My Left Pinkie

Horrorscope

I don't believe in horoscopes as a general rule, but those of you who know me and are familiar with my emotional burden du jour will get a kick out of this horoscope I stole from AOL:

Pisces: You may feel a rising tide of anger that builds from a situation you've been facing, possibly with a family member or close friend. You are in touch with a wide range of emotions now, some of which might be difficult to manage. Pay attention to your inner process and not the outer events. This can enable you to express yourself in a more positive way, rather than being at the mercy of the changing currents.

It's like AOL's rent-an-astrologist has known me my whole life, no?

Yes, it's true.

Egads...it's been a long time since I've updated. LiberalLucy is going to kill me. Or maybe not. See, I'm going to have a lot more time on my hands over the next couple months, and one of the things I hope to do is blog some more. Yes, folks, the rumors are true...I GBCWed at dKos last night.

For the last three years, I've checked in at DailyKos several times a day. I became a regular in several of the community diary series--Top Comments, WYFP?, Brothers and Sisters, The Daily Show/The Colbert Report/Olbermann Rerun Spoiler Thread, and the big kahuna, Cheers and Jeers. I actually spent a year or so hanging out in the CnJ Cafe chat room for 2-3 hours a night, and now I've gotten to the point where I'm kind of wrapped up in the Daily Show thread, to the point where I actually worked my schedule around it. I also worked my schedule around WYFP and Brothers and Sisters. In the meantime, my personal life has become a disaster and a half. dKos became my refuge--I made a lot of awesome blogfriends at dKos, several of whom have become actual real life friends (yes folks, it's possible for blogfriends to become real life friends). And I wasted a lot of time. A LOT of time. I look back at the last three years of my life, wondering where they went, and all I can say is that a lot of them were spent at dKos. Combine that with a blogfriendship that kind of imploded and was taking up way too much time and energy and seriously endangering my sanity, and I just need a blogvacation.

So, I'm going cold turkey. Okay, I'll still read there, probably every day. But last night after my GBCW diary I logged out, and I don't plan to log back in for quite a while.

In the meantime, I hope to devote some time and energy to local blogging. I'm going to be changing my work schedule so I'm more available for evening events--township board meetings, county commission meetings, and Drinking Liberally. (A word on that--philgoblue, angrybird and I are seriously talking about starting Drinking Liberally GR. I was originally going to do it myself after being inspired by yKos, but Phil beat me to it, so I'm going to help him.)

I'm also going to finish my degree this semester if it kills me. Then I can move on with my life, perhaps get a decent job, and maybe even move (see the post below). In reality, this is the biggest thing holding me back, and a big reason I haven't finished it is because I've been really busy diddling around with dKos.

As per my dKos GBCW diary, my email, IM screen names, cell number, and mailing address will all remain the same...if you're privy to any of this information, feel free to use it. But don't look for me at dKos until at least January. Edited to add: I will still be hanging around MichLib and BFM to the extent that I do now, and since I'll be doing more local blogging you will probably be hearing from me here a bit more.

Wilkommen!

Bienvenido! Bonjour! Allo! Whassssup?

You've reached MyLeftPinkie.

First, a bit of housekeeping. What is MyLeftPinkie? Good question. Who knows? At the moment it's the personal weblog of a twenty-something-ish commie pinko lefty Democrat from the west coast of Michigan. I have been blogging (okay, mostly commenting) on liberal politics at DailyKos.com and MichiganLiberal.com for a couple years now, and decided it was time I had my own gig. Okay, that's a lie...it was decided for me.

This past week, I attended the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago, IL. YearlyKos is an annual confab for lefty bloggers and activists that originally started as a way for DailyKos members to meet and greet each other. When I got to YearlyKos, I was shell-shocked. I met and hung out with dozens of people my age who are much more involved in the political process than I am--they're all members and officers of all sorts of lefty organizations, and almost everybody there has their own blog. By the end of the trip I had come to the realization that posting pithy comments on DailyKos just does not count as political activism.

I also got to spend a fair bit of time carousing with folks from the Michigan lefty blogosphere (affectionately referred to as the Michigan Juggernaut), in particular LiberalLucy, who is a bigwig at MichiganLiberal.com and a bigwig at the Michigan Democratic Party. Again, these people are so much more involved than I am, and LiberalLucy just has this way of making one feel that it's time to get off one's ass and do something. So I did.

A few words about the name: you know you're a Michigander when someone asks you where you live, and you feel compelled to hold out your hand mitten-style and point. So...everybody do this with me. Hold out your left hand, palm down. Now point to the first knuckle on your pinkie. That's where I'm from. And I wouldn't be caught dead calling it MyRightPinkie, so there...

Anyway, I'm still on the fence as to what exactly to do with the blog, but at the very least I will be covering local political issues from Muskegon County and Michigan's 2nd Congressional District. Michigan is the darling of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee because several of our districts have so-called district watch blogs, documenting the various missteps and atrocities committed by our Republican congresscritters, and I'm sure I will join in the fray of making fun of the "Honorable" Peter Hoekstra (hereinafter referred to as The Lying Dutchman.) So look for snark directed in Hoekstra's general direction, as well as witty ramblings about local politics and lefty issues.

Here goes nothin'...