Tag Archives: Writing

The Politics of Blogging

I really miss writing here. I’ve been blogging on this site in one incarnation or another since 2007 or so. For a while I thought I would become the next Heather Armstrong or Jenny Lawson and then, after a bad Google Adsense mix-up, gave up on that and decided to amuse myself. I’ve written movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts and more, all framed through the “me” lens that is the essence of a “me blog.” That’s what this is, really. It started out as my MySpace blog, for Pete’s sake. A blog that, incidentally, I deleted 70% of because I made the boneheaded mistake of blogging about work.

smh
smh

I think I’ve told that story before. It’s a cautionary tale for everyone who blogs – be careful what you say on the internet because it will exist FOREVER. You can never get away from it. And yeah, that’s true. So, because of all the stuff that’s been going on in my life in the last couple of years, I haven’t blogged. Partly because it felt fake to post movie reviews when I had a sick family member or a huge life change. Partly because I’ve WANTED to write about those things so badly that I haven’t been able to trust my own judgement about what to share and what not to share.

amazing photo by chrisbatu.com
amazing photo by chrisbatu.com

I read all this thought leadership on social media and blogging. Partly because it’s one of my jobs (well, one part of two of my five jobs) and partly because I am genuinely interested in it. How the world has changed since I was in middle school, even. High school, too. We didn’t have a computer in my house growing up. I didn’t have a computer in my home until 2002 or so, and it was a work computer. The fact that I rely so much on the internet now astounds me. The realization that I itch to write about my personal life on this website rather than in a journal where the pages can stay private and hidden both shocks me, shames me and pleases me just a little.

So, anyway. The other day I was sitting on the front porch of my cute, quirky, totally non-functional little apartment and I heard a dog barking from far away. The sound started getting closer and closer, and soon a bright blue car passed my house. A brown dog had his head out the window and was barking joyfully, rhythmically, every two seconds like a metronome. The car passed by with the dog still barking, and I laughed with pure pleasure at the ridiculous and hilarious things that happen every day, as long as we stand still long enough to experience them. So do I need to vent online about my family problems, my failed marriage, my fears and worries, or the fact that I got laid off the day before my birthday? No, I don’t. I can’t promise I won’t occasionally mention those things, but mostly I’m going to tell you about those beautiful bizarre moments as they happen.

Because life really is amazing.

Why Write?

This blog is sort of my baby.  It’s been around, in one form or another, since September of 2007.  So that’s three years.  That might not seem so long to you, but when I think about the things I’ve started and never finished, it seems like a really long time to me.

I have a one-third finished manuscript about war, the military, and my Dad that I’ll probably never finish.  Well, maybe I will.  I have this website – and the posts are seldom.  The more I learn about the internet, the more I learn that a “me” blog like this is pretty much never going to be picked up by anybody, never going to have a lot of traffic, and never going to make me any money.  So why keep at it?

Mainly, I didn’t start it to make money.  I started it because I had a corporate job that allowed very little creativity, I had nearly gotten fired for blogging on my MySpace blog, and I wanted a little corner of the Internet all to myself where I could work on my chosen craft and vent my frustrations, fears, mania, and other overly dramatic emotions.

So, mission accomplished, right?  I mean sure, I’m paying to host this site, so it would be nice if it made enough in ads or something to pay for that, but it doesn’t, and that is OK.  Ive got other things in the works that might take care of that for me.  And, they might not.  But at least, every day, I’m learning something.

And, at least, I have a place where I can say whatever I want and post ridiculous, poorly-drawn depictions of the AlligatorFishPig..

alligator fish pig rough draftIf you are one of the two people who reads this blog on a regular basis, and you totally miss my acerbic wit that is mixed ever so gently with my raw, emotional sensitivity (ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaa!) you can read stuff I write other places:

Weird Diseases
Strange Houses
Stupid Laws
Bizarre Bytes
Wedding Stuff
Marketing
Best Websites
How to Videos
Richmond Virginia
Books

And two dear, awesome friends of mine and me are working hard on The Cool Consumer, a product and services review site.

I’m also working on a thesis, a volume of short stories, and a huge independent website project on J.D. Salinger.  But I’m still going to take time to post stuff here, because this is MY place.  And I can talk about AlligatorFishPig all I want to.

And nobody else will let me talk about Shatner…

shatner

So, in answer to the question, “why write?”  Because I can.

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