11 February 2006

My Blog Phase 3: Answers in a Can, Please.

I've been blogging for over 6 months now and have submitted many wrongs to the harsh light of Truth. The shine, however, is coming off. I don't mean that I don't enjoy it anymore, because I do, despite the feeling that I'm starting to pick at old wounds.

What worries me more is having gone through the thought processes and arriving at conclusions, I have now made up my mind, I've decided my position on things. So when I go into grown-up conversations, my answers are canned. I'm merely regurgitating things I have arrived at in isolation.

What this does is make me feel like how I perceive politicians to act; always dispensing well-worn lines in response to pointed, direct questions. Take Prime Ministers Questions. An opposition cabinet member is granted to the chance to lob a interrogative hand grendade at the PM, who removes the pin and throws it back with "I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the answer I gave some moments ago". And that's just bollocks. While the PM can reasonably say that he is merely avoiding repeating himself (and neatly removing the possibility of contradicting himself), the process is adding no value.

Just like any new skill, blogging, while incomprehensible to those who do not blog, takes time to learn. I started out merely regurgitating a few sorta funny things I'd had taking up valuable trivia space in my brain. I then moved into documenting my thought processes on the news du jour. Which is the Phase to which I feel I am coming to the end1. Sure, there have been small diversions into adding pictures and linking into other blogs and other posts. But what I'm really after is the "killer app" for Phase 3 of my blogging career.

What I need is to go forth into the blogsphere, make friends and influence people. However, this means finding blogs that are covering the same sort of stuff as me. A couple of such people have found me (w00t to Ash and Golgotha_Tramp!) but I need to innovate and seek new advances.

If anyone wants to suggest good blogs or techniques for finding them, I'm all eyes. I'm perfectly happy to stand on the shoulders of blogiants.

1 Not splitting infinitives(?) does make for wierd english sometimes, well, most times. As Winston Churchill famously stated "This is the sort of english up with which I will not put".

3 comments:

  1. Happy to receive w00ts, or any other strange words.
    When I was starting my blog (the first time round) I wasn't sure at all what I wanted it to be or what I wanted to write, and I never really figured it out until my second go.

    Now I don't worry about what I write - if I want to post it, it gets posted. If I'm not happy with it, it doesn't.

    I'm not sure I can offer anything on blogs that cover the same sort of thing as you - your's is pretty much the only one read of its kind. For news of the day though, there are a more than a few political blogs around.
    might be the kind of thing you're looking for, although I don't read it myself.

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  2. one of a kind, eh? you're very kind. I'm not sure if that's good or not. I'd prefer to be unique and trend-setting, I guess...

    I'm not really that bothered. Like you, I really just write what comes into my head. I usually have a few draft posts lying around, most of which get canned.

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  3. Commenters and sidebar links are a great way to find other blogs (btw, thanks for the link). That's the great thing about blogging, it's very easy to find new interesting people/writing/material. The one way you definitely shouldn't try to find new blogs though is by clicking the "Next blog" button at the top, you'll only get crap.

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