In heaven's name, what am I DOING?

The above is my all-time favourite Wile E Coyote quote (closely followed by "I wouldn't mind, except that he defies the law of gravity!". It also rather melodramatically sums up the theme of this entry - for at least three different reasons, I've been thinking today about exactly why I'm writing this here blog, and who I'm expecting to read it.

Firstly, I was googling myself again yesterday (don't judge me, it gets lonely sometimes, living on your own), and noticed that of course my previous post on the subject, in July or August or whenever it was, which mentions my 'real' name, shows up on Google searches. This made me realise that anybody who chooses to look me up on the internet will find my blog. Not normally a problem, but I have it on good authority that my mother Googles my name every now and then, and I'm pretty sure I've said some snippy things about her here before.

Then I spoke to my dad on the phone today (happy birthday to him, by the way!) and he told me he's entered the 21st century, and has an email address and everything now. So he might conceivably work out how to use the internet and find this thing too, and I (entirely affectionately) poked fun at him here the other day. Plus it'd spoil the surprise when I get round to treating him to a day on the steam trains. And even my brother (who, as you'd expect from someone with a PhD in English literature, has trouble with reading and writing) has been known to go on the internet occasionally and might find Zoomy's Thing too.

Apart from the horror of my family reading my diary (which, let's face it, happened all the time when I was a teenager), I felt that last night's entry was a bit... unexceptional. Links to two interesting websites and a couple of thoughts of my own on the subject. There are millions of blogs that do that. I want mine to be different. Quirky. Entertaining. Fun! And I think I manage that most of the time.

So I thought I should set out why I'm writing this thing, and what I'm writing in it. Just in case I forget and need to check back.

I'm writing this primarily for myself. I enjoy doing it! I like looking back on what I've written, and chuckling to myself about how entertaining my life seems when I've written it down. And I like finding ways to make the things I do every day seem entertaining.

Secondly, I'm writing this to give my friends a laugh. I have a wonderful collection of friends who (I hope) are genuinely pleased to read my feelings about Coco Pops adverts and job interviews. Happy birthday to Suzy, too, incidentally! It's a good day for birthdays.

As for what's in it, the only rule I've had up to now is no mentioning of politics or religion or any other subject that might be considered controversial. There's too much talk about this kind of thing in the world already, and nobody needs another blog of some idiot expressing his half-thought-out views. But after today I'm also going to put a ban on two more subjects - firstly, much-too-serious posts like this one. Nobody wants to read rubbish like this. And secondly, links to entertaining websites as a substitute for talking about something entertaining I've made up myself. Although I'm going to be kind of flexible with this rule - basically, it just has to qualify in my brain as sufficiently different from all the other blogs out there.

Anyway, serious stuff over. Pointless rambling resumes tomorrow. I've got the day off legally, and I'm going to go to Burton and see what it's like.