Next Blog >> - [Erik]

I haven’t been able to stay away from this blog…tweaking this and that, adding an easter egg, exploring features. Did you know that the spell checker for blogger.com posts doesn’t recognize the word “blog?” Funny. Or would it be ironic?

Over at the Steve Brown Etc. website, I passed along an email from an old friend of Steve’s. He stumbled across geoduck Joe’s site one day while hitting the “Next Blog>>” button up there in the right hand corner of his blogger page. This guy read something about the talk show, went to its page, and is now catching up with Steve after a considerable period of time.

First, what are the frickin’ odds? Second, this was the first time I heard of the ability to wander aimlessly through the bloggosphere…interesting feature…possibilities.

So, after helping to set up [ping] I found that “Next Blog>>” button and hit it. Instead of hooking up with a long lost friend, I got a picture of a chick’s ass in a thong. God bless the Internet. I instantly realized the beauty of a button that would take me to pictures of butts and stuff while leaving me with an absolutely clean conscience derived from the innocent desire to see what’s next.

I clicked the button, glanced at a couple more blogs (all assless), and then went home from work.

That night I hit the button again and again. I saw Spanish blogs, German blogs, blogs with kanji, and I think I saw Russian. My anecdotal evidence suggests that there are more women blogging than men. I still didn’t “stumble” across any more rears, but I didn’t care.

Between the foreign language blogs, Bush haters, band blogs, and the weird advertising blogs, there were people’s lives and thoughts…

…most with “0 Comments.”

There was a note from a guy to his two-year-old son…0 Comments.

One blog had a list of “things that suck”…0 Comments.

A number of posts were filled with teen angst…0 Comments.

“Trouble In Paradise”…0 Comments.

“Got A New Job”…0 Comments.

One blog replaced the “0 Comments” link with, “0 Found Me.”

As I clicked "Next Blog>>" over and over, the posts looked less like blog entries and more like prayers. It was like in Bruce Almighty, when Bruce (as God) was getting the stream of collective consciousness from what seemed like the population of the whole world (it turned out to be only a block or two from his neighborhood).

Maybe it’s just me. I have this fear that when I pour my heart out to God, His response is…0 Comments.

Whether it was genuine concern for these people or that nagging fear, instead of reading anonymously and hitting the button again, I started leaving comments.

In all my clicking, there are two blogs that stand out. Check them out. You might feel compelled to leave a comment too.

1. www.susanwyno.blogspot.com – They just took Susan’s son off of chemo because it was worse on him than the cancer. They’re putting him in a hospice to live his last days.

2. www.pantsintheocean.blogspot.com – This blog is filled with some of the most creative, entertaining, and funny stuff I’ve ever read. Here’s a blurb from the blog…

“There seem to be two camps on the issue of whether or not there are, indeed, pants in the ocean. I believe there are. I also believe I should have gotten points for it the night I was playing Scattergories and fate rolled the letter "P" for the category called "things found in the ocean." But destiny and my friend Steve wouldn't allow it, so now I'm left to muse about it and other similarly pointless issues in this here blog.”

Well, now I’m a man on a mission. I’m gonna keep hitting the “Next Blog>>” button. I’ll keep leaving comments just to let people know someone was either scared enough of being alone, or cared enough to respond. But that’s not my mission.

I’m gonna keep hitting that button until I end up back here on [ping]. I wonder how many comments this post will have by then?

[ping]