I was fascinated by my friend Tamar’s post today about how she feels writing in her blog is becoming a commitment, and one that she is not always comfortable with. I realized as Kendall and I were driving home just now from our cousins Alexis and Lars’ house that I was having a panicky moment straight out of Cinderella. Oh my God, it’s almost midnight and I haven’t written in my blog! No one cares, I tell myself, it doesn’t matter in the least if I skip a day or two, or even longer, but I haven’t missed a day since I started writing in here almost a month ago and it’s become a kind of obsession. I think if I don't post for one day either a) I’ll never write in this blog again because the spell will be broken (compulsive disorder), b) people who look at my blog and don't see something new will never come back again (scarcity issue), or c) something awful will happen to me (full-fledged OCD). Am I the only blogger with such neuroses? Are therapists now fielding a whole new range of emotional disorders related to blogging subculture?
I’ve also become obsessed with tracking the Google searches that bring strangers to this site. I can see through my counter software which word searches led to someone reading my blog and where they are located. I’ve had visitors from as far away as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Zagreb, Croatia. And do you know what the leading search is that sends people to my site? Amy Carter! Who knew that in 2005 people all over the world would be googling this young woman! Truly, there have been dozens of Amy Carter searches, from all over the United States and the Middle East, Europe, and Australia. Huh?? One person was searching the words “Amy Carter,” “SUV,” and “hospital.” I was suddenly very concerned that poor Amy got into a car accident so I searched those words myself. And guess what I came up with? MY BLOG. And because I mentioned Tricia Nixon in one post and the lyrics to the Chorus Line song “Tits and Ass” in another post, someone doing a search of “Tricia Nixon’s tits” this morning got sent to my blog! Ewww! I wouldn’t be surprised if this damn blog gets me placed on some FBI list of subversives. I swear, Mr. Hoover, I am not now, nor have I ever been interested in the body parts of anyone in the Nixon family.
Well, Danny, I needed a good laugh and this did it for me! I see that I will have to "drop names" so that strangers will search me out. And then I wonder if I want strangers to search me out - and - of course I do! A whole new world of blogging has opened up for me even as this "counter software" sounds intriguing - but then I will become completely obsessed - as if I am not already!
Posted by: tamar jacobson | January 17, 2005 at 07:26 AM