Let me say right off the bat that I am not fond of the word "blog," which lacks a certain appealing euphony. I recently read that it was coined as a joke, and I believe it. You'll catch me saying "weblog" a lot instead, which, I think, makes me sound a bit stodgy, falsely formal, or lacking in my geek props, but there are some words it's just not easy to embrace.
A few weeks ago, for instance, I ordered pizza from a "Papa Somebody" type place. I was eating alone, so all I needed was a Little Bambino with Cheese and half an order of Bambino Sticks. I could barely choke the order out.
But my putative topic is weblog naming. I had this whole weblog thing ready to go except I couldn't think of a name. Browsing hundreds of weblogs for ideas, I found that names range from the lame ("Bob's Weblog," "Erin's Weblog," "John R's Blog") to the inane ("Random Rantings," "My random thoughts," "A few random ideas"), to the sublime but already taken ("Bookslut," "Wordridden," "Colossal Waste of Bandwidth").
I decided that it was OK to name your blog after yourself if you had a name people knew ("Wil Wheaton Dot Net"--think what you will of the guy, you've probably heard of him). Naming a blog after yourself when no one has heard of you seems to me like a big neon announcement that it hasn't occurred to you that your weblog might have a focus other than yourself. Or like your name itself, though previously obscure, will be enough to bring hundreds, if not thousands, of web denizens flocking to your virtual door ("I've always wanted to know what a person named Louise Ellison eats for lunch! At last I can find out!"). Since practically no one has heard of me, I decided to keep my name out of my blog title at all costs, thus thinly disguising the fact that keeping a weblog of this type is pretty much an exercise in pure ego.
I am pleased with the name I finally came up with, because it strikes exactly the right note--de rigeur among your better class of webloggers--of self-deprecation combined with self-aggrandizement.
I am hoping to double my readership inside of a week. This means that all five of you had better tell a friend.
Posted by Su Penn at February 3, 2003 09:07 AM | TrackBackI love your weblog's name! Sublime! This is really cool. By the way, I'd never ever heard of Wil Wheaton until you started commenting on his weblog. So this must be a sure way to fame.
Posted by: Adrianne on February 4, 2003 07:15 AMUh oh, your comments counter does not instantly update! Can you get David to fix this?
Posted by: Adrianne on February 4, 2003 07:18 AMIf you refresh your page, the comment count will update.
Posted by: Su on February 4, 2003 12:09 PMAfter reading your recent e-mail about Wil Wheaton, I turned on the TV and Stand by Me was playing on some cable channel. Really you've never seen it? It certainly is worth two hours of your time, IMHO.
I heard it had a dead body in it and so I always thought of it as something like a horror movie..also I hear there are leeches. But probably I will rent it some time, now that I'm all close personal and friendly with Wil.
Posted by: Su on February 4, 2003 06:08 PMI've seen Stand By Me, I just never paid attention to the actor's names. But today I went to Wil Wheaton's weblog, and I saw his picture from that movie, and he did a great job. I wouldn't have recognized his grown-up self, though!
Posted by: Adrianne on February 4, 2003 07:22 PMIf I were going to send him $35 for an autographed picture, it would be for the one from that movie, even though I've never seen it, because I think it's cute.
Posted by: Su on February 4, 2003 09:30 PM