Some Thoughts after a Year of Blogging

1. I am always ALWAYS tempted to talk about work and sometimes relationships, but if you can't say it someone's face, you can't say it here.

2. Blog writing is a very different form of writing--it's got its OWN THING going on. Like take the ALL CAPS. It's somehow satisfying and it RELATES something that I enjoy, but unless I am John Irving and have a character named Owen Meany, I can't write fiction or essays in ALL CAPS.

3. Without meaning to, you repeat yourself. I see one of my friends and say, "Hey, the funniest thing happened, I went to go get ice cream..." and they'll stop me and say, "I know, I read it on your blog." DOH!

4. If you don't want to be found out by past friends, relatives, old lovers, bosses, co-workers, your postman, or local gas attendant, than blogging is not for you.

5. Blogging creates a whole new set of problems that you didn't anticipate, among them a strange cyber social structure, that you unwillingly participate in. Once a friend asked me on the phone, "I noticed you took So-and-so off your links. Did something happened between you?" I was like, HUH??? I quickly explained, NOTHING had happened, I just use that list as a way to check blogs every day, and they weren't updating enough to warrant every day checkage. Also, I get insecure about MY popularity. I have a remedy for blog-insecurity now. Every time I feel insecure about the number of people reading/or not reading my blog, all I have to do is go and visit Dooce. She got over 1000 comments and I just looked on her flickr site and saw that a single picture of hers has been looked at almost SEVEN THOUSAND times. I kinda have to laugh at myself. I remember my shrink asking me years ago: Do you want to be Madonna, or do you want to be Lucy Kaplansky--who has a small, but a DEVOUT following (my shrink was a huge fan)? I said I wanted to be like Lucy Kaplansky. I don't know if I'll ever be Lucy Kaplansky, but I think Dooce may be the blog world's Madonna.

6. Sometimes I want to quit writing the blog and then I get scared to do it, and then THAT is a scary feeling.

7. It's unbelievably addictive. Especially when you are on a roll and feel particularly smart-assy and arty or have a FUNNY STORY you are bursting to tell.

8. I have always "had a sense of humor" but never have been able to put that down in my writing. I've always been a very SERIOUS writer. There is something about blogging that allows me to CRACK JOKES and MAKE FUN OF MYSELF and be A DORK and I LOVE IT.

9. There are some great people out there in the blog world. There are also people who take it WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Years of therapy have led me to conclude that I am the former and a year of blogging had taught me I am also the latter.

10. I hate anonymous comments.

[PS (because I just can't HELP myself.) I've read in various places that some people believe the blog world is too accessible, meaning anyone and everyone can do it. Therefor, it has become overcrowded and watered down. I tell you simply this is impossible. Also, the blogging world is SORELY lacking a few people I know to be very brilliant with stories to tell and wonderful points of view. I would like to salute the would-be bloggers, who if I cow them into submission, by publicly outing them, might be persuaded to join the fold: Judy, Boreas, George, Ted Serious, Pete, Steve, and Rico. Until your words and life illuminate the blogosphere, I say: Shine on you crazy diamonds.]