Recently I've gotten more involved in blogs than I would have guessed possible even a month ago--reading, writing, and discussing them. A quick glance at the archives on my other blog, Thinking Can Be Dangerous, will tell you why I find this surprising. I was barely aware of a real need for the first blog, let alone multiple ones. But now I've discovered the fever and....well, I'll get to that in a minute.

It all started innocently enough--I started reading blogs posted by a storytelling group based on a game challenge I participate in (for about two hours a week, when I should be sleeping--all the *free* time I have to spare these days). Well, golly, since all the other kids had a story blog I didn't want to be left out. However, I felt guilty having TWO official blogs--after all, there are so many deprived souls out there who don't even have one--so I veered slightly off course and settled for making a "pseudo blog" out of a webpage I slapped up.

Soon the gushing comments and Emails came rolling in, along with links for me to visit other blogs. Feeling thankful and supportive, off I went. Those blogs had links to still others, and...you get the picture. That's probably how you found this.

Among the teeming masses were blogs about blogs, and as such, the pursuit of blogging. Come to find out that many people have a blog for every occasion. No longer need I hide in private shame over my secondary almost-blog. Emboldened, I created a blog to cover the more bonafide educational rants and observations than my original blog affords.

Now that I've had the blogging light switch turned on, I'm hard pressed not to find them at every turn. One website ad directed visitors to the Absolute Best Blogs Ever; a post in a discussion group I frequent proclaimed the virtues of blogging for profit; and just the other night I signed on to Amazon.com and Presto Chang-o!, their latest gimmick is "Plogs"--blogs written by their published authors and delivered right to the main page of readers. (Naturally I immediately wrote to Amazon support inquiring whether this program applied to anthology authors, which would in effect create Blog 4, then trotted off to debate the James Frey controversy with a bestselling author I admire greatly.) I can even subscribe via RSS and send 'em to my handheld, should the urge strike midday when away from the computer.

Even my husband, who staunchly believed that blogs possess the intrinsic value of a facial wart, is poking a toe in the waters of potential convert. After all, the blog is the ultimate Discussion Group where you get to be Overlord of the War Tribunal, the ONLY topics posted are your Subjects du Jour, and anyone who posts a comment that doesn't impress (if comments are even permitted) can be voted off the island immediately if you join a service with Admin abilities. What's not to love?

For me, however, it's more a matter of I think, therefore I blog. Not that thinking is a prerequisite to blogging, but sometimes it helps. Plus this makes for a great vanity diary--that thing you can write that noone else in their right mind would publish FOR you, but which you fancy that someone-somewhere-someday will want to read it.