To blog or not to blog?

Well, I suppose Mr. Barefoot himself will be returning soon to these hallowed web pages to continue his weblog. I’m afraid I haven’t quite fulfilled the guest blogger duties as I should have — I can’t believe a month has passed already, but that real life can sure get in the way sometimes!

So while I still have access to this borrowed soapbox, I figure I should get at least one other post in.

It’s interesting, serving as a “guest blogger” on someone else’s site. I guess it’s sort of like being a substitute teacher — you’ve got (borrowed) authority, but then again — you’re just being tolerated til the real person shows back up.

And if you think it’s difficult censoring yourself and figuring out the proper things to say on your own website, it’s ten times as hard on someone else’s! It all comes back to a syndrome I like to call the “blogger’s conundrum.”

The blogger’s conundrum centers around the dilemma most bloggers experience regarding what to post. When I first started my blog, it was the culmination of insomnia and boredom at 2AM. My readers included myself and a couple friends. Nowadays I have a modest audience — ranging from my thesis supervisor (yikes) to my mom (double yikes) and a hundred or so others.

Needless to say, the personal rants I could write two Augusts ago would NOT be suitable to today’s post. Mainly because the issues or people I’d be writing about — would be actually reading my page!

Plus, the larger my readership gets, the less personal I can be. Don’t get me wrong, I never wrote about my breakfast contents or any specific heartbreaking moments — but now I’m finding that I censor what I write more and more. And maybe that’s not a bad thing, after all.

But despite the drawbacks, I’m really happy with the relationships and contacts I’ve made through my web journal. It’s odd (while flattering) to be recognized and to start up a conversation with someone I’ve never met, but who has read my web journal. I’ve had a chance to keep my family posted on my daily life, while also making contacts with long-lost friends. I even had a writer I quoted in one of my papers contact me to compliment me in my academic work.

Not bad for a hobby. And it’s a suitable one for me, considering my aptitude for talking (which is quite a lot, apparently. My blogger profile pegs me for almost 250,000 words so far).

Anyway, it’s been fun sub-ing for Darren while he’s off globetrotting. Now that he’s returning home, I suppose I can put aside those insanely jealous feelings I had for his trips around the world. ttfn!