Metablog the first

Here we are again: it's 04:22 and I'm wide awake, blogging away until my hot chocolate is ready. Insomnia is the pits.

Well, that's overstating the case. I'm often quite calm about it, as tonight/this morning. Insomnia is like a dear but insensitive old friend who drops by at inconvenient times: sometimes you shout and throw things, but most of the time you chuckle and make allowances.

Insomnia is the reason I started blogging: I was going to call this blog Confessions of an insomniac or something of that ilk, but all the relevant titles I could think of were taken. Actually, Something of that ilk would have been an exceedingly fine title, had I but thought of it. Damn. Anonymous readers in search of a good title may take it, with my blessings.

How's the milk? warming up nicely.

In pre-blog days, I would be lying in bed reading at times like this (I keep a stack of boring-but-necessary-for-the-day-job books at hand). And indeed I shall return to bed as soon as the hot chocolate is ready.

As I started the blog, I imagined that I would write about the existential horror of being awake every other night (as it seemed), but three things changed that plan. First, I noticed that it didn't happen nearly as often as I had thought. Second, I noticed that when it did happen, it usually didn't bother me - in fact there were times that I was glad to be awake.

And third, I discovered that there were so many other, better things to write about - even in my simple, dull-as-dishwater life. For this insight, dear Blogspot, many thanks.

The milk is nearly ready.

My thanks also to you, dear readers, for your responses. I had hoped but not really expected, that people might read my blog and perhaps even comment on it. But when I first read a reference to myself on another blog - well, I was high for the rest of the day. I wanted to show it to all my friends (as I have now done).

Beginning bloggers misunderstand the nature of the beast, because people talk more about how to blog than why to do it. Come closer, let me whisper the secret into your delicate, shell-like ear: The point of blogging is not the writing. The point of blogging is the reading and commenting upon of other people's blogs, that these people might then find and read (and perhaps even comment upon) yours, and the community that this creates. Only connect, as the man said. Without this feedback, a blog is no better than a paper diary; after the feedback starts, you will feel differently about yourself and your blog.

The way to describe this new feeling is: Better. Perhaps even: Happy.

And with that, dear readers, my hot chocolate is ready and I am off to bed again. My next post will be from the frozen wastes of rural Canada, God and terrorists willing. Sweet dreams be yours, my dears, if dreams there be.

Other Metablogs: second third fourth