UPCOMING AOL JOURNAL GALA EVENTS

AOL journals turns 1 year old and several sites are planning big Anniversary celebrations.  Now the common person would scoff at such an idea, after all the journals are just a daily weblog program, not some elaborate multimillion dollar corporation or something of the kind.  Its just a collection of daily journals from average people about their lives, their dreams, goals, their families and jobs, their fantasies, right?

WRONG!  This is our world!  This is our lives, our inner most self, this is US!  And you can darn well bet we're going to celebrate the creation of something so special that brought us all together!  Blog on my friends, blog on!

(oooops, gotta go, here comes the husband again!  Dang, why can't he just go to bed and leave me to blog in peace!)

I AM A BLOGGING ADDICT

(this is a reprint of an entry from the Dust Bunny Club which I felt would be more at home here)

Hello, my name is Dorn, and I am a Blogging Addict.  Its hard to admit it, I didn't even realize it at first.  But the symptoms are obvious.  I go straight to the computer in the morning after I start the coffee pot.  I open my mailbox for any new Comment Alerts, then go  to my journal and check the counter to compare the number from what it was before I logged off last night.  Pleased that there have been 20 hits overnight, I go to my favorite journals and read their latest entries.  I try to leave a comment of my own because I know how much I appreciate when they leave me comments.  I wait until the last minute to log off, just incase I get a Comment Alert.... I like to read them as soon as they pop up.

During the day I refer to other journalers as 'friends', even though I don't know them personally and in fact only know them by their screen name.  They are real enough to me and I believe every thing they write because nobody would ever lie or exaderate on a journal.

After work I rush back home and straight down to the computer room and turn on AOL.  My mailbox is full lately and I am happy because most of the comments are favorable.  I have so many friends now and I feel so special.

But when my husband comes in I guiltily shut down the computer.  He gives me long brooding looks.  I think he suspects that I might be having some kind of online affair, but he never says anything.  Its hard, but I wait until he goes to bed before logging on again.  More journal alerts... so I quickly pull them up and read them before checking the counter and logging off.

Now that I am over the denial stage of this addiction I must deal with it.  I didn't sleep well last night trying to come up with a solution.  With the sunrise came the answer.  I will just have to make a committment and take responsibility for my sickness.  I will have to go cold turkey.  It will be hard in the beginning, but changes must be made in order to save my sanity.

I will quit my job and devote myself to blogging full time! 

And I will start a help group for other addicts so that they may come to terms with their sickness.  I will call it 'Bloggers Anonymous'.  Blogging is not a crime, it isa disease.  Don't hate me because I blog.  Bloggers are people too.  Just because we 'LOL' instead of laughing out loud doesn't make us bad.  We are just misunderstood.   And bloggers are beautiful people.  I am proud to be a blogger! 

(oops, here comes the husband, gotta go!)

HAL

How many of you have named their computer.  The first computer I ever saw was Hal, or HAL 9000 from the Space Odessey.  Hal was enough to intimidate anyone.

I don't think my first computer even had a brand.  It had a 475 MB harddrive (yes, I said MB, not GB).  I had all kinds of names for that stupid thing, but they can't be repeated here in a public forum.  My next computer was a Packard Bell, or the Packasaurus Rex as was more fitting.  That was followed by My Baby, the eMachine.  My current computer, My Precious (say this with a hissssss) is a Dell.  And finally, there is the Frankenputer upstairs.... its possessed by past users, past mainframes, old motherboards, I don't know for sure, but its haunted!

BLOG AND RUN!

Another habit of bloggers is to randomly write about absolutely nothing.  They just log on to their journal and submit 2 paragraphs about how they have nothing to say or report for the day.  They are in fact just satisfying their need to add an entry to their journal.  Many do it out of a sence of duty, they feel their loyal readers expect a new entry each and every day and so they type up meaningless drivel so as not to let their readers down.  Truth be known they NEED to add an entry for their own satisfaction.  They log on to their journal to check the counter, then panic if they see that its been more than 24 hours since their last entry.  They don't want their readers to get bored and find another blog to frequent.  And so they write.  Sometimes it will be works of art, complete brilliance.  Other times it will be a stammering jumble of words just to drop back the 'entry-ticker'.  And sometimes it will be a senceless paragraph about how other journaler feel the need to write senceless paragraphs just to get a 'blog-fix'

Blog on my friends.

What is a 'blog'?

I was asked a while back this question, and I apologize for not responding sooner, but the truth of the matter is that I had no idea what a blog was.  It baffled me why something as special as a personal journal would be named something that sounds like it should come from a nasal passage.  So I did my homework, and this is what I came up with.

BLOG:  A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and Web links.

The word 'blog' comes from 'web log'.  It is used to represent an almost infinite variety of journals by and equally almost infinite number of writers.  And what is the attraction?  The blog is the soul creation of the author.  Nobody can tell them that it is wrong.  Well, they can, but it wouldn't matter, because the blog belongs to the author to do with as he or she sees fit.  Writing a blog can be very satisfying and therapeutic.  Reading others can be educational and enjoyable.

For me, having a blog, or several as it is, has been my saving grace.  I no longer vent on the family.  I just sit down at the computer and have a cyber-pity party for a little while, then get up, brush off my hands and carry on with life, refreshed and ready to tackle anything.  The most important aspect of blogging for me is my small following of loyal readers who offer advice, share laughs and lend a shoulder when needed without judging.  I do not have to fit a stereotype or pattern, I can just be myself.  I think that is a major attraction for many bloggers.  Blog on my friends, blog on!

WHERE DO YOU BLOG?

I've been noticing that there are a lot of different names for the World of Blogging.  I myself use several different names when referring to it.  These are some that I know of, and I'm sure that there are many more.

Bloggersville,   Blogsville,  Journal-land,  J-Land,  Bloggerstown,  Journaltown,  Blogsylvania,  New Blogston, 

Can you think of (or make up) any more?

A BLOGGER'S MORNING

Its 6am.  I've been awake for almost an hour but waited until my husband left for work before getting up and turning on the computer.  I make a pot of coffee while the computer is powering up.  My first stop.... my mailbox!  Most of the new mail consists of Journal Comment Alerts.  I delete any spam so I can just breeze through the alerts without interruption.  My next stop is my journals.  I scroll down to check the counter and compare it with the number from last night before I logged off at bedtime.  10 hits or more overnight is a decent night.  20 or more is great.  I will then read the new comments... again.  I refresh my memory by reading my original entry.  I am comforted by bloggers who leave comments like "ITA" (I totally agree).  I don't get much ITA offline. The more common response offline is "AYC"  (Are You Crazy?).  Next its the news.  No, I don't mean AOL news, or CNN or FoxNewsOnline.  I mean news in Bloggersville.  Blogs have taken over my Favorites and I just go down the line catching up on some of my new friends.  I laugh at some of them, cry over others.  And some I sit there with a look of wonder and amazement wishing I had thought of that first.

And so starts my average day.  I'll leave the computer on while I get ready for work, just in case some new comments pop up.  I used to hate logging off and shutting down, but have since come up with a new way of thinking.  Do you know how much a counter can climb and the comments alerts can pile up during the course of a workday?  Its absolutely awesome to come home after a rough day at work to log on and see your mailbox overflowing with laughs and messages of encouragement, and to see that the counter has once again shot through the roof. 

Soooo, reluctantly I must step away from the keyboard and begin preparations for earning my minimum wage.  I shall be back as soon as possible to this very seat catching up on the very latest in Bloggersville.  Until then, Blog on my friends.