BLOG 5 - What This Blog Isn't About

What the hell is a blog anyway? According to Wikipedia,

“A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs.”

According to me, blogs are usually self indulgent nonsense. My blog, Facts-Lies-Fiction, claims to be nothing more than that. Up until recently I did not make it a practice to read blogs. But now that I have one of my own I’m trying to be more tolerant and can say that I’ve actually have found blogs that have been enjoyable to read. Like most people in the cyber universe when I did find a blog that I liked, I usually read it, moved on and never to returned to it again. As a writer of blogs now, I’ve discovered that this is the worst sin somebody can do to a writer of a blog; after all people want others to read their blogs. So I’ve since started bookmarking or “following” the blogs that I enjoy. I’ve even started to add comments. All in an attempt create good blogging karma that will eventually find its way back to me. So far I’m still waiting.

All this blogging has caused me to think about the history of the blog – if there is such a thing. When did the blog actually start and where did the name come from? For the first time in my short history as a “blogger” I did a little research and this is what I’ve found.

The origin of the blog is a bit murky at best, but I did learn that they evolved from online diaries in 1994; an online diary is just a more basic blog. The credit for the first real blog goes to Justin Hall, who was a student at Swarthmore College. I hope someday somebody builds Justin a virtual stature somewhere.

The term blog comes from the term web log, which somebody took and got cute with and created the term we blog (moving the b in web and placing it in front of log, creating the term we blog), which then leaves us with just blog.

In short, I found it hard to research a history of something still in its infancy.

Some interesting blog information that I did manage to find:

Web Log = We Blog = Blog

Since 2003 blogs have increased from a few thousand to over 57 million.

Over 175,000 blogs are created daily.

You can be fired for what you write in your blog. There is no legal protection for “bloggers”.

So why the hell am I writing a blog anyway? When I started writing FLF it was a class assignment that I embarked on reluctantly. I did not consider myself a “blogger” and had no interest in starting an online diary that contained all my juicy secrets in it. One, I don’t really have any juicy secrets – as much as I would like to and two, the only thing worse than having juicy secrets is sharing them with people that really have no business knowing them. After all, it’s good to have healthy boundaries. In other words, you don’t need to know my inner most personal thoughts. So piss off!

So I guess I started writing FLF because I had to…but I enjoy writing so decided to continue. Plus I found having a medium to share my writings, even if nobody is really reading them, motivated me to write more. The more I write the better I’ll get – or at least that’s what They say.

So, what was I going to write about? Before I wrote my first blog I thought a lot about this and realized I’m really not an expert on anything. I am amazed at how little I know! I actually should do a hell of a lot more reading then writing, I might learn something that way. Not being an expert on anything was a bit of a disappointment at first, but after I thought about it for while I became comfortable with it and now I prefer it. Experts always have to stop what they are doing to tell somebody else that what they are doing is wrong – that’s sort of their job. Here is an example:

“I’m not sure how to wrestle this alligator?”

“You should hire an expert to teach you. After all you don’t want to do it wrong.”

“That’s true. I could get hurt. Maybe I’ll just have the expert do it.”

“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll get the phone book so you can look up the number.”

“Why thank you for being so very helpful.”

Conversations like this happen all the time all over the world. Just change the words wrestle and alligator with almost anything else.

So, I would rather continue with what I want to do, the way I want to do it – even if it’s really really wrong. That way nobody ever ruins my Sunday afternoon by asking me to come over and show them how to do something or worse ask me to do it for them. Some might call that laziness – I call it being brilliant.

So, if we all agree that I know pretty much nothing, what was I going to write about? Was I just going to pull stuff out of my ass and pretend to know more than I do? Nah, that would be kind of lame. Instead, I just sort of decided to let the blog take shape all on its own (after all not too many people are reading this thing anyway). Sort of a learn as you go approach. I’m sure some things will work much better than others. First instance, this is my first blog that is actually supposed to be somewhat informational. I actually opened a text book for this one!

The only real rule I have for myself in regards to FLF is that I write something once a week – it could be almost anything. Of course there are a few exceptions:

I will not discuss my relationships or lack of one.

I will not discuss politics. I do have my views but I hate when people try to tell me why mine are wrong and theirs are right. I basically feel those that don’t see the world as I see it just can’t be saved. I know that sounds pretty harsh but it’s easier than trying to put all the misguided back on track. Who has time for that? Plus I find that people don’t generally read stuff that goes against their views, so why bother preaching to the choir. In short, you won’t find any agenda being pushed down your throat here. Even if it would hold all the answers the known universe – face it, you’re just not ready.

In other world there are two types of people in the world, those that watch Fox News and then everybody else. For the record those that watch Fox News are among the ones that, in my opinion, can’t be saved.

I also promise that I won’t write poems. Not that I have anything against poems (if they are short) but I’m just not good at them. So, I’ll let other people do that.

I won’t give you advice on anything at all, share recipes, divulge family secrets, share home improvement tips, tell you to exercise, eat right, attempt to make you cry, discuss God, Buddha or any other all powerful being unless it’s out of a fantasy or science fiction movie/comic book/cartoon/novel. Have no fear; I will not attempt to share anything that might be considered helpful to you in anyway.

I will selfishly write about nonsense, things I like, and create fictional stories that may or may not be any good.

The real question is – is there anybody reading this?

I know of one person that has read this blog more than once. I know others that claim they have read it and my guess is that they read it once, moved on, and have forgotten about it. I do send out an occasional email to friends to remind them about the blog but fear I may just be annoying them. The truth is it’s no fun to write if nobody is reading. However, I plan to continue anyway because I want to motivate myself to write on a regular basis and this blog gives me a deadline, granted it’s a made up deadline created by myself, but it gives me the motivation needed to sit down in front of the computer and write something almost daily (or nightly in my case).

So if you do read this, leave a comment even if it’s just says – I read this. You just have to click on the pencil at the bottom of the blog. Or become a follower, you just hit the button to the right labeled “follower” and I think you’ll get an email when I post something or maybe they email the blog to you. I’m not really sure how it works but I promise it’s relatively harmless. Otherwise, you’re most likely not going to return and then who knows, you might miss something and that would be a shame.

And I promise that if this blog every becomes about anything, anything at all I will quit. That’s my promise to you.

So tell your friends that you’ve found a really non-informative blog that stands without principles, direction, or purpose. I’m sure people will want to flock to it. Just remember to hit the follow button to the right, so you won’t forget to come back.