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In response to Prairie Bluestem's post of 9/4/06...

1) Are you happy/satisfied with your blog's content and look?

I’m okay but not particularly thrilled with it. I’d spend more time designing it if I had more time to spend.

2) Does your family know about your blog?

My wife and son know about it but not my daughter.

3) Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?

I’m not embarrassed to let my few friends know about it. Sometimes I post my private gnashings of teeth and later realize they sound very self-serving or whining. I hope my readers will forgive me.

4) Did blogging cause positive changes in your thoughts?

Yes.

I’ve journaled most of my 60 years in the old fashioned way with pen and paper, capturing private impressions and insights one at a time as they occur to me. I nurture the belief that if I write all this stuff down, someday I’ll be able to make sense of it all. I describe this gradual development of insight as like assembling a complex puzzle. You discover each piece of truth one at a time, then you gradually understand where that piece fits in relation to the others. But there’s more: Many times you grasp the same truth from different perspectives, and you realize that each understanding is correct within the context of its own perspective. In this way the analogy expands from assembling a two-dimensional puzzle to constructing a hologram.

Whereas journaling is private, blogging allows me to write for an audience. It has widened my literary creativity, provided the opportunity to venture into photojournalism and allowed me to indulge in more humor than is usually present in my private journals.

5) Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or do you love to go and discover more by yourself?

I have a limited amount of free time, so I tend to visit the blogs of those who have left comments on my blog. My wife has also turned me onto a number of blogs.

6) What does a visitor counter mean to you? Do you like having one on your blog?

I love the visitor counter and like to examine the details. I’m always amazed at the number of complete strangers, some from faraway lands, who read my blog.

7) Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?

Yes. I have posted a real picture of myself, and I enjoy seeing the faces of other bloggers.

8) Admit. Do you think there is any real benefit in blogging?

Yes. I have always enjoyed writing, and the positive feedback I’ve received through blog comments has encouraged me to write more. Writing is one of my primary skills, so any way in which I can exercise it is beneficial to me. I hope my writing benefits my readers, but that’s for them to say. One of my dreams is to write professionally, and I see blogging as a kind of practice journalism.

9) Do you think that bloggers’ society is isolated from the real world or interaction with events?

For starters, would someone please identify the "real world" for me? Which events are "real," and which are "non-real?" What is the "bloggers' society?" Somehow I've missed the meeting dates. Maybe I haven't paid my dues.

Now that I've made a mockery of the question, let me attempt to answer it in the spirit in which I believe it was intended.

I can’t speak for other people, but I’m sure that bloggers are a diverse lot like the rest of us. I imagine that some bloggers are isolated and some are completely involved with the "real world" (whatever that may be).

I have known many non-bloggers who don't live in the real world (or at least not in the world I inhabit). Some people live in the world of alcohol, some live in the world of music, some live in the world of ideas. Some live in the world of politics, and some live in the world of corporate power. I live in the world inside my head and find myself constantly exploring its outer reaches.

It might be argued that people who take time to blog aren’t really contributing to the welfare of society, but I believe that any forum in which people are allowed to speak their minds is healthy for society in general.

10) Does criticism annoy you, or do you feel it's a normal thing?

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered any critical comments, even on some of my more opinionated posts.

11) Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?

I select what I read based on my interests, and I don’t waste my time reading crap. Time is our most precious resource, so why should I waste it reading things that make me feel bad? I suppose you could call that “fear,” but I call it selectivity.

12) Were you shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?

I view blogging as a form of free speech that should be protected as part of U.S. First Amendment rights, and therefore I do not believe that bloggers should be arrested for what they say. Free speech can threaten those in power, and people who live in totalitarian societies do not enjoy the same liberties.

Nevertheless, like any form of free speech, what you say can get you fired. If people have things to say that might get them fired, they should be very careful how they say them and to whom. It’s just common sense.

13) What do you think will happen to your blog after you die?

It will probably melt down in the coming global catastrophe. Seriously, I hope to save my more poignant ramblings in a less volatile format (e.g., paper) before I leave this world. As of this writing, I expect that my son may continue my story.

14) What do you like to hear? What song would you like to link to on your blog?

I love many types of music, but I hate to hear the same song over and over again. So if given the chance, I would like to link XM Satellite Radio’s XM Café to my blog.

15) Five bloggers to be the next "victims"?
Mean Things They Say to Me
Life of a Capriquarian
Annie's Blog
A Day in the Life of Me
Dream Mom