I have a fan!

I recently discovered the following comment on my blog:

Now, I may be making some assumptions here, but I was under the impression that in order to get into University, one had to complete elementary, middle and high school with a satisfactory degree of success. After reading your blog, in which you have explained you are in your fifth year of an English degree, I am truely astounded as to how you could have completed all of these educational requirements, because it is quite obvious that you CANNOT spell. it logically follows that your claim of being an English Student is a fallacy, therefore your blog is not true and your whole life is a lie. Good day.

At first, Sarah and I thought, "Who is this guy? What kind of petty asshole belittles a person's entire existence based on a small and extremely common trait?". But then I read his blog and realized that he's not an asshole: he's a fan! What else would you call someone who starts a blog just to write about me?! I'm really flattered! You know, you start these things and you wonder if anyone ever reads them. Maybe you get a comment that isn't spam for someone's porn site and you feel good, like what you have to say is interesting to someone. But to have someone start an entire blog just for me! I feel like a celebrity!

Another great thing about Joe (which is apparently his name, or at least the name he's given to his URL) is that he is the perfect example of a sociological theory I learned about in SOC 100 that I've always found fascinating. The theory goes that a person will always attribute another person's actions to internal motives and their own actions to external forces. In this case he is attributing my lack of proper spelling to my own lack of education (although the fact that he also uses it to question my entire existence is beyond the scope of this theory). He is basing this on an assumption about me, personally, without taking external factors into account. However, I would answer that it is not my spelling or my education that is at fault, but the fact that I tend to quickly write posts between tasks while at work and am often too rushed to read them over before clicking "Publish". This is, of course, very unprofessional and I thank you, Joe, for reminding me of it. I will certainly try to remember to re-read before submitting my writing.

The reason I've always found this theory so fascinating is that I see its truth in countless instances every day. This theory has far reaching implications. Just think of the number of problems and misunderstandings, some of which end in tragedy, that occur everyday because people assume the cause of others' actions without really stopping to think about them. If you think about it globally, entering cultural misunderstandings under this category, it becomes obvious how important a theory this really is. If everyone took the time to realize that they can't possible make accurate assumptions about the people around them, imagine what a better world it would be.

So Joe, welcome to my blog and to the world of blogging in general. I hope you enjoy reading it and I look forward to reading yours. I appreciate all your comments and shall comment on your blog in return. It's always nice to get comments. Also, you may be interested to know that you don't need to have a blogger account to comment on peoples' blogs, provided that the author has specified that they allow anonymous comments.

(By the way, you spelt "truely" wrong)

o( )__