Now that the vote has finished, I have the final list of participants for “Whose Blog is it Anyway?” 2 … Codenamed :

THE UNANSWERABLES

Where the opinionated brain melts down, and starts to have fun 😀

 

The Unanswerables  – WBIIA2

Why “The Unanswerables” ?

I was doing a little research on my challengers. On one particular blogger’s blog, I had a revelation – it was very very difficult for me to respond comment-wise to a post that I was reading. Why, because there were strong opinions expressed which differed from my own truth and experience.

So what’s the enlightened response – teach ? simply state one’s conflicting viewpoint ? argumentative ? ignore ? partially respond ? never visit their blog again ? post my conflictual views in a post on my own blog ? passive/aggressive ? smart arse ?

Here on my blog, my own commenters have tried all of those approaches (and more !).

I don’t think there is a best response, a “right” or “true” way. There are responses that cause more or less conflict, more socially appropriate or inappropriate. There are also more or less empathic responses.

I consider this person a friend, someone who’s always treated me with the greatest of respect, despite our different truths. I get on with people who don’t make a problem out of seeing things differently from me. Within reason obviously. So my choice – I chose to comment on what I did connect with, with what rang true with my own truth, made me recognise something in myself. And not to comment on the other issues. To me this is a respectful response.

OK, so what does this have to do with the challenge ? Well, the individual titles that I will give my challengers are still secret, but the overarching theme I’m announcing is the “The Unanswerables”. Their titles will be unanswerable, because there is no exact, scientific, “true” answer. It’s opinion based. Therefore it’s subjective and depends on their own perspective, and also depends on how and what they decide to write. To complicate this if they are asked to write “for” a subject that they are not actually “for” then that’s a double challenge.

So comes an interesting question about what is “the truth”.

Truth to me isn’t “the law” (it varies from locale to locale anyway). Truth to me isn’t what a group of people believe or think (it varies from group to group anyway). Truth isn’t what my parents or family or friends believe. The truth is that the truth is a subjective individual experience, my own experience. I get to decide myself what is true and what is not. Others may or may not agree with me, up to them, that’s just how the truth works, in my opinion.

So, my challengers, you will be asked to write about subjects that have no definitive answer. You cannot be “right” or “wrong”, all you can do is take part and enjoy the process, entertain yourself and just perhaps entertain others too.

The Challengers – My Guest Improvisers

I’ve decided to accept everybody who’s applied, so you’re *all* invited to take part. Everyone “won” in the vote as far as I’m concerned. I want to see participation from all abilities. Having the “balls” to apply has won my respect in and of itself.

The taking part is the important thing, there are no winners and losers here. Truth is WE ARE ALL WINNERS. Why, because we had the strength to get up and do something for ourselves. You can’t lose if you’re a trier. Although you may fall over from time to time, that’s life. Get back up when you’re ready, dust yourself off and try again.

So here’s the list of who will be a guest improviser on WBIIA 2 – THE UNANSWERABLES :

Name: Phil Manhire (aka “The Watcher”)
Blog URL: http://www.vanuatugoldwatcher.com/about

Name: Christopher S. Malone
Blog URL: http://theinfiniteabysses.wordpress.com/about

Name: navigator1965
Blog URL: http://navigator1965.wordpress.com/about

Name: Dating Ann
Blog URL: http://www.datingann.com/about

Name: irenedesign2011
Blog URL: http://irenedesign2011.com/about

Name: Elaine @ foodbod
Blog URL: http://foodbod.wordpress.com/about

Name: areed090290
Blog URL: http://onesahmscrazylife.wordpress.com/about

Name: Sharon Hughson
Blog URL: http://sharonleehughson.com/blogs/

Name: markbialczak
Blog URL: http://markbialczak.wordpress.com/about

Name: Belinda Borradaile
Blog URL: http://idiotwriting.wordpress.com/about

Name: Suz Jones
Blog URL: http://suzjones.wordpress.com/about

Name: Steven Fox
Blog URL: http://sfoxwriting.com/about

Name: Dr Carol Cooper
Blog URL: http://pillsandpillowtalk.com/about

Name: Kerry-Anne
Blog URL: http://travellingmacs.wordpress.com/about

Name: Danny
Blog URL: http://dannyboybroderick.wordpress.com/about

Rules

Your submission will include :

1. Intro – a short introduction of yourself, maybe a bio, up to you. At least one sentence.

2. Discussion – Your discussion of the title you’ve been issued with. Up to you to chose style, context etc. Please do work towards not specifically trying to upset people, on purpose. I would advise using criticism sparingly and good-heartedly. Certain topics like sex, religion and politics should also be treated with caution.

