On Avatars, Privacy, and other Stuff

I'm rebelling against the suggestion to use the Yahoo avatars in Thing 1. I've used avatars in several other sites, and they've been a personal icon, something I've chosen on my own.

While the Yahoo avatars are nice little virtual paper dolls to dress, I'm going back to using a picture from my personal collection. It's a much better descriptor of me at this time.

I also wanted to write a little bit about the concept of blogs in general. I still find it odd that people will pour out their hearts and souls to the entire world. Maybe this is what some intend to do, but I suspect that a good many bloggers think "no one is going to read this except my close friends and family" and they blog away, never knowing the strangers who are reading about their world.

In my online activities, I've tried to be very careful to keep myself anonymous. I believe that associating myself with SMILE in this forum is as close as I've come to revealing my location. I don't post pictures of my kids' faces, nor do I post their names, and I'm pretty careful about what information I reveal about myself as well.

As far as other Stuff, I sincerely hope we have a snow (cold?) day tomorrow. C'mon, this is Minnesota and it's the end of January. Don't we deserve a day off by now?