Just looking through my drafts and figured I ought to finish this one up and release it into the wild. This quote comes from my friend Andy Wibbel’s blog (Andy is not a Philippines freak, he has his own problems 
) but the thought is quite appropriate
There’s always a bigger freak than you.
Whether it is news anchors or shoes or strobe light photography, there is always someone out there who is just a bit more nuts about something than you are. This is the lesson of fetish. Communities spring up around practices and obsessions: furries and fan fic, etc.
Community can have a very loose definition. Sure it includes straightforward forums where you have to login and there’s rules and a whole set of norms to learn but it is also as loose as blog comments or Facebook friending – and you gradually start to see the same people orbit the same topics or sites.
Communities re-affirm each individual and re-affirm the group identity as well. ‘I thought I was the only one!’ Think of sports fans or Harry Potter fans or – good God – the pro-ana crazies. To share and celebrate is a huge human impulse and the internet allows us to do this with utmost speed and access…
I liked these thoughts becuase I’m a small part of a loose but large Philippine community and I enjoy it. From time to time I get queries from people who think they would like to do something Philippine related and stop themselves with the thought … other epopel are already doing Philippine-related things, so there’s no room for competition.
Well, that’s what our friends in AA call “stinking thinking”. If you have an interest and something to contribute then the place you don’t want to be is the place you find no one else. You might wind up with the only site on the Internet that only you and your mom read.
You will not get rich writing a ‘freak’ or fan blog about the Philippines, but you may indeed wind up rich in other ways you didn’t imagine. I make money online, consistently and certainly in good measure for the amount of work I put into the task (which is less than you might think), but this is the site that I get the most interest and benefit from.
Do if you are reading this, or reading Bob’s magazine site, or RT’s Untwisted Vortex or even perusing the grand daddy of them all, Don Herrington’s huge online repository (Merry Christmas, Don) don’t sit on the sidelines if you feel you have something to contribute.
On the Internet the “Field of Dreams” actually can happen, and I want to thank all my many “freaky” freinds out there who have made it happen for me.
Merry Chritmas or whatever other holiday you’re looking forward to and best wishes for a healthy, safe and properous 2009 from the old “blogmeister” here in merry old Marilao
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Merry Christmas to you and yours, Dave.
Thank you, Randy and all the best to you and yours now and in the coming New year.
Merry Christmas too. Don’t get a stomach upset now from too much food. It never fails with me, no matter where I am.
Thank you Ellen, all the best to you and yours. I’ll be moderate in my enjoyment of the food … I usually don’t eat too much, my nemisis is vodka and New Year’s Eve… but I’ll worry about that next week
Merry Christmas Dave – thanks for all the thought-provoking columns during the year!
And a big merry and a big Happy back to you, John. I’m sure Christmas in Austria is a lot like Christmas in Germany, which I loved. Compared with Christmas here in the Philippines and my Christmases in Germany I almost feel sorry for my fellow Americans in the US … seems we forgot how to celebrate Christmas back there right about the time Wal*Mart became a national brand … but hey, all is not lost, time to start plannihg for Christmas in the Philippines next year,
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Cheers, I will have a Tall”Grey Goose”and Cranberry for you.
Whoa, the real grey Goose? I think I’m hopping on a plane to help you with that bottle, neal. Now there’s something I miss. All the ebst to you and yours for the coming year.
Merry Christmas, Dave. I hope that you and your wife have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic new year!
Thank you Tom, I certainly intend to give it a try. You have agreat one too.
I’m not a freak about the Philippines in general but I am a freak about a certain Filipino. :p
Hi, Andy, how nice of you to drop by. Yes, most of us started by being hooked up with just one special one, and from there a whole lot of other connections just seemed to ‘happen’