Blog-In-The-Mouth

Blog-In-The-Mouth
14th September 2005
With this post, we go current. Posts will be less frequent, but they will be current. Thank you for bearing with us.
It’s been a few months now since I started blogging FITM.

The blog began because I’ve always had this urge to see FITM published. Out there for others to read. Now, there’s very little chance of any publisher actually agreeing to market an autobiography of some random dude. So, I turned to the worldwide web.

So I set up http://foot-in-the-mouth.blogspot.com, after a lot of trial and error with the template process. Uploaded the first episode ever written, and mailed the links to a few trusted friends – Slappy, Groper, Doc, The Nag, Minty, The Drunken Painting Poet, Guzzler, Legs, my best friend, my sweetheart and Srimati.

It was interesting to re-read and to post the articles. Now that I look back, I can see how much I’ve changed as a person with every article.

Putting up Season Two, the current set, was frightening. A lot of these episodes involve rather deep personal feelings. What with all the hell that’s gone on. The call was whether I should put myself out there to such an extent or not. The answer – yes.

I’d update it every few days, until I decided to get it current. So, for the last two weeks, I’ve been doing an update a day. Now, I’m just a few episodes away from being current.

I set up an email id (footinthemouth@gmail.com) for feedback and fan mail. And, after daily mails telling the aforementioned group to read the day’s post, I’ve received a lot of feedback. And here it is.

Doc: His reaction was like, what shit are you making me read man? I get the feeling he doesn’t like to be invited so deeply into someone’s life. But I hooked him in the end – he’s started a blog of his own.

The Drunken Painting Poet: A long conversation with her was what prompted me to get back to FITM. And she was most thrilled to read the blog. No official feedback yet (hint, hint) but she seems to enjoy it.

Guzzler: The dude owns a publishing company. He liked the first few posts so much that he’s offered to publish FITM. Maybe I’ll take him up on it. And inflict FITM on millions...millions I say!!! (Insert evil cackle, gleeful rubbing of hands here.)

Legs: Liked the blog a lot. Laughed a lot. Posted one rather telling comment – that every blog seemed to feature one woman, and that I seemed to have a lot of women in my life...

Minty: She’s thoroughly enjoying the blog. Called me up to say she loved the post about my sis (Neighbour’s Envy, Brother’s Pride). Also called when one post reminded her of Hrithik, her best friend (more than that, according to me).

My best friend: Two telling comments. One when she learnt how unhappy I was that we were drifting – she didn’t know then what I was going through. The second, when I wrote recently about how I’ve patched things with Doc, about how foolish I was – she said that she never wanted her relationship with Doc to affect mine, and how he was still a trusted friend.

Srimati: Mails in from Detroit to say that she’s been following the blog closely, and enjoying it thoroughly.

Slappy: What can I say? My biggest fan, and the one who’s pushed me the most to post FITM. She’s understood thoroughly what I’ve been through last year. Cried when I wrote about Amma. Laughed when I wrote about Groper’s surgery. And never missed an opportunity to rag me about Boxer. Despite the occasional confusion about characters, she’s hung on grimly...

Groper: Called to say she was catching up on the blog after a while. Mailed to say she was glad I was over the worst. Called to protest that she’s not Groper, that she never groped my ass at the water cooler in college. Liar.

And then there have been those anonymous comments that keep happening. The first line leaves me very happy: "Your blog is very creative. It’s very good. Keep it up."

Then I go on to the next line. Which tries desperately to sell me legal services, gardening equipment, penis enlargers, what-have-you.

So now I’ve set up a filter to block computer-generated comments. Less feedback, but at least it’s written by a human being.

My only criticism is that there’s been no fan mail. I mean, I can’t get much clearer than putting up a note inviting it. So I console myself with the thought that all my fans had their PC’s crashing just before they could click Send...

The fun part is that most of the people recognise themselves and their adventures. I know Minty (most obvious) and Groper have. Slappy knows her pseudonym, but she hasn’t come up yet. By the time you read this, you’ll have met her on the blog.

So the show goes on. With every post, the feedback continues. And I march onwards to my dream of someday publishing FITM, with my war cry:

"Open mouth, insert foot!"