new ways to waste time

I went to an engineering school for college from 1992-1995, and at the time, our campus was one of the most advanced in terms of the computer networks. As a result, I was on the early side of the Internet phenom, and had a decent sense of how to navigate that world. However, in the intervening ten years, I have had limited exposure to the online world, and I honestly can't believe how much things have changed.

This blog was created as a lark, and as a way to get back into the habit of writing things that weren't work-related. I have now taken some time to peek around at other people's pages, and it's pretty remarkable. The sheer volume of the blogging world; the incredible variety; the high (and low) quality of the writing...I wonder what makes people choose to do this. In some cases, the individuals involved are clearly spending lots of time designing and updating their pages. What do they hope to get out of this? Twenty years (or more) ago, would they have kept private diaries?

When I was a young girl, and kept a diary, I guarded it jealously, and would have been mortified if anyone else had tried to read it. Now, any theoretical number of people could be reading this. (In reality, the number is about four - hi guys!) What's so different? Maybe it's just that I no longer care if the world knows I had a crush on John Geary in the sixth grade...

In any event, if you are looking for still more ways to kill time, you might try this, or, if you are looking for a good read in the world of actual books, these are good, too.