Flabbergasted and Mindboggled!

Wow. Just . . .wow. I realize that I haven't been blogging very long and that I'm not very savvy about how the Blog-world really works. Of course I know empirically that anybody can read any blog they wish, that a blog is in the public domain unless it's password-protected. I just never thought that anybody I didn't want reading my blog would read it . . . Silly, huh? I thought that blog-readers fall into a few distinct categories: friends, strangers, and weirdos. Friends being those people that you intentionally introduce to the blog and the people they bring along-- the readers of their blogs, etc. Strangers being those harmless lurkers who may never comment but who skim through your blog and maybe come back if they like you. I lurk in some places. Weirdos being those stalker types you hear about, the reason that nobody includes much real information-- full name, address, birth date, that kind of thing.

Now I find that there are other kinds of blog-readers. People who know you; who would read your blog even while knowing that you never intended to share it with them; who would lurk, never commenting or announcing their presence or telling you that they happen to read your blog; who would read things never meant for their eyes. People who would intentionally, blatantly go behind your back, invade your privacy, and use what you write against you in a sphere that has no connection to the blog at all. Imagine if a sister or a cousin found your blog, turned around and complained about it to your parents. Imagine a co-worker researching your blog and turning it into something to discuss with the boss. Imagine some similar situation and you'll see where I am.

Some things I learned today:

1. I have an enemy. I find this a little baffling because I never felt important enough to have a foe. But after all this time it turns out that I'm not paranoid, they really are out to get me. Why, I'm not sure yet.

2. Blogs actually aren't a safe place to vent because anyone freaky enough to search for you will find it. Changing the address will only work for a short time; whatever it was that drove somebody to find it before will find it again. Therefore nobody shall ever be named by name again unless I love them. My fourth-category reader will Hereby be referred to as "Umbridge". (I was thinking "She who must not be named" or "you-know-who" but that made the whole thing too important. "Umbridge" fits much better.)

3. I'm totally out of my league here. I'm not good these two-faced, sneaky, gossip-y, game-playing Machiavellian maneuvers that women use against each other, of saying one thing to one party and something else to another. I generally say what I think, or I keep my mouth shut. Everybody who knows me knows where they stand, all the time. I think I'm screwed...

4. If your behavior is so immature and unprofessional that it drives somebody to rant about it in the privacy her blog (instead of anywhere else), and you read that blog without permission knowing that it's private, and what you read offends you, then maybe you should re-think that original behavior instead of being mad at somebody for stating the bald truth in an anonymous venue.

5. Blogger doesn't do password-protected blogs. I've just gone to ridiculous lengths trying to erase all contacts to the previous address and to my profile.