Why blog anyway??

Cafedave asks about what I'm trying to achieve with this site - what is the point of blogging? For me I think it's mostly about sharing the every day minutiae with friends around the world. One of the side effects of being far away from friends and family is that conversations become more efficient. And that can be a good thing - there are several people with whom my friendship has deepened as I've been away because we tend to try and make the most of whatever time we have. But on the other hand, friendship is also about shared everyday experiences - the filler moments so to speak. And blogging is perfect for that.

And then there's being part of an online, worldwide community. The geographic boundaries of this planet are getting looser, and I think that more and more we will find ourselves geographically remote from significant friends. One of the hardest things about making friends in Ithaca is knowing that by doing so I am setting myself up to always have friends who are far away from me. In the online world we need never be far away from the people we care about, and I suspect that is really at the heart of why I'm out here in blog land.