A Blog Fish in a Blog Pond

I was watching some TV news clip and it mentioned that there are now over 6.5 million bloggers, by morning there will could be 6.6 million. That makes me a little bit sad. I was already overwhelmed being a small fish in a large pond and now the pond is filling up fast with more and more bloggers and the pond is becoming an ocean. It's also great that there is a brand new media and I'm a small part of something much bigger. Call me a dreamer but if the blogisphere were a person, I'd like to think that this blog would be a crusty little piece of snot in the left nostril. But there are some who still manage to stand out and find a following? How do they do it? I marvel at blogs that get tens of thousands of hits each day. Why do we have this need to reach so many? Does it validate us as lazy (me), self absorbed (me again) writers to have more hits, more comments, to be the biggest swinging block dick in cyber space? Sure some sell out bloggers put adds all over their blog to squeeze a bit of juice out of the fruits of their labors. But others, like myself prefer to keep it minimal and just use way too many analogies, smilies and metaphors. It's not unlike the little kid who stuffs his hand into the jar of cookies only to discover that their greedy little hand is stuck inside. Do they drop the cookies? Maybe, but they always go back for a few more. Is blogging addictive? I ask at 2:26 in the AM when I have to be up at 7:30 the next morning.

It's hard work building up a blog readership and even harder to walk away from the spotlight. I think it was very brave of Greg the Boyfriend to bow out. Few great athletes and performers have been able to walk away from the adulation of the crowd and the thrill of showcasing their talents. Michael Jordan couldn't do it. Greg didn't seem to like the quasi-celebrity status that his blog bestowed on him and I respect that. Greg went out at the top of his game. For that he has my admiration and my respect. Few in their field have been able to walk away from the game while still in their prime. He will always be a legend to me. He's the blog that drew me back to blogging. So let's have just a moment of silence, with no clicking of keys for ten minutes in recognition of Greg the Boyfriend and his contribution to American Culture, Technology, Sociology, Tips on how to self-sabotage any relationship and of course, Literature. Ten minutes of quiet reflection with no keyboard clicking, please...

I only lasted for 2 minutes and 10 seconds, I'm sorry people. But Greg the b/f is a rare case indeed. According to polls and surveys, that you might find on another blog that perhaps cared about accuracy sighting correct stats and crap, there are thousands of bloggers joining the blogging world every hour. The pond that was already too big for this Attention Whore Fish.* So what's my point? Well that's what's so great about the blog. You simply don't need one.

Kindly take a minute to drop me a snarky comment and then go visit Ring Ring and try not to wet your pants or the pants of anybody sitting near you.


*Not an actual species of fish

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