The Journey?

Why did I start this blog? I had already learned what time consuming monsters we can create, when we open ourselves to interaction with others in cyber-space.

As a Christian that was good, there are times when you read someone's journal, and it's obvious they need a word of encouragement. That's right up my alley: I cannot go anywhere, or do anything that requires paying your own way; or even donate to worthy causes, but I can be open to the unction of a cry for spiritual help.

There is a lot of idle chit-chat on casual style blogs like LiveJournal, and freewebs, where you are encouraged to share things about 'You!' Sometimes it's like reading someone's diary, and for the life of me I didn't see how strangers were interested in seeing personal snapshots of friends and family. I do see a strange phenomenon though: a bonding of people as they respond to what others post, and befriend each other. It's rather like having a 'pen pal' without having to wait days, or even weeks for an answer. That's why I prefer e-mails to letters. It gives me the luxury of composing what I want to say, editing to make sure my point is clear. The beauty of doing it on the computer is the lack of correction signs on the paper.

My problem is: I'm long winded. When I get on a roll I can write pages, which becomes an issue if I exceed the equivolent of 2, letter size, pages when I'm ready to post. I ran into this when I added "Change" to my essay list, here on blogger. Also when I responded to comments on forums: like the discussion groups at 'freewebs.' When I signed up for blogger, with sharing my writing in mind, I wasn't aware yet of this limitation.

The forced rest from 'The Net' that came after writing my first posts on blogger, was a blessing in disguise. It gave me time to assess what I'd done with my first experience on the internet. When I got back, the pirated software was gone, hopefully so would all the problems of being infested with spyware. Now I realize it's time to edit, or delete some of those early posts, but my only two links to others on blogger are in the 2 comments on one of them.

I could get frustrated with such a puny response, but when I browsed through some sites of others on blogger, it was obviously a popular place for promoting a lot of commercial endeavors.
I even found a lot of cookies from sites on blogger, while I was troubleshooting before my windows program shut itself down to protect what was left of its integrity. It also occured to me this week as I wrote a Knol, that I don't even know what my URL is on this site. It's so easy to get in by going to my Google accounts that I haven't followed up on finding out, so I can promote this site on my blogs and webpages. However, I am taking this one step at a time; first things first, as the old saying goes.

At this stage of my journey, I have to get organized; list all my contact points to the right places, etc... and have them within easy access. It's also time to investigate, more deeply, what it means to be a Google blogger. I just thank God, for the new feature, Knols; sounds tailor made for me.