didn't your mother teach you any manners?

If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Isn't that the cardinal rule when it comes to general interaction and proper communiqué?

Contrary to the counsel of both my online friends and real-life companions, I decided to put my trust in the aforementioned mantra and enable anonymous commenting on this blog. However, it appears that a few unnamed spoilsports have destroyed my faith in the courteous aphorism.

I have been accused of being completely self-unaware, too outwardly judgmental, and not at all inwardly critical. I have been charged with poor research and failure to discus anything important, "like, you know, the environment, and poverty and, like, stuff."

I've been called vain, and sarcastic, and superficial.

Um. I have a naked Barbie as my forum placard.

What exactly were you expecting?

This is a blog. It is my own space to write what I please. It is not my resume. You are not my therapist.

According to you, Anonymous, I'm either too into myself, or, I'm so into other people that truly knowing myself is an utter unfeasibility. But seriously, would anyone really want to read a daily journal cataloguing my inner anguish, daddy-issues, aching ego, or my thoughts on the Arab Abbala tribes of northern Rizeigat, or the annual exponential increase anthropogenic greenhouse gasses?

I doubt it.

However, if that is something that you would prefer to consume, Anonymous, my old friend, then I suggest you find a new blogger to decry. Because right now, I am perfectly content with my amour-propre, my lengthy list of "trivial" interests and my apposite overuse of uber ardent (albeit ever amusing) alliterations.

If you can't find anyone -- and I promise that all bloggers are at least a little self-involved, or otherwise just boring -- perhaps you should find another hobby. I hear that socializing is all the rage right now.