The buddies of blog

I've been blogging for several years now - it'll be 4 years come September or something like that. Looking back, I'm not sure what prompted me to start blogging. And whatever it was, I'm certain that my motivations have changed since then. When I started this blog - which has been through a couple name changes - I never really intended for all that many people to see it. At first, it was kind of a journal for me. I remember having been impressed by the candor (and alternately, shocked by the narcissism) of those that posted online journals in the days before Blogger. I was amazed by how anyone could read their innermost thoughts, but also kind of WTF-ing the fact that they thought that their lives would be interesting to anyone beyond themselves. It was Camille Paglia who perhaps not-so-famously wrote about blogging:

Blog reading for me is like going down to the cellar amid shelves and shelves of musty books that you're condemned to turn the pages of. Bad prose, endless reams of bad prose! There's a lack of discipline, a feeling that anything that crosses one's mind is important or interesting to others. People say that the best part about writing a blog is that there's no editing -- it's free speech without institutional control. Well, sure, but writing isn't masturbation -- you've got to self-edit.

While I think this is harsh, I will admit to having given the world perhaps more than my fair share of bad prose. And ill-informed ideas. But in the end, this is not what writing a blog is about for me.

As I said, initially, I didn't tell anyone about my blog. I had no idea how many people found my blog via random Google searches. Slowly but surely, I started letting people know about it. I started putting it in the sig line of my e-mails, filling it into the "web site" section of various web sites I joined. And finally, I started telling people I knew about it. I still don't tell people I work with - if they find it, that's all well and good, but I'm not about to go and spread the word. I fear that I would freeze up and not be able to write another word. I've also started commenting on other blogs that I have been a long time reader of - and it was then that I realized the true fun of blogging. I was creating a network of people - other bloggers - whose blogs I go to religiously day after day, sometimes commenting, sometimes not. I've met a lot of people via blogging that I wouldn't have had a chance to meet otherwise.

The first of these blog friends was Scott of the now defunct (by his own choice) Saltwater Pizza Blog. Unfortunately, he seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. But since then, I've met these fine folks as well.

• P. Viktor, whose poetry and pop culture reviews always make for fascinating reading.
• Paul at thezapping.com, another fabulous friend from across the pond who has turned me on to a lot of music I might never have heard otherwise. That plus giving me fashion tips and just generally inflating my ego by his kind words.
• XO, who I met via Paul, who is many ways a musical twin, but also knows many genres and artists that I don't know. Also he is the keeper of all the best ways to travel in the UK - knowledge that I plan to use to my advantage some day.
• Aunt Phetamine, who I only just met (thanks to a random Casey Stratton blog search), but is a fellow midwesterner and loves some great music as well. So sorry to hear about the kidney stone!
• And last but certainly not least, is Yuri of Olga Loves Yuri who thinks we were probably separated at birth. And I wouldn't be surprised. We just started e-mailing and reading each other's blogs, but it's prompted a flurry of e-mails that has just been the best time ever.

Looking up at that list, it appears that music is the connection - as Madge says, music makes the people come together (or as Anna sings it, "Music/Makes the boys/Come together/Yeah!") It's too bad the world is such a big place - I can only imagine what a night at Dublin Bay with the above mentioned folks in attendance would be like. Here's to you guys - thank goodness the internet makes the world just a little bit smaller.

P.S. And you know what's crazy, this doesn't even mention the fab people I've met via last.fm.