BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Conversation >

I'm blogging this

  
  

Page: (1)2

 
 
bitchiekittie
13:03 / 29.11.03
inspired by this tee:


I think it's fair to say that most of the barbelith crew have blogs. what do you write about on yours? is it all about your life and what's on your mind and absolutely any and everything else, or do you use it exclusively to as a review space, to talk about politics, current events, movies, music, or for some other purpose? is it a social environment where you discuss/debate/BS with others, or is it your comments only, just for you? do a lot of people read your blog? if so, what do you think the appeal is for them? and if absolutely no one read it/commented, would you still do it?

how do you feel about discussing your personal details? the basic facts, like your real name, where you live, how old you are? what about REALLY personal things, like your breakup, your medical condition, your admittedly bizarro passion for paperclips? and finally, how do you feel about talking about other people in your blog?

and do you ever, even once, think "this is going in my blog" (I have, more than once, and it disturbs me)?

if you don't have a blog, feel free to discuss your favorite blogs, why you hate blogs, what you think of blogs in general.
 
 
Char Aina
15:04 / 29.11.03
i dont have one, but i do contribute on my friend mike's. its more of a spot for us to chat unmolested by the evil people who would otherwise throw large spanners in the conversational mechanism, but i do go heavy on the linkage and the trying to be funny.

obviously i flail on the humour side more than i soar, but most of the links come from great places like this board. you know they are good; y'all found them.


i fnd the culture of blogs a little odd, to be honest, what with the proliferation of pointless and vapid content and the self importance of many of the authors.
i'm happy to read well written column style stuff, and i love spots like linkmachinego, mememachinego and diepunyhumans that provide me with wierdness and linkage to more wierdness. oh, and special mention to fort drastic, which although not really a blog, fulfils both those criteria most days.

i'm a little bored of the blogs that seem to be an excuse for girls to take pictures of themselves from above, heavy on the eyeliner and light on the originality.
that may just be my emotions getting the better of me, i would probably love a saucer-eyed goth girl poseur of my very own if i had a blog.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
15:48 / 29.11.03
Somebody suggested I start one, so I started one. I'd never been a big fan of blogs and, if I'm honest, I'm still not. They generally seem to be intensely boring and self-obsessed - "Met Tarquin last night; went out for a few drinks. He says that Stephanie's split up with Edward and is now chasing after Julian. OMG."

The main reason it's there is so that I can get some writing practice in - my day to day life doesn't demand that I get down to any (written) creative expression, so I need somewhere to do it to stop myself from forgetting how to. It's also a place where I can talk about stuff that my IRL peers don't have much interest in (the latest X album, for example). There's probably a group of around four or five people who read it, mainly because they read most Barbeblogs, so if it wasn't useful to me I think I'd chuck it in. It's not like I update it with any regularity as it is.

All that said, I'm insanely jealous of those who manage to pull it off properly. I look around and see people like Flux and moriarty writing blogs that have a distinct theme and I think, I'd love to be able to do that. Thing is, they do it so I don't have to. Then I look at blogs by pin, Flowers, BiP, Flyboy, etc., and think, I'd love to be able to do the political/current affairs thing. Again, they've got it covered more effectively than I could manage. Then I see, say, Jack Fear's and think, I'd love to be able to do the personal thing. I'm not comfortable with doing this myself - it's not something that I actually *can* do and it's a pretty dull life here, anyway. Any attempt to eke out some blog posts from it will just look like the aforementioned self-obsession.

The only blogs I make a point of reading are those of people I know through this place.

What about you, kittie?
 
 
bitchiekittie
18:37 / 29.11.03
I can really appreciate blogs that aspire to something other than locker room banter, showing off todays batch of grainy webcam shots, or dull play by plays of various daily activities. but then you get really pretentious blogs where every reader/contributor is a friend, or, if it's a themed blog, everyone's interested in the same damn thing, and it's this homogenized textglob of nothing more than a big ol run-on back patting session.

to me, that's what's so appealing about livejournal and similar blogging sites - you get a damned sweet mix. sure, it's no substitute for "real life", but when you're stuck at home or in a really dull office, it's a great social tool with a lot of possibilities. the communities, the filter options, and just the broad range of users is a big draw

