MEET THE "PERSON OF THE YEAR"!!! ------ by Steve Nadis
Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the "Person of the Year." Actually, it would be more accurate to call me the "People of the Year" or, technically, one of the "People of the Year." You see on December 30, 2004, ABC News announced that "Bloggers are among 'World News Tonight's' People of the Year." That means me. And maybe you. And maybe the 8 to 10 million other people riding on our coat-tails. I realize my contributions in this area are rather scant compared to the top-Google-rated, A-list bloggers. Truth be told, I'm not an actual, bonafide, full-fledged blogger by any stretch of the imagination. I learned this all too well last weekend at a blogging conference at Harvard University that was populated by a few actual, bonafide, full-fledger bloggers--the kind of people who are convinced they are going to change the world on the strength of the revolutionary new medium they are helping to create. I have no such illusions. I'm not a religious man, but if I were, I'd pray to god (sorry, I have a hard time capitalizing that word) that my blog does not change the world. In any event, some of the bigwigs at this conference let me know, in no uncertain terms, that they knew bloggers. Some of their best friends were bloggers. And I (yours truly, that is) am no blogger. OK, I get their point. Loud and clear. They can change the world all they want. And I won't stand in the way. But the facts are clear, just a keystroke away: I posted my first blog nearly a month before ABC News gave this award (perhaps on the strength of my entries. Who knows?). The point I'm trying to make is that I paid my dues, for several hard weeks, dealing with the bugs and software problems that are inevitable in any system still in beta testing. So now, if you don't mind, I'm just going to enjoy this for a little while. Savor it. Take it in. I may not get that Nobel Prize I've always counted on. Perhaps not even the Genius Grant I've considered myself a shoe-in (sp???) for. Maybe, for this humble narrator, "Person of the Year" is as good as it gets. If so, I'm your man. I'll take my 15 minutes and leave quietly. Don't worry. I'll let myself out the back door without disturbing a soul.
