write.as/jonbeckett

I'm taking part in the Wordpress “Blogging 101” course this year. I saw it advertised on New Years Day, and thought it only really applied to those new to blogging, but then fell down the internet rabbit hole this evening, and read the following on the 101 page;
If you've already been blogging for a while, we still encourage you to do a version of this assignment: use it to revisit what you said when you first started blogging, to take stock of what you've accomplished and what more you'd like to do, or to lay out some goals for your next six months.
Revisiting the reasons I write a blogsounds like it might be interesting. I can't think that I've really changed over the last ten years or so, but then I've never really thought about it. I don't think about many things I do – I just kind of do them – on autopilot. A blogging automaton... that's a pretty scary thought.

Perhaps a good (and very lazy) starting point would be the provided questions as part of the 101 course – but before that I guess I should tell you a little about myself.
Who Am I?
My name is Jonathan, and I'm a software developer. That sounds like anintroduction at an addiction clinic – andperhaps it is in a way – if addictions to staring at linesof misbehaving code, and thumping the desk a lot are an addiction. I'm also a father to three adopted girls, a husband, staff for three cats, and feeder of two goldfish that we won at the funfair last year. The fishe's names are Wonderwoman and Voldemort. Go figure. I also ride a mountain bike everywhere rather than drive a car.

As mentioned earlier, I have been writing a blog foryears- I guess in Balrog terms, I am a “blogger of the old world” – from a time when people wrote about their daily lives – before niche bloggers polluted the web with marketing driven drivel. Yes, I have got a chip on my shoulder about that.

I can be found at all the usual places online – Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and here at Wordpress. This tends to be the only place I write anything of consequence, but I kind of explain that below, so I won't ramble on and on.

It's time to answer the”official”questions, probably, isn't it?
Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
I do keep a personal journal, but don't write as much in it as I do in it's online counterpart. I have carried a Moleskine notebook around for several years now, and write a page when the mood strikes – either that, or my frustration with life the universe and everything virtually demands it. I learned a long time ago to censor what I write about online, so the paper journal occasionally gets the rants, character assassinations, and “foaming invective” (as a co-worker once called one of my online rants)that I would never dare publish online any more.

I guess the public blog is an escape really. An escape from the mundane world I usually inhabit, and one of the few places where everything is about “me”. Much of the rest of my life is dictated by expectation and obligation – the internet provides a place to visit free of such shackles, if only for a few minutes each day.
What topics do you think you'll write about?
I generally write about daily life – the mundane stuff that is often ignored, or forgotten. It sometimes helps sort out acluttered and chaotic mind to empty my head into the keyboard. Finding time to do so is often a challenge, but it somehow works itself out. Now and again inspiration strikes, and I writephilosophical think-pieces about anything and everything, but those posts arefew and far between.

Over the next few months I would like to think I would write more honestly, and perhaps tell stories a little better than I have of late. I sometimes look back at the archives, and am surprised at how well I used to write. I have no doubt the main culprit behind the drop in quality is probably time, but it's something to aim for, I guess.
Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
Other people telling their story – who I might read, comment, and share my story with. The internet can seem immense, chaotic, and overwhelming at times, but it can also feel very isolating, and alone. If I can connect with just a few people similar to myself – sharing their story for no particular reason, I would be happy.
If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
I was going to write the obvious answer here – “I would hope to accomplish what I set out to do” – but that seems far too close to a recursive question and answer (which goes with the title of my blog, I suppose). In truth, my only real hope would be to make a few new friends around the world, and to share moments of our lives with each other through the posts we publish.