Two Month Blog Birthday

To celebrate the Two Month Birthday of Cellar Door, I'm posting an essay which will be submitted for possible radio commentary. It's a fact-based, pseudo fictional account of my experience blogging thus far.


Several months ago I got an email from a friend inviting me to go look at his blog. Blog, B-L-O-G, is tech speak for “web log.” Basically, it’s a place you can publish your thoughts, poetry, family news, that sort of thing. It’s different than a web page in that you can publish to the internet instantly, without having to worry about programming codes and hosting services.

After reading my friend’s blog, and other blogs, I began to wonder what it would be like to be on the other side of the blog curtain. Why shouldn’t my thoughts be published for the world? And so, I did it. I sat myself down, found a service and became a proud blog owner!

Writing the blog is a lot fun. So far, I’ve posted some funny links, written a few essays, and praised Rufus Wainright’s new CD. But what good is blogging if no one’s reading? I sent out one of those mass emails to everyone in my address book. “Hey, I started a blog. Come check it out!”

A couple of my best friends emailed some nice comments about my new hobby. But after several postings, I began to wonder... was anybody out there? Were people reading once and then forgetting to come back? What were my blog Nielson ratings? Just to be sure, I began to casually mention my blog in emails to friends. “Buddy, got the pics of the new baby! Congrats! Hey, did I tell you I started a blog?” And.. “Sucks that you got layed off... you know, I was just talking about this in my blog...” To better monitor my hits, I installed a counter on my blog. I started leaving my blog page up on the computer and found myself hitting the refresh button every five minutes to see if the counter was moving.

What started out as a goof to get me to write more had turned into an exercise in narcissism. I cringe every year when I get one of those family newsletters crammed in with a Christmas card, and yet here I was programming an automatic “signature” at the bottom of all my emails: “Don’t forget to Visit my blog” double-exclam. My blog is only four weeks old, but even I’m already sick of me!

Have I so succumb to our voyeuristic, reality TV culture that the whole world needs to hear my every thought? Why don’t I just go on “Survivor” so people everywhere can see me take off my shirt and eat live worms with my tribe? Better yet, I could install a webcam in my apartment so people can watch me combing my cat and clipping coupons.

Nah... way too egocentric.

But hey, check out my blog at blowed up good dot blogspot dot com. And did you know you can make my blog your homepage?