Woo-hoo

I guess AOL is still trying to act like there's a "journal" community here. Of course, when they let John Scalzi go, you knew they were just kidding.

Apparently Magic Smoke, which used to be written by a smart tech guy, is now operated by two other people who write like high school kids working for the school paper -- Hey, gang, enter the caption contest!!!

If you want to read what I'm talking about click on the MAGIC SMOKE link up there on the top right of my blog. It's now a permanent part of the headband or whatever you call all the ads and junk they keep dumping on us.

Meanwhile AOL is still having guest editors. I remember when I used to look forward to that little feature. I also remember when gas was $.33 a gallon.

This week the Guest Editor is a project manager at a nuclear plant who lives in Indiana. His name is Ken and his blog is called Bucko. He has stopped by this journal a few times recently, based on a couple of comments he left.

As the Guest Editor, he included me in his list of recommended blogs. At the bottom. He obviously saved the best for last.

"Learn some interesting facts about life in the Windy City, which Mrs. Linklater clearly loves."

I worry that some people may be stopping here to read restaurant reviews or to get directions to the Bean, so I hope they won't be disappointed.

Ken seems like a perfectly nice guy. He and his wife both blog and she was nice enough to stop here to congratulate me on making Bucko's list. That's how I found out about the mention.

So how can I say what I want to say now without sounding ungracious? Let me first start with "Thank you, Ken, for honoring me with a mention in your Guest Editor's column."

I think Ken thought he was doing me a favor. But, the last thing I need is more readers. I've got the ones I want, along with a few I wish would go away, and based on my newly loaded counter, there's a bunch of lurkers who just hang in the background. Fine by me if they stay there.

When I first started this journal four years ago, I wanted lots of people to read it and comment. But then I discovered the price of "fame."  You can't choose which people you get. So, after the  angry AOL exodus, I stopped "marketing" myself by going around to as many AOL blogs as I could and leaving a link to mine.

If anyone finds this blog, it's almost by accident. Although I have tagged some entries in a [so far] fruitless attempt to get a Google mention on a hot topic or two.

Even without a tag, some woman in Australia found and quoted something I said in my Bag Lady With A Baby rant. Remember the 67 year old Romanian woman who gave birth a couple of years ago? 

Over time I've discovered that I don't embrace new people very easily. So if you've linked here from Magic Smoke and left a comment, please don't be alarmed if I don't go out of my way to say thank you for stopping by.

Unless you're really funny. And then, maybe. . .