I flip open my computer and touch the home row keys confident that words will flow. Writer’s block, my adversary, assaults me like a wave of desert heat. I glance at my abbreviated notes. Blog, blogosphere and bloke stare back at me. Blog, the first word, is my scribbled reminder that I must write today.
A blog, a late twentieth century writing tool, began as a personal journal and expanded to informative and business topics. A proliferation of blogs exploded into an internet community of writers. Blog and internet are both portmanteaus. This sixteenth-century word once used to describe a large suitcase that split into two parts now embodies the modern meaning of a “word derived from the blend of two words” according to Merriam-Webster online dictionary. This includes skort [skirt + shorts]; brunch [breakfast + lunch]; email [electronic + mail]; internet [international + network]; blog [web + log], and smog [smoke and fog].
As I read, inspiration replaces writer’s block and a flurry of words falls like fresh snowflakes.
The young woman in the red skort sipped coffee after brunch, checked her email on the internet and blogged. As her post whirled through the blogosphere, she winked at the bloke at the adjacent table who had followed her all morning. She dropped her computer into her travel bag and stepped outside and disappeared into the smog. She outfoxed her adversary.
And so did I.