So after all of these posts today (sorry, it's very very very quiet at work) I went to my website and found ... none of them.

Apparently they weren't loading. Is my computer not recognizing 01/01/2010? Is this some sort of Y2K10 bug? Crickey!

So I did something I never, ever do: I hit that little "Next Blog»" button up at the top to see if that randomly generated site was current.

See, I never read blogs, and I never ever read random people's blogs. I know, it's hypocritical since I put so many words online, but am thoroughly sketched out by reading other people's thoughts.

But wouldn't you say, for the most part, that I keep things relatively impersonal here? I mean, there are jokes, but for the most part I wouldn't say anything here that I wouldn't say to my friends, or at work, or in the checkout line of the supermarket.

Although, to be fair, I generally don't talk to random people at the supermarket.

I guess I just don't see the internet as a two-way street. I like to consider it more "publishing" and less "conversing".

Anyway - as if you can't see where this is going now - I clicked the "Next Blog»" button and of course ended up on the most personal and shocking blog you could imagine (don't worry, it's not dirty or gross or anything - totally suitable for work) check out "Prayers for my cousins".

Apparently the author's cousin is in the ICU, and her cousin's twin children are "in the arms of angels".

Um, does that mean what I think it does?

Huh.

It's not quite like the lady (from Merritt Island, FL, by the way) who was Twittering when her kid drowned - but still ... it's something.

I guess the disconnect I have is that I don't see the internet as a community, or at the least a community to which I belong. Back in the Dubai days was little different, random people read that all of the time for the Dubai insight, yet I still posted items on the deaths of Liz's paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather, but even those were a little detached.

And then there's my whole "asking random people for prayers" thing, which I won't get into but you all (at least, the ones who know me) can imagine what I think on the topic.

So is this something I need to work on? Should my resolution for 2010 be to embrace the internet community? Take on Twitter and Facebook wholeheartedly? Make new friends? Post comments and talkbacks on every article I read? Fill my RSS feed with blogs of strangers and friends alike?

Or have the last 5 hours of silent office save the constant mechanical drone of the HVAC system made me go a little askew?

Labels: blog, religion, Y2K10 bug