Meta, Part 1

I gotta say, this whole blogging thing has been kinda weird on a couple of different levels. I've got a couple of different takes on this, so I'm going to try and break it into several posts. Hopefully I'll actually get back to it, unlike some of the other things I've started which appear to be stuck in eternal draft mode.

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There's a weird public/private boundary that gets blurred on-line. The SOOTTAD is extremely suspicious of this and thus is extremely careful about what gets posted about her on the 'net at large. There's a reason there aren't many (any) pictures of her floating around with her name attached. Quite frustrating, I must say, speaking as someone who was once trying to find out more about her when we first met.

I, on the other hand, dove in head first. Under the auspices of creating a website for my fencing club and the local division, I also created a personal homepage complete with a few photos, interests and geographical information. You know, so people would know who designed the pages. (I hate the new club site, BTW. It's certainly prettier and flashy, but to me senseless Flash is just a waste of bandwidth and CPU.) Really, it's just the 21st century version of seeking your 15 minutes. The SOOTTAD has definitely rubbed off on me. I've gotten a lot more careful about what I put out there in this brave new world of identity theft and web-enabled crazies. There's a reason there are no direct links to our on-line photo gallery or even my old site. Plus it's fun to use aliases and nicknames for people. (something that I'm only just starting to do, and probably not do very much)

Ok, it's getting late and there are a bunch of other things about posting that I'm just gonna bullet item here. Maybe I'll come back later and clean it up.

• There's something inherently (narcissistic? self-absorbed?) ...perhaps a self-consciousness or self-awareness when you post about yourself to the great sea of the internet at large. (ok, maybe it's just me) Am I being totally honest and open with you? Probably. Maybe. (again, maybe that's just me, though) It's been easier to rant. Or point -- "Ooh look, pretty!" And sometimes there are also legitimate reasons to watch what you say.
• Sometimes, by the time I get home from the office (I'm trying not to post when I'm at work -- ok, post less), the last thing I want to do is sit back down in front of a computer. It becomes work.
• Sometimes, the spirit that moved me, moves on. The muse exits, stage left. Whatever.
• Still other times, something interesting happens, but I'd rather write it in my "brick-n-mortar" journal. (Yes, if I really want to keep a thought, I want it on paper, in my journal, in my house. Not unseen on some server somewhere out in the ether.) And then, it's written, and it's a little weird writing it all again.

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OK, bedtime. Maybe I'll get to the client-side commentary next time. Or fix up the stuff above.