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Late, I know. Thank that bastard, Jester.

One of the more disturbing things about writing fairly “naked” here on the blog - and the very question of how much you share on your blog was addressed on Hilly’s show on Sunday - is when people you know offline find and read your blog.

Discovering that my mother read my blog wasn’t an incredible surprise (by any stretch). She really started reading it two years ago when she picked up one of the business cards I made up for BlogHer ‘06.

“What’s this?” she said, looking at the odd little cartoon man on the card. “SecondHand Tryptophan?”

“Oh,” I said, thinking SHIT! “That’s my blog.” Maybe if I just say it really fast she’ll skip over it and go away.

“A blog? What is a blog, anyway?” She’d heard the term in the newspaper before, but really didn’t know what blogs were.

“It’s like a web site, kind of.” OK, bye!

“You have a web site?”

Sure, doesn’t everyone? “Yeah. It’s my writing.”

“What do you write about?” she asked.

“Whatever. Anything. Everything. It’s like having a daily column online.”

“Huh,” Mom said, walking off and taking the card with her. What she was probably thinking, I imagine, was You can bet your ASS I’m looking at this as soon as I get near my computer.

So I KNEW she knew about it. But I pretended - as I continue to pretend - that she doesn’t read this blog. The moment she first left a comment on one of my posts, the illusion was shattered. But I made a vow then that I think was a wise choice on my part: I will continue to write my blog as if nobody I know reads it. That may not be the choice for everyone, but it’s the one that works for me.

It doesn’t bother me any more. It did, at first. But I really DO write as if she doesn’t know I blog. Otherwise, I might not say a LOT of shit I say. Or blog naked photos of myself online. All that while friends of hers gather weekly and have all SEEN my naked photos online. AND know me personally.

My niece, Lauren, has seen my blog. Obviously, she’s not looking at it every DAY or she wouldn’t have been surprised when I showed up to her house completely bald last week. But she’s seen it. And if you’re reading this now, Lauren, GO AWAY! UNCLE KARL USES WORDS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HEARING. Or using. Course, you can’t use them until you HEAR them, which is why you shouldn’t be reading my blog. At all.

My dad knows about my blog, and so does my brother. Again, I have no idea how often they read it, whether they subscribe to the feed or what…but they know about it.

And now it is VERY clear that my twin daughters know about the blog.  First of all, I told them about it when I visited them last month. And I set up the radio show with Alyson, which is linked to all over the place on my site and the BTR page. And I comment on the Alive Campaign blog, where I am AGAIN linked.

But yesterday, my daughter Ashley commented on my blog. I’m not providing a link to her blog because that’s her privacy to dole out. So now my girls are reading 2HT. It’s like my blog coming-out party or something. Yes, girls, Dad has a blog and he says “fuck” (sometimes a lot). I hope that’s not the same level of trauma you experienced when you first thought about your parents having sex…or worse, walked IN on them. But I realize it may come as a shock that I use  profanity. Or blog naked sometimes.

Really, though, it’s all in the name of my art. *cough*

This is the nature of the blogging beast, however. When people you know find your blog, do you continue on with your blog, or do you pack up shop and find another anonymous blog to write?

I’m staying.

I’ve done my share of (relatively) anonymous blogging. It’s not for me any more.

What about you? Do your offline friends and family know about your blog? Does that change how you write? Or WHAT you write?

Filed under 2HT Mentions, 2HT Radio, Blogging, Weblogs | Comments (54)

I know, I know. I know. I haven’t talked about jury duty yet. I got caught up in all the drama quicker than Dorothy got snatched bald-headed to Oz. I’m done with it. I think.

But here’s my NEW problem. That bastard Jester has had THREE frakking shows in the last five days and I swear to Judy Garland he is harder to quit than cigarettes. He’s one of the most entertaining people I know and I cannot stand to miss a single moment of his shows.

And he starts the damn shows right around the time I’d normally be writing a blog post. Which means, apparently, that I have to CALL IN to the shows and try to be somewhat engaging. Yes, I do. Which means no blog post gets written. He’s a selfish, selfish bitch who is dead set on making me late in my blog schedule. I absolutely hate the man, and cannot wait to meet him next month.

