Barrett Garese

5 blog posts from 2010 that I’m really proud of.

One of the best parts of owning your own business is that you get to set your own schedule and devote time as you see fit.* 2010 gave me both the material, inspiration, and temporal opportunities to get a lot of what I consider to be really quality writing done. Aside from some secret projects, most of that writing ended up on my blog. Sometimes it was just a paragraph or two, sometimes it was 4500 words. If you’ll allow me a bit of bragging though, these are my five favorites from 2010:

On The Topic Of My Worldview, Or Why I Have And Will Continue To Support Wikileaks - This post took me a full three weeks to write. It was written, rewritten, scrapped, and brought back to life numerous times. I debated whether to post it after it was done, fearful of financial and other repercussions, and only after the consultation with friends and loved ones decided that fear wasn’t a good reason to avoid doing anything. In the end, I think it’s one of the best pieces I’ve written in a long time.
What Is A Book? - I’m glad that others are asking this same question, even to the point where JWT Intelligence highlighted the concept in their 100 Things To Watch In 2011 (Breaking The Book, page 23) I love the idea that once we let go of legacy, we can move forward with the really interesting. I’ve still got some concepts I may try to explore in this arena in 2011.
2000 Words On Derivative Bullshit, WebTV, and Online Content - I sort of maybe told the WebTV community to go fuck itself. Or at least, that’s how it was received when I gave the advice on camera for web content producers to “Stop fucking making derivative bullshit!” Then an argument ensued on Twitter. In the end, an good conversation was had and I feel like progress was made. This was my blog post in response to the conversation/argument/controversy.
Wherein I write “The Tea Party is “Patriotic™” in the same way that “Cheez™” is a dairy product.” - The Tea Party was a pretty constant source of political posts for me last year, but this was my favorite. I think it will continue to be a source of inspiration and frustration over the coming two years as well. I don’t follow sports, but I do follow politics, and The Tea Party is sort of the Washington Generals of politics.
On News, Information, and Willful Ignorance - This will end up being a longer post in 2011, I’m sure; especially with the current backlash against Wikileaks and information. It’s still a bit boggling to me that so many are so comfortable with so little factual information when the internet provides them with everything they could ever want or need in that area. Doubly so when blatant falsehoods are spread so easily despite an ability to be proven wrong with any smartphone in about 30 seconds. Regardless, I don’t see it changing any time soon, but it did allow me a very cathartic rant at about 2am.

Bonus

This Photo’s responses entertained me for days. Some people got the joke. Some people didn’t. Some people were flat out enraged. I didn’t make it, I just posted it, but the responses were what made me love it.

*This is also one of the most dangerous parts, but that’s another post for another day.