The Joy of Blogging

There's always stuff to do when I sit down to write a blog post. There's cleaning, and laundry, and meals to prepare, there's software to write and books to read, and drawing to do, and even other more important stuff. I don't care. It's all about the blog.

So why the blog?

Strange as it seems, the blog is really important to me and I don't know why. I mean, I could certainly live without it, but I wouldn't. I could die tomorrow and the blog might still exist out there in the ether, at least for a while before Google (the hosting service I use) deleted all my posts to make room for other bloggers.

So does it matter? Most likely not. But blogging is like breathing for me. I can't survive without the outlet of the blog, whether or not anyone is reading. I'm hoping that some of the posts will help others but I can't be sure. It's just what I really like to do. Since 2005 I've blogged nearly 1000 posts that have been seen by 100,000 viewers, which, in today's numbers, is small potatoes.

Still, I blog on.

Oh, I've read the advice: 'find a niche to write about if you want lots of traffic to come to your site.' Yeah, maybe, but who said I want traffic? And, does it really matter? I just like writing and I hope that my readers like reading. Of course, there's always my friends. They'll read the blog. They are polite. They keep reading. I know that they have other stuff to do, like cleaning, and laundry, and meals to prepare, but they are loyal. They read every blog post, even the uninteresting ones if for no other reason that to cure their insomnia.

So I keep writing.

I wonder what the world would be like without the blogs? Wait a minute. I remember a time before the blogs. In fact, I remember a time before the Internet. I even remember, and don't laugh now, before there were personal computers. It's sad, really, I can say that. I was SO hoping that it wouldn't come to this. I remember talking to old folks when I was young. They'd tell me about the "times before TV and radio" and I thought: "Sheesh, this guy is older than dirt." But now, I am that guy.

The other day, while teaching a computer course in English here in China, I flipped open their book to discover a chapter on the history of the Internet. What surprised me was that, I didn't have to read it. I simply told them the history from memory. That was scary. But I did't say anything about this to them. Besides, they'd never believe there was ever a time without the Internet, or Twitter, or Facebook, or blogs.

So I keep spewing words into the ether.

It's for joy, not traffic.

It's like breathing.

…dave
I'm not random, I just have many thoughts. I felt you should know. -Anon