A wee bit of navel-gazing

Ah, the joy of playing the dozens in comments. Yo mama and all that. I'm going to go serious with it and run with it, though. Time for one of those little "why I blog" essays, opening with the obvious:

I blog for myself.

That's intended neither narcissistically nor solipsistically. What I write isn't right because I wrote it. It's right (or, on occasion, wrong) because that's what it is. Nor does the earth revolve around yours truly. If I stopped blogging tomorrow few would notice, fewer would care and the earth would continue in its courses.

I blog because I enjoy blogging.

If I didn't, I wouldn't (and when I don't ... I don't!).

That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the readers. I appreciate you when there are 100 of you on a given day (which is the more usual case), and I appreciate you when there are 2,000 on another day (which is occasionally the case).

I appreciate the comments (including the critical ones, and even the trolls -- apart from spam, I think they're all good). I appreciate the discussion and the debate. And yes, there are some days when I blog with one or more known readers in mind, or with the intent of provoking a specific reaction from a specific target.

But I still wouldn't do it if I didn't like it, and I'm still going to do it the way I like to do it ... whether you're here or not.

I'm all grown up.

I don't expect to wake up tomorrow morning and find out that Kn@ppster has suddenly ascended to Atrios- or Instapundit-like status. I'd like to get the numbers back up to at least the 10,000 readers per week range, but I'm not going to stroke out over it or anything. Kn@ppster is my soapbox. I stand on it. And I'm comfortable standing on it in the wilderness -- or in the middle of a crowd.

Selah.