Whether lamenting the morals of the establishment, venting about the wrath to come for politicians, sharing an Internet-based journal or uploading pictures of their dogs, cats or latest crocheting project, Americans are taking to the blog (short for Web log) like Gutenberg to movable type.
In the past 18 months, the number of blogs has exploded from 1.3 million in 2004 to nearly 18 million now - and growing at the rate of 40,000-plus per day, according to Technorati, a search engine devoted to monitoring blogs.
But anyone in or considering becoming part of the blogosphere, be warned: More than just mom, dad, the kids and a few select friends may log on to your periodic rants and raves. And mention a tough day at the office, or particularly clueless boss, and your next entry might be about unemployment.
Just ask Heather Armstrong, now blogging out of her Salt Lake City home between changing diapers and photography gigs. In February 2002, her biting, sometimes profane wit, expressed online (http://www.dooce.com), cost her a Web design job in Los Angeles.
One of the first such victims of blogging, Armstrong's case made her - and her site - the center of Internet privacy debates. Today, geek slang for Web site-related firing is "to be dooced."
Armstrong warns visitors to her site that, "I was fired from my job . . . because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID."
In her fateful entries, Armstrong was careful not to mention her employer (something she still refuses to do), or fellow staffers there by name. At first, those precautions seemed sufficient.
"I was just trying to make light of a frustrating situation," she says. "I thought it was funny and so did a lot of my co-workers, but apparently not all. An anonymous person sent an e-mail to all the vice presidents in my company."
Several upper-level executives laughed at Armstrong's wildly satirical, obviously exaggerated diatribes. Her immediate boss was not among them. She was fired. Six months later, her husband Jon lost his job, and the couple moved to Utah.
Today, Armstrong writes about the challenges of motherhood, being a disaffected Mormon - raised a Latter-day Saint in Tennessee, she grew cynical after attending church-owned Brigham Young University - and anything else that strikes her fancy.
"I love blogging. The opportunity I have to speak to an audience of thousands every day is pure pleasure," she says.
Armstrong did nothing extraordinary to build her site's popularity. At first, friends and then sympathetic strangers logged on as news of her firing spread. When Armstrong became pregnant, traffic more than doubled, and her ongoing conversations about post-partum depression and motherhood angst continue to build her fan base through word of mouth.
Her advice: "If you are going to blog about your job, you could do it anonymously, but if [employers] want to badly enough, they can still find out who you are. It's taking a risk."
Nathan Cowlishaw, a Dixie State College student in St. George, favors prose and poetry about the outdoors, American Indians and classroom daydreaming in his West Desert Journal blog (http://talkingtree.org/journal).
"I'm interested in other world views, besides my own," Cowlishaw explains. "I try to break the windows of everything I know, in order to learn and understand others."
That attitude, he admits, sometimes elicits cranky responses. Occasionally, there's hate e-mail, but often the reaction comes closer to the heart, from "family members [whose] opinions never seem to go hand-in-hand with mine."
He vows not to let that deter him. "When I have an opinion, I'm going to say how I feel."
Aaron Singleton's Leaving Babylon (http://foranewliberty.blogspot.com/aronsblog) calls itself a "commentary on current events and the folly of conventional wisdom." That includes a decidedly civil libertarian, anti-war theme, with occasional forays into philosophy and logic.
"The blog . . . serves as an outlet for me to vent, rant and otherwise express my opinions," says Singleton, who splits time between economics classes at BYU and managing a call center.
In conservative Utah, his views often generate posts in opposition. Some, he says, generated "quite a battle on a couple of comment threads. It was all in good fun, though."
Speaking of fun, other Utah bloggers just want to make readers laugh, from the dry, self-deprecating humor of Dennis Udink (http://www.udink.org), to the crudity of the self-described "online locker room" of The Dude Blog (http://www.thedudeblog.com).
"My real name is Dennis Udink," he says, allowing the moniker has attracted a modest, loyal following for his postings on everything from hiking and backcountry exploration to repairing his travel trailer.
"I get a feeling of community from the people who link to my blog," Udink says. "It's like a world separate from my real life, but I've nonetheless made some close friends . . . people whom I've never met face-to-face."
While Udink is likely an acquired blog-reading taste, The Dude Blog is intentionally in your face, its wide-ranging, R-rated discussions (parents take note) that are quite earthy about life, pop culture, movies, television and politics.
Andrew Morgan, a graduate student at Utah State University in Logan, says the site has been a labor of somewhat twisted love.
"Knowing that we brought a smile to someone's face during their boring and tedious work day . . . makes it worthwhile," he says.
Morgan's favorite offering is the site's "Daily Dingleberry" award.
Republican Rep. Chris Cannon, for his perceived pro-underground nuclear testing stance, has shared the "honor" with the likes of Hurricane Katrina looters, Britney Spears, Michael Moore and others found to be "Clinging to the Butt Hair of Life."
bmims@sltrib.com
Blog revolution
What is a blog? Short for Web log, this way of posting comment and photographs to the Internet is typically personal. It generally takes one of three forms: An online journal for friends and family; a site filtering other Web content for commentary; and knowledge logs specializing on hobbies, how-to instructions, etc.
What is the difference between a blog and a Web site? A blog typically is offered in set formats by hosts for free, allowing easy setup and instant posting. Full-blown Web sites are more complicated, often requiring some basic HTML or other Web-programming experience to implement their multiple pages and features.
How do I start a blog? Among the most popular hosts for beginning bloggers are Blogger (http://www.blogger.com), MSN Spaces (http://spaces.msn.com, AOL Journals (http://hometown.aol.com)