I enjoy reading the blog of anyone who's likely to make me laugh. of course it's a great bonus if they also make me think, inform, link to great stuff, that sort of thing. but the key for me is the humor of the place - but that's true of any site I visit.

my blog is fairly dull (endlessly reoccurring themes of sex, work, home, and lack of money) with the occasional manic bout of hilarity thrown in for good measure. these funny bits would fall pretty flat and would be of no use to me if it weren't for my lj friends, who are often good for elevating a merely silly post into something much richer (thanks in part to several barbelith posters, thanks). I post about most of my personal life. the VERY personal stuff, I either share with only good friends who happen to read, or I keep under the "private" filter, that only I can see. I'm not a particularly private person; however, I find that I use that private filter more and more often

as far as other people, I talk about absolutely everyone in my life. I don't always use names (for example, when talking about coworkers), and I always feel a little funny talking about my daughter at any length. I've examined the whys of that last bit and I still can't explain it

so, while I maintain a journal for ME, the social aspects play a very pivotal role in my desire for upkeep. if I didn't have anyone reading or commenting, I'd most likely just keep my paper journal.
 
 
moriarty
19:16 / 29.11.03
Hey. Thanks, Randy.

When the blogs which were actually on Barbelith were taken down, Jack Fear said something along the lines of setting up blogs which were very topic-specific. I thought that was a great idea, and since I wasn't going to wait around until Barbelith started them up again, I started my own. At the time, there were maybe 1 or 2 blogs devoted to comics (like the grandpa of them all, Neilalien) and maybe a dozen that touched on the subject irregularly. Now there are dozens, including Journalista, quite possibly the best comic resource on the internet.

I set myself the task of making at least one entry a week. My reasons for starting a blog were similar to Randy's in that I wanted to improve my writing ability after years of avoidance. I also wanted to be as new reader-friendly as I could. I did this by tackling topics which I had absolutely no knowledge of and researching the hell out of them, trying to put my own joy of discovery into my posts. There is no one who benefited more from my blog then me. I learned more about the history and personalities in comics in that year then in all the previous years combined. My blog was very rarely personal, and only ever devoted to comics (though I did sneak in a Mother's Day tribute, to all the ones that never threw their kids' comics away).

I started my blog at the worst possible time. I had just started school, and though I made it through, I knew that I couldn't blog another year at the quality I wanted to achieve if I was going to graduate. So, I retired. A few of my peers in class thought it was a shame that I was quitting, so they started up another blog (with a slightly larger emphasis on animation, the course we're taking) and asked me to join in. I still look at comic sites for fun, so now I send them a batch of links every few days and contribute the occasional rant.

In answer to a few of BK's questions, my original blog had no comments, only because I knew I would get depressed if I didn't receive any. I also liked the idea of keeping the blog as far away from the idea of a message board as possible, since I was getting burnt out on that form of communication. The new one, and my personal blog, both have comments. I had a fairly regular group of people read my blog. When I retired, I joked that most of my audience was comprised of other comic bloggers looking to snatch some fresh links, which isn't really far from the truth. It's hard to say what appealed to anyone reading my blog, but I'd have to guess it was because I was mainly dealing with the footnotes of comic history, obscure subjects that no one else would touch, and that I treated all comics (comic books, comic strips, editorial cartoons, webcomics, etc.) with the same regard. If no one had read it, I still would have completed my year.

I included all my basic personal information at one time or another, including my address. I never revealed any VERY personal information, because I ran a tight ship and it wasn't relevant. And the only friends or family who were mentioned in my blog were those who had blogs or projects themselves and who I wanted to help promote.

I've never been able to figure out blog culture in general, and I'm hoping some people who are more into that world will speak up. Are the subtle differences between Livejournal/Blogger/Movable Type really divisive? Is their some kind of hierarchy? Everytime I think of the content of some blogs, it reminds me of 'zines, and I wonder, is 'zine culture is dying out because of the popularity of blogs?
 
 
bio k9
21:03 / 29.11.03
Moriarty, your blog whipped a cartoon horses ass. I miss it.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
21:43 / 29.11.03
First off - Moriarty, please bring your blog someday. I really loved it, and obviously there's a lot of folks who really miss it. You were really good at it, and your style and tastes were just offbeat and unpredictable enough to make it a very rewarding reading experience. You were very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and you made me want to seek out what you were excited about. As far as arts-based writing goes, I think that's one of the best things I can a writer can achieve. All of the arts blogs which I love the most do this, and you were/are a total master.

what do you write about on yours?

