A family of bloggers.

Much to my delight, I received an email from Dad today announcing the birth of yet another blog - by him! http://familylane.blogspot.com I can't begin to tell you how excited I am. I shall be known as the matriarch of blogging in the family of Chongs henceforth and forever. Muahaha.

It's almost silly how excited I get when people begin to blog. In my head, bloggers belong to this exclusive club for intellectuals or something. Blogging for me is a wonderful combination of web-building and writing. Makes me feel smart. When in reality, blogging is such a common phenomenon and it does not hold the same value I bestow upon it. I mean, have you seen MySpace? *gag* Everyone has a blog now. Places like MSN, Friendster, just to name a few has started blogging capabilities just to catch up with the trend.

I guess it's like the difference between a novel, a textbook, a periodical, a pop-culture magazine, a copy of Playboy or a comic book. All publications but vastly different, with some way more "prestigious" (or at least snob-friendly) than others. When you have that many blogs out there, there's just bound to be a whole lot filled with nothing but junk. I can't really say that I am not guilty of that either.

However, I want to say that in starting a blog, Dad had hit the nail right on the head. Blogging is his attempt to draw us closer together as a family. In many ways, it already has. Han - and now Dad- and I have something more in common now. The indirectness in this form of communication allows for a lot more freedom of expression. In reading my blog, everyone (with emphasis given to my family) get to know me in the way I want to be known. There are things I have learned about Han from his blog that "reality" has not been able to facilitate due to physical and emotional distance. There will be things I will be able to learn from Dad through the blog.

It's interesting to observe we've allowed a simple piece of technology to infiltrate the most intimate part of our lives.

Needless to say, I will be an advocate of blogging for the better part of my life. I hope, anyway. I mean, I met my boyfriend through blogging, for crying out loud.

Blogger, I love you.