It's All About the Blog...

Talking with my significant where would I be without the other day and the topic of Blogs came up. As it does so often in the news and on comedy shows and other places in daily life these days, blogs just come up. This particular conversation started out:

Where did the name "Blog" come from?

This question is much like the question:

Why do they call them "Biners" in the U.S. and "Crabs" in Oz? 

It's the kind of question that leads to the pondering of such things as:

If they were made famous in another country, would they be called something else? And what would that something else be? (this is the cue for you all to jump in with pithy comments!)

The answer to the Q. that started the whole thing is inevitably: It's short for web log. As far as I know. But, people were doing this long before it was common and commonly known as a blog. So, what was it called in the early incarnations? 

Web Diary. Blather. Newsletters. Letters. (another perfect place to add comments and ideas about)

As many of you have already read, or knew before, I'm not really partial to the blog moniker. It sounds like a verbalized euphemism for online diarrhea... or vomit... which, I guess, in some cases it is. 

Personally, I prefer to think of it all as a kind of cathartic release. A silently verbal pressure release valve. (another cue for comments right here)

When I join the forums and read the advice for why and how you should blog when I'm roaming Etsy, they all seem to allude to the "promotion" issue. Ok. Some are just straight out saying: Blog to promote! I'm not really in agreement with this advice. On the whole. Obviously, there is some shameless self promotion featured prominently on my blog site. There is also some promotion of others and recommendations of things I think are fun and entertaining. However, I don't feel inclined to use the wordy aspect of the blog medium for shameless mememeness. 

Ok. The whole thing is not always about me, but in general, it is my thoughts and what I'm doing. THAT is the point of doing this though, isn't it? To express thoughts and ideas to and with people you don't connect regularly enough with or who you might not connect with otherwise? My intention for starting this was to allow my friends and family a place to check in to see what I'm up to and get a feel for what my life is like when they aren't around (which is, with most everyone I know living in another state or country, unfortunately most of the time). Sometimes that includes stuff about my jewelry (which then pertains to my Etsy shop); sometimes it's just random thoughts expressed on the computer (which is aimed primarily at my friends). Depends on where my head is at the day I sit down to write and what pops out through my fingers when I actually get into the act of spewing. 

Well, yes. Spewing. That is definitely the way it feels, AND, definitely the kind of thing that fits right into the sound you get when you talk about the thing you are now reading. They do call it a BLOG; and what sounds more like an onomatopoeia for spewing than that?