Newsflash

The first newsflash of the day is that summer appears to be missing. I am not a fan of hot weather - actually being a New Englander I consider anything over 80 degrees hot. But this morning it is 50 degrees. Yes that is right 5-0. It is cold. It might hit the mid-70's today. It feels like fall. But actually its really nice out and I am going for a walk (but I'll be in a sweatshirt).

Now here's more news - lots of cancer patients write blogs. This was reported in today's Boston Globe. (I actually knew this article was coming up and had offered to contribute but missed the deadline.) I do find it interesting how many people do have blogs or CarePages or whatever to chronicle their illness.

I am not sure how many millions of blogs are out there on the internet these days and I am sure that 90% of them consist of two entries: Day 1: 'I started a blog. Be sure to check back on what's going on.' Day 37: 'I forgot to update my blog. I don't seem to have much going on in my life. Today I took out the trash before going to work and have tuna fish for lunch.' And we are now at day 542 with no further entries.

One thing in the article I found interesting is that it corraborates my thoughts that writing for cancer or other medical patients is therapeutic. Over the centuries, when faced with illness many have documented it in journals or letters. Blogs are just the Web 2.0 way of dealing with medical trauma.

However in modern times, where privacy is much more of an issue than before, many bloggers need to remember not to open up too much of themselves on the internet, not just in a blog but anywhere. Anything that is online can be read by anyone. If you write about your boss, your boss could read about it. If you slam someone, they could slam you back. If you give out your email and address, anyone, including the guy in some former Soviet Republic, could use them to steal your identity. If its on the internet, it might as well be on a billboard on the side of the highway in every city worldwide. So think before you write. I do. My mother reads my blog.