Dry Heaves

What are dry heaves? Do they represent what I want to do but can’t—or what I should do but don’t? Sounds like the biophysical equivalent to Saint Paul’s moral struggle.

Why do I write about dry heaves? Because they are part of the reason that I am up and writing at all on this early morning. A great way to pass the time while sick and/or insomnial is to read and/or write. I am bored with reading, so I have resorted to writing.

This makes me think: if writing on my blog is about the last thing I will do to waste time, is then reading my blog about the last thing that others will do to waste time? Is blogging in general just a big waste of time?

There are only a handful of Web destinations that I visit with any regularity these days. With precious few exceptions, I find the Web to be a massive waste of space and time, and I must ruthlessly limit my online behavior to prevent the inevitable black-hole-like sucking of my time and relationships with non-virtual, three-dimensional beings (most notably, my wife). I like to gain information, but this raggedy stuporhighway called the WWW seems to go no place in its lofty goal to visit every place.

The big buzz online now is “Web 2.0”—a more socially-oriented and interactive approach to doing things via internet. Blogging is a part of this so-called revolution, as are services like del.icio.us and flickr. The ironic thing is that these types of sites are praised as being pioneers in a more communal and “real” environment for people online, yet all they do is basically consume more time and energy in people’s lives that could otherwise be spent face-to-face in healthy relationships among breathing humans. We’re two steps forward and three hundred steps back.

But back to my personal quandary. Do people read what I have to write? If so, then why? I know why friends and family come: to “keep in touch” (through touching the keyboard and mouse, I guess) and perhaps get amused by my antics that they know and love. But is there any compelling reason for others to browse my personal sayings and linkings?

I ask this because I wonder if embarking on the Great Challenge of writing a book would be a waste of my time. I’m sure all first-time book-writers ask themselves this question. They must then either conclude that people will care, or they must simply not care themselves and trudge forward nonetheless. I think I’m somewhere in-between.