One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced over my year and some change of blogging is defining and respecting lines. How much is too much? Is this relevant to anyone besides me? Would I want my parents to read this (especially since I know they are reading)? Simple questions like that are constantly swirling around. There have been plenty of moments over the past year that would have made a great story on this blog. I’m sure someone would have enjoyed reading it. But there is a level of propriety that I have to manage with this public space. Even if this is my blog, it’s not just about me.

Of course every blogger/writer/podcaster (wrilogcaster?) deals with disclosure in their own way. There are lines drawn, often not in sand but wet cement. They exist for a reason, and they should be respected by both the person typing and the people reading.

In the case of this blog, I’ve mentioned other people before but it’s with a great deal of caution. I spoke with Stephen before I included a picture of him and his wife Laura from their wedding. I think there’s only a small handful of pictures of any member of my family here or on my flickr page. I try not to assume that they would be okay with their picture on here, so if needed, I’ll ask for consent. When it comes to hanging out with other people, aside from ‘we hung out’ and a few bullet points I don’t really feel comfortable going into specific details. Sure, they might not mind, but I do. Maybe that’s my own self-censoring coming into play, but I think it’s for the better.

Disclosure is a funny thing, but when it comes to other people, I’d rather say too little than too much. On the flip side, if I Planters wants to hook me up because I simply love their Dry Roasted Peanuts…trust that I will be upfront about that. In this slice of Internet, my word is my bond. If I lie to you then I’m also lying to myself. I don’t want that, and that’s not how you deserve to be treated.

Of course aside from general personal shenanigans, there’s that whole Diabetes thing to mention. Considering the number of searches that come to my blog looking for something related to hypoglycemia, I feel like I owe it to those random Googlers to present myself in the most positive light I can. Even if they come here for a moment, realize they wont find the information they are looking for here and move on, I still want to make a good impression. Who knows, maybe they might come here looking for one thing, but find something else that ultimately helps them in whatever their goal was in that moment.

As far as the Medical Blogger’s Code of Ethics goes (see right), I don’t think it makes me any more or less prestigious than I was the day before I added that html to my sidebar. To me, it means that my words, especially the ones relating to my Diabetes, are sincere. I have never claimed to be a doctor, and those of you that have been around here for a while know that I am not the best patient either. All I can do is tell this story from my perspective, with my experiences. Maybe you can relate to them, maybe you can’t. Maybe they will help you, maybe they will convince you that something entirely different is required for whatever your situation is. Regardless of the beginning or the end, my contribution to the cause is genuine, and truthful. It might not work for any other person reading these posts, but at the very least you can know that from the first letter of each post to the final punctuation mark (assuming I remember it), my words are as truthful as can be

I’m not really sure if there was a point to this post. But it’s something that I toss around in my head plenty of times. There have been a number of moments where I think ‘this would make a great blog post’ or ‘if only twitter could know about this’. But I know it’s not appropriate, and ultimately it’s for the better. So yea, a bunch of rambling…blame my aggravated case of the sniffles. I hope this will pass before cupcakes…and the dodgeball?

Oh, to prove my point about the hypoglycemia searches, here are the search terms used to get to my blog from just yesterday:

• hypoglycemia good thing
• hypoglycemia and deja vu
• hypoglycemia
• hypoglycemia+free+book
• hypoglycemia curse good thing
• satiate hypoglycemia