I primarily write about music, radio, and other types of audio. I used to write more about films and comics, but I've settled into a nice cozy format/house style based around posting mp3s.

is it all about your life and what's on your mind and absolutely any and everything else, or do you use it exclusively to as a review space, to talk about politics, current events, movies, music, or for some other purpose?

I keep my blog as impersonal as I possibly can. I can count on one hand the times when I've written about personal matters over the past several years. One of the only personal things I wrote about was my college graduation ceremony, but that was mainly so that I could goof on James Lipton, who was one of the speakers that day. I never write about politics on my blog, just the arts.

is it a social environment where you discuss/debate/BS with others, or is it your comments only, just for you?

I have a comments section so that people can give me feedback about whether or not they liked what I posted, or so that they can offer additional information. I've learned some really interesting things from my readers, so I'm lucky to have the comments box.

do a lot of people read your blog?

As far as music blogs go, I have one of the most successful, at least in terms of the general ILM/Freaky Trigger/FMBB/Barbelith/Village Voice/Pitchfork/indie/experimental/electronic music blogosphere that I am aware of. I generally get around 500-600 readers on any given weekday, and my audience seems to continue to grow at a healthy pace via word of mouth. I'm pretty happy with the audience that I have.

if absolutely no one read it/commented, would you still do it?

I don't know. I do my blog with an audience in mind, so without one, I'm not sure. Probably not, I guess.

how do you feel about discussing your personal details? the basic facts, like your real name, where you live, how old you are?

Everything on my blog is credited to my full name. I don't mention exactly where I live, but it is probably clear to the readers that I live in the NYC area. I make comments here and there which date me, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned exactly how old I am at any point. It's vague enough so that recently another blogger thought that I was in fact 63 years old because I had the slogan "63 Years Cool And Still Doing It!" on the top banner.

what about REALLY personal things, like your breakup, your medical condition, your admittedly bizarro passion for paperclips?

I don't talk about anything besides the arts.

and finally, how do you feel about talking about other people in your blog?

I never talk about people that I actually know. I only talk about artists.

and do you ever, even once, think "this is going in my blog" (I have, more than once, and it disturbs me)?

Well, given the format of my blog, I need to find new music to post, and so yeah, I have to always be thinking about what I'm going to post next. I seek out a lot of music in hopes of posting it, and sometimes I'll find something accidentally that I know I must share asap.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
22:00 / 29.11.03
I just checked out Fluxblog's web stats. 115,000 views in just over a year? Roughly 300-500 a day?

When does a blog stop being a blog and become... something else?
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
22:15 / 29.11.03
Well, my stats are pretty small potatoes compared to NYPLM, Gawker, and (I'm pretty sure about this) Tom Coates' Plasticbag. There are lots of blogs which have much bigger audiences - I'm a big fish in a small pond, basically.
 
 
Olulabelle
22:58 / 29.11.03
What about blogging when your audience is very small? What do you' bigger' bloggers think about that? And, for example, would you look down on people who just LJ to a small audience?

I read all sorts of blogs, from people here like Mordant, and Tryphena and Tom (bigger) to Maytricks and Bitchiekittie (smaller) and also external blogs that aren't perhaps even blogs anymore like macnightowl.

N.B I have only linked to Barbelith blogs that are on the Barbeblogs site because the rest may or may not be for 'total' public consumption.

I wonder sometimes what the more recognised bloggers think of the less 'successful' (and I use that term lightly) 'diarists' type blogs. Personally, I like them. I don't get information out of them like I do with the link blogs (which I guess was the original purpose of blogging) but I do enjoy the semi-personal connection you get with reading someone's diaryesque thoughts. I think that for most personal bloggers there must be a kind of interesting danger in writing down personal things for anyone to view online, but I do tend to think that they are also probably deliberately writing for a specific audience.
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
23:14 / 29.11.03
What about blogging when your audience is very small? What do you' bigger' bloggers think about that? And, for example, would you look down on people who just LJ to a small audience?

