Blog of a crazy man

As of today I am officially 18 years old!

In other news: A total eclipse of the sun was visible in some parts of the world today.

Coincidence? I think not.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out my official chat room.

I distrust bloggers. That may sound strange coming from a blogger, but that’s exactly the reason why I don’t trust bloggers. Because I’m a blogger, I know that bloggers are responsible to no one but themselves, and that’s just asking for trouble. Accuracy doesn’t matter to a blogger, ad revenue does. The only way to get ad revenue is to get more readers, and the fastest way to get more readers is to post the most sensational story that comes to mind. Bloggers can be relied on for accuracy no more than the crazy guy on the street corner who claims he can talk to cockroaches.

Yet everyday, it seems, there is some new story about how blogging is going to replace mainstream media–newspapers, television, and radio. As much as I like to blog and read the blogs that others have created, I don’t go to them for journalism. Instead, I go to the BBC, the New York Times, and other traditional news media. What I do, however, go to blogs for is opinion.

Journalism is about facts and objectivity. When a journalist sits down to write an article for the local newspaper he’s worried about giving the facts and about telling what happened without telling you what he thinks about it. That’s hard to do, and more importantly, it’s something that 99% of bloggers can’t do.

Blogging is about opinion. When a blogger sits down to write he’s not worried about getting the facts straight. He’s worried about telling you what he thinks, and why you should think that way too. His job is doing something that a journalist should never do–give his opinion.

Journalism and blogging are complements to each other. Blogging picks up where journalism leaves off. Bloggers expect their audiences to already have facts. They write for the people who know the story but want to get somebody else’s view of it. Blogging can’t survive without journalism to prepare the audience with facts. Only once journalists have given the audience the facts does that audience turn to bloggers to give it opinions.

The helping works both ways. Once bloggers have given the audience an opinion and given meaning to the story, the audience becomes interested in the story and goes back to journalists to get more facts about it. It’s called a positive feedback loop. Journalism encourages blogging, which encourages journalism. One can’t usurp the other because they are both necessary parts of the same system.

By the way, the cockroaches agree with me on this one.

I’m too busy to write a real post (although one is in the works) so I’m going to post this extended definition of intimacy that I wrote for English class. I’m afraid to post it; you can figure out why.

The Princeton University’s WordNet dictionary defines intimacy as “a close or warm friendship” and “a feeling of belonging together.” Intimacy is friendship, but it is also much more. Intimacy is more than just liking someone or someone’s company. Two people can like each other and never be intimate. Intimacy is a deep familiarity. It is a familiarity that recognizes more than just what a person looks like, what they like, what they dislike, or what they have been through. Those are all parts of intimacy, but by themselves, these things are not intimacy. Intimacy is a familiarity with who a person is. Intimacy requires that two people be able to open up themselves to each other, without fear, and be confident in telling their inner most secrets to each other. More than that, they must want to know and cherish those secrets as if they were their own. Intimacy requires a familiarity akin to oneness. It requires that two people be inseparable, not necessarily in the physical sense of the word, but in the spiritual, emotional sense. A person who has experienced true intimacy is always thinking of the other person and trying to do what would be pleasing to that person and best for that person, even if the other person is not around.

Intimacy does not have to be between two people. It can, and must, also be a relationship with Jesus Christ. For someone to have intimacy with another human being, that person must first have intimacy with Christ. Christ is the foundation for all human intimacy and love. Without Him, relationships would be hollow attempts at feeding fleshly desires.

The foundation for intimacy is love, and to love another human being, one must first love Jesus Christ. There is no greater love than the love between a person and his Savior. That love gives the foundation and premise for all other love. The love of Christ is the conduit through which all other love flows. The love between any two human beings is only capable of existing in its fullest potential if Christ is present in the relationship. The love that is based on a close personal relationship with Christ is the only love that brings about intimacy. Any other intimacy is, at best, only an empty shell of what it could be. At worst, it is a lure used by the Devil to pull unsuspecting victims into temptation and lust. The Devil’s greatest lie about intimacy is that it is something physical. While it may be that intimacy between a husband and wife can have a physical aspect to it, intimacy in no way requires it.

In short, intimacy is a oneness. A oneness between a person and Christ, or a oneness between two people through Christ. It is the closest of all relationships.