Mommy Bloggers vs Bulletin Board Systems

I guess because it's almost Mother's Day, there has been an enormous amount of talk about "Mommy Bloggers" in the news media the last couple of weeks. They even had an interview on the Today show with one of the bloggers that I read on a daily basis yesterday. And I think the most asked question about blogging in general is, "why do you do it?". I've been asked this as well. I can't speak for anyone but myself in answering this question, but here are some of the reasons *I* blog.

Unlike a lot of bloggers who have given their reasons for blogging as, "connecting with similar groups of people with the same interests", my connecting doesn't have anything to do with wanting to meet new people. I can't say it won't ever happen since there are lots of "blogging meetings" going on. But for now, I'm happy with the 2 or 3 people who stop by here ever so often.

A long time ago (early 90's) in a land about .8 miles away from where my fat butt is sitting right now, there was the beginning of the computer craze for me. Back then, computers were still pretty rare in households, but it was just starting to become affordable for people to have them in their homes. They were already in our workforce pretty heavily, but they were used for word documents and DOS (also known as MS-DOS) was understood by many in the computer field. I had a few nerdy co-workers that were very much into computers and they kept me entertained by telling me stories of computer bulletin boards. It wasn't long before my interest was peaked and I purchased a used 286 for myself. 286 stands for the processing speed of the computer. Not being a complete nerd and only having a semblance of computer knowledge, I'm not sure EXACTLY what a 286 processor stands for, other than really freaking slow compared to what my fat butt is sitting in front of now. Keep in mind, this was before Windows, before AOL. When I turned on my computer, I saw a black screen and a green C:\ with a little green flashing line for me to type in my DOS command. My computer didn't have a mouse. There was no need for one. But this computer that I bought DID come with a dial up modem. With that modem, I was able to enter in phone numbers to connect with other computers that had a bulletin board system available for my entertainment. My computer would connect, and I would be greeted with high ASCII art and a menu where I could either go play games (Legend of the Red Dragon was VERY popular) or go and post a message in one of the categorized message boards available. All the BBSs that I visited were local, because anything not local added up long distance charges. I was so fascinated by this, that I thought I would try and run a BBS on my own. So I upgraded my computer to a used 386 and I purchased my first 14.4K modem. Again... compared to today, VERY slow computer, VERY slow dial up modem. But at the time, they were rockin'. I opened 'Rosabella's Cafe', complete with several games, lots of different categorized message areas and some really cool ASCII art that I made myself. I became a SysOp (system operator) and in BBS land, SysOps were Gods. I had a dedicated phone line and all!!

For you youngin's out there, you must remember, this was NOT AOL. Only one person at a time could be on a BBS. They eventually made it where you could have up to 4 people at a time on, but that came out right before Windows and AOL, and once AOL was introduced to the world, BBSs quickly became extinct. Mine never progressed past the one person at a time. The common practice was to add about 10 to 15 BBS phone numbers that you liked to visit often in your dial-up queue. That way, when one was busy, your modem would automatically hang up and skip down to the next number in your queue and dial that one, and so on until one would connect. You would connect, play your Red Dragon (you were allowed a set number of moves each day), hit each of the message boards and read what had been posted and post your own comment and then move on to the next BBS on your list.

Sparing you as much geekiness as possible, I'll move on.

Growing up without much technology, I was just amazed at this technology where I could get "online" and leave a message and come back the next day and have my message answered by a complete stranger. These were such simpler times and the art of being funny in written word was a talent only a few had. There were no LOLs yet. BTW and BRB were things that didn't exist in BBS land. You typed out what you wanted to say and when you actually WERE laughing out loud, you used: hehehe or hahaha or HAHAHA depending on how hard you were laughing. (If any of you that I write email to have seen me do this, this is where it came from). Anyway... there became a tight knit group of these BBSers and I had quite a few people who visited almost daily and because I had co-workers doing the BBS thing as well, we would pass each other's numbers on and everybody pretty much knew who Fudpucker, Cool Cat, Crash, Rosabella and so on were. And eventually, someone (NOT ME) decided it would be SO cool to meet these faceless people (don't forget, there were no digital pictures yet. There was no passing on a pic to someone)that we had befriended in cyber space. I actually chickened out on this meeting, but one of my co-workers didn't and it wasn't long before these faceless souls ended up at my workplace. And I was shocked. I remember Cool Cat because he was SO funny online. I had this picture in my head of what he looked like and when I met him, he was the exact opposite of what I had pictured him. He was about 4'11", round and pimply faced. Exactly what you would THINK a computer nerd would look like. There were several others that I met that night and I was as shocked by each and every one of them. It was a sudden realization that one just never knows who one could be talking to in cyber space.

Not long after this unwanted meeting, computers started to get faster and faster. You seriously could buy the most up to date computer technology and in a few months time, something better and faster was coming out. Windows was born, then AOL. Once AOL came out, calls to BBSs dwindled to pretty much nothing and quickly died. I got Windows 95, got me my AOL account, got a 28.8k modem (I laugh at this now) and so was born a new era of technology. And I was SO hooked.

My interest waned for a few years but during this time, email became more common then a phone call to friends and family, Instant Messaging was born and I never really got into chatting because it was always some guy saying perverted things and it got old really quick for me. Even now, unless it's someone I know, I don't chat. New and better and faster computers are still being made and computers still fascinate me, even though I know a lot less about them now then I once did.

Time passed and my kids were teenagers and then I learned of MySpace. Being a responsible parent, I wanted to know more about my children's lives outside of the home and I commenced spying. I opened a MySpace account. I learned a bit about them by spying, but for the most part, I found nothing that caused me too much alarm.

More time passed and circumstances left me where I was about 2 years ago. Which was a single empty nester with a house full of cats. I had a brand new computer and I got bored and just started searching the big WWW. I got more into MySpace and found a few old friends (waving at friends) and somehow I ended up on a blog called Ransom Note Typography. I have no idea how I found it, but I started reading this guy's blog and it was funny! He's a computer guy (Jon Deal) that lives in Utah with his wife and four kids (Deal Family Compound) and he writes about them and sometimes his job, but the WAY he writes about his life is just hilarious and I couldn't stop reading. Then I started reading blogs that he reads and so on and so on where I have about 15 different blogs I'll hit on a daily basis right now.

So I started thinking... I could do this. It might be fun to do this. Why NOT do this? I kind of sort of was blogging on MySpace, but I just never really got that into it over there. Maybe blogging is more of a grown up thing to do, even though there are many kids blogging as well. Maybe MySpace just has too many bells and whistles. I'm not sure and I can only go by the fact that I enjoy blogging here more then I ever did on MySpace. I'm not bashing MySpace. At all. I mean, how can I bash something that got me in touch with lost friends (waving at lost friends again)?

So La La... why blog at all? What is the point? Why are you going on and on about crap I don't care about? Well... since you asked. I blog because I can. I blog because the internet world fascinates me as much now as it did in the early 90s. I blog because it's a form of artistic impression. I blog because I'm a terrible pen pal and instead of having to write each one of my friends a separate email, they can stop by here and catch up on my life and let's face it, we all knew some reference to my laziness would appear somewhere in my answer. I blog because I enjoy writing yet have no desire to write a book. I blog because maybe someday, by accident, someone will come across all these words that I've written and keep coming back to read more because 'that gal that lives in Texas is SO funny'! I blog because everyone else is SO tired of hearing about what my cats did that I thought was funny.

I blog because, seriously, where else can I babble on about something that only needed that last paragraph to answer the original question, yet somehow I was able to make this one post 125 pages long...