I invented something. A game, I guess. And as far as I know, I invented it, at least in the way I know it, as I'm about to explain. If someone else has already done this, I apologize and I herewith relinquish all my claims to inventing this. I was unaware of your inventiveness.

For lack of a better name, because it's not quite the Kevin Bacon Game, I call it:

Six degrees of Diaryland. TA-DA!!

The rules as I developed them for myself: Start with a favorite diary, we'll call it Diary 1. Chose one of Diary 1's favorites, but it must be a diary you're not familiar with, ideally one you haven't heard of (i.e., don't chose the well-known ones like Uncle Bob or Weetabix or Cubiclegirl or Andrew, etc. Nothing against them, but this is an exercise in discovery.). Read some of Diary 1's favorites until you find one you'd consider good enough to recommend to someone, or one you'd come back to in the future, maybe even one you'd put on your own favorites list. Those parameters are up to you. For me, it can't have a Diaryland template; there must be no annoying, flagrant disregard for the rules of grammar; none of this refering to other people by one letter ("L came over and we called K who was hanging out with D..."); the person has to update frequently and, it goes without saying, must still maintain the diary (you'd be surprised how many "this is my last entry" pages I came across). And, it goes without saying, each diary must have a favorites list. No using diaryrings to find others because that takes some of the randomness out of it, knowing that they have at least that one thing in common. When you find one that fits the criteria, that's Diary 2. Go to Diary 2's favorites list and repeat the process.

There's really no point, other than to see where it takes you. It's a journey. Though I've never done this, I once wondered what it would be like to find myself in some parking lot, at the mall perhaps, with my errands done and nothing to do for the day. For an adventure, I imagined I'd pick a car that was leaving and follow it ? discretely so as not to freak out the driver ? to its next destination. If that wasn't far enough, I'd just pick up another car on the move and follow that one to its next destination, and so on. With unlimited time and funds, I imagine I'd make it to California that way. And that's how I'm treating this Diaryland journey: I'll keep reading people's favorites until it brings me back to the one I started, or until I run into one of my favorites on a favorites list, or until the day ends. Whichever I feel like making come first.

beuysgirl to brokenclock to smartypants to nudetwister to madamsarcasm to forallweknow to toothbrush to sorethroat to bologna36. It ends there because Bologna36 has no favorites and yet I liked it too much to delete it from the list.

I was going to do another, but Heather just updated and I'm IMing a friend and getting tired all at once. It's not happening. Maybe tomorrow at work.