SaysBrad Blogging Update

I've been thinking about this blog, its content and structure, what I want to do with it, what I write and how often. It's time-consuming — especially the reviews and commentary. Recent events have encouraged me to write about more serious matters; it's important, but not always "fun."

I've been blogging about whatever I find interesting for about a dozen years — the problem is that I like a lot of random things and don't always know what to share and when to do it. Do I blog for me? For you? For whom? I'm not really sure... perhaps all of the above.

When I started this blog, I decided that I wanted a change of pace, something different from the ego-centric LiveJournal days and the myriad of now-defunct blogs and disorganization. In part on the advice of a few blogger/Internet friends, I stopped splitting up my blogging across various sites and dumped all of my ideas into one site... but in doing so, I've lost something and have edited away a lot of potentially great content.

I used to have a personal site about my chronic pain and disability troubles, but it felt like a chore and stopped being fulfilling. Frankly, I'm not sure many people cared to read about it — it's fairly depressing. I thought about migrating that content. I still use tumblr, and although I decided to get rid of the custom domain, I still like the service in general. Tumblr is clean, organized and simple; its usability makes it ideal for sharing links, images and videos. I've also explored Pinterest a bit.

Primarily, I've been using Twitter and Facebook for updates and links, partially due to ease-of-use — iOS' notifications drop-down tab menu has buttons for updating to either service, but because my Facebook posts are sent to Twitter, it's two birds, one shot. Additionally, Safari on iPhone/iPad has Facebook/Twitter sharing built-in; if I read or see something clever, cute, thought-provoking, disturbing or otherwise important, I can quickly send it to Facebook and Twitter feeds. I don't really consider it publishing, but I try to add diligent comments to the updates. (In particular, I like the way fb displays links)

I've been considering using Tumblr instead of Facebook (for links and quick updates). Perhaps I'll just post here — but that means restructuring and redesigning the blog and layout. Currently, Says Brad is set up for several long-form posts per month, not dozens of blurbs per day. If I leave the layout as-is and update hourly, stuff will get lost in the fray.

I still want to post app reviews, artwork, current event commentary and want to write about global issues, politics and government, America, crime and corruption; important, serious matters that seem incongruent with a blog primarily focused on iPad apps and tech toys. How should I reconcile these interests? Should I abandon one for another?

Posting to Facebook is quick and carefree — a process driven by free-form expression and quantity — it reflects the oft-ridiculous plethora of information on the Internet, and I feel less compelled to proofread and edit those posts. Writing for this blog is often laborious and intensive — but also more rewarding. How do I bridge this dichotomy; cherry-pick and consolidate these different, functionally independent updates into one thing, one site, a single blog roll?

With a miserable abundance of tragedies unfolding worldwide, these dilemmas seem insignificant and laughable... but it is, amidst more mundane and serious matters, what I've been thinking about while dealing with debilitating pain and physical disability. Blogging, this welcome distraction, is motivating and uplifting.

Except when it's more stressful — like now — when I end up worrying about it. Perhaps I'll just post more, post messy, and see what happens. Thoughts?

Posted with Blogsy

Why blog at all?

I feel like I finally understand blogging; this is major, because although it seems straightforward simple, it's actually intricate and evolving. Journalism has been a mainstay of the civilized world for how long? Then somebody, maybe Al Gore, invented weblogs, and news media shows a new chink in its armor. Within a few years, it's adapt or perish; as publishing empires crumble, news organizations scramble to join the blog room blitz. Blog room blitz!

And the man in the back said everyone... kidding.

What I've come to realize (finally) is that everyone blogs differently, and the rules of the game are loose-fitting and malleable. "What's the point of a personal blog, my personal blog?" I seriously asked myself that, and concluded that "what's the point of" could be asked of just about everything we do, and there isn't always a great answer. Sometimes, even "what's the point of breathing," is convoluted.

I know that reading Andrew Keen's poignant but somewhat unimpressive and lackluster book The Cult of the Amateur had had an influence on me akin to that of the movie Super Size Me. I gave up blogging, just as the film had caused me to give up junk food. Why? Because, at that time, it seemed disgusting.

I was wondering what changed... what brought me back?

Anyone else noticing the strange weather? Recently, well... perhaps as far back as across the past few years, it seems like the weather's gone topsy-turvy on us. Like now; it's summer, yet most mornings — when the sun starts to break over the horizon and blinding light should pour through my useless blinds covering the south-facing windows, when instead, I'm greeted by the soft luminescence of lovely overcast skies — I feel a sensation that makes me think aloud, "Today will be a great day, finally," because it seems like it'll be dark all day.

Abruptly, at some point, the clouds lift — or fizzle, or dissolve or whatever — the sun lay its fireball beat-down, and I'm struck by the nasty, blinding realization of my wishful thinking. "It won't be that great; the damned sun is going to kill me."

Fortunately, that heated feeling fades as the sun sets — clouds begin to again blanket the sky — and for a moment, I could forget what season it's supposed to be. Overall, it feels like we're having cold summers and warm winters; that's wrong, on this side of the equator... right?

Perhaps this has had an influence; instilling in me new passions and desires, ambitions and motivations. Maybe it's all this worry over the economy; inflation, higher taxes, the weakening dollar: the state of our Union (and its credit rating), or the rest of the world — 2012 and the supposed possibility of a civilization-melting coronal mass ejection (that sounds kind of dirty). Maybe it's because of the IBC Cream Soda that I drank last week; I savored one for the first time in years, and oh-my-oh-my, it was fantastic!

I love the cold summer, but I also want my cold winter. What's the point of having cake if you can't eat it, too? There it is again, "what's the point of!" And blogging?!

I want to write, not blog, I'd think, until it reverberates for long enough that I stir, get annoyed and stop for awhile. "What the blog?!" comes next, in an introverted, furious firestorm of synaptic proportions.

"What the blog?!?" Am I insane? Short answer... dunno. Long answer? You're reading it, right now. Each entry, I've been answering that puzzlement.

I'm just doing... writing, blogging, sometimes ranting (because I'm either too old or too young for more tact, I can't remember). Now it doesn't matter much why, because byproduct of this process is profound — a collection of writing that I'm actually starting to like.

I'm starting to really like my own writing. I'm enjoying this, this... non-work work. I needed to write that. I'm staring at this text; "I did this... just now. Just because," and it feels amazing.

Blogging doesn't need to be about news, flaming, or whatever was for dinner. Blogging doesn't need to contain perfectly-proper writing. My blogging consists of written American English, occasional gibberish, images or artwork, and now? It's experimentation, growth, everything and nothing in particular, in no particular order, except maybe chronological, pedagogical, illogical, unnatural, and preferential... to state a few.

Change; the inevitable. In us, all around us.

My no-longer-superfluous blogging is starting to become exactly as it should be — should've been; my bradtastical journal and a shared, unspoken conversation. To mix things up. Like weather.