Last night, I shamelessly but covertly read someone else's journal. She was in front of me typing on her computer, there was nothing else to look at, and I was bored! I mean, anyone would have caved under the pressure and snuck a look or two . . . or seven. But instead of gaining privileged insight into the psyche of another human being, or at least being pleasurably scandalized by untold secrets, I was appalled at the lack of content and style. I shouldn't have been--I teach collegiate-level composition--but I was.

"Then we went to the grocery store and I wanted to get a pineapple for the fruit salad, but my mom said, 'No, let's get some kiwi instead' so we did, only one of them was smashed a little bit, so we didn't have enough kiwi and had to make Jell-O for dessert. Then we watched The Devil Wears Prada. It was funny. Lol."

Reading this made me want to pull a Weekend Update and say, "Really? Really, Sandra*--grocery shopping with your mom is a journal-worthy event, really? You write "Lol" in your journal? Really?"

I'm spewing my bitter, sarcastic, elitist nonsense here because I can't do it in class, but really? When I journal, I'm either working out some personal issue, writing deep thoughts and life-lessons I'll want to remember later, or describing an event with some sort of flair--you know, trying to capture its essence on page. But that's just me. If I just want an account of what I do with my time, personally, I think a note in a day-planner would do just fine: "Grocery shopped with mom. Watched movie. Got drunk to distract myself from my boring life." Again, just me.

But maybe I'm being too harsh. Who am I to judge? (Other than a writing teacher, that is.) What is interesting to me is probably not interesting to everyone else. Scratch that, it's definitely not interesting to everybody. In fact, who's to say that my blog isn't really boring for some readers? My question for those people is: why are you still reading? Do I need to include a disclaimer on my profile? "The views contained herein are the views of the author only, and are not guaranteed to interest all readers."

I've thought about my blog quite a bit lately, especially as bloggers are gaining status outside the blogosphere. I enjoy blogging about my life and experiences, but sometimes I want to DO something with my blog, like write about cooking (been done, and better than I could do--check out Julie and Julia for example), or share really terrible student papers with bitingly hilarious remarks (probably illegal, and definitely unprofessional), or tell stories of Dwight's feline escapades (lame and nobody would read it except for Michael because I would make him). I've thought about making my blog a general culture review where I discuss music and TV, or even exploiting my nerdly expertise by reviewing modern pulp fantasy novels (finally--my niche!).

Anyways, I'm not a consistent enough writer to make any of those happen, so my blog will probably continue to be, as ever, sporadically published, running the gamut of topics, and containing the highest quality of thought and aesthetics. Lol.

*Name has been changed to protect the boring.