Lessons Learned

I've been doing this blogging thing for about four months now; first on Friendster and now here at blogspot. When I first started doing this, I figured my blog would be a way for me to avoid work for a few hours each day. In all my writing, never did I imagine that blogging would do more than just give me an outlet for my random musings. This blog has actually taught me valuable life lessons.

Lesson 1: Be very careful about who gets the URL to your blog
From the jump I was always concerned about The Idiot Who Made Me Cry getting his hands on the link to my blog and reading everything I've said about him. Turns out, he wasn't the one I should've been worried about. When the blog used to be at Friendster I got in the sharing mood. I passed the link along to my friends and associates and let them get a good look at life as I know it. Well I must've been feeling really, really open because for reasons that escape me now, I even gave the link to my parents. I guess I had temporary amnesia and forgot about all the things I've written. They were all over my blog like flies on shit. Not a week would go by without a phone call or an email questioning me about my lost wallet (Priorities - 10/9 post), my belief in God (Not So Midlife Crisis - 10/30 post), and my love life (The Sixth Sense - 11/11 post). I don't know why I believed that they were mature enough to read my blog for literary enjoyment and not as a means to pry into my private life. Needless to say they did NOT get the memo that I've now moved to blogspot. It's a good thing because "Immaculate Conception" might have sent them to their graves.

Lesson 2: Blogging is a lot like high school
Everyone knows that in high school you had your popular kids and you had the kids who wanted to be popular. Same thing can be said about blogging. You've got the popular blogs like the Angry Black Bitch (http://angryblackbitch.blogspot.com) and you've got the blogs that really want to be popular like The Brain Dump (that's the one you're currently reading). So what's a blog to do when it's on the outside looking in, longing to be one of the cool blogs that everyone reads and talks about? You've got it! That blog gets as close to the popular ones as possible so that a little bit of their coolness can rub off. It's your basic principle of transferance (sp?). If you hang out at the popular blogspots long enough and let others folks know you're hanging out there, somehow you get popular by default. The strategy is working. In the last week, I've seen my hits skyrocket!! Thank you ABB and Cranky Professor (http://crankyprof.blogspot.com).
*Disclaimer: These blogs really are great and deserve to be popular. If you haven't already go check them out.

Lesson 3: Wit, Sarcasm, and Humor are lost on most folks
If everything written has to be prefaced with "I'm just kidding" it ruins the joke. However, a lot of blog readers don't get jokes. I'm noticing it more and more whenever I read the comments they post. I'm not going to say which posts shouldn't be taken literally, cause that would ruin all my fun. I sure do get a kick out of laughing at dim bulbs.

Lesson 4: Blogging saves money
I've just saved a ton of money on therapy bills by blogging. Who needs a therapist when you've got an open forum to air dirty laundry and countless strangers/voyeurs willing to play amateur shrinks and doctors. Thus far I've taken 2 pregnancy tests even though I'm riding the crimson tide, all at the behest of my concerned therapists. I would've shelled out a bundle of money just for a professional to tell me what an Anonymous commenter let me know for free: I'm crazy!