Returning to Blogging Duty

So it has been a few weeks since I last wrote. Three if my math is right, which would make this by far the longest break I’ve taken from blogging and writing in general in five years. First off, thanks to those who got in touch with me to check that everything is ok. I know that for some people my blog has been the best way to keep up with what I am doing and it has become so routine that not writing has been a signal that something has gone wrong. That wasn’t the case this time.

It’s weird to say that my life has gotten busy but in a way that is the best way to put it. I just have more on my plate now between time with Kim and taking care of things for work and all of the other aspects of life. I’ve also been traveling a ton and it has just taken a toll on me. The last few weeks all I wanted to do when I got home was maybe do a little reading, a little work on the jigsaw puzzle and sleep. I’m sorry for the lack of posts but my body and mind needed some time away from writing about Lindsay Lohan hitting a baby with her car.

(I think we’ve reached the point where we can use the term “Menace to Society” with regards to her.)

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this idea for the past few days and figured that it would be a good first topic back. Kim makes fun of me for the amount of time that I spend on Facebook and I have to admit that it is a rather strange obsession of mine. Now to be honest I don’t really do much on Facebook and I do significantly less than I did a year or two ago. I don’t update my status unless I can think of a really good pun, I haven’t uploaded pictures in years and I accept friend requests whenever I am bored enough to deal with it. Really all I do is login and look at everyone else’s status updates.

When you think of it that is a really odd, voyeuristic thing to do. Like most people, my Facebook friends are not my friends at all. Or at least a significant portion of them are not. Sure, they may have been friends at one point in my life but in some cases that was decades ago. In some cases I can’t even say that we ever were friends; we just happen to have some shared experiences based mainly on geography. Yet every day I check to see what they are doing. I know their jobs, the names of their children, and where they went on vacation. I know all of this despite the fact that for all intensive purposes these people are complete strangers to me.

What is more unusual and disconcerting is this is the same for all of us. Essentially everyone is on Facebook now and your life is on display for the world to see. We have reached a point where there is almost no such thing as private information anymore. We’ve listed everything in our profile and by detailing the minutiae of our life in status updates and Twitter posts and Flickr feeds people who don’t know us know everything about us. It’s a rather frightening thought. We have all become infinitely more social without actually talking to anyone.

This is probably strange coming from someone who in two months will be celebrating the six year anniversary of this blog. I can’t say that it wasn’t a factor in taking a little break from writing. Putting yourself out there every day for the world to see is a rather daunting thought. What does it really mean to know that in the last year someone from Iran has read my blog or that I have a relatively large number of visitors from Norway? Is it a loss of privacy or a way, as minor as it may be, to put my voice out there in the world?

I have a feeling that will be one of the subjects I will be grappling with over the next year. I’m going to keep writing because I feel better when I write and if I write I might as well blog. But I’m not sure what direction this is going to take. The days of writing about bar stories are behind me. Now I just have to figure out what is in front of me.

The five random CDs for the week (which had also been on a bit of a vacation):
1) Aimee Mann “I’m With Stupid”
2) R.E.M. “Murmur:
3) The Iguanas “Plastic Silver Nine Volt Heart”
4) Alejandro Escovedo “Thirteen Years”
5) Jay Bennett “Bigger than Blue”