Incoherent Scribblings

What more can I say? I failed the NaBloPoMo challenge after only four days. Although I could probably come up with a whole list of excuses as to why I haven’t posted since last Wednesday, I won’t list anything because if I have learned one thing during my almost six years of blogging, it is that I don’t have to apologize for my lack of posting. Besides, I am proud of myself because after months and months of little to no posting, I still managed to blog for four days in a row. Now with that said, I am also announcing that I am rededicating myself to NaBloPoMo in order to finish November strong and with the confidence I need to participate in Holidailies in December.

I have set up my blog to work with mobile devices… I hope.

… I will stitch and blog again, but it just isn’t happening right now. I’m too busy!

While I was by no means a first generation Facebook user, I have had a Facebook account for almost two years now, which, as we all know, in the online world is like forever.

I started my Facebook account when I was job hunting with the intention of educating myself on some Web 2.0 technologies and how (or if) they could be used in the library. Although I believe that social networking in the library has potential, after I got my job I decided that personally I preferred social networking for “fun” and so that is the role that my Facebook profile serves.

That being said, I follow Facebook news like a librarian. I keep up-to-date on layout changes, interface improvements, marketing concerns, profile management, and privacy issues through library and information technology outlets. I also monitor my profile and attempt to keep it rated PG-13.

Thanks to Facebook, in addition to the contacts I have for games and other online friends I have made over the years, I have reconnected with old friends from high school and college. At first I was a little hesitant about reconnecting with some of these people, but overall I would say it has been a positive experience.

So, as you would expect, eventually a friend from college decided to scan some old pictures, post them to Facebook, and tag them. I scanned through the pictures and laughed as I read the comments that made fun of mullets, big bangs, and other early 90s fashion statements.

Then I saw a picture that was tagged with my name that I couldn’t place. I didn’t remember the clothes or my hair ever looking that way and I wasn’t even sure if it was me. And the fact that the person in the photo was in a bathtub and obviously drunk sent me into a frenzy.

The photo was downright embarrassing and because it was tagged with my name, whether or not it was actually me didn’t really matter: Everyone who saw it would think it was… including the colleagues and library student workers who are on my contact list. While most of the pictures that my friend scanned are all in good fun, I couldn’t allow that picture tagged with my name to be online and I was prepared to take any action necessary to get it removed.

I started by changing my photo permissions so that only I could see pictures tagged with my name and then I sent a private message to my “friend” asking him to remove the pictures. Because most Facebook users use Facebook for fun, I don’t think he intentionally meant to post anything to hurt me, but the fact is pictures like that can damage your reputation and/or your job, which I explained to him in the message that I sent.

Luckily he seemed to understand and complied with my wishes: As far as I can tell, the photo has been removed.

However, the experience struck a chord and now all those articles I read about the need to be vigilant about my identity and protect myself as best I can in this new social arena have renewed significance.

I have been so busy this week I nearly let it slip by me unnoticed, but today marks my 5th blogoversary. A lot has happened to me since that cold January day in Germany when I wrote that first post with the oh-so-original title of “Welcome to my blog,” but if you have been reading my blog for any length of time you already know that.

Something that you don’t know though is that for the first couple of months that I maintained my blog I wrote in semi-secret.

I have had a personal website since 1997, but by late 2003 I was bored with it. I had learned all the HTML skills that I wanted/needed to learn and was looking for a new challenge when I discovered this thing called a “blog.” I was curious, so I investigated.

As I learned more about blogging, not only did it sound like the web design challenge that I was looking for, I also became excited about combining my web interests with another of my passions; writing. Because I was in high spirits about this new technology, I naturally shared my enthusiasm with my ex-husband, who at the time was my husband sans the ex

In what I probably should have taken as a sign for what was to come in our marriage, my ex reacted very negatively to the whole idea of blogging. He didn't object to my learning the new technology, rather he was concerned about the writing aspect. Although he masked it as concerns over privacy, I now know that he was anxious about how much of our dirty laundry I was going to air. The ex didn't prohibit me from starting a blog, but at the same time given his feelings I let the matter drop and didn't mention my desire to start a blog again.

However, the blogging bug had bitten me. Over the next few weeks I spent a lot of time surfing blogs to get an idea of what exactly people wrote about. I became convinced that blogging was something I wanted to try, so finally one day I started my blog.

I didn't tell the ex that I had started my blog and for the next two months I either wrote while he was at work or I got up in the middle of the night to write, pretending I couldn't sleep. I used my blondelibrarian screen name because although I wasn't going to advertise to my ex that I had deliberately started a blog, I wasn't going to hide it from him either. Eventually my ex found my blog and when he realized I wasn't telling our dark secrets or revealing our address online he came to terms with it and I didn't have to feign insomnia at 3:00 in the morning anymore so I could blog.

By the time that I no longer had to blog in secret my blog had become a welcome fixture in my life. And even if I go through blogging slumps now and then, five years later it still is.