I've been working on moving my archives over from my old blog and man, I have to say, I've spent a lot of time in the past 6 months blogging. I wonder how long I'll last. Every now and then I run across a dedicated blogger who has been in it for 2 or 3 years and I have to wonder how they do it. I don't intend to quit any time in the forseeable future, but I can certainly understand why people have to quit after a while. It's hard to be interesting for that long. I guess it's because blogs are, by their nature, somewhat superficial.
I guess part of my problem is that I don't really like to argue or to be controversial (it's the "middle child" instinct). A lot of bloggers seem to keep things going by getting people all stirred up about one thing or another. There are plenty of things I have strong opinions on, but I don't see the internet as being the proper outlet for some issues. I don't necessarily have a problem with other bloggers who do this. In fact, when done wisely, I think it can be helpful to discuss pressing issues in a blog setting.
Other people keep their blogs going by their uncanny ability to find interesting sights and articles to link to. While I appreciate this and find many of the links interesting, I just don't have it in me to look for cool links.
Every now and then, I'll write what I call a "Dear Diary" post: something that I'm sensitive about or makes me sad or is somewhat personal. I like doing that from time to time, but frankly, I find that writing about sensitive issues leads quickly to complaining, and I don't want to be yet another "complaining blog."
I realize a lot of the stuff I post is insignificant (in the grand scheme of things), but I'm having fun. As it's been said, real life is unbloggable. While that's pretty much true, it's still interesting to see what everyone else has on their minds. While I don't always have something new everyday, I really enjoy keeping up with old friends and seeing what other people in other circles have going on. I'm in for the long haul. I hope the rest of you are too.
Since when does the *middle child* avoid controversy? I was either too young to do whatever the older sibling was doing, or to old to do what the younger sibling was doing. Being the middle child made me somewhat resilient. I've never yet met a middle child that didn't have a bit of a *fight* in 'em. How did you avoid it?
Posted by: lucyzoe at August 25, 2003 04:32 PMOh, I can fight if I need to (and sometimes if I'm just being stubborn), but overall, I'm more of a why-can't-we-all-just-get-along sort of person.
Posted by: Christin at August 25, 2003 04:49 PMOkay, now that you've said it, you can't go Garver on us.
Posted by: SonofThunder at August 25, 2003 05:12 PMI started simply posting articles on my personal site as a way of keeping track of what was going on. One day I realized that for all intents and purposes it was a blog.
Blog for yourself, blog as a way to keep track of what went on in your life. I sometimes link things I think are interesting, but you really hit the issue when you said It's hard to be interesting for that long. You don't have to be interesting... necessarily, you just have to be you. Your friends who care will read and sometimes strangers like myself will stumble across it and who knows what we may take away. I know I've grown personally just from being able to read what other people think about issues.
Posted by: mkrueger at August 26, 2003 11:49 AM