Friday, July 18, 2008

BlogHer Report 1: BlogHer or BlogWhore?

Here I am at BlogHer--it's barely begun, and I'm actually beginning to feel more like a BlogWhore, than a BlogHer. I've been here less than 24 hours, and I've received 4 (large) bags of swag so far, as well as stuff from some exibitors, including a free bluetooth headset. And I haven't even visited all the exhibitors. Not only that, I've won an Ipod Nano and an insulated bottle holder. If I'm feeling bored or motivated later, I might just try to list all the shit I've gotten. I'm gonna have to ship it home.

Mind you the first session hasn't even started yet. I'm sure the sessions will prove to be very helpful, especially to a newbie like me. My first educational session is going to be a blogging basics discussion-which lord knows I need. And maybe once I start learning things, then I won't feel like this is as much of a boondoggle as it at first appears to be. Besides, what good is guilt going to do me? As my new friend Amy at Selfish Mom says: "Guilt is a useless fucking emotion." (Apparently, that's a direct quote from Kyra Sedgwick).

I guess the guilt stems from knowing that these folks want me to blog about their stuff (Ha! Joke's on them. . .I barely have traffic at this point). I feel so. . . .USED (hand to forehead). Seriously, though, here's what I've decided to do: If I really, really like something--I'll mention it. But if I don't, or it's not something I can use--I'll remain mum. Seems simple enough. Some of the swag I'll recycle or give away. That way, at least, I'll feel like I'm maintaining at least a little of my integrity, such as it is.

I've got to go to my first session--I'll post when I can--but it'll be unedited, so bear with me if you can.

Next--the irony of not being able to connect to the internet while attending BlogHer.

Ciao.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know exactly what you mean. My sister had to ship my six bags of swag home from San Fran. It's arriving tomorrow, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with it all. I feel like if something really sucks, I owe it to my readers to say so. I mean, I don't want to make it difficult for the organizers to get swag next year, but that shouldn't really be my concern. If companies are putting their stuff out there, they have to be prepared for the reaction!

Karen said...

Yeah, but a lot of it is wasted on me. I'm giving the baby bottle and baby stuff to a friend who just had one. With a 6 and 9 year old, I'm not going to get much use out of that stuff!

Donna said...

Funny about the Kyra Sedgwick quote. I had a teacher in high school back in the 70's who used to say that all the time (without dropping the F-bomb, but she was probably keeping her language clean because she was you know, talking to the kids). It has been my favorite quote ever since. But it is definitely better Kyra Sedgwick's way.