It seems that fewer and fewer real men blog Xanga anymore.

Perhaps, like many members of today's elite military forces who are increasingly leaving official duty to become soldiers of fortune for private military forces (PMFs - more than 60 firms are now providing more than 20,000 private soldiers to fight in Iraq, some making up to $1,000 a day), real men bloggers have, are, will move on to more momentous forms of personal expression than Xanga can afford.

That's the Xanga-was-a-training-school-for-real-men theory of blog devolution. Emphasis on was.

Xanga's always been demographically preponderantly female anyway. Two-thirds. Oh well, just a feeling and a theory!

I quit smoking when I was 7 years old. First cigarette. True.

I quit drinking coffee 9 days ago. Haven't had any caffeine substitutes like teas or colas either. My colleagues from work have observed over that span that I've become much more quiet and unagitated in the workplace. They don't like it - they'd rather watch a wild man in their midst. But a real man is not necessarily a wild man, is he now?

I've been feeling the urge for the last couple days to take up the art of knife fighting. This after seeing the movie The Hunted for the first time the other night. Such appeals to instinct usually enthrall me.

Just wondering: When walking alone down an urban downtown street, do any of you ever punch trees, slap buildings, knock on windows, or shake stop signs?

I do. But not all the time.