When I decided to join the rest of the world and start blogging, I went a bit crazy trying to decide where to blog. The only thing I was absolutely certain of was that I didn't want my blog to be associated with the word "diary." When I think of diary it conjures up an image of myself as a young girl writing her deepest secrets in a small pink book equipped with lock and key to keep out forbidden eyes of parents, relatives and friends. I preferred my blog to be a plain old blog.

Although I like the word "journal" it sounds too sophisticated. Writing in my journal would compel me to the point of obsession to make every entry a literary masterpiece. I decided I couldn't handle that level of stress. A regular old blog would allow me to be me. After making the primary decision, I came to the hard part. I spent days creating blogs all over the web. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with any of them. Not that there was anything wrong with the blog itself, I'm just difficult to please, I suppose. I just couldn't find a template I liked with some of the ones I tried. Although there is a feature with most that allows the blogger to customize the template, that's pretty much useless when you're html illiterate like me.

Some of the blogs wouldn't allow a photo to be uploaded and if they did, I certainly couldn't figure out the mechanics of it. I was very distraught when the FAQ's had an answer for every question but mine. What irritated me the most was when I finally decided to delete all the orphan blogs I had created, I found that a few of them didn't seem to offer me the option to do so and after hours of frustration I could find no possible way to destroy the monster I had created. The icing on the cake was when customer support didn't even reply to my desperate cry for help.

I finally decided to give up and go back to my original blog. There are still a few things that I'm not completely satisfied with like the fact that I can't put my photo on the front page of my blog. (You have to click on the link to my profile.)The only template style that I actually like comes in a color I detest - bright orange. I have actually managed to do a bit of customizing to make the blog a little more to my liking and that was not an easy task for me. I would be fairly content if only I could figure out how to remove the orange stripes from the side panels, that is even if they can be removed at all. But I guess I can learn to live with that. I can't blame unimaginative templates for my lack of skill. Orange stripes and all, I'm happily blogging away.

Darlene Zagata is a freelance writer and author of two books, "Aftertaste: A Collection of Poems" and "The Choosing." She is also a monthly columnist and editor for the print publication Moon Shadows Magazine. Visit Darlene's website at http://darlenezagata.tripod.com or contact Darlene at darzagata@yahoo.com

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