Blog Small Talk

I’ve been writing this blog since last November, and I had a first today. I got a comment from a stranger! That is so cool! Thanks, Jennifer Hudson Taylor.

It’s an odd experience to write about your personal life and not know who’s reading it. For example, sometimes I start telling a story and the person stops me and says, “Yes, I read about that on your blog.” Then there’s lag in the conversation. What am I supposed to say, “Oh, I’m glad you read it”—which I am. Or am I supposed to say, “Do you enjoy it?” Because what if they say, “No.”

Or what if they say, “I think you were really unfair when you referred to Microsoft as Imperialist Swine"? There’s nothing like that to kill a conversation.

There needs to be a blog equivalent of small talk. I’ve come up with some examples:

Blog equivalent of “guy car” talk.
So, that’s an interesting blog background you have. Did you get it from The Cutest Blog on the Block? (Though I think this would only work for girls, not too many guys want to talk about “cute blogs.”)

Blog equivalent of the “weather” talk.
Have you gotten a lot of hits lately? No. I heard it slows down around the holidays. Yeah, it was Flag Day last week.

Blog equivalent of “job” talk.
How do you like blogspot? I’ve got a friend who uses wordpress, she says it’s got a faster load time. (Of course, this could get ugly if the person points out that the reason your load time is so long is because you have way too many pictures of your homely dog posted. Yep, really ugly, really fast.)

Blog equivalent of “where were you born” talk.
How long have you been blogging? Oh, that long…and you still haven’t learned to how to use html code!

Hmm…maybe the lag in conversation is better. I can always change the subject by saying, “Did you catch the latest Obama speech?” or “Have you heard what the Archbishop of Canterbury said?”