And so it begins...

I've entered the world of blog. The world of rants and opinions. The world of spilling your guts. The world of introspective reflections that most people could care less about. A little behind the times? Definitely. Better late than never, I guess.

I've been a reader of various blogs for quite some time now -- mostly those by friends, but occasionally I'll peer into the mind of a complete stranger. Up to this point, I've been a blog "lurker", hiding in the shadows. Sometimes I feel like I've stumbled upon someone's super-secret personal diary that I shouldn't be reading, and I'm getting a glimpse into their deepest, darkest secrets. While I know this isn't likely the case, I've got to think that sometimes, just sometimes, people might let down their guard a bit and reveal things they might not normally be willing to reveal in a face-to-face conversation - even with close friends. Or at the very least, people might let you know how they really feel. More-so than any other reason, these compel me to keep going back to read what my friends have to say. I hope this works both ways.

As a side-effect of my pseudo invasion of privacy described above, I haven't engaged others by commenting on their blogs. Not even my friends. But I imagine I'll be more actively involved now that I've thrown myself under the train and started one of my own.

On the rare occasion that I stray from blogs of people I know, there is one over-reaching thing I have noticed. In general, I find it hard to stay interested in blogs by someone I have no personal connection with, unless I can relate to the topic of a particular entry in some way. Otherwise, I could care less what some schlub has to say. If this holds true for others (which I assume it most likely does), I would expect very few people outside of my network of friends to actually spend the time to read what I've got to say. Do I really care if no one reads my ramblings? To some extent, yes I do care. But I'm fully ready to accept the fact that I might just be talking to myself here. These blog things are therapeutic though, right? Right???

Oh well, c'est la vie.