About A Blog

I have thought about writing a blog for quite some time now, and finally, in conjunction with the purchase of a new laptop which makes normal computing tasks slightly more bearable, I started. 

There are two things that hindered me from starting a blog that I thought would be topical to write about.  The first, duh, is the overall topic and theme, that’s an easy one and I’m sure what everyone that wants to start a blog pines about.

But one thing I struggled with around blogging, aside from accepting that I might eventually be associated with that community and how many hipster-plus credits that would give me (note-I’m trying to avoid hipster credits) is the multiple, and seemingly overlapping portals of social media expression that now exist, and how my blog would be carved in that social “mediasphere”.

The second hurdle that really confused me was how do I make my blog a unique space that people will want to regularly visit, since blogging essentially is a back to basics version of all the functionality offered by Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and Tumblr.  It’s why I picked the intro clip to this post from He’s Just Not That Into You - there are so many forms and forums of communication through different portals, how does you decide what’s the most effective?

In one of my previous jobs, my boss required me to write my annual performance self evaluation in the third person point of view, so it could, theoretically,  read like an objective narrative piece should it ever be picked up by a completely uninformed person to read…that’s some awkward word smithing.

What’s the point of spending all this extra time designing HTML layout and copy editing all my writing to express myself when I can so graciously take advantage of the platform that Mr. Mark Zuckerberg and Mr’s. or Ms’. Whoever-else-created-the-rest-of –those-platforms-that-haven’t-had-Justin-Timeberlake-movies-made-about-them-yet created for me to write my thoughts or post my pictures? How do I avoid the tendency to have my Facebook page just be a mirror of what’s on my blog or vice versa especially when everyone is “on” everything now and every app allows you to simultaneously Facebook and Tweet your Instagrams in one fell swoop? (Is there a verb for posting to Vine yet? Is it “vining”?)  And most importantly, how do I combat the awkwardness of writing about myself?

The other thing that I was confused about is how to make my blog, this dedicated space on the Internet for my messaging somewhere that everyone would want to easily access throughout the day when we’re surfing the web.  I’m not an Internet junkie.  I am addicted to my iPhone and being able to access specific information updates at all times, mainly my Gmail and my Facebook feed.  But, I’ve never been one to comb the internet for hours watching endless YouTube videos, reading periodicals, or doing my own research on investing, fitness, product reviews, etc.  I want my blog to have a point and possibly a purpose, and maybe even to be a site that people visit on their own accord and not after I put up a link to a new post.  I don’t really have any concentrated hobbies, but I have come back from numerous travels, told my tales and been responded with, “You really need to start a blog, because you really can’t make this shit up”.  I mean, to be fair, sometimes it’s probably just as likely for me a have a “you can’t make this shit up” encounter on the way to work or to the grocery store, but that’s just how things happen. 

Maybe I’ll even venture in to video blogging – aka – vlogging.  After reading my first post about the drunk priests, a few of my friends told me one of the funnier parts of the story (not sure what’s funnier than a drunk priest) was that they could hear and see me telling this story out loud.  That’s kind of frightening – have you ever heard yourself on the phone or leaving a voicemail to someone? It’s horrendous and makes me want to throw my phone out the window.  But I guess it just goes to show that any given day it’s a church hall bingo ball cage of options for putting something out there on the interwebs.