RoadSlave enters the BlogHer contest

While the rules are unclear (tell your story), I'd like my blog to tell my story. I'll provide some narration for my entries:

I began blogging while visiting Alaska. After arriving on a Sunday, the only thing we could find open was a Red Robin in Anchorage. The food wasn't bad, but the waiter was pure entertainment. My first posting Red Robin of our Discontent was born out of encouragement from my family members. "You should blog this."

It was a start. I was skeptical, however, that blogging would lead to the magical connected conversations that were being hyped everywhere I looked. I pondered this while attending my nephew's graduation as my mind wandered frequently during the Chugiak Mustangs Commencement.

How would I build the coveted street cred (credibility)? Doing some searching, I stumbled across Brad Feld's Alaska categories. Perfect. Brad had a lot of readers. Maybe he could spare some for me? Street cred would have to wait, however, as I didn't know any other bloggers who could comment and link to me and create a blog buzz. It didn't matter, I was having a great time in Alaska.

The rented motorhome provided more than its fair share of interesting topics, although I included what I thought was the most important one -- The difference between Grey and Black water !

Sea Kayaking in Whittier was a thrill. I renamed the tour the Kittiwake Bird Drop Special.

My first and only major Alaskan disappointment was eating at the Snow Goose in Anchorage. Only the ice water met my expectations.

Fortunately, finding a Sushi place in Eagle River brought spirits right back.

By now, I was having so much fun in Alaska, but documenting so little of it, that I began to feel
Blogger's Guilt. "No good deed goes unblogged," I thought. Would anyone really care about my Alaskan adventure, or would they rather index, link, and tag each other in shameless self promotion?

I spotted "I like cats too -- Let's exchange recipies" on a local's refrigerator. It stuck with me the whole day. Lacking any clever titles for the Bou Bacon and Polar bear pictures, I figured why not offend someone with a funny title?

Something I'll never forget is the local buzz to find the first evidence of the King Salmon run. As an experiment, I tried to use the technology to give me an edge, but in the end the Blogs failed to deliver the Salmon.

Have you ever cooked bacon and eggs on tinfoil over a smoky Alaskan campfire? The pic still makes my mouth water!

By now, I was quite frustrated with the coefficient of drag of getting my site indexed into Technorati. How was I going to experience the magic connected conversations of the live web if my posts never got indexed?

Imagine my surprise when David Sifry, himself, left a comment explaining the problem. (Brad Feld, where are your comments?) I promptly apologized to David for being a snot. And although my first connected conversation happened asynchronously, it was a conversation nonetheless.

These amazing time lapse pictures of the Alaskan summer solstice pretty much sum up my amazement when David left a SECOND comment in response to my apology.

By now, I had found the majority of VC blogs and was reading to both learn and be entertained. Venture Capitalists as Grizzly Bears left me no choice but to wonder what happens to the salmon when all these Thesis Bears arrive at the river bank.

Especially since I found myself in Alaska, I found the irony that the salmon are eaten before they complete their mission at the hands of the smarter, Thesis bears.

I knew the VC's wouldn't touch the post...my observation is that since it didn't come from another VC, it just wasn't VC-cool. I know they have a sense of humor, as some of the funniest things I've read have come from VC blogs (whether they know it or not.)

In testing the Mark Pincus Observation, I really didn't expect Mark to respond. He didn't. If I win the BlogHer competition, will he be sorry? Probably not.

Keshava Dasarthy did appreciate my link, however.

The Gates of Aniakchak are one of those places I'd like to go someday. No offense, but can I trade the BlogHer prize for the Gates? Probably not.

The running joke in Alaska was that we would find ourselves at a Fred Meyer store two or three times a day. It couldn't be helped. In the off-chance that a VC was dusting off the WebVan plan, I wanted to point out that Fred Meyer delivers to the Alaskan bush.

Why pick me for the BlogHer prize?

Well, I have no good answer except that I remain skeptical of the blogger hype. Perhaps I really NEED to chill with my sisters and let the magic overtake me? I still need to build that street cred, so send me to meet other bloggers and let the magic begin.

Besides, let's not forget that Jane Blog is just as an important marketing force as Joe Blog.

Did I mention I was born in North Dakota? Going to BlogHer would at least allow me to clear up Niall Kennedy's obvious misconceptions about the state face-to-face. And while I do love San Francisco, I don't worship it as a technology mecca. (Niall needs to travel more -- maybe I'll sponsor a contest to send Niall to North Dakota).

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