Dear Diary

A diary is a record (originally in handwritten format) with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone who keeps a diary is known as a diarist. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records, business ledgers and military records.

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.

Generally the term is today employed for personal diaries, normally intended to remain private or to have a limited circulation amongst friends or relatives. The word "journal" may be sometimes used for "diary," but generally a diary has (or intends to have) daily entries, whereas journal-writing can be less frequent. While a diary may provide information for a memoir, autobiography or biography, it is generally written not with the intention of being published as it stands, but for the author's own use.

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.

So, what is a Blog?

A blog is a discussion or information site published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first. Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often were themed on a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, interest groups and similar institutions account for an increasing proportion of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other 'micro-blogging' systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into societal newstreams. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Most good quality blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via GUI widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. Blogging can be seen as a form of social networking. Bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers.

Diaries for Boys

As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.

Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries; yet still others function more as online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (video blogging or vlogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.


If you were counting, I said that as of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence four times now. Why the redundancy? Maybe cause it was so damn easy to just cut and paste it.  Here, I’ll do it again: As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. Magic.

I say this: anything that you can do really, really fast is never any good.  

If you can be creative in a second, that cannot be very good, can it?  If you can be funny, humorous, impactful, meaningful, in just a few minutes of typing, and then hit “submit” that simply cannot be worth much (my humble opinion). I did this blog post from a chair in my living room, within just a few minutes. How good can my blog be, really?  If I insert some photos that I grab off the Internet, it will take me a few more minutes. If I format it all to make it “pretty” that will take a few more minutes. Blogger will put this out there for the entire world to see. Wow, I must have really important stuff to say, since my blog will circle the world in just a few seconds.

Today is June 10th, 2012 so God only knows how many blogs are out there now. When I was young, reading someone’s diary was a big deal. There was super secret stuff in there, and diaries even had locks on them. They contained very (very) important thoughts and deep secrets; hence the locks. I remember getting grounded for reading my sister’s diary when I was nine years old. It was not worth it; who the heck was David Cassidy and what was The Partridge Family?  That was all she ever talked about...... boring.

There used to be tens of thousands of “buggy whips” being made every day.  Just like diaries with locks on them - there were millions of diaries under the beds of teen-age girls everywhere.  But today, not so much.