Revisiting the reasons I write a blog
Revisiting the reasons I write a blogsounds like it might be interesting. I can't think that I've really changed over the last twelveyears or so, but then I've never really thought about it. I don't think about many things I doI just kind of do themon autopilot. A blogging automaton that's a pretty scary thought.
Who Am I?My name is Jonathan, and I'm a software and web developer. That sounds like anintroduction at an addiction clinicandperhaps it is in a wayif 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 severalfish (some of which were won at the funfair a couple of years ago). The names of the two goldfish are Wonderwoman and Voldemort. The names of the newer fish are Batman and Harley Quinn. Go figure. I also ride a mountain bike everywhere rather than drive a car.
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 livesbefore 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 onlineTwitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and of course here atWordPress. 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.
I'm going to cheat at this point, and refer back to the WordPress 101 course I did last Januarywhich provided prompts for an introductory post. As an aside, the 101 course is totally worth doingI picked upa lot, even though I had been writing online for years.
Let's get on with it thenWhy 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 strikeseither 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 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 obligationthe internet provides a place free of such shackles, if only for a few minutes each day.
What topics do you write about?I generally write about daily lifethe 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, 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 storywho I might read, comment, and share my story with. The internet can seem immense, chaotic, and overwhelming at times, andit can also feel very isolating, and alone. If I can connect with just a few people similar to myselfsharing 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.