I’ve been reading a few personal blogs. One is the blog of a woman I went to college with but didn’t know, after all UMaine was a big school, we played high school softball against each other, that is not my point. I’ve been reading these highly personal blogs of people I don’t know well that detail things like the personal aspects of their lives, their kids, intense situations and frankly they occasionally make me uncomfortable. They give lots of details, location and photos of their homes, pictures of their kids, and a lot of family life details.

You see, I used to keep a blog similar and I had a stalker. Having a stalker isn’t fun, it’s pretty scary and getting things finished can be hard. I’m lucky in that my stalker* lived 3000 miles away from my then location. I’m much more careful with giving out details online. I don’t post pictures of the exterior of my house, and certainly not one where you can see the street number. I only post pics of my office and my studio.

I feel uncomfortable in the same way I used to feel when I read perzines. Stuff needs to be shared but sometimes it’s too much. A blog isn’t a diary, scrapbook or art journal it’s a public place, where people of all persuasions can read and comment or worse yet read but not comment. They can download your pictures, figure out where you live, find your eBay auctions and soon enough know where you live. A few miscreants ruin the internet for the rest of us.

On the good side of it, it’s fun to see that my people are the same, similar interests, and family life seems to be alike.  It’s comforting to see that people grow age and mature into better people and raise kids with values. Now that I’ve affirmed that I’m mostly normal I’m going to cut back on my reading, I feel creepy.

*I write "my stalker" like I had some sort of ownership of the nutbag who wrote me letters that were notebooks in length and sent emails that rambled for pages and pages as well as the gifts she sent after she got my address from eBay.

Also you'll notice I'm not linking the blogs I've been reading, I'd prefer not to contribute to their future stalker situation. 😉