Cyber-Infinity

Being an Aries and therefore by definition completely self-absorbed, I hadn't read more than a dozen or so blogs, other than my own, until the other day, when, through complete and utter boredom, I clicked "next blog" at the top of my own little blog world.

Holy crap!

I don't know what randomizing algorithm Blogger.com uses, but just clicking "next blog" for an hour can take you into some strange and dark places, all the way around the globe and back again. The randomizer is so, well, random, that you can start at the same place every time and see a complete new compendium of blogness.

At first I thought all blogs, except mine, of course, were written by angst-ridden, substance-altered Gen X'ers seeking desperately to know themselves through faulty self-expression. God knows, there are zillions of blogs which fit that description...and no, I don't care at all what they think or the tortuous process they endure while thinking, living or writing it. It's hard for me to even imagine the existence, let alone relevance, of anyone under 40, so those blogs were a quick scan and click.

I found a soupcon of "live on camera" hot girls and guys and those, too, were a quick click, pausing only long enough to clear my browser's steamy history.

For obvious reasons I skipped the blogs displayed in Cyrillic or Arabic, Spanish (tons), French, Portuguese, Swedish (I think), and lord alone knows what other languages. Some of the photos and layouts were intriguing, though (however -- who takes pictures and posts them without correcting the horizon line? I don't care how remote the lake/mountain/meadow/desert... Earth's horizon is straight, dammit!)

What eventually amazed me, (and kept me at my computer until long after I could not feel my feet, and my right elbow, arm and hand were completely numb from all that mouse clicking of "next blog") was the hilarity and excellence of much of the writing, and the imaginative art and photos displayed.

A few caveats:
I don't appreciate the black backgrounds and miniscule dark-purple fonts ("next blog")
...and okay, only a few die-hard Republicans now still love Dubya, but some of the blogs are too filled with hate even for this lifelong Democrat ("next blog")
...and the gun rights people creep me out anywhere, any time ("next blog")
... and yeah, babies Emily/Milly/TweetyPie, etc., are really cute on Easter/Christmas/birthday/the zoo/the park/the mall/the pool, but who cares besides their family? ("next blog")
....and I swear if I read one more blog written by a mom about the cute things her two-year-old does and the minutia of her boring day, I'll puke just like her little tyke does, ("next blog")
... and while I admired and respected her until I read her book, which completely changed my opinion, I clicked ("next blog") through the "Hillary Will Never Win" and "Hillary Will Absolutely Win" blogs,
.... and the peace activist blogs on the Iraq war are too heartbreaking ("next blog"),
...and the global warming crowd is really just pissing me off (even if their science is proven right someday) ("next blog").......

BUT,
even with those exclusions -- and more -- I've spent probably twenty hours parked here at my desk entranced, fascinated, amused, intellectually stimulated, humbled, motivated,
(and all kinds of other adverbs and adjectives)
by the blog world, and I've barely scratched the surface.

I'm just so damn grateful now that Al Gore invented the Internet...
you bloggers out there are pretty amazing
and yes
more than a little screwed up -- but in a very creative way.