I had a wonderful time on SecondHand Radio yesterday. Well, I always have a wonderful time with my show, but last night was just exceptional for me. My daughter, Alyson, along with Justin (another Alive Campaign team member) talked with me for an hour about their cross-country adventure. Thanks again to all of you that were there, listening and participating in the chat room. It was all very interesting, I thought. I WISH there were chat transcripts available, along with the podcast of the show.

As usual, you can download the episode to listen to on your computer…OR listen to it on the show’s page. OR subscribe via RSS. OR you can go to iTunes and search for “Secondhand Radio” and you’ll find it available there, as well. Or hell, listen here.

I hope, too, that any of you along the Alive Campaign’s route will contact me and let me know you’re on the route. I’ll put you in touch with the team. Or you can go to the Alive site and click on “CONTACT US” and get in touch with them that way. They need places to stay along the way, or even meals. Mostly they just want people to greet them and hang with them. You can even bike with them for a ways, if you like.

That’s all I have to say today. I’m tired.

Oh, wait. No. Go to Becky’s site and leave her loving comments because if she really quits her blog my head may very well explode.

There. That’s all.

Filed under 2HT Radio, Blogging, Depression, Weblogs | Comments (32)

I am thrilled as hell about today’s SecondHand Radio show and it hasn’t happened yet.

I guess I should first say “Happy Father’s Day” to dads everywhere. And that includes me. And my dad, of course.

On today’s radio show, my daughter, Alyson, and the rest of the Alive Campaign team will be my guests. For those that are new around here, or have perhaps forgotten, one of my twin daughters (going to be a senior in college next year) is joining a team of four other guys to make a cross-country bicycle trek from Waco, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska. They’re doing 4,500 miles in 83 days and it’s just an amazing thing.

The Alive Campaign is a suicide awareness/prevention grassroots group that some guys started at their college in Texas. I won’t get too deeply into the story here because it really is a good one and I’ll save that for the show.

During their adventure, the gang is actually filming a documentary, which will be an inspirational movie about all the things in life that are worth living for. Alyson is a film production major and is quite gifted at the entire film thing. I think it’s very cool that if you donate a $1 (which is how much it costs to “sponsor” a mile of their journey) you get your name in the documentary’s credits. They need all sorts of cash for gasoline, high-def recording tapes for the movie, and food and lodging costs.

Ford donated some money to their cause and they have a van (chase vehicle) to cart people and their belongings as one or two bikers at a time make their way across the country. At the moment, they’re in San Francisco. They started their journey last month and are meeting all sorts of wonderful people along the way, getting lots of wonderful bean footage, and nursing their respective war wounds here and there.

You can see their entire route mapped out on the Alive Campaign website. AND they also have a blog, where they’re posting every day about where they’re at and what’s happening along the way, along with photos.

SHOWTIME: 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific.

CALL-IN NUMBER: (646) 716-9370

SHOW PAGE/LINK - That’s also where you’ll be able to join in on the chatroom action. Hopefully, the Alive team will have Net connection during the show so some of the guys can chat while the others are on the phone.

NOTE: This will be my attempt at a show without profanity. I’d like to keep it that way. These young adults (including my daughter) attend a Christian university and share the same sensibilities. I respect that a great deal and (while I don’t think I need to say it) I would appreciate it if everyone behaved accordingly in the chatroom.

There will be NO discussion of any of the recent blogging drama out there, please. I’m actually relieved about that because I’m bloody well tired of expending energy on it.

Please join me this afternoon. Chat, call in and ask questions, or just listen. Thanks.

Oh, and after MY show, of course there’s Snackie Radio at 6pm Eastern. Hilly’s guest will be Dave2 from Blogography.

Then, after that 2-hour extravaganza, there will be Turnbaby’s show, Turnbaby Talks at 8pm. Her guest and cohost will be Shiny from Shiny’s Takeout.

Filed under 2HT Radio, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Comments (23)