Saturday, May 17, 2003

I'm going to go ahead and jump on what I'm sure will be a big blogging bandwagon by linking to this New York Times story, "Dating a Blogger, Reading All About It" (free registration required, or try this Excite repackage of the same article).

The story looks at a question I've wrestled with mightily since I started this little cowtown blog almost two years ago: how much of my personal life is really mine to share? Almost anything I have to say about my days and nights also says something about the people around me. In most cases, I will err on the side of caution and omit any details which might identify others, or I'll ask permission before putting so much as a first name up. In one or two cases, I've even gone back and reworded posts so as to obscure details about a friend I had mentioned, after realizing I might be giving away too much info.

This caution is even more pronounced regarding romantic relationships. If you scan my archives, you could come away with the impression that I have no love life whatsoever. Other than often stating that I'm single, and a few oblique references to ex-girlfriends and having once been married, you'll find nary a word about my dating or mating habits.

At first, this was an editorial decision I instituted out of respect for any hypothetical partners I may or may not have. But as my time online as gone on, I've become convinced of the rightness of keeping my mouth shut on this subject. It's simply an extension of how I act in my day-to-day life. I might speak openly to a friend about a woman I care for, but I wouldn't, for example, brag to my poker buddies about some beautiful babe I'd bagged the night before. A gentleman doesn't do that sort of thing.

If I were ever to marry again, I think stories of wedded bliss would probably find their way onto this site. But only if the missus signed a release in the pre-nup allowing me to do so.

So, for once it would seem I'm ahead of the curve when compared to the rest of the blogosphere. While other bloggers were learning the perils of flapping their gums about where their lips had been the hard way, my discretion and I were avoiding that pitfall entirely and having a much easier time of it.

Of course, you could simply assume I haven't got a love life, and this whole post is nothing more than an elaborate smokescreen to make the world think I do. You're free to hold that view. I'm not confirming or denying anything. The ambiguity of it all gives me a certain mystique, don't you think?

Posted @ 12:48 PM

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