3. Outro – Close off your discussion, perhaps you have a closing statement, “thanks for having me” or whatever you feel is appropriate. You may also promote yourself and/or your blog, but not specific commercial products.

4. One photograph (or graphic) in JPG or PNG or GIF format, that you guarantee me to be copyright free. See bottom of my sidebar for links to sites for free graphics or wikipedia but check copyright page, not all wikipedia images are copyright free or creative commons license. If in doubt, choose a different image. Let me know where in your piece you would like this photo/graphic to be placed. I will also use as the featured image/thumbnail for the post.

You agree to :

1) The use of your submission on Don Charisma blog, without expiry. Copyright remains with you.

2) Answer all comments on Don Charisma blog relating your submission. Caveat, please do not enter in to discussions with argumentative or otherwise manipulative commenters. Instead please report these as soon as possible by email to myself or a coordinator, and we will delete and ban these commenters.

3) Assist Don Charisma or his coordinators to get publishable submissions ready in a timely manner. Answer any and all queries from myself or my coordinators in a timely manner.

4) Enter into the “YES, AND” spirit of the challenge, have fun, not take it too seriously.

5) Not posting outbound links in the comments whilst the challenge is going on (this will apply to commenters also). The reason for this is – a) that the challenge is for you, b) discourage unauthorised participants. Please report exceptions to me or a coordinator.

6) Keep the title of your submission secret until it’s published. AND not to announce anywhere or share with others ahead of publishing.

7) Not link to external sites in order support your submission. Explain in your own words, and assume that your explanation is sufficient.

Notes :

1) You are encouraged to reblog your submission on your own blog, but not obligated to do so, up to you. Others are encouraged to reblog your submissions from the challenge, you do not need to ask for permission to share, please do do it !

2) You will be given 48 hours to complete your submission from receipt by email of your title.

3) We may close commenting on previous posts as new ones are published, so that attention can be focused on the current post. This will depend on how much activity from commenters there is.

Coordinator

Diver Madeline – http://diverswhowanttolearnmore.wordpress.com/about

She has very kindly offered to help us with the challenge and followed through. She will act as a coordinator. We have all your email addresses, and I will ask her to email you with your specific challenge title once they are ready.

Please liaise with her to get your submission ready, and DO YOUR BEST not to make extra unnecessary work for her.

Thank you Madeline, we are very grateful 🙂

Summary

If you’re a guest improviser then you do need to read fully all of this post, paying particular attention to the rules section.

I have a small op tomorrow under local anaesthetic, and will be recuperating next week. We are expecting to publish the weekend of 18-Jan, but I can’t set this in stone, as I don’t know exactly how next week will be. I expect that we will schedule the posts during mid-US daytime, probably over the Saturday and Sunday, with appropriate spacing between posts. Not set in stone, I will do my best.

I may or may not enter a submission into the challenge it will depend on how much time I have.

Guest improvisers please check out the “Intro to impro and warm up exercise” for how impro works, the ethos and a little exercise to help get the creative processes flowing.

The spirit of imrpo as I’ve said before is “YES, AND” which means I accept, whatever it is and I will add to it. Just do your best that’s all anyone can ask.

Please do let me know of any questions as soon as possible

Good luck

Don Charisma

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Please note:
Comments are invited. BUT you are reminded that this is a public blog and also you are reminded to think before you press the “post comment” button. 

Good manners are a mark of a charismatic person – so please keep comments civil, non-argumentative, constructive and related, or they will be moderated. If you feel you can’t comply, press the “unfollow” button and/or refrain from commenting.

I read ALL comments but can’t always reply. I will comment if I think there’s something that I can add to what you’ve said. I do delete comments that don’t follow rules above. For persistent offenders I will ignore you permanently and/or report you.

Most decent people already know how to behave respectfully. Thank you for your co-operation on this.

Don Charisma

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