Well, I keep an LJ which I use mainly to interact with other people who have LJs. I think of LJ as being more of a community thing than a bloggin thing - LJs are built around the social aspects of blogging, and most of the LJs that I find (and I surf around LJ a lot, actually) are generally geared towards communicating with their friends lists. LJs are much more intimate, and the audience is a bit more clear-cut, and can be defined by the person writing them rather easily - there's a lot of friends-only journals out there. Blogging is more anonymous, and more less personal, generally - I think there is a difference between blogging and keeping an online journal. There's some crossover, but generally I don't conflate the two.

I like reading about people's lives. I do generally prefer them to the blogs which are nothing but links to other things - that kind of thing bores me. I like commentary, not a bunch of links, especially since links get repeated elsewhere so many times.
 
 
bitchiekittie
03:13 / 30.11.03
moriarty - I think it's fantastic that you stuck to your goal. I decided about a year ago to do a site serving as a tribute to baltimore, with photographs, reviews, that sort of thing. your blog was excellent - which, keep in mind, is coming from a non-comic reader

do you really think blogs have an impact on zines? I've only recently discovered the Joy Of Zines, so I don't have any frame of reference to go by. I can't imagine that blogs would diminish the tangible pleasure of paper goods, but I do believe I'm a bit biased in that regard.

matthew, I'm curious, and I don't know that this is any way on topic, but how do you go about researching new music? I haven't seen your blog lately, and I wonder, do you post about the research process as well? do people seem to be interested in finding and following the same investigative paths that you utilize?

and I agree, lj is great for people who are into the socialization aspects. I started mine because I had so many of my online friends doing it, and it became a great way to kill time and increase my interaction time with people I already knew I liked. I've also met some really amazing people there, successfully grown my network of online (and, in a few cases, day to day) friends.

I don't think lj is necessarily comparable to other, more significant (in terms of large-scale interest) blogs. but it's still the same basic principle of gathering your thoughts into your own online space to share with others.
 
 
Mazarine
03:38 / 30.11.03
What's on mine varies. Some days, I'll post twenty different personality quiz results. On very rare occasions, I'll do a little sociopolitical rant. Some times I'll pour my heart out, if I need to. Most of the time, I just post little bits of fluff while I'm procrastinating, little breakers between paragraphs of my papers. If I could write papers as fast as I can blog, I'd have three stupid MAs by now.

I don't actually know if anyone reads it. I think June comes by once in a while, as does Mixmage. My brother in Spain reads it occasionally. I think my mom might drop by. But I tend to treat it more like any other journal and not censor myself very much, except I don't talk about my sex life. I used to have a thing that told me how people found the blog, like search engine phrases, etc. Orange soda pulled up a lot of hits, and I discovered I'm not the only one searching for the elusive "I -heart- Dorks" shirt.

So yeah, personal, shallow, and I have no following that I'm aware of. Pretty much just what I want it to be.
 
 
genkav
04:39 / 30.11.03
my blog is a ramble of sorts, but then again that's in my mind. i always find i never can articulate what i really hope to convey in a post - of course that's what a lot of bloggers out there feel. as in audiences, let alone traffic itself the site is growing. i'd have to say word of mouth and just plain people passing it around is what's getting it up there. atleast i know that someone out there is reading - hopefully it's not my mother.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
12:15 / 30.11.03
I use my blog for: venting, brainstorming, begging, whining, mocking the stupid, housing links I want to keep handy, alerting people to other stuff I'm doing on the net.

I also have an Lj which I use to house random bits and bobs of writing that I quite like but that I don't really have a hope in hell of actually selling.
 
 
bigsunnydavros
18:31 / 30.11.03
I've been updating my blog for just over a year now, and it's been great fun. I also feel like I've gotten a lot better at lots of stuff like actually expressing myself in words (there's still a truckload of room for improvement here though, but I’ve definitely gotten better), which was, of course, part of the point of the whole enterprise.

I mainly write about pop culture stuff. Comics probably get the most space, but I also write about movies and music quite a lot too. I’d write about prose and drama more often, but as an English student I normally feel like I’ve written/said quite enough about these topics on any given day, so I probably come across as being much less interested in this sort of stuff than I actually am.

My blog is, however, largely a place for me to clear my headspace, so sometimes I write random little things about my life there as well, and this is a mix I’m still not entirely comfortable with. I’ll come back to this in a minute.

One of the most fascinating things about all of this has been getting involved with blog culture. