This time last year, if you were to ask me if I wanted to be a blogger, I would have said you were damn crazy. Sure, there are some blogs I read and frequent almost everyday, but me doing it? Being responsible for keeping it running? Writing for it? No fucking way. I'm much too old and have other projects I want to get do.

Whatever. CityBeat's Living Out Loud ­ Cincinnati Blog is at your service.

John Fox, the co publisher and editor at CityBeat approached me about this in the spring of last year. The Porkopolis and Arts & Music blogs were just getting underway, and he thought the Living Out Loud column might make a good everyday blog. I was hesitant and pretended not to hear him.

I don't know why -- maybe I was drunk or something -- but on a Sunday afternoon in August, I started playing around with it, learned how to format the thing, and that night I put up the first post, which got absolutely no attention from anybody.

We kept at it. In the days ahead, a few comments started to come in. Then more than a few. Then several. Eventually we started adding pictures or art to the posts. Then I found out how to download YouTube clips. The stats went higher. Then LOL Girl wrote her first post -- and the rest is history.

No, that's not really true. We've had some other help along the way. Richard Hines, who publishes two popular Web sites, the local CincyNation and his national HinesSight, took a liking to us almost right away and added us to his blogroll. Sometimes he'll feature one of our posts on his site. This has helped the stats to go up and stay up. Thanks, Richard. Now I can't take the damn thing down!

I get asked a lot of questions about the blog, such as am I the LOL Girl? Give me a break. No, I'm not. She's a real person with a different name, of course. So are Mike Hunt, Paul, Troy, Nate and Brandy. These are real people I've asked to develop characters that please or disgust you -- whichever side of the fence you're on.

LOL Girl is sexual. Paul wants sex on demand and doesn't want his wife to shave her armpits. Mike Hunt likes drugs and farm animals, and Troy has a penis the side of a toothpick and has sexual misadventures. You get the idea. We have little, silly soap operas going on.

Another thing we're trying is reporting. My favorite new character is Judy Darling, our new LOL Blog reporter. Again, that's not her real name, but the person writing it knows her satire very well.

Marilyn, C.A. MacConnell, Brian Ciesko and Teri Archer all use their real names and don't hide behind characters. Karen @ The Hood is also real. I thank them all for the help. If I were trying to do this alone, I'd probably be drinking more than I already do.

Another question I get asked is whether we put up posts simply to shock people. Yes, we do. When people turn on their computers and go to our blog, I don't want them to have any idea as to what they will see. It might be a touching post by Karen @ The Hood, LOL Girl being bound to a bed, Marilyn talking about male packages or Mike Hunt screwing a sheep. You're going to see stuff there that you won't find on a Cin Weekly blog.

I view the LOL Blog like throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing if it sticks. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. If a post falls flat, it's all right. Another will be up soon that maybe will generate more interest or, yes, more shock.

Will I continue? For now. It does take me away from that novel I'm writing, from cover story ideas and from short stories I want to write, and it keeps me looking at a computer screen far too long. Every one of those comments you see has to be reviewed before they go up. Do you know how many LOL Girl comments I've had to delete over the past five months?

Again, whatever. It's all right. This Living Out Loud stuff has sort of become a franchise. First we started with the column, now we have a blog. We'll probably start selling coffee mugs next week.

One more thing: There's no truth to the rumor that when I hang it up, Jean will become the new LOL Blog editor. If you don't know who she is, then you haven't been visiting us.