I'm A Comment Whore, What Can I Say?

So, I've been blogging steadily for about a year.

I've had some great posts and some not so great posts. 

I've met my 100th post and my 200th post anniversaries.

I've written near dissertations and I've tried some quick and easy few liners.

I've had comments up the wazoo about posts I just whipped out and a lot of silence about posts I thought were ass kicking and hysterical.

I've learned I like the comments.  I like the stats.  I like the action.  Blogging really is a popularity contest.

While I've never won one of those, I do feel very tickled when people visit my blog and leave comments or become followers.

I am not a facebook user but I have contemplated it just to be able to promote myself. 

I am not a person who does a lot of giveaways, although I am not opposed to it, but I wouldn't want to do it just so that people become my "friend" or "follower".  That's like begging for votes and I'm not a beggar.

While I do write this blog for myself, my hope is that people out there read it and enjoy it come back for more.  So many of the blogs over there in my blogroll are such fun to read, and I hope I can give people the same pleasure. 

I have learned that self deprecation on the internets does breed a lot of comments.  And I like comments and followers. 

And I have lots of that stored up in my noggin.  I am not a flake, but there are times when even I wonder if I really am clueless.  If this education I have has all just been a sham. 

We all know, there's book smart, and real life smart.  I'm not sure where I fall, but I suppose it's book smart.  If I read it, I usually can retain it pretty well. Unless it's chemistry or physics and then, I'm just SOL. 

I read someone's post the other day, and I should have made a note whose it was so I could give credit where credit is due, and the comment I made made me think my 3 readers would be entertained by this story.

So, because I am not ashamed, but often think of this in awe at how ignorant I am was, I thought I would share.

When I was senior in high school, I was looking for every scholarship I could get my hands on.  There was one that was being given by the governor, which we know really means someone else's money in the governor's name.  The application asked something about the governor's role in the state and perhaps my opinion on it, or something.  Those details are kind of fuzzy.

So, I went home and wrote my thoughts about whatever it asked, probably saying I thought governor W did a marvelous job running things and I'm sure I was mostly vague and didn't even have a hammer, let alone hit any nails on their heads with my writing.  I didn't have anyone check it because I always thought of that as "cheating".

After I had submitted it to someone, it occurred to me that governor W might have had more power than I thought.  The conversation went something like this:

S:  so, I applied for that governor W scholarship
M:  oh, that's nice
S:  yeah, I don't know if I'll get it.
M:  yep, lots of competition
S:  well, now I'm wondering.  is governor W the governor of just this state, or is he like, some SUPREME governor of a lot of states?
M:  .....
S: i mean, like, do they govern just one state at a time?  because i'd hate to not have mentioned what he does in the other states.
M:  do you mean like THE PRESIDENT???
S:  no, i mean like people just below the president.  like, does each state have a governor, or do you get to rise up and rule a group of states and then report to the president?

It's probably not funny that at 36 I have no idea  17 I had no idea how our country worked.  I had a vision that there were governors and supreme governors (not called that, of course, it's not a beauty pageant) and then there was the vice president and then the president.

It kind of surprises me that governor W, or whoever read the applications, didn't immediately find out where I went to high school and revoke my diploma on the spot.

In all of my social studies classes, no one really ever addressed this. It's like everyone assumed the teacher the previous year would have covered that.  I've never understood any of the process, actually.  The Houses, Congress, Representatives.  How many states get to have how many senators.  What's a congressman vs. a senator.  I think I finally have a grip on what a district attorney does, and I know what the school committee and local selectmen do, but when it comes to my understanding of politics, that's all she wrote.

I suppose my Master's in Reading would suggest that I could simply get some books and read about the way the great USA works.  I just can't do it.  I choose ignorance because it works out a lot better in my mind.  The reality of it all might just be a little too much.  I've heard about things like The Electoral College and right wing and left wing politicians and democracy, and I'm not sure I have room up there to digest all of that information and make sense of it.

Please don't tell anyone in Washington.