Blogging in the 19th Century

I was reading "Diary of A Nobody" last week, or maybe the week before. I'm not sure where I found the link, but it was rather amusing. Apparently it's mocking the journals that were being published in the 1800's by relatively famous people, but I think that it could easily have been written to mock blogs and live journals. I actually had to look it up to see that it really had been written over 100 years ago.

To demonstrate my claim:

From "Diary" Chapter II April 9th:
"Arrived home tired and worried. Mr. Putley, a painter and decorator, who had sent in a card, said he could not match the colour on the stairs, as it contained Indian carmine. He said he spent half-a-day calling at warehouses to see if he could get it. He suggested he should entirely repaint the stairs. It would cost very little more; if he tried to match it, he could only make a bad job of it. It would be more satisfactory to him and to us to have the work done properly. I consented, but felt I had been talked over. Planted some mustard-and-cress and radishes, and went to bed at nine. "

From "Random Synapses" March 18 2004 (that would be this site you're currently looking at):
"I'm going back to Ikea either today or tomorrow. I got scheduled for a lousy ten hours next week, so I can't afford my beautiful new medicine cabinet. *cry* I'll return it and then hopefully be able to buy it again next month or May, when I'm not paying as much rent. Either that or find another, cheaper, just as beautiful medicine cabinet someplace else. I'm also going to be calling the movie extras people today after I finish blogging. Hopefully they'll have some work for me for next week.

"However, the walls in my bathroom look specTACular. The ceiling is a little dark though...I mixed up some lighter blue paint for my corner shelf unit and I think I'll do some sponge painting on the ceiling. I'm NOT going to repaint the entire thing...it just about drove me to drink last time, trying to catch all the little speckles of white. *shudder*"

See? Both totally inane. The difference is that the first one was designed as a private diary (although it was actually a spoof and therefore intended for publication, but whatever...that's moot.) My inane writing is intended for an audience. After all, I have a paper journal I write in every night that I don't share with anyone. This is open to the public, and it's blatantly intended...why else would there be an About Me? Or comments? Or a list of my contact information? It's such an odd thing. I've been thinking about why I blog lately. I guess it's partly to stay in touch with friends...but I admit that I'm a little jealous of the readership that dooce et al get. I don't envy them their hate mail, or how they can't write about what toilet paper they use without people getting offended...but it must be a little gratifying to realize that thirty thousand people read you every day.

Anyway, that's just all something I'd been thinking about since I read "Diary".