I’m having a pity party; wanna come?

I recently let my LiveJournal Paid account lapse and the only thing I lost that I regret is the ability to create a long, definitive blogroll. LJ has reduced my total connections to ten, so I’ve had to cull a lot. This has raised for me the issue of how I was choosing sites to put on my blogroll and–is anybody the least bit interested? No, I thought not.

So what are you interested in, you out there on the internet? There’s been a lot of discussion recently on the Blogher site about ways and means of attracting readers, in particular Jory Des Jardin’s blog on the A-list mentality. I want readers. I want a growing and appreciative audience. I know, I know — this is so totally shallow. I should be able to pour my soul as it were onto the screen without a thought of anything but self-expression. Except–I don’t work that way.

This is, for me, a dialogue and shouting into the wind is just another way of expelling air. If there’s nothing coming back, I might as well be farting.

On the other hand, I cringe at those ‘I hear you, sweetie’ comments that are meant to be supportive, but to me merely seem incredibly patronizing.

I think the issue is my isolation at the moment. What with moving and all, most of my relationships are on-line–and frankly, my dear, it’s just not enough. So I’m hungry for connections and so I spend too much time reading other people’s blogs, and responding to them, and writing about what I’m reading, and when there’s no one at the other end, substantively that is, well, my feelings get hurt…