My husband and kids have been teasing me about how much time I spend surfing blogs. None of them have read my blog - or for that matter, any of the blogs I read - but they hear tidbits about my blogging friends. I will frequently say things at supper like: "So today, Bitch had this post I want to tell you all about."
I tend to surf blogs whenever I have a few minutes free. For instance, if I put something in the oven and I've got ten minutes before it comes out, I will go to my computer for ten minutes. If I've got ten minutes before the school bus gets here, and I have the choice between blogging or grading one more paper, I will usually surf blogs.
The whole blogging issue came up again yesterday because I took a shower when I was getting ready to go over to my parents' house for Easter dinner. I usually leave my wet hair wrapped in a towel for ten minutes or so before getting dressed because otherwise, my long hair will drip water on whatever clean shirt I've just put on. These big wet spots right on my breasts would work well if I were going for the wet t-shirt look, but just didn't seem appropriate for Easter dinner.
So anyhow, since I had a few minutes to wait before the towel had absorbed all the water from my hair, I decided to slip into my office and surf blogs. My husband came to the door of the office, saw me typing away (wearing only a towel), and said, "Oh, wow. This is getting serious. Now you are blogging naked."
And on Easter Sunday, no less.
11 comments:
Scandalous!
What better way?!
I have such a hard time trying to reference my blogfriends when there's a story or example I want to share in real-life conversation. If there's a discussion going on about tenure (as there almost always is), I'd want to work in Jimbo's great discussion of tenure as "get out of jail free" card. But if I say "You know, Jimbo was just saying..." no one has any idea who Jimbo is, and "A friend of mine..." can work but often sounds too vague. "This person I don't really know but whose blog I read obsessively" is more accurate but a little odd, especially to those who don't blog.
Okay, I know you really wanted to talk about naked blogging, but I liked your mention of tying blogs into your dinner table conversation.
I think the naked blogging stories separate those of us with a private space for their computers v. those of us who have laptops plugged in next to the living room couch. Or not.
But I'd love to know: do you preface blog stories with "A friend of mine said," or with the "I was just reading something" approach? Or do you use them both, depending on the situation?
Pilgrim: There was a stretch last year when Josh Marshall might as well have been a member of the family for all that we discussed him around the dinner table.
I think this particular point is easier if you're not pseudonymouse--most of my friends and collegaues know I've got a blog so I'll just say "one of my blog-friends" or something, and after I've done that once or twice, they stop thinking twice about it.
All my blog friends get discussed pretty regularly around here. You know it's bad when you go back to work and your boss asks you how much you blogged over vacation.
Okay I have blogged naked, because a lap top can go anywhere.
Most people don't even know I have a blog, but a few know I follow them. I have had a couple of people say "Is this a real person or one of your internet friends?" Like you guys are all 46 year old guys in Ohio lying to me about who you are.
When Finslippy and Suburban Bliss where mentioned in a NYT article I was telling people about it, and I could tell they thought I was pathetic.
My real life best friend and I were having a conversation the other day, and I said "did I tell you such and such?" and she said "no I read it on your blog." We both laughed long and hard.
At work, I'll say "a colleague" or "another parent I know" or something like that. At home, I usually say, "one of my blogging friends." I often use the pseudonyms at home because my family thinks it's funny that I know people called Bitch, PhD or Dr. Crazy. Once a blogging friend has turned into an e-mail friend, I start using his/her real first name in conversation.
Since I have an pseudonymous blog, I realized that I was going to stop having to talk about blogs at work, because inevitably folks would ask, "Wow, you're really into this blogging. Do you have your own blog?" So now I almost never mention blogs to anyone other than D., and I tell blogging stories by saying, "A friend told me..."
I definitely just say, "A friend," unless I'm talking to my family, who all know I am a blogging madwoman. Other people probably think I'm referring to seminary classmates!
What Now, I could have written your comment myself -- including the reference to having a "D" to talk blog-talk with.
He's the only person I let behind the curtain, as it were, that I talk bloggy things with regularly.
The weirdest is when we're talking blogs in public places; I find myself feeling _very_ aware of the presence of other people when the discussion turns to things _I've_ blogged about.
Rana
PPB: I did think of that when I put panty blog in the title of the post. Oh, well .... it's why I don't put photos of my family on my blog.
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