TEN YEARS OF CHICKEN SCRATCH

It was ten years ago today that I started this blog, Evil Chicken Scratch – or simply, Chicken Scratch.  I came to the name by combining two things, my codename/nickname, Evil Chicken and an allusion to writing or script that only chickens or people who called themselves writers could understand.  I wanted a place where I could gush about books and movies and excellent cups of coffee.  And I built one!  I have always wanted Chicken Scratch to be an oasis – a happy place to visit. 

While it should go without saying that I hope this is still the case, in recent years a bit of slacktivism has crept into the electronic pages of this blog right in between the fan-boy gushing and documented adventures.  Chicken Scratch has become, at times, someplace to voice dissension, to question - a place to bounce ideas off of and think.  Chicken Scratch has evolved over time to appreciate both the discord and the rhyme.

During the past ten years there have been triumphs such as, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2010/04/surrounded-by-stories-surreal-and.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2014/11/project-thanksgiving.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2011/12/level-up-entertainment-farpoint-toys.html, and this, the No Shave November Crossover Event of 2013: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/11/no-shave-november-facial-hair-challenge_30.html.  This was for cancer research and it was a crossover blog between Cybertrout & Evil Chicken.  Cybertrout is a friend and, for that matter, one of the finest bloggers I know [for a good time, see: https://cybertrout.wordpress.com/; no, really, it’s a good time]. 

And there were tragedies and the remembrances of them: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2014/08/robin-williams.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/01/normal-0-one-of-brightest-minds-of-his.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-dark-night.html, and http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2007/09/911-six-years-hence.html

And then there’s the Doggerel, Adoxography, & Slacktivism.  As it says right up front at the top of this blog – what you will find here is one part Doggerel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerel, another part Adoxography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoxography , and a sprinkle of slacktivism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism for good measure.

After ten years’ time, I can further illustrate what my header means…

Doggerel: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2005/01/library-dues.html,  http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2006/04/whats-in-name.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/09/rest-in-peace-spiderman.html.  Just the right amount of wrong.

Adoxography: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2014/03/neil-gaiman-is-coming-to-rowan.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-comic-book-project.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2014/11/on-first-glimpse-of-star-wars-episode.html.  Geek blood runs through my veins. 

Slacktivism: or http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/06/whistleblowing-prophecies-of-dark-knight.html, http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2014/07/tell-fcc-your-feelings-about-net.html, or http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2013/07/happy-fourth-of-july.html.  These stories moved me enough to say something about them.

Sure, I may have ended up on a few government watch lists due to the “added slacktivism” but, hey, did you really want to hear about the SOPA/PIPA, the NSA monitoring, the FCC’ shenanigans, and Edward Snowden out on the streets?  I think not!  Besides, who isn’t on a watch list these days?

Of course, one’s man discord is another's rhyme.  Also, there is a lot of evidence to support the idea that trivial things are truly not that trivial at all.  As for slacktivism; ideas, words, and pictures are dangerous things.  They should be.  They should both comfort and make you uncomfortable.  The journalist Finley Peter Dunne in the character of Mr. Dooley said, “My business is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”  Yes, Dunne said it.  Yes, I paraphrased it.  He was right about this point.  Dunne would have made a wonderful blogger.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention YOU.  Thank you for following along on this long, strange, trip, Gentle Reader.  Let’s see what the next ten years bring.  Let us enjoy the ride, celebrate the adventures that are around us all the time, and share the joy of discovery.  It is a dangerous and wonderful world.  Let us explore it together.  Let us fall in love with stories.  Let us read, let us write, let us dance, and let us be dangerous.

Sincerely,

Evil Chicken