I am FASINATED now with the idea of blogging. You may be thinking, um, Beth, dearest, you've been blogging for several months now, what's the deal? And I reply, Gentle Reader, with this. I recently uncovered the blogs of two people I know. Actually, I don't know these people at all. I know of them. It's like discovering your florist's blog, or the blog of the woman who sold you mascara at the Stila counter. And DAMN if I can't stop reading about the personal lives and secrets of these people that I don't really know.

I follow about five blogs pretty religiously on a daily basis, but they're not people I've met or have any contact with (Ramblin' Dave being the exception). So it always struck me that I was just reading the funny site of some wise crackin' person in New York (or San Fran, or wherever...) as opposed to accessing someone's personal day to day existence, if that makes sense. The voyeuristic aspect of blogging (both reading and posting) sort of escaped me because I felt so removed from the people I was reading about. But its the voyeurism aspect that's the appeal, I think, at least when it comes to personal blogs. This may all seem very obvious and elementary. I knew it to a degree, I guess. But it seems particularly clear today.

These people -- and damn, myself included -- have put themselves out there to share with the WORLD their day to day existence and embarrassments and dramas and opinions for anyone to access and comment on or just lurk and read about for hours on end. What a bizarre little medium and bizarre society for feasting on it.