I had to give up on Angela’s Ashes. It felt bad to give up. It won the Pulitzer Prize. But it sat there, unread, because every time I picked it up, I said, “Well this is just damned depressing. His sister died, and she has the same name as my daughter. The twins are going to die. That will be awful to read. I don’t want to do it today.” I am not saying it wasn’t good. I just can’t do it.

I picked up our copy of We’ve Got Blog: How Weblogs are Changing our Culture and started thumbing through it again. I find parts of it interesting. There is such a dichotomy in the world of blogging/journaling. Some people hate, detest, and despise the online journal, feeling that we should go back to compilations of links with some commentary. Others feel that journaling and reading about others’ lives is more interesting. I fall into the latter category. I like cool links, but most of the time, unless it looks really intriguing, I don’t leave a blogger’s/diarist’s site to explore that link. That is just me, though. I was reading through the commentary on “A-List Bloggers” like Meg and Jason Kottke. The thing I found most intriguing was that they met and and embarked on a relationship. I immediately went to Meg’s blog today to see if there was any hint of it still going on. But she’s doesn’t really dish the personal stuff I guess.

I like writing online. Calling it blogging, journaling, whatever. It feels good to get some stuff out there, and I like for people to read what I write. I admit I don’t care as much as I did at one time, or I’d not have left my old host. I was getting right around 100 hits a day there. Most of it was from Googlers looking for porn, but they were visiting anyway.

One of my friends has been harassed away from her diary — maybe even an Internet presence altogether — by a couple of trolls who disagreed with something she said and began attacking her in a forum, then harassing her over the phone. I sincerely hope she presses charges, takes it up with the diary host, and gets her phone number changed. I hope she doesn’t stay away. I like her, and I really enjoyed what she wrote. But I sure understand her reasons for leaving.

I came here and left my old host for reasons of my own. I really love the world of blogging, journaling, whatever, but I really wish it didn’t have this dark side that enabled people to prey on others.

Speaking of moving, my husband has set up shop at a new journal, so now I can link him without fear of a certain troll of my own. He’s a great writer. Enjoy.

One of the things that struck me about Meg’s blog was it’s simplicity. Not a lot there, really, not even link-wise. I guess I like something I can sink my teeth into, writing-wise, and her blog is a really light snack. What would you like to see in this blog?

No wonder everyone thinks Georgia is backward.

As long as we have idiots in charge, education in Georgia is going to remain the butt of jokes across the country. My 8th grade students know changing the wording from “evolution” to “biological changes over time” is pointless and stupid. Why doesn’t the State Superintendent know this?