I love reading between the lines of blogs – though sometimes I’m completely wrong about things! So it was fun to see an interpreted and confirmed version of what went on behind the scenes of Jason Kottke’s and Meg Hourihan’s blogs in the last few years:
Neither Megnut.com nor Kottke.org is a particularly confessional site, but regular visitors were invited to read between the lines.
First, there was cohabitation in San Francisco, then, in December, 2002, mutual relocation to New York. The summer of 2003 sounded like funótrips to Copenhagen and Parisóbut disenchantment followed: when Meg took off for Nantucket in the summer of 2004, the move was conspicuously undertaken in the first-person singular. In December, 2004, she wrote a post entitled ìA Sad Breakupî; and while its subject was Barbie, whose boyfriend, Ken, had sometime earlier been sidelined by Mattel for a new beau, Blaine, attentive readers wondered whether a more significant allusion was being made. Confirmation of a sort was provided in January, 2005, when Meg revealed that she had moved to New Hampshireóand, in an even more stunning turn of events, was making do with a dial-up Internet connection. Meanwhile, Jason was blogging moodily about hiring a man with a van to move his stuff across town.By May, 2005, however, Meg and Jason had both made reference to vacationing in Ireland. Then, in November, Meg informed her readers that she and Jason were engaged. Resolution of the most satisfying order was provided on March 28th this year, when Meg posted a photograph that showed her wearing a long white gown and clutching a large bouquet, mid-smooch with a be-suited Jason, under the heading ìMarried.î (via Kottke.org
If you don’t know Meg and Jason’s blogs, you might be interested in checking them out – Meg was co-founder of Blogger.com, and Jason writes an excellent link-ful blog and even lived off blogging for a year after accepting micropayments.
Me, I’ve gone a bit quieter with my own between the lines. Realising that a lot of students and colleagues and bosses and journalists sometimes read my blog has got me drawing sharper lines between public and private. I’ll let you know when I get married, though 🙂
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Jamie
When?!
Marius Watz
Interesting but hardly surprising. I was actually surprised a few times that you were disclosing personal details on your blog. I tend to keep that off all my sites, and certainly off my Flickr account. No wild party pictures, no dwelling on personal details. No writing negatively about a named person unless it qualifies as an objective critique of their work.
It’s one part net.hygiene for the most part, one part qualified paranoia..
JoseAngel
You’ll let us know… between the lines?
Jill
Mm, no, I think actually getting married will deserve a perfectly explicit post, actually.
Marius, I’m kind of disappointed about the lack of wild party pictures, but I guess I’ll live 🙂
Mathemagenic
Private, public and selective sharing…
…