The Irony of The Blog

I had a topic picked out for today, but it will have to wait. This is my first blogging experience, which is likely painfully obvious to anyone who happens to fall accidentally onto my page. In the course of exploring the pre-fab magic of my host, I clicked on the heading “MONETIZE.” Well, how cool is this!?! I thought. If I let the host, who really owns the space anyway, add some advertizing on space they already own, and someone selects it, I get some cash. Excellent concept in line with my belief in the free market economy. SOLD! So I signed up for it.

There is one catch. You must agree not to click on the advertising links yourself. What a wise proviso, lest a host of bloggers spend their days clicking on their own links to pay themselves. The concept of the self-licking ice cream cone is not lost on me. I do work in a bureaucratic job in a business that has a higher headquarters. Their logo is an ice cream cone trying to lick itself – OK, it SHOULD be that logo.... Back to the blog – I of course agreed to that wise rule.

Not sure what I was thinking, but it wasn’t quite what I ended up with. Was I perhaps expecting some sites related to products so useful that I mentioned them in my blog? Yes I was. Why not plaster a 2-day old blog with Target and Merck ads? Seemed rational to me, but I am on a 4-drug cocktail that makes me very happy and there could be some flaws in my logic.

Upon return to the site, there were ads relating to my first post with all manner of remedies and clinics for Shingles. I am in week 2 of what will probably be a 4-week recovery from the dread disease. In my desperate searches for understanding, help or relief from this condition, I did not encounter any of these sites. The urge to open some of them has been overwhelming. However, I am a woman of principle, so I have not broken my agreement with my mysterious host. But I am marveling at the irony of it all.