Mysteries of the Blogosphere

Mad Dog admits to being woefully ignorant about the technical aspects of blog world.

He has learned to look at the number of views of his blogs, which google blogger tracks, and is gratified to see at least some readers seem to be clicking on the site, whether or not they actually read it, or think it worthwhile. But he has been curious about why so few ever actually type out a comment. 

Even more perplexing is finding reams of comments in his gmail inbox which never appear in  the blog comment section to which others can respond--it's as if readers are replying for Mad Dog's eyes only.  Many of these comments include an address which sounds like a porn site or some commercial site.

What is really curious is to see from where the readers come--you are given a map of where on the planet people are reading your blog. Most, as one would expect, are in the United States, but apparently Australians, Russians and even some Asians read American blogs. Why, Mad Dog can only imagine. Hard to fathom. But there they are, on the map, little green shaded areas in Indonesia or Korea or Estonia. What are people doing out there, reading about the very American topics in Mad Dog's mind? Who are they? What kind of lives do they lead? And why do they silently read some emanation from someone in New Hampshire, America.

It's much like sending out one of those missiles into space, with a recording of the Beatles and Louis Armstrong, traveling deeper and deeper into dark space, in hope or maybe not even hope, on the chance someone out there might be interested.  Makes you think, there may be intelligent life out there which may not care, but may be curious. Makes Mad Dog feel better about his place in the universe.

What an astonishing world we live in. 

Mad Dog once asked his father in what time he would most liked to have lived. Mad Dog had considered 1860, so he could see America at that critical time, so he could travel to Washington, and possibly meet Abraham Lincoln, or to Amherst, Massachusetts where he could hang out with Emily Dickinson.  Or,  maybe 1775, Mad Dog could go to Philadelphia, as Ben Franklin and Jefferson et al were thinking out their experiment.

But Mad Dog's father did not even hesitate: Why the current time, of course. This is the best time to be alive.

Mad Dog objected: We have nuclear missiles aimed at us. We could go up in a mushroom cloud at any instant.  And, he replied, in 1775 or 1860 you could be stricken with small pox, malaria, typhoid, strep or pneumonia and die the next day. No, he assured Mad Dog, these times are the most exciting and wonderful times in the history of humankind.  And he died before the internet got into full swing. 

Wouldn't he be amazed by today?