December 05, 2002

There's a Sphere Out There

I haven't really referenced other blogs in here as of yet because when I started this blog about a year ago, I hadn't really started reading any of them much. But as the months have passed, I've slowly and irrevocably been becoming addicted to reading quite a few blogs.

Still, though, as I've primarily considered my own blog/journal here to be more a supplement to my already-established online projects on Sepulchritude and my own Bat Cafe than a proper blog in the current customary way, I didn't really think about possibly redoing my blog here in the way it should be if I were going to try to actively participant in that thing now known as the "blogosphere."

But. Even without having a "proper" participatory blog, seems like I got minorly dragged into that sphere nevertheless by a side route. A couple weeks back, when I was reading Andrea Harris' often amusing Spleenville, I noticed she mentioned our "I, Claudius Drinking Game" in one of her entries. Cracked me up. I left the following comment there:

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Just thought I'd drop a note and say hello as I happen to be the co-author of the "I, Claudius Drinking Game." It kinda startled and amused me this morning -- when I just happened to be indulging my relatively recent secret addiction to perusing blogs -- to suddenly see a link to something old of mine (it's a piece from 1999, part of an online 'zine).

It's bad enough to have a secret addiction to blogs -- I mean, it started harmlessly enough some months ago. One, two blogs that I checked in on occasionally. Now, I'm up to a couple dozen that I regularly read a few times a week with frequent side trips to other ones when an intriguing link beckons. I knew it was getting bad. I was becoming a blog junkie. But I deluded myself it was okay -- I was only reading them. I hadn't actually left a comment anywhere, I hadn't participated, I hadn't actually gotten truly sucked into the blogosphere.

Uh-huh.

So, the full impact of my own doom hit me full force this morning when I saw this link when I thought I was only just doing "a little morning reading."

Thus, I thought I might as well give in and say hello. And mention that I've been enjoying your blog as well as many, many others for a while now.

Thanks much,
M Bat
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I also noticed one day not too long ago in reading our traffic logs for "Suffering is Hip" that the "I, Claudius Drinking Game" also was mentioned in Eve Tushnet's weblog in mid-September. I have read Eve Tushnet's interesting weblog from time to time, but the week she mentioned it, I must have been busy with mundane life maintenance matters and had neglected doing much reading online that week at all. Whatever the reason, I hadn't actually seen the reference in her blog when she'd made it and ended up only discovering it by seeing referrals from it in our own traffic logs a couple weeks or so later.

Today, I sent off an entry to Eve Tushnet's amusing little contest for coming up with philosopher drag queen names as well as sending off an email to my affable co-editors about it (as they're sure to find it amusing and I know they'd be good at coming up with some entries). But I'm a bit late referencing this contest as it was first posted a couple of weeks or so back, and the deadline for entries is next week.

See .... this is my quandary about attempting to cite things in other blogs -- even wonderfully bizarre things like this contest. I enjoy reading quite a few blogs regularly when I have the time and could probably link to noteworthy entries (or merely the random things that catch my fancy), but I know I do not have either the time nor inclination to be as attentive and as timely about citing links and articles as the serious bloggers are.

Still, I think I will when I have the time try to reference other blogs when I see something that particularly catches my fancy. Just I know I won't either be consistent nor thorough about it -- which is no reflection at all on what's out there but merely due to the limitation of my own time constraints.

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(Also, I know I will have to explain what the hell I'm talking about for those who read my blog/journal thingie here who aren't actually familiar with the world of blogs out there and various bits of blog customs and jargon. I suspect from what I see in my traffic logs, that most of my audience might happen to be unfamiliar and unaware of all that. So, for their sake, I'll try to briefly explain a few relevant bits soon or perhaps find a link to a decent introductory explanation).