Bloggers of Extinction: A Tribute (Part III)

CONTEMPORARIES (continued)
• Lovisa — Unbearable Likeness of Bean
Site and archives are still up, but in stasis as of February 18, 2004.

Wow. This one’s gonna be tough. I have so much I could say about this brilliant yet wonderfully mysterious lady from Manitoba, but I’m going to try to keep this (relatively) brief.

As I've mentioned before, one of my current heroes is sports columnist/TV and radio talkshow host, Tony Kornheiser of The Washington Post and ESPN. On his daily radio show, in soliciting participation from his listeners, he has on many occasions described his preferred type of e-mail. His well-worn phrase in reference to e-mails is, “I’ll forgive anything for ‘smart and funny.’”

Given those criteria, Lovisa would qualify as a star pupil in Mister Tony’s school of journalism.

I discovered Lovisa, again early on in my Blogsville experience. I’m not sure whether or not it was at Kevin’s blog or not. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was actually in the comments section of one of the Filipina twin-daughters-of-different-Mothers, Leese and Fleece, who both also used to hang out at Kevin’s.

One thing I do remember is reading her blog for the very first time. It was Thursday, June 24, 2004. I had casually wandered over from a funny comment she had made on one of the aforementioned blogs. I took a look around and, as most people of the male persuasion would be, was drawn to the image of four attractive twentysomething women, standing together in what appeared to be a “girl’s night out” group pose.

Above the photo was the post’s title: “I am the lizard queen” — an intriguing title to say the least. So naturally I began reading, and soon became immersed in a beautifully poignant, wonderfully honest story of maturity versus the follies of youth. You simply must read this story if you haven’t already — I won’t even mind if you do it right now, so long as you promise to come right back.

The single greatest passage I have ever read in a blog was in that story. I literally went from near tears to pound-your-fist-on-the-table-laughter in the span of a few sentences. To wit:

“...There is a smirkle (smirk/wrinkle) affixed to the right side of my face forever now, as all those years of condescending smiles have left a permanent mark. I'm glad it's there, it serves as a constant reminder of how ugly I once acted in my attempt to be beautiful, I see it as the scar I received when I knocked myself off my self-created pedestal. The picture I posted today is one I really like not only because it was a great night, with great friends, but because I don't have many pictures of me where I am smiling like that, in most of them, I’m smirking.

A few months ago, on one of the hubby's days off, we were driving to his parents place through our old neighborhood, and two teenage girls were walking down the street, one of them dressed quite provocatively for a 16 year old girl. As we stopped at the stop sign, this girl turned to look at the car, flipping her hair as she turned her attention our way, never stopping her jiggly haughty walk, smirked, and gave us the ol' one raised eyebrow. My husband and I both burst out laughing because we both saw the same thing,(me 10 years ago) and I said in a loud voice "Oh Hon-NEEE, I used to HAVE your job" and we drove away still chuckling. This may have sounded more cruel than I intended, but I wish someone had said it to me at 16, would have saved me alot of trouble.”

What can I tell you? I was hooked. Despite my tendencies to the contrary, I always made time to visit Lovisa’s blog. She was a must-read for me. Her stories were always well thught out and executed, but not usually as serious as the first one I read. Lovisa’s sharp wit and well-read mind always found ways to interject humor into her blog stories as well. And not just “cute” humor, but comedian-style laugh-out-loud funny stuff. That, to me, is the Holy Grail of blogging; something I aspire to in my own writing. It’s something that Lovisa achieved routinely.

A couple months ago, however, she apparently began to wane in her desire to keep it all going. She never said why, but she intimated to me that she may at some point in the near future, take a break from Blogland. She did in fact did on a few occasions from late December 2004 forward, feature a few gaps of 5-7 days in between posts, before finally shutting it down on February 18th.

What would say to my friend Lovisa is merely a rehash of what I’ve already said to her in e-mails and IM sessions. When she first began talking about “shutting it down” I tried to convince her that I surely wasn’t the only one who enjoyed her writing as much as I do. But speaking for myself, I told her that not only did I get a lot of enjoyment out of everything her wickedly sharp mind could concoct, but that her writing was a huge inspiration to me. I told her that I believe she made me a better writer because I saw in her the very sense that I would like to communicate to my own readers.

But in the end I know now, as I knew then, that I was just being selfish. The decision to place one’s life out for all in cyberspace to see is alone the decision of that person. It is not incumbent upon them for any reason to write for anyone but himself or herself. And for whatever her motivation, Lovisa decided it was time to reign it all in. And while it makes me very sad to see her go, that’s good enough for me.

I’m just happy she has decided to leave her archives up and available for all to peruse. I’ve found that her stories are often better the second — or third time around.

I’m hopeful that in time she will follow in the steps of Michael and Sloth, and regain her blog-jones. Until then I just want to say thank you for your wonderful body of work as well as the endless stream of comments and laughs that you’ve shared with us all Lovisa. You are universally loved and will always be missed, by all.

My feelers are fuzzy too — just little droopier than I’d like them to be at the moment.


• The Dastard — Aliens, Guns and Boobs
Site shell, final post, and profile link are still up, but archives removed as of February 17, 2004.

I’m sorry to say my experience with El Dastardo was similar to that of Jack in that while I certainly knew of him, we spent almost no time interacting with each other. Unlike Jack’s blog however, I did read Dastard’s a bit, but not as much as I would have if of course I knew the limited amount of time I had to do it.

I believe Dastard did read my blog on occasion, although the fact that he only commented twice in all makes it difficult for me to verify that. I believe I had a better sense of who, and what kind of person he was, more so from reading what Sloth wrote about him than by any means I discovered through actual interaction.

He was a tremendously sharp, witty, and intellectual fellow, all of which made him immensely popular. His sense of humor and ability to turn a phrase was legendary. And while I regret the fact that I didn’t know him better, I think its safe to say that there are a great many more fellow Bloglanders than me whose sense of loss far exceeds mine.

So to Dastard, I tip my cap to one of Blogland’s most noteworthy citizens. Again you have left open the possibility of returning, and if you do I hope to take the opportunity to get to know you better. I hope that time is soon.


Next: Meet the new blog…same as the old blog