How do you become……
best blog in the state
something Great
a valuable public service
must-read source
in other words,
How do you become theonetruebix?
I ponder this question as I study his photo, which appeared on the front page of The Oregonian kitty-corner from Condoleeza Rice’s.
According to my personal and precise recollections, among other imaginative things, you have to
— come into this world vocalizing before you’re even all the way out of your mother
— get accepted into a Montessori pre-school when you’re 2.5 years old because you’re already reading
— become addicted to comic books and sci fi before you even start Kindergarten
— want to be a space moving van driver when you grow up
— from age 6 on, never be without a book of some sort in your back pocket
— dislike school but love to investigate and create
— grow up in a room that a set designer painted to look like the Star Trek bridge
— manage to get an excuse from gym class
— use one of the first Macs to write, publish, and distribute an underground newspaper while in high school
— never get a driver’s license or learn to drive
— get arrested on high school graduation night for shooting off firecrackers
— apply to only one college and get accepted based on your application essay
— get written up in the NY Times while in college for helping to stage a kind of “art is for the people” protest on campus
— churn out an underground newspaper in college
— quit college and spend some time in Texas, Minnesota, New York City, and San Francisco and do all the traveling by bus
— get written up by Rolling Stone as one of the dozen twenty-somethings trying to change the world
— wear black and shave your head
— convince a couple of girls you meet over the Internet to rent a truck and move you from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon
— use money that your grandfather left when he passed away to buy an internet cafe in Portland and then realize that you’re not cut out for the business world
— try many times and without success to get a job at Powell’s books
— keep shaving your head and wear hats
— spend a couple of years earning some money being a “nanny” and father-figure to a little boy/child of a working single-mom friend
— discover the joys of weblogging early in the game and convert your mother to the cause
— find your bliss — although not your fortune — as a citizen journalist and get profiled by The Oregonian.
Oh. And also
— give your mother heartburn, gray hairs, bad dreams, and lots of reasons to be plenty proud, amazed, and teary-eyed.
Check out
The One True b!X’s PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE: Open Thread For ‘Oregonian’ Story