Quick story that amused me… I wondered about “Padrone” while I was reading your blog, so I looked it up using this program I have called WordWeb. And it said something about an owner of an inn in Italy, or someone who exploits Italian immigrants in the US. Then I typed “padrone” into altavista’s babelfish translator, and it returned “landladies.” And then I was TERRIBLY confused. Heh.

And THANKS for commenting. I LOVE commenting. For me, this is about interaction. Thank you so much for being part of it!

For the record, I don’t think your blog is entirely selfish, though. Because I think you use it to connect with other bloggers, and I’ve seen you go out of your way to be supportive of them so… Social networking, perhaps?

I’ve got to work on my goals more… I need direction and drive and to feel like I’m serving some purpose in my corner of the interwebz… But in the end, it’s ALL selfish, because that having direction, and engaging with you guys, opening dialogues etc.? It makes ME feel good.

A truly altruistic endeavor is such a rarity.

my own Master, who i call Padrone because He is italian and that is the italian word for Master, has little input into the blog. He reads and learns and laughs and gains some insight into my mind….now and then He will ask me to type about something, and sometimes it is more difficult than at other times of course.

i love the thought of a place for discourse and discussion regarding the things we do and why. i love learning how others do things, which was my first reason for reading others’ blogs….but i seldom comment. i wouldn’t have here, except you *did* invite it!

Thanks for sharing yourself, your stories, your thoughts, your humor, your relationship. i am enjoying getting to know the “blog” you, very much.

schiava

I also have no idea how many people read my blog. I have never seen a single statistic about my blog readership. I don’t know if I have lurkers (though I kinda assume so…) And sometimes I forget that not everyone who reads comments. I tend to think, because it’s what I see in comments, that a handful of people read this. Like, ten. I realize that is PROBABLY not the case, but still… I don’t know how many hits I get, I don’t know if my readership is going up or down, I don’t know if people have me on their feed readers, how people link to the site – ANYTHING.

So I guess I forget about lurkers, sometimes. Whoops!

Master likes knowing that stuff, so he monitors that, but I ask him not to tell me. (Which is, coincidentally, another reason I worry when he asked if I felt I was meeting my blogging goals… I wondered if all of a sudden no one came here anymore!)

Ya’ll with your goals… makin’ the rest of us look bad!!

(hehe)

But, really, I think it IS a good thing to evaluate blogging goals. I’m glad I’m doing it. Because, like you said, blogs are about expressing thoughts… That is something I do, we all do, and of course is a goal of mine here… BUT the real question with my blog and any of its goals is – “Okay, but why do you need an audience, Chloe? What are they supposed to get out of it? Is there any benefit for them? If there isn’t, then is this becoming selfish?”

Because one of my main goals is to AVOID that sort of blogging that is selfish. I should write privately for myself or my Master if I only have self-indulgent things to say. I don’t know if I’m succeeding, but at least I’m taking it into consideration now! Hopefully, thinking about my goals will help me.

Thanks so much for stopping by, little one.

Lemme try again…

I have no idea what his goals are. He says that it’s about ME meeting MY goals because it’s MY place (etc. etc. etc.) But… I admit that I suspect he is way more concerned with my online activities than he lets on. Things I do in my life that he TRULY doesn’t care about? He doesn’t spend time on them – doesn’t even want to hear about them.

However, online blog-type stuff? I’ve got to tell him every comment I make on every other blog, and he’s got my blog on a feedreader and I know he reads it as soon as he sees I’ve posted, and he randomly came out with that semi-harsh email asking if I felt I was meeting my goals the other day… To me, it’s obvious he cares a lot more than he lets on about my blogging, my interactions with bloggers, etc.

But no, he’s never articulated why, or at least not in a way that gives me a lightbulb moment about it. I kind of wish he would, because it makes me edgy and, like you said, it’s frustrating sometimes.

(I feel like I was way clearer the first time through, before the magical button-mashing. *sigh*)

I’m going to have to think on this a while longer, and probably ask The Man about it when he gets home from work today!

Thanks miss M:e.