Blogging for a Reason: A Personal Manifesto for Purposeful Writing

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before on one of my half attempts to start conversation on this blog. I hate blogs. Hate them. The notion of the online personal journal, the online regurgitation of what already exists and the self congratulatory egotistical ramblings that make up most blog posts are all ruining the internet. Have you ever done a Google search to discover that the majority of the results are simply blog posts consisting of a two line summary and a link to a Wikipedia article or a Youtube clip? What's the point?

Now before you accuse me of gross hypocritical behavior hear me out. I am aware that I have, in the past, practiced the very behavior that I am currently condoning. Trust me, I do cringe whenever I look back at those earlier posts. I acknowledge my errors and ask for forgiveness. Let's move on. A(nother) fresh start.

The most important factor, I believe, in causing me to create my two blogs is my urge to place my inner monologue in a venue where it can serve a purpose.

Allow me to (try to) explain.

I, like you, spend the vast bulk of my day thinking. I think and I think and I...ponder. These thoughts swim around in my head, bouncing off the walls of my skull, echoing around my cranial chamber to the point of driving me to the point of insanity. Well, maybe not insanity. I'm still fairly sane by anyone's standards. It's just that if I don't put these thoughts to use they either cancel each other out or swim around to the point of exhaustion. Most human beings deal with this by exercising certain social behavior. Basically they talk to their friends and get whatever they have on their minds out. I, for whatever reason, tend to not voice my opinion publicly. By and large I tend to keep my mouth shut.

This is why I blog. My Progressive Rock blog (the one in collaboration with Mr. C0ops) serves as an outlet to share my enthusiasm for the genre. With Prog Rock being as unpopular as it is, the internet is often the only way to connect with like-minded people.

Then why this blog? This blog, and I'm almost ashamed to admit this, lacks direction. It lacks focus. It lacks a reason for being. This bugs the heck out of me. I never wanted this thing to be a journal about what I ate for dinner. I never wanted this to become a vacuum of crappy Youtube embedded videos.

I want to make my mark. I want to add an authentic voice to the general white noise of the interwebs. I want to take those swimming thoughts, work them into cohesive and organized paragraphs and share them with the world. I want to contribute in a worthwhile way.

This here then is my promise to you. I will not click on the 'New Post' button unless I have a reason to do so. At the same time I will not hold back an important thought, opinion or idea that happens to find its why into the stream that is my inner monologue. I will post more often, but I will not post for the sake of pinging your RSS reader. I will not point you to a link without taking the time to spell out why I think it is important. I will not embed a video without adding my personal observations and opinions.

I do plan to place advertising here. This isn't simply for the sake of making easy money. I could easily do this by spamming the internet with self-linking lies and propogate this blog post with the same crud I complained about earlier. That would make me the easy money but earn me zero respect points and ultimately lead to more self-loathing. I am simply using the ads as a means to help pay for the proper hosting I intend to use. If I do end up making a profit, and I don't count on it, I will hope you think I earned it. I will try to earn your respect and loyal readership by working hard and trying to make you think. There are plenty of people who are earning a decent wage simply cluttering the web with mind numbing crap. I hope you end up considering my blog to be a worthwhile use of your time.

Well, here goes nothing. Here starts the beggining of what I hope is a longstanding relationship between my brain and yours. I hope we can use this blog and its comment section as a place to exchange inteligent thought. I hope you'll subscribe to my RSS feed and bookmark the site. I hope that I'm not just wasting everyones time. I'm going to do my best to not waste a second.

A Quest for Fufillment Better Left Unwritten or: How to stop procrastinating and love the blog

I've had this blog for a while. It's a blog that has gone through many different incarnations.

It started out as a sort of diary. The idea that my inner most thoughts should be placed on such a visible and easily accessible platform as the internet eventually struck me as a foolish notion, and in retrospect I might even regret ever writing those early posts. I moved on...

I then used it as a medium for sharing the various silly and random things found in my daily shuffle across cyberspace. This proved of little value since I never really added anything to what I was finding. It became a wasteland of links and embedded Youtube videos. This trash did eventually cease. Thankfully.

So what? Why all the nostalgia of blogposts past?

I have so much to say. So many thoughts, so many opinions. I leave this here blog alone, rotting away as I ignore it. It may be criminal to hold my ideas hostage any longer. I should start blogging again!

Well, this is easier said then done.

If you were to look back over the archives, an activity I don't necessarily recommend, you will find that most of the long-form posts are similar to this one. They explain what I plan to do with the site. I tend to be very good at this. I lay out my plan to post twice a week about various issues relating to music, technology, politics... you name it. I never fail to...well... fail. I fail to bring myself around to actually following through with my plans. I stop posting for months at a time, only to post yet another post about how I plan to start posting again.

It's a vicious cycle, no end in sight.

Enough is enough I say. I'm going to lay out the steps needed to turn me from a never-blogger to a blogsalot.

1. Stop Using Blogger! While the free hosting of Google's blogging platform has served me well over the past few years, enough is enough! If I'm going to start taking this thing seriously I have to put some money into it. I have to pay for real hosting and start a new wordpress blog.

2. Don't Fear Critics! If I'm really going to start writing meaningful essays I have to inject some editorial opinion. What value is a blog that simply recycles material available elsewhere? The world wide web is already littered with these kind of faux-blogs and I should not add to the clutter. I need to be aware that if I do state my opinions there will be plenty who disagree. Some will use hurtful language to express this disagreement. That's fine. Bring it on. I can take it. I hope.

3. Start Using Ads! If I'm going to be taking time from my already busy schedule to put effort into writing, I might as well attempt to earn some cash from it. Inittially enough to pay for the monthly hosting fees, and then, maybe a little profit. I don't really expect to earn money for this, but trying is the first step towards failure. God knows I love failing.

There you have it. My fool proof plan to turn myself into a part time unpaid writter. I don't quite know my motivations for doing this other than I have so much in my head that it's starting to get crowded in there. I enjoy writting. Seriously I do! I loath writting lengthy papers at school on subjects I care little about, but I love to compose prose when the subject tickles my facination.

I should partly thank productivity guru Merlin Mann for this post. It inspired me enough to write the post you are currently reading. If it inspires me enough in the long term to the point where I am actually making money doing this, then I owe him a beer.