Monday, April 30, 2007

CyberSpace 42

So the Blogosphere is to end in a glorious crashing apocalypse. Now what? What are my famous last cyberwords?

That’s the premise of the charity-driven meme from Urban Monk and I was tagged by Michael.

Oh, how I would love it to be witty like “42” or “So long and thanks for all the fish.” (RIP Douglas Adams)

Fact is, I got nuthin’.
Nothing original or witty or poignant or insightful.

I’ve enjoyed blogging. The thrill of having readers may not ever wear off. I don’t see how it can.
It was exciting to check Sitemeter and find out I’d had traffic from China, Indonesia, Lebanon, India. Someone from every continent but Antarctica has had a sniff. They didn’t stay, but they were there, and that’s darned exciting.

Blogging gave me back a way of communicating I thought had ended when I left newspaper reporting six years ago. I had a place to voice my opinions and learn what others thought of my stance.
When readers agreed with my newspaper columns I sometimes heard about it. When they disagreed I always heard about it.
I was once told to “get an education.” Another time I was mentioned at four churches on the same Sunday. Readers occasionally prayed for me. I kept all the letters to the editor about me after they ran in the paper.
When public opinion of my thoughts was scarce I’d take them out and roll in them just to remember why I wrote a column.

It meant I was being read. And more importantly, it made people think. I like to think that I’ve done that on the blog so my final post of the blog apocalypse will echo what I said when my reporting career ended, “Thank you for reading me.”

NB I’m supposed to tag others as I have been tagged.
Consider yourself tagged.

7 comments:

Dawn said...

Wow - you've had readers from Antarctica! I'm impressed. I'm still very new to this and I get a real kick out of checking Sitemeter and seeing where the traffic has come from.

"When public opinion of my thoughts was scarce I’d take them out and roll in them just to remember why I wrote a column."

That's what I'm going to do with my book when it comes out, Leah! In the interests of decency photos of the event will not be published!

Leah J. Utas said...

I wish, Dawn. It's every continent except Antarctica.
And oh my yes, do that when your book is out.
I'm looking forward to doing that myself someday. Rolling in the rejection letters isn't the same.

Crabby McSlacker said...

Nice post, leah.

But about that sitemeter thing... any one else finding it just the tiniest bit (ok, majorly) addictive?

I'm finally getting my first google hits, which is amusing. (It was one of you two who called it, too, Dawn perhaps? "Big Breasts" was my first hit).

"Splenda gives me gas" just came up too.

But like you both, I love the international visitors. (Actually, you two are international as well, for me, which I keep forgetting!)

Anonymous said...

nice post! Yes I sometimes spend more time checking stats than working...thanks for participating!

Dawn said...

Woops! Read it wrong, Leah. Now you see whay I so desperately need an editor.

The sitemeter is highly addictive. I admit I check it about six times a day but I suppose the novelty will wear off.

Kappa no He said...

Ha ha, yes, I loves the stats meters as well. My favorite is someone that looks at my blog from nowhere, there is no country and when I look at the map it is in the middle of the ocean...ship? plane? Fish?

I think rolling in rejection letters gives you paper cuts.

Michael said...

Very nice final post, Leah. I can imagine rolling in those letters. Definitely, "thank you for reading..."

Rolling in the books, however, sounds like it might damage the books, but I'll have to agree with kappa - rejection letters probably give paper cuts.