Tuesday, October 24, 2006

SEDUCTION

The story of my seduction began innocently enough. I know what you're thinking, that old cliche', "That's what they all say." I was simply reading the newspaper one day and came across a small UP article in the top right hand corner of a page close to the back, which caught my eye. I read the article, becoming increasingly intrigued. I noticed an Internet web address to the place they had described. Seemed harmless to me to clip that article right out of the paper - just in case I might want to visit that address later. So, clip it I did.

"Later" came much sooner than I thought. Before the day had ended, my curiosity led me to my computer keyboard where I typed in the address. I had made my first foray, but not my last, by any means, into the mysterious, some even had said dangerous, environs of the blogosphere. I had reasoned that life is filled with risks -- that somehow, I felt better equipped to deal with the Internet risks than some dangers I could encounter late at night on a darkened street in my real world.

Stories had it that real bogeymen habited the blogosphere; that one must always be on guard against those who misrepresented themselves. Why, Jane could be Jim, and Bob might even be Mary. As if that wasn't danger enough, there was the risk the pictures of a handsome distinguished looking gentleman of a certain age, or the ravishing young beauty might well be photos taken of them 20 or 30 years earlier than their actual age. Even those of so-called average appearance (whatever that means) might be predators. Heaven forbid, the pictures might not even be of them at all!

But I felt confident that I would learn to be able to discern the reliable sources in the blogosphere from those "others," if I should ever encounter any. I was certain I could avoid being taken in by the wiley machinations of those reportedly waiting to accost me. However, I did keep encountering a rather large cadre of bloggers who are "writers." I'm not sure if I should be wary of them or not. But I'm getting ahead of myself, since it wasn't until later that I realized how many writers there were.
Continued in Part II.

20 comments:

  1. Welcome to the blogosphere. So glad to have you here.

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  2. What happened to the conference call? I heard "your call is now muted" and then nada...

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  3. Welcome Joared...from comments to commentary....that's how I got into blogging too. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say and having you a part of "the gang." Congratulations!

    BTW...it was great hearing you on the conference call...

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  4. Welcome aboard Joared! Now, not only will you have to visit all those blogs that you got used to commenting on, but you'll also have to post your own blogs ;)
    Addiction, addiction....
    This post made me laugh and kept me interested. I'm eagerly waiting for the next installment.

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  5. Welcome, Joared. When she called about the phonecon, yesterday, Buffy said that you had inaugurated your own blog. She also told me that she (and I) had been mispronouncing your name in our minds. I eagerly await Part II of your tale.
    Cop Car

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  6. Welcome, Joared!
    You've left such insightful comments; I look forward to reading more.

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  7. Welcome to the blogosphere, Joared.

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  8. I've read lots of your comments but now I can read YOU!

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  9. Welcome, welcome, welcome!!

    I have always appreciated your comments, now I get to "read you."

    Just added you to my bookmarks.

    Looking forward to your posts.

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  10. Bravo! I wish you as much fun in the blogosphere as I've had so far.

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  11. This is great, Joared, to have you board the blogging train. For some reason, my computer won't connect with blogger so that I can leave comments under anything else than anonymous. So I hope you'll recognize this from ML of FFF

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  12. Welcome to blogging and I came to it kind of the same way-- newspaper article and I went to check out the link they gave and it is definitely seductive as one leads to another

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  13. Jorad. Welcome aboard the good ship
    "Bloggerdom" (we need a better name than that)

    I have been enjoying your varied comments on many blogs for some time now and I eagerly anticipate your continued posting on "Along The Way"

    PS I am not really a 76 year old southern lady. I am a rather beautiful sandy haired

    Labrador retriever who can type ;)

    Woof Woof.

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  14. I am delighted to see that you've joined the blogosphere. Over the past year or so, I've found your comments on my own blog so kind and encouraging that my aged ego has been well massaged. I look forward to keeping up with your blog, and I hope I have had some influence on your seduction.

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  15. Double welcome to our little land of blog. I am happy to know you have taken the plunge!

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  16. Welcome, welcome! I can't wait for Part II of Seduction so that I can leave a comment there, too.

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  17. Welcome Joared. You have commented over at my blog and I've read comments of yours on Ronni's blog. Blogging sure is seductive. Welcome!
    I'm also anonymous - i do have a blogger account I thought but damned if I can sign in.
    Yours, Jen, from semantically driven (http://jaycee.typepad.com/semantics/)

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  18. Welcome. I got into blogging by leaving comments, also. I always find your comments interesting and so is your first post.

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  19. I'm overwhelmed with the welcome I've received. I know this isn't very original, but we truly do live in a small world after all. Wasn't that a song lyric? I just remember it from a ride at Disneyland.

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