Once I had a secret blog

When I first started writing this blog, it was a secret.  Not a secret because I was ashamed of it.  I just didn't want to tell people I was writing a blog and then crash and burn after 3 posts by giving up.  There's heaps of blogwrecks out there, they seem to get along okay for a week or a month, then they quietly die.  It's very sad.  They seem so forlorn, like old dusty toys on a shelf.

Once I'd been going for a month or so I told my family and some close friends.  For a while they were my only readers.  Then I put a link to it on my Facebook page.  That drew in a few more people, including some of my Esteemed Colleagues, and I believe there has been some word of mouth spread amongst them because from time to time someone I haven't ever spoken to about it asks me a question or makes a comment about something I've written here.

Each time I discover that someone else I know has read it or is reading it I go through a period of intense self-consciousness where I find myself trying to figure out how to write more of the stuff that I've already written because that must be what they want. Each time I have to re-learn that that's a bad idea.

I've only specifically mentioned it to a very small number of people, because it seems to me an intrinsically awkward interaction.  It's a bit like those people who lend you books you don't really want to read but are then obligated to at least skim through because you know that they will try to discuss it with you in the future.

I know that one person came to this blog because I mentioned in a post that I'd never had any hits from Africa, so my Generous Older Sister teed up a friend of hers living in Africa to come pay a visit.  My itch was scratched but as far as I know she hasn't come back.

My sister told another one of her friends about this blog while I was standing right with them at a party.  He busted out his iPhone and googled "prone to revelry" because he'd mis-heard me when I named it.  I think "Prone To Revelry" is actually a pretty good name and if I'd thought of it when I was starting I'd have been tempted to use it if it wasn't so wholly inaccurate as a description of me.

Various other people must have stumbled here as a result of google searches, but again I have no idea if they still come back.  My google tracking stuff showed me that a month or so ago there was someone who came back every day or so for a week, each time by googling the word "ipsiband".  As far as I know, I am the only person in the world to ever use this word, so I'm not entirely sure why he or she was searching for it.

And then there are the people who read the various stupid comments that I spray across other people's blogs and look at my profile and come to see what my blog is about.  I think most of them must be disappointed at what they find - the majority of the blogs I read are very specialized, niche, super-geeky blogs which really are nothing like mine at all.  I suspect they come to see and leave again very quickly.

This post is starting to get rambly, pointless and self-centred (a bit like this blog) so I suspect it's time to end it.  Usually I do this by quickly re-reading it, fixing the obvious typos, being surprised at how far I've wandered from the initial premise, thinking up some clever backward reference that makes it look like it was planned that was all along, and then bunging in some kind of weird semi-abstract title.

My problem today is that I'm not even sure what my initial premise was.  It's entirely possible that this whole thing is just a huge procrastinatory exercise.

Story of my life, mate.