New Blog, New Title, New Explanation

So I finally decided to quit Xanga. There are a number of reasons for this decision--lack of features, annoying advertisements, most of my friends who used Xanga are now only infrequent users, and the featured blogs every time I log on are, on the whole, trash. There also seems to be a disproportionate number of users who are fifteen and angsty. I've been contemplating this decision for a while, but I was always kept back by one question I couldn't answer: what should I name my new blog?

I know, I know. It shouldn't be too hard, right? But naming a blog "my-name.blogspot.com" is bland (no offense to those who have done this...), and goatcabin.blogspot.com is already taken (okay, okay--it's already mine, but I use that one as a dumping site for all my writing links). I wanted to choose something that suggested deep and profound thought, something that would inspire that kind of thought in others, a title like "Thoughts on the Wind" or "Musings among the Lilies" or "Contemplations over Coffee" or "A Pebble on the Water." (If those names are any indication, it's a good thing I chose not to go this route.) None of those seemed right, mostly because my blog isn't profound, I don't have a "theme" that every post ties into, and I don't really have many opportunities to muse around a pond.

Then I couldn't get "Tongue Fried Goat" out of my head.

If you go to Amigo's Pizza & Tacos in Carol Stream, Ill.--which you should, by the way, if you're ever in town; it's fantastic--you'll notice a spacing error on their menu. The words "tongue" and "fried goat" are closer together than they should be, making the reader scratch his head and read the words as a single string. They don't make sense together, but the reader's mind still considers the words as a single phrase, trying to force sense and meaning on the senseless sight.

Since the first time I saw this, I've thought "Tongue Fried Goat" would make a great name for a teenage garage band. It's the kind of name that, if a band makes it to the big time, they'll look back on in shame, one of the main criteria for choosing a garage band name, it seems. I'm not likely at this point to start a teenage garage band, so I appropriated the label for this blog instead. And it does, well, seem appropriate. I've been working on archiving my old Xanga entries, and there is certainly shame involved in reading over my posts, most likely akin to the shame I'll experience when someday I survey the posts written for this blog. But it's also appropriate because so often my blog is not organized thoughts or gentle musings or profound insights. It's individual snapshots placed into a sequence that doesn't make much sense. It's also looking at the world and trying to create meaning out of the "quick succession of busy nothings."

Anyway, thanks for reading. This will be where I post future blog entries, so now would be a good time to change your subscription if you subscribe to my Xanga feed. (This also might be the cut-off point if you were looking for a way of getting out altogether.)