Shout-outs!

A big thanks to Shinichi over at shindotv for mentioning my blog as one of his favorites to read in a Best Gay Blogs interview: Why Blog? It asks 3 gay bloggers their opinions on blogs and why they do it — pretty obvious from the title, no? I think it’s a pretty good question considering that new blogs, journals, what-have-you are springing up like mad, even to the point where there are “splogs” that exist solely to create ad revenue, often by stealing full content from other blogs with no attribution. Some bloggers are considered journalists, others gossip columnists, others just really want you to know what’s up with their cat. No new social networking site starts up without some form of a blog nowadays and all the older ones are adding them to catch up. Even major news outlets and corporations are starting them up, even though some of those serve no better purpose than a splog, clearly the trend is being recognized as a big deal.

I recognize that most people around the interwebs yesterday could have cared less about my venting about work, but I derive immense pleasure from turning the virtual pages back in my own journal and seeing other entries about past workplaces that make me realize it’s either time to get out or that I don’t really have it so bad here. Part of the wordpress theme I’m using uses tags to bring up “related entries” on the individual post pages and it’s fun to see older stuff that ties into what I’ve just written. I definitely prefer having my own website as well instead of relying on a freebie like LiveJournal because I backup the database regularly to my hard drive at home so if anything should happen to my hosting provider (knock wood) I can move the entire thing elsewhere.

I’ve always kept a journal of some kind, so for me blogging seemed a logical next step. Knowing that other people could (and eventually are) read it definitely changed how I write, but there are many entries here just for me and people can take it or leave it. Internet access is pretty much the norm now and reading/writing blogs is becoming as second-nature as breathing. Some recent events have shown that maybe free and easy access combined with ready anonymity is too much of a good thing, but overall I think the cream is rising to the top. I know that thanks to the joy of RSS feeds, I’m much more aware of what’s happening in my city, gay-related news from around the world, new and fun gadgets hitting the market, and even where I can save a few bucks on my internet shopping.

I still blog for me, but I’m glad to know you’re reading too.

* This may be the most times I’ve used the word blog in a single entry…