Random Ramblings - The Virgin Blogger

The Virgin Blogger Yes Virginia, there is a virgin blogger out there. In fact, and I feel quite certain of this, there are probably a great deal of virgin bloggers out there. Hi. My name is Lori, and I am a virgin blogger. I’ve heard the terms “blog” and “blogging” for some time now, and yet it has always remained one of those things enshrouded in mystery and intrigue. A million vague questions scramble through my mind at seeing or hearing reference to the elusive “blog” phenomenon. Is it some secret scheme or plot by some subversive underground sub-culture to get us all to open up our very minds to the transient ethereal world of bodiless bits and bytes flowing freely throughout our world, spewing our thoughts and ideas like tens of thousands of pots boiling over into that amorphous world of the World Wide Web? Or, perhaps, it is as simple as that we all share a need to be heard on some level by somebody. A need to reach out and touch someone and be touched in return, even if it is in the non-physical world of the internet. What is a blog? Funny, my trusty dictionary seems rather vague, telling me a blog is a “blog” and “same as weblog”. Ok, so this dictionary apparently knows even less about the elusive blog phenomenon than I do. (Perhaps it is about time to invest in a newer, more “modern” dictionary.) What do I think a blog is? Anything you want it to be. It can be the helpful and informative sharing of information and experiences, or the demented ramblings of an unbalanced mind. It can be our secret diary, previously kept locked by a tiny lock and key and hidden beneath the clothes of your underwear drawer, laid bare for the entire world to read our most secret and innermost thoughts and feelings. Or it can be a simple recitation of the events in our lives. A blog, simply, is anything you want to write from the mundane to the magnificent, intellectual or rambling, anything that is on your mind to share. It can be kept secret like your locked diary, or shared with the world. A blog, simply, is a new way to be heard on some level by somebody, reaching out and touching and being touched without subjecting ourselves to actually physically meeting people. It is a world where everyone from the most outgoing person to an agoraphobic shut-in can blossom and become a social butterfly; to in some way be heard and be touched. And here you have it, my first blog, now no longer a blogging virgin; a rambling and perhaps slightly unbalanced blog about blogging. What will my blog turn out to be? Perhaps it is too soon to know, even for myself. What I do know is this, it is much easier to express ourselves in the surreal world of the internet to an invisible audience of people we most probably will never meet, to share thoughts and ideas we would otherwise humbly keep to ourselves for fear our friends and loved ones would laugh at us or look askance at us as though debating whether we should be committed, or at the very least recommended a good psychiatrist.