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Collecting Crises on Old Compton Street and Beyond
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Thursday, May 15, 2003
My Favourite Waste of Time
"This place free? It is? Perfect. Mind if I sit next to you?" "No. Of course not, feel free. Please take a seat. " "Cheers. Whoops, sorry. Didn't mean to spill that coffee. Nice place this." "Yeah. Guess so. PC crashed at home. That's why I'm here." "So what you doing? Invisible Stranger. What's that? Your chat-room alias?" "No." "Me, I come here to visit them chat-rooms. You ever done that?" "Occasionally." "Met any tasty birds that way?" "No. Now, if you'll just excuse me. . ." "Hey, c'mon, tell us what you're writing. Some sort of lecture, I bet. You a teacher? No? Reporter?" "Not exactly. Well, maybe. Well, not quite. Look, it's just a few notes, that's all." "Let's see." "Look. If you really must know, I'm blogging." "Still feeling the effects of last night's party, then?" "No, you don't understand. This is what's known as a blog." "Blog? Sounds dodgy... What’s a blog when it's at home then?" "Short for web log. Bit like an on-line diary." "On-line diary. Right… You mean, you do your diary on the Internet?" "Post it. And it's not exactly a diary. But yes, that's right." "Look, mate, you should be careful. I mean, anyone could read it." "That's the point." "You want perfect strangers to read your diary?" "Umm, well, yeah, I suppose so…" "Got any friends?" "A few." "Well, what do they think?" "Actually, they don't know." "Oh. Hang on. Let's see if I've got this right. You've been sitting here for hours, writing about yourself, to people you've never met, and you're not letting your mates in on the secret. How come?" "Well, they'd laugh at me. They'd say it was silly." "No. What I mean is, why are you doing this blog thing?" "Well, some would say it’s a form of therapy — " "So you're, like, talking to yourself?" "— while others would regard it as a form of creative self-expression — " "Ah, showing off, then." "— and, of course, there's no doubt it engenders a trans-cultural sense of community — " "You mean, there are others doing this?" "We're all over. In the places you'd least expect. Maybe you even know one. Look, I've blog-rolled some of them." "Well, if that's what you call it. But do people actually read this stuff?" "Admittedly, my stats aren't that high at the moment, but it's early days yet — " "Your what?" "Stats. Oh, never mind." "You know something, mate?" "What?" "You should get out more." |
