Though very few (if any) of my friends and family know it, I’ve been blogging for a long time, now. Well…a few years or so, at any rate. I stopped for a period of about eight-to-ten months in the past year, due to an overwhelming number of overwhelming personal circumstances that made doing so feel…uhm…very “nonessential.” It was, undoubtedly, far less important than the many other things I was doing at the time (urg…surviving…rebuilding…etc.). Even if I hadn’t felt that way, there wasn’t really a lot of time for it. That lapse, though, was always considered to be a passing thing for me;not writing was something I would eventually get over, move past…and once my life “re-stabilized,” I felt certain, the blogging would almost certainly begin anew. (That assumption was, obviously, 100% accurate).
Yes indeedy. I am a blogger. I have blogged for many a year.
There are two points I want to make in saying that, by the way.
The first is that I use the word “blogging” in a very generic sense. I was never a “blogger” in the sense of the real blogging that real bloggers do…you know…like the blogging “phenoms” (Daily KOS or Mashable or who\whatever). Those people that blog in a VERY public\social way and typically do it very, very WELL…many of whom even make a very real and very good living at blogging? Yeah…well…that ain’t the kind of blogging I’m talking about when I say I’ve been blogging for years. Nothing I’ve done was ever intended for public consumption…I never promoted my blogs, never sought to entertain or inform, never sought readers…never tried to be a part of any “group”…never sought to be recognized for my finely-honed writing skills, my insightful viewpoints, my eclectic eccentricities and/or my populist “flair.” Or whatever.
A blog was always, for me, just a workspace…a handy, easy-to-use, and readily accessible area where I could (and did…and do) write my personal and private thoughts down. A blog was just a place, in other words, where I kept a journal (diary, if you prefer).
[I have always kept a journal, y’all…since I was …hmmm…14 or 15, I think? A long time, anyway…at 47 years of age…very nearly 48…a very long time indeed. No surprise, then, to say that I am a strong believer in the many fundamental personal benefits … in the empirical and intrinsic creative\intellectual\emotional\psychological\etc. value … of journaling].
[I mean…duh].
A journal is, of course, a very different thing from what most people think of when they think of “blogs,” and to be perfectly honest, I myself never really even thought of it…of what I have been doing all these years…as “blogging.” Not really.
Which brings me to the second point…
I do read blogs, of course. I know, I think, the difference between a good blog and a bad one (make that, an “interesting” one and a “dull” one). I know what I’m looking for in a blog…entertainment, or information, mostly…so, I’m very well aware of the fact that what I’ve been doing with this blog…while entertaining for me, perhaps…is a bit too wordy and, let’s face it…a bit too personal ….to ever be of any real interest to other people (busy people, like ourselves). I mean…even if I was a good writer…and I most certainly am not that…this would still be a pretty bad (i.e. uninteresting) blog if all I ever did was write about ME…what I do, what I think, what I like, what I don’t like…why I like or don’t like something…Good lawd!
Blah, blah, blah, blah…who GIVES a shit, man.
I started to pick back up with the post before…and the idea just made me nuts. I know where I was headed with that story, but I’m not sure I really even want to go in that direction anymore. We all have enough crap to read in our day-to-day lives, online or otherwise…and my “peeps” would have to really, really like me and\or what I have to say to read through a 3000+ word story that is (ultimately) just my personal take on the events (and the positive\negative results) of what I have come to unofficially call “The Microsoft-Google War.”
But…come on. If I really felt the so-called “War” was of any real significance and/or genuine relevance to my life, personally, I’d write about it in my journal, right? And that’s where it would belong. If I thought it was important and/or urgent news, I’d mention it in Facebook and my other social sites (and with far more brevity than the story has had so far). And that would, also, be appropriate and proper. But…that story was/is none of those things, really. In the end, it was just a (admittedly fun-to-write, hopefully somewhat entertaining to read, but undeniably a long and winding) story about how and why I have ended up here, writing regular posts in a blog that, for the first time ever, I do not intend to keep secret, private or hidden away somewhere (so no one else can see).
Is that a good story? I don’t really know, but I can tell you this much…I personally think it’s a façade …it’s just me trying to protect myself in one of those weird psychological ways…providing myself ways to do this and appear nonchalant, because I doubt anyone really wants to read anything I have to say, even about technology-related stuff (i.e. insecurity).
Well…so, fine. Ok…but that was never what I intended this blog to be…and to be honest, I’m eager to get busy with the things I DID intend.
Though I think it may have been necessary for me to explain what I’m trying to do here (open a door so that I might interact in a more meaningful way with my non-techy friends…especially my older, previously “long-lost” friends…provide some good tech advice, tips, and information…because I can). In that light, a couple of background information posts might be an OK thing to do…but after I finish this post, I think I’m gonna call that work “done,” and move on to the stuff I really wanted to do when I made the decision to go ahead and start doing this.
I haven’t ever really done a thing like this before, of course…so, sure, on occasion, I’m probably gonna get all chatty. Resisting that impulse\habit, write concisely, informatively, and engagingly…just doing a decent job with a public blog, really…this is my REAL ulterior motive, anyway. Good at it or not…I love to write. I also really enjoy technology, and I like to tell people about it…about all the things I think are really clever, really useful and/or really cool. I need some outlet for that, I think…and honestly, I don’t really have one. Many of my friends and family are not techy people…My closest people would probably prefer I get that out of my system here rather than try and talk to them about techy stuff (I get enthusiastic sometimes, and will tell anyone handy about whatever it is I find so enthusing, whether they really understand any of it or not…lol). Many of my work colleagues, oddly enough, just aren’t all that INTO tech very much any more, and so I get little outlet, there, either.
So, here’s my outlet to train myself to be better at many thing, and at the same provide myself with an outlet for all the enthusiasm I have about these technological things that have now become integral parts of our lives. I really think it’s gonna be fun…
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