David'Z RantZ -- Short Shorts (No, Really!)

(Regular, long-time readers may want to skip all but the last four paragraphs of this italicized introduction.)

Once upon a time, I had only one blog, known as David'Z RantZ. It was a place I'd go to for... well... ranting, meaning over-the-top ranting with humorous intent. Sometimes I'd be serious, but... not so much. The RantZ were broken up by occasional tributes to celebrities whom I had admired, when those celebrities died.

In early June of 2008, I decided to write a week-long, seven-part tribute to a friend named Patty, who passed away several years ago.

Yeah, right. Seven daily chapters. One week. That was the plan.

Roughly ten weeks and twenty-eight chapters (plus an epilogue) later, I finished the story. That tribute, entitled My Island, got a huge positive response. Several people said, in effect, "Nothing against your RantZ, but we want to see more stuff like My Island."

Problem was -- to my mind, anyway -- "more stuff like My Island" wouldn't really "fit" within the structure of David'Z RantZ.

So I decided to come up with a blog for my "real" writing. You're reading it. So now I had two blogs.

About a month ago, while this blog was being ignored for lack of available time to keep up with both, I all but retired David'Z RantZ. I basically cited burn-out as my reason.

So, now I have more time to devote to this blog, The Lair of the Silver Fox.

And you know what I recently realized?

To re-word an old, borderline racist Saturday Night Live routine, all Chinese are Asians, but all Asians are not Chinese. In that spirit, it occurred to me that while David'Z RantZ may not have been the best showcase for some of my so-called "serious" writings, but The Lair of the Silver Fox was, I could -- and can -- very easily justify putting anything I write on my Silver Fox blog!

Including stuff which would have been suited to David'Z RantZ.

So, I can have one blog. And I can have my RantZ and eat it, too.

Or something.

* * * * *

1. Just in case you're one of the four people in the world who doesn't yet know who Susan Boyle is, check this out. Everyone else can meet me on the other side of the clip.

Even a cynical s.o.b. like myself finds this story to be inspiring, but I was somewhat appalled by the actions of the judges before and even after her performance. Their admissions -- personal admissions in which they included the audience -- that "everyone was laughing at you" and "everybody was against you" are kind of a slap in the face to what these shows are supposed to be about, aren't they? (Simon Cowell -- he of the rolling eyes -- was quoted in The New York Times as saying "She came out and she looked a bit odd, and the dress looked odd. I gave her five seconds at most.")

I read a very good article by Dennis Palumbo in which he stated that it's a fortunate thing that Susan is a talented singer. And I agree with his sentiments enough to link to his article. However, I'd like to take it a step further and say that it's lucky for Susan that she's not just "good," but that she is an incredible singer.

She had to be.

I've sung lead in various rock bands and a few other places here and there over the years, and I think I'm not too shabby (on a good day)... but no one, myself included, would ever go so far as to describe my voice with any of the superlatives that have been heaped upon Susan Boyle. I'd never stand a chance of winning a tough competition like the one in which she's entered.

I just think -- okay, I know -- that anything short of great wouldn't have been sufficient to wipe those smirks off the judges' faces. So, I'm glad she was every bit as amazing as she was and is.

And, as an aside to those columnists who have gone so far as to describe the admittedly plain-looking Susan as "ugly": So many people have referred to the whole Susan Boyle phenomenon as being proof that beauty is only skin deep, that she has "inner beauty," and the like... but your casual insults show me that some people possess a certain ugliness below the surface, as well.

Or to phrase it in another way: F**k you.

2. On a lighter note...

It's becoming annoying that almost every time I read a "newspaper" article (or something similar) online, I get to a really interesting part and find that the article is interrupted by one or more links to what we'll call "pages" for lack of a better term, as well as (usually) a link saying something to the effect of "view all on one page."

Thanks for wasting my time.

Of course I want to view it all on one page. If I wanted to turn pages, as opposed to just scrolling down, I'd be reading a book or a magazine.

Why do they do this? I assume it has something to do with the ubiquitous advertisements in the sidebar. I dunno.

The least they could do is put the link for "view all on one page" at the top of the very first page, as a warning of sorts.

*sigh*

Thanks for your time.