Friday, June 26, 2009

"At least start a blog, will you?" she said.


For years I've been dithering about, wondering if I should start a blog. I tried Livejournal years ago, but I discovered something, I'm not very good about talking about the everyday occurrences in my life. They don't even strike me as that interesting, and I assumed they would bore my friends practically unto death.

I let the Live Journal simply sit there. Seemed like most other people were talking about their lives, and I preferred talking about subjects as opposed to my life. Then came the Facebook requests as most of the people I knew flocked to social networking sites, those followed after the inquiries into whether or not I was on MySpace, and finally came Twitter. There's a character limit, so that was never going to work for me. Besides, I barely care what "I'm doing now" about ninety percent of the time, and I assume that my friends would find tales of vacuuming, or painting to be equally gripping.

As a for instance, what am I doing right now? I'm chilling some raspberry mousse to fill some vanilla cupcakes. After that I'll frost them with dark chocolate icing.

Tasty? Sure! Interesting? I'm going to go with; probably not. Unless you're an icing enthusiast.

But finally when I moved to a larger house, and disappeared off the face of the Earth, or into a paint can really, a longtime friend -- a person who has issued me invitations to all the up-to-the-moment ways to keep in touch -- tracked me down and asked me where I'd been, what I'd been up to.

I told her the truth, I'd been busy, among other things drowning a carbon monoxide detector after it started giving me electronic lip. Trying to paint over some vivid hues in my old house before turning it into a rental. Trying not to overreact to my eighteen-year-old son the above
tattooed onto his body. Yes, feel the teenaged, dramatic symbolism of the fire and ice, the ying, the yang, the balance. Then make a stiff drink, it helps.

When I got to the part about the tattoo, and how my son had told me about while I was driving 50 mph down Sante Fe, in heavy traffic, knowing full well I was quite against his getting a tattoo my friend interrupted and said, "At least start a blog, will you?"

I'd refused to Space, or Face, and I'm pretty adamantly anti-Tweet but I had to admit, I've been doing a bad job recently of keeping up with friends. I'm also constantly torturing my online friends by ranting about subjects as varied as politics, feminism, pet-training, possible alien abduction, movers with gang tatts, books, movies...

That list goes on endlessly. I have no idea if I will keep this up, or not. However, here you go: I have started a blog.

But I warn you, really, I have no idea what I'm going to put here.

6 comments:

PhilipH said...

Ever wondered how many bloggers there are nowadays? Millions, I guess. It's just something that people get into. And usually they enjoy blogging.

Like you, it took me some time to start one myself. Unlike you (so far) it is about myself. I see nothing wrong in a "me" type of blog. After all, it is what we (me) know intimately.

I do hope you continue your blog. I am the first of more than a few who will follow.

42. The answer to life, and everything. Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, if my memory serves me right.

Cheers,
Phil

Jo said...

"I'm chilling some raspberry mousse to fill some vanilla cupcakes. After that I'll frost them with dark chocolate icing." Well, that sounds pretty darn exciting to me. Wonderful, in fact.

Blogging will come naturally, just write what you feel like.

May I give you some advice? If you want to encourage commenters, change your option for comments from "embedded below post" to "full page", or even "pop up". You will be able to see peoples' pictures, and it is easier for people to post on "full page" or "pop up". You will find you will get more comments. Also, remove the "word verification". It discourages people, and with the "embedded below post" option, you will find yourself losing a lot of comments. It is not user friendly that way, and usually people end up with "Your request could not be processed. Please try again." At that point, often people give up.

I do apologize for the unsolicited advice... but as a long-time blogger, I have learned these things.

Cheers! And have fun blogging. I will be back to see how you're doing. :-)

Land of shimp said...

Oh my goodness, what a surprise! I haven't actually told any of my friends that I started a blog, so I was quite surprised to see comments! That's absolutely delightful.

Jo, thank you for the advice! It's absolutely appreciated, and I will see about changing those options.

Phil, I agree, I think some of the most fascinating blogs are written about the individual whose blog it is. I follow many of them, and find them a great boon to life, and wonderfully entertaining. My point was is that apparently, I lack the talent to make my life sound exciting, although I have a wonderfully happy life (and am grateful for it).

Take care, and thank you for the comments!

A human kind of human said...

Hi Shimp, I have noticed your comments on some of the blogs I am following and they were always so interesting, I thought I would find out more about you on your own blog. I think you are selling yourself and your life short. You make it sound very interesting and it sounds as if you are a very unique individual. I am looking forward to catching up on your blog from the back.

Anonymous said...

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This is the first time that I post on a forum so I hope this is the right section to post my presentation if I'm wrong I thank in advance a moderator move the topic.

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Anonymous said...

Hey there : )
Why do people (society in general) still pre-judge people with tattoos. girls especially?
I'm a 26 year old F, have 10 tattoos, lots of which can't be seen on my daily travels. 5 To 6 during the warm months are pretty much constantly on display. I don't aim for notice and i also have a loving boyfriend WITH NO TATTOOS .I get the impression that lots of people think that tattooed people are blind, once we get stared at, even when we return a glance many people continue staring. When will society change?