is blogging without followers like a tree falling in an empty forrest?

you know that age old question: "if a tree falls and there's no one around to hear it, does it really make a sound?" let me pose another question here: if i blog, but i have no followers, am i really blogging? would that actually make it journaling?

what's the point of blogging? is it:

a) to share daily events with friends and family far away?
b) to journal my life for myself?
c) to create a "cyber network" for myself of people who will begin to log on every day just to see what i'm doing even though i don't know them in person?
d) different for everyone?

jumping on the blogging band wagon

several months ago, my friend/employer/idol, didi, and i exchanged a few early morning emails. quickly realizing that we're both morning people, we began sending brief snippets several mornings/week. one morning, for reasons now seemingly unmemorable, we listed all the things that we accomplished before we actually got out the door to our respective day jobs. not particularly remarkable for any reason other than sheer length, the topic led didi to admit that she was thinking about starting a blog. and on august 12th, 2009, didi gave birth to her third baby (or fourth, if you consider mouse, the cat), http://whatididthismorning.blogspot.com. part journal, part marvel at her morning productivity, the blog is a daily escape where i can read what another successful, yet neurotic new yorker, does with her free time. and the idea got me thinking...

i've never been someone with a ton of leisure time. in grade school, i went right from class to ASR (after school recreation for those of you not in the know). and then in middle and high school, the last bell would ring and i'd rush to a sports practice or game. after that, i'd run home, scarf down some dinner, do some homework and head off to bed, trying to spend a few minutes with my family in between. college was more of the same, yet instead of going to sports practice after class, instead i'd run home, do some studying, grab some food and then go to softball practice until midnight only to drag myself home, sleep a bit, and do it all again the next day. now that i'm a gainfully employeed "adult," with a job that seems to require more hours than i want to give it, i have even less free time. i'm not entirely certain why that's the case given that homework has been removed from the middle school/high school/college equation, but the simple fact is, my free hours are few and far between.

didi's blog concept lead me to question not only what i do with the four hours between waking and working, but what i do with ALL my free time. i don't exercise excessively (anymore), i don't go to sports practices or games, and i don't attempt to solve world peace or global warming. when i'm not hunched behind my desk in my 7x9 cell, i waste time. perhaps by keeping a daily record of these free hours, one day, i might be able to fix the health care situation, clean up NYC streets AND clean the little box between leaving work at 7pm and going to sleep at 9pm. or maybe not. the jury is still out.

what do you do with your free time?