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Thursday, July 12, 2007

I feel like an itty bitty worm on a great big hook

Shandi has been writing about TED.com, a site that chronicles an annual meeting of great minds coming together to talk about a variety of innovative thoughts. One of them spawned www.wefeelfine.org, a site that searches the blogisphere for phrases that contain “I feel” and snatches them into a huge database of emotions. You can sort the database by gender, locations, age and weather.

I of course went to the site and searched in the categories of males between the ages of 40 and 49 living in Seattle for something that was snatched from my blog. I discovered that I apparently have never used any variation of the phrase, “I feel” in my blog.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I also discovered that, of the universe of males between the ages of 40 and 49 living in Seattle, very few can string together a coherent sentence. But most of them write about their feelings (albeit badly) on cloudy days. In Seattle? Go figure.

I do feel a bit put off that nothing from my blog caught the attention of this social experiment. I suppose if they had called their site http://www.butidigress.com/ I’d be all over it. I guess I don’t feel like beginning sentences with “I feel.” It is a given when you write something that it is your feeling or thoughts, so why say, “I feel, “ or “I think?”

After all, they are just:

Feelings, nothing more than feelings, trying to forget my feelings of love. Tear drops rolling down on my face, trying to forget my feelings of love. Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it. I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again. Feelings, wo-o-o feelings, wo-o-o, feel you again in my arms. Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you. And feelings like I've never have you again in my heart. Feelings, for all my life I'll feel it. I wish I've never met you, girl; you'll never come again. Feelings, feelings like I've never lost you and feelings like I've never have you again in my life. Feelings, wo-o-o feelings, wo-o-o, feelings again in my arms. Feelings...

That felt good to get that out.

6 comments:

Naughti Biscotti said...

I feel honored that my post spawned a post on your blog. But I also feel disappointed that you didn't find one of your feelings on "wefeelfine". It might be because it only grabs "feeling" that were felt over the last couple of hours. It may have also not detected where you lived. You might be coming up under just "someone" from "someplace". I saw a lot of those.

I also came back with the same conclusion that most people don't express themselves well. Most of the "feelings" I pulled up were rather ridiculous; "I feel like shit", "I feel like no one loves me", etc. Maybe it is somewhat narsisstic to go around feeling all the time rather than observing. The difference between being in your heart or in your head.

Now, why didn't you photoshop your face onto an itty bitty worm? I feel let down.

Steve said...

Ah! I feel good that you are now in contact with your feminine side.

I didn't want to be alone!

Anonymous said...

I wish David Hasslehoff would record that song...

Time said...

Shandi,
I feel better that you have shared your feelings regarding my post about feelings. I feel odd to think that I may be considered as someone from someplace. I've never been there.

And don't try and bait me into photoshopping my face os an itty bitty worm.

Steve, I feel dirty thinking that you have been in touch with my feminine side.

Kristy,
I feel as though you should better be careful what you wish for.

Anonymous said...

In the world of business, we are schooled not to use the words "I feel" before expressing anything we want to be taken seriously. Beginning a sentence with "I feel" personalizes the idea or thought and gives it a hue of something based on emotion vs. fact. It's a stark contrast to the way I live the rest of my life and some days it literally FEELS like I am downshifting when I leave the office.

Most days though, I feel fine....

Kindness said...

I feel I have become addicted to the site since I read Shandi's blog the other day. I am gonna go there now and see if I can find you. I have a good feeling about this...