Once I had decided to actually start a blog the next questions were of course how and where.
I've arrived at Blogspot, but that's not to say that I've necessarily settled here. There are about a bajillion different blog software/hosting options, and hell if I know which ones are good and which ones aren't. But I figured that Google's blogging solution wouldn't completely tank, so that's where I've started.
Actually, my initial half-hearted attempt landed me in MSN Spaces given that my friend OBsIV had recently set up his new blog there. I've left an empty husk of a web page there as proof of my passing. It's not so much that I was displeased with MSN Spaces. It's more that I was blitzkrieged with features, got distracted, and never came back. I'm not looking to birth yet another unwanted eye-raping MySpace page to the world (where the whole notion of contrast for readability seems to lost). I just want a blog.
Even within each blog solution there seems to be fierce competition over address space. My historic handle for many years has been "PapasNewBag," and for the first time ever I actually found that name already in use when I went to secure a blog address. Nobody has ever shared that name. Sure, I understand that the shortened "PNB" form will already be taken. And I would never even hope at a chance to nab my more recent "PeaNutButter" variant. But somewhere out there someone is using http://www.papasnewbag.blogspot.com (privately, no less), and I have no idea why.
Maybe if my callsign was good I'd understand. It's not like I'm surprised to be forced into SexyRobot2407 because everything through SexyRobot2406 was taken. Everybody wants to be a sexy robot. Nobody wants to name themselves after half of the title of random James Brown song.
As far as I'm concerned if you dominate your google search results, you should own the word and be able to persecute others who use it in vain. Damn you mystery squatter for forcing me to be respectable and use my real name! Oh well, I guess the cherry's already popped given my Flickr page, but for some reason disclosing words seems so much more personal than pictures. I think I'm backwards that way.
Having one's handle already taken as a username is sad, but at the end of the day what really matters is the DNS name and there you are lucky - papasnewbag.com is available. Perhaps you ought to register it before whoever has it on myspace decides he can afford $7/yr?
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