification, but the spmb*ts are out in full force!)