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You can learn these things about Beth *Removed for Privacy* without meeting her:
- She's 23.
- She's a systems analyst at company name.
- She had a really weird dream on Jan. 7 that her friend Chrissie and Chrissie's new boyfriend, Raj, were trying to take over the world with a glittery green manual and a computer diskette.
- *Removed for Privacy* writes these tidbits for all to see on her Web log -- commonly called a "blog.''
She's a blogger. Blogs are all over the Internet. The Web site www.blogger.com has more than a million registered users.
Some bloggers write about their political views, some about the tour dates for their bands. *Removed for Privacy* writes about her day-to-day life. On Jan. 17, she dropped John's carpet cleaner off at Ryan's house. On Dec. 13, her parents had to put a family dog, Cherokee, to sleep (but didn't tell her for more than a week).
For the regular surfer, the accounts of boring workdays and weekends exploring old cemeteries are strangely addictive. For *Removed for Privacy*'s far-flung friends, the blog is a way to keep up. For *Removed for Privacy* herself, there's a freedom that she doesn't usually feel.
"I've always been a shy person," she said. "I don't express myself, especially with strangers."
The blog gets a lot of strangers because it's part of *Removed for Privacy*'s larger Web site, www.hoppytogether.com. She has about a dozen pet frogs, and the site is a way to talk about their care and show them off.
She has pictures of them dressed like Santa and witches on the appropriate holidays. Search for "frog care'' on Google, and *Removed for Privacy*'s site comes up among the results.
So people get to her site that way, then they can click on a link to her blog.
Five people she has never met read about her life regularly -- one each from the Philippines, Pennsylvania, New York, California and Dayton. A computer program lets *Removed for Privacy* keep track.
On Nov. 11, they learned she got her jury duty postponed for two months. (On Feb. 12, she was selected as an alternate juror for a trial and didn't get to vote on the verdict.)
Life is not always so humdrum. *Removed for Privacy* is pretty sure that she has a haunted tablecloth -- the candleholders on top keep moving around on their own. And while she was trying to write a blog entry about the tablecloth on Nov. 18, the computer mysteriously turned off. The frogs sure aren't doing that.
She grew up in Baltimore, about 25 miles southeast of Columbus in Fairfield County. After 18 months at Eastern Michigan University and a temporary spot at company name, the company offered her a full-time job in 1999. She's completing her degree at DeVry University and lives in the Short North.
*Removed for Privacy* has run the frog site for about 2 1/2 years. The blog will be a year old in May.
"When she first did it, I was very upset,'' said her mother, Karen *Removed for Privacy*. "That's a lot of information out there.''
But Mrs. *Removed for Privacy* has turned the blog into an advantage: She keeps tabs on her daughter by reading it every day. If she notices that one of the time-stamped entries is late, she'll call her the next day.
"Nosy is not the word I'd use," Mrs. *Removed for Privacy* said. "I'm an informed mom."
And that person in the Philippines is an informed stranger, which is fine, Beth *Removed for Privacy* said. She understands her readers.
"It's fun to have a peek into someone else's life."
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