Entry 2 in Blogging Heaven

For those of you who have visited the blog thanks for your comments and welcomes!

Before entering into most projects, I oftentimes research them to see if it is something I am really interested in trying. My first experience is with Landlubber's blog. (Check it out if you haven't yet, but keep him away from your sock drawer). I've seen a few others along the way, and then it seems in the last couple of weeks the media attention towards weblogs has exploded. I've seen the articles about Salem Pax, the 20 something blogger in Baghdad to Kevin Sites, a CNN reporter currently in Iraw who was logging his experiences until the network asked him to stop to Tamara a 7 month pregant woman whose husband was deployed to Kuwait in January to Anne a woman writing to Rob trying to come to terms with his death. It made me wonder what is the allure of weblogs?

People are publishing what is often private into a venue which offers world wide viewership. They are willing to share their day, their emotions, their work, their beliefs etc. Whenever we open up there is always a risk, which is why so often one only shares such things with their cloest friends, confidantes, family members, or perhaps no one. There are those that are willing to open themselves to pain both emotional and physical (most claim that if Salem is ever caught by his current government he would be executed). Why are weblogs becoming the means of choice in opening up?

The "exploration" brought to me a memory of a conversation I had with a friend, and consider if there may be a connection. He said that it is easiest to open up and share with a stranger (for example someone you are sitting next to on a bus). You do not know them and probably will never see them again. You don't have to worry if they will tell another as you do not know the same people. You do not value their opinion as you do not know them. Who cares what they think about you? It is almost like talking to a blank slate that is a live and can respond. While we were talking I pondered this and said I do not necessarily agree as I don't go up to a stranger and tell them my deepest darkest secrets. I asked him how often he had, and he said never, but oftentimes has had others talk to him. Perhaps it depends on the person doing the sharing. It is amazing to me how many times during the day a person will tell me their life stories while on the phone. If they need to talk they find someone to talk to.

The web seems to be work in this direction as well. For years I have worked online in different areas, but primarily in communities and chats. it is common to hear stories of those who hide beyond a madeup identity and oftentimes to the detriment of others, scarm artists, child molesters, etc. I've seen more of this time up thing then I wish to recall. Yet I've also seen how people are willing to open up over the computer when they won't in real life. The annonymity of the internet makes them feel comfortable to talk and share themselves. Perhaps this is one reason for the proliferation of blogs, it's a format that let's people share themselves either to help themselves or others.

Perhaps I will find out if this is the reason, after I have had more experience with my own logs.

Well this is my very first foray into blogdom. I've heard so much about the new weblog fad that I thought I had to give it a try. I love fads and gimics! It's cheesy, but sadly true. Anyway as I don't seem to have enough to do in my life, I thought this would be something interesting to try. I say that with a bit of a smirk on my face, because it seems that I am always busy and pushed for time, yet when I look back on my days they shouldn't be that filled. Am I really that inefficient? Or do I just spend too much time with my nose in a book or playing on the computer?


In the ten days since the War with Iraq started I have found myself spending hours watching the events, and more particular reading about them. Every day I have a few sites that I must visit to see what is going on in the world. Among these are MSNBC, Yahoo and Google news. I spend the most time on Google as it shows articles from sources around the world It is intersting to see the different reports, to compare them. I wonder though why this "addiction"? What makes this different? Is it because the bombings started on my birthday? Because when I was in high school during Desert Storm in 91 that I represented Iraq in a Model UN and therefore studied it thoroughly, and there is some sort of connection? I don't know, yet I find myself in horror of what is happening. I fear for the lives of those on all sides, and hope that it will be settled soon.

I have an everyday, average, single, American woman, yet as I look at the pictures of what is going on, it makes me look around the house. At the piles of books, clothes and electronic equipment piled everywhere. I have my everyday worries about the economy, work, my future, as well as more mundane things as my old car and my lack of a social life . As I look at the pictures on MSNBC the last few days it pounds home just how fortunate I am. I've never lacked for food, I have always had plenty of medical and dental care, more clothes then I truly need, my car runs even if it is old, and I do have a job. I am very fortunate, yet why is it so much easier to look at the bad ? Why is it so much easier to desire what we don't have then to appereciate what have? It isn't that I have had a perfect life. Bad things have happened. I think that every adult has had something. The horror of 911 brought this home to us very clearly. I remember upon hearing about those events how unreal it felt, and then the horror spread.. During work that day the office was glued to the news. And everyone was passing around a picture that I had sitting at my desk of some friends on the top of the WTC. It doesn't take a catastrophe of that size either. One in three women are raped in the USA. This translates into one every 5 minutes (if memory serves). How many of us have known someone to be stalked, murdered, suffered from a lingering disease? Known the effects of being jobless for months or even years on end? Of not being able to provide for your family? Or not having a family? I am not trying to belittle the suffering in other countries, because to be honest I can't imagine the horrors that some have lived through, and continue to live through. But what I am saying is that yes bad things do happen, terrible things happen, so why don't they make us appreciate what is good? Why do I not look around and see that I am so lucky to have a home, with plenty of food, a car to drive, family close by, a full mouth of teeth, my health, among so many other things? I know this question is brought up so often, yet I have never found the answer to this. And so often I forget how much I have to appreciate,. That the bad should not make me feel the victim, That I shouldn't feel oh poor me, but to realize how lucky I am that I am able to move on and have so much. And to appreciate everything.. I also want to remember to look up to and respect the suffering people who have lived under toppresion, not had enough food and water, who have been killed for standing up for their beliefs, who are in fear of their lives, who have friends and loved ones die. They too are heros and should not be forgotten.