Why Have a Weblog?
This weblog - what’s the big idea? There isn’t one. For someone who toyed for the last two years about whether or not to have a weblog, I sure seem to have a lot to say. I finally decided to have a weblog for the following reasons:
Information
People ask what I have been up to and I always say the same thing, normally something very generic about work or the kids at school. I don’t go into minute detail, because it seems too trivial when someone asked how you are doing generally. They want a summary, and that’s not how life works for the most part. Life is made up of the details, some of which are recorded here as a point of reference. How am I doing? I am doing fine. That’s that and this is this.
Motivation
I am going back to writing my book, and the weblog is an exercise in how to get back into the discipline of writing. Sure, I could tell myself I will write, but I’d only give up. I’d promised to stop smoking for years, but it’s only when I told everyone I was really giving up that I kicked it. I’ve no problem letting myself down, but I have an aversion to looking like I’m full of shit and that’s a great motivator. More about the book later. I started loads of diaries when I was younger and gave up after a few weeks. I could dig out a decade worth of childhood thoughts from January to mid February. This time I have started in October to kick-start the diary process. This method, combined with the Gobshite Avoidance Technique, should produce the 5.9 gig watts of motivation needed to sustain a weblog the course of a year. Time will tell.
Entertainment
I’ve found myself reading a few weblogs over the last few weeks. Some were dull, some were interesting, some were downright hilarious. I started shifting my perspective from “what’s the point” to, “I could do that”. Once I get a links section done, I’ll share these out.
Ego and the E-go
I tend to talk about myself an awful lot. I’ve have been very lucky in my life (and also very unlucky, but who hasn’t) and it seems that anytime someone is telling a story about something extraordinary, I can relate that to an experience of mine. Trouble is, I almost always have to share that experience. Double trouble, I can sometimes top it and steal the thunder, and that’s not cool. Wife says it’s one of my biggest faults and it’s true. Friends think it’s an interesting strength and it might be. But it makes it look like I’m not listening so I guess the wife is right again (which is also her strength and weakness) So maybe if I write about myself in a weblog, I can shut the hell up and listen in real life. (Which I do by the way, I just move the conversation on a bit and talk about myself). It doesn’t really work to listen in a weblog.
So anyway, what about you? How have you been? Hmmm… really?!? No kidding. A spatula? Wow. Mine was a ladle. Big thing it was, with a wooden handle. Of course these were American ladles which are much bigger than the ones you’ve seen….