Time Flies By....

... or does it?

I've been blogging for more than a year. It wasn't I considered very important, at the time (it's a month ago, now). I suppose it's notable, since I wasn't sure how long I'd even want to keep going on this. I've enjoyed the time I've spent writing the entries. I can see how people can get sucked into making their published blogs into a "full time" affair.

So, over 200 published entries in that time. It doesn't seem like that long ago, so I guess the time passed quickly. If I actually start to think about the individual days, though, some days were excruciating. On that level, the time passes slowly.

I get asked why I blog. Is it about carving out a niche on the internet? I don't think so. I'm not usually the sort of person who needs to stake a claim to everything I interact with, so that question doesn't connect with me. I think it's much more about a way to connect with other people. I certainly started it because I realized that friends of mine had blogs, and that reading them taught me more about them. Cool! I think perhaps I started writing only because some of them didn't update often enough to suit my taste, so starting my own blog was a way of fulfilling the "new content" feeling. Even if I was the one who had to provide it!

In the time I've been writing, it's gotten around. A good number of my friends and most of my family are aware that I blog. This has lead to two interesting side-effects. The first effect is that some people now explicitly state "you're not going to blog about this, right?" when discussing personal matters. I pride myself that, almost from the beginning, I've had a very clear idea on how to draw those privacy lines. Whenever I want to write about a sensitive position or feeling, I take very careful pains to expunge as much identifying information as I can. I do this because I'm not using my blog as a forum to expose what other people do. I write mostly based on my reactions to other people. Since the focus is mostly on me and how I react, that gives a lot of freedom and latitude towards "privatizing" any identifying descriptions.

Some people have come up to me and been confident that something I was deliberately vague about was written about them. And in all cases, they have been wrong. That's been a by-product of my writing style, it seems: it draws the reader in. And since I often speak in very broad terms or descriptions, it can seem eerily appropriate. I also go to great pains to obscure the time frame. Things that happened months ago are just making it to the pages, and things that may not occur for some time (but could happen) are already in my archives.

It's not unlike horoscopes. Their language is often so vague, almost anyone can read any sign and feel as though it applies to them. Here's today:

When expressing your feelings, you might want to tone it down a notch. It's especially important to cut the fat on any verbal communication. Lean and mean is the way to go if you want to get your point across effectively.SOURCE (March 19, 2007)


I was just thinking about whether or not my blog entries were too wordy, and whether or not they'd have more punch and effectiveness if they were slimmer. I've also been worrying that in my personal life, I've been pushing my own thoughts too aggressively, to my detriment. This horoscope is dead on for me!

Except it's not for me. It's for a Capricorn, and I'm a Cancer. Or a Leo; it depends on where they draw their date lines. The advice it gives is sound, and I can certainly apply it to myself, but there's no knowledge of "me" involved. It's like a mirage, created by my own mind.

The second interesting side-effect is that there are some people who aren't curious about my blog. These same people who would gladly listen to me talk all day long, but have expressed nothing other than "acknowledgment" when I mention I blog. I don't pretend to understand it. It's one thing to take a quick read and decide it's not for you. That I understand, since I write in a particular style and cover topics that aren't FOR everyone. Another thing completely to be
so interested in what I have to say, yet be uninterested in...well... what I have to say!

Which leads to another issue. This issue would drive some people crazy, but doesn't really get much thought from me. I'm talking about the readers. I have a pretty idea who reads the blog, but only because people have gone to the trouble of telling me. The amount of data I get from the hit counter at the bottom is basically enough to allow me to see what people who stumble across my blog were searching for initially. It does provide for some interesting reading, and never fails to make me wonder what context they were searching in.

So I don't know who reads it. The information published here is not private. It may be UNLIKELY that a person would stumble upon my site accidentally (and know who I was), but it is technically possible. A much more likely situation is a friend of mine mentioning the blog to a friend of theirs. I probably haven't met that "second degree" of visitor, so the blog is all they know about me. Not to mention that anything I type could be linked and distributed to anyone from my past. If I write about a particular person, who I may believe doesn't read this, the new entry could be in their computer inbox within seconds after I write it.

Scary, in a lot of ways. But helpful, too. I find it helps to focus my writing and establish boundaries, just so I don't go too overboard and find myself in the uncomfortable situation of having shared TOO MUCH.

But without sharing TOO MUCH, I admit it saps a lot of the reason for even bothering to read a blog. Without embarrassing revelations, this internet stuff is just bland.

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