That button to your upper-right

It has occurred to me that I'm getting paid pretty well to read blogs all day.

Blogger's "Next Blog" button is so shiny, so clickable.

(aside)
It makes me wonder about the personality traits exhibited here. There must be some bit of exhibitionist in me to bother publishing on the internet. And I know that somehow, someday it's going to bite me on the ass.

But there is also this voyeuristic interest in reading other people's thoughts - or at least the thoughts that they are willing to put on the internet, whether purposefully and proudly like a nudist, or naively and negligently like a woman who forgets to close the blinds before changing.

So if exhibitionism is mixed with voyeurism... does that make me a psychological flasher? Or worse?
(end aside)

There are a million online casino ads "disguised" as blogs. I probably run into 4 of these for every 10 'next' clicks. Or 2/5 for those of you who need to reduce your fractions. The one thing that I admire is that they tend to have the best titles. Just random words smashed together. I was thinking about collecting and publishing them until I came to my senses.

I wish that I understood Spanish. There's some really interesting looking stuff out there that I can't read. Well, it looks interesting. Probably more poems by 12 year old girls. Nevermind.

I love that some people have been blogging for several years. I tend to have a fairly short novelty quotient. I haven't formally thought about it until now, but one day I might dissapear mid-post. Actually one of the reasons that I started this whole thing was just so that I could learn a little HTML. That goal quickly faded, though, as I became aware of the 'next' button. I just can't believe that people are able to come up with this stuff, day after day, for years.

As a brief gripe, I've received emails from people on whose blogs I have commented that don't reference their blog URLs. How am I supposed to find that blog again? Right, I could email back and say "where you at?", but that's like receiving a thank-you note for a gift and writing back "do I know you?" Simple embarrassment has kept me from being able to re-visit some great sites that I stumbled across.

Finally, what's up with the sickos that remove the 'next' button from their blogs? It's like Wal-Mart deciding that they won't carry an album. I guess it's their right, but... who died and made them arbiter of my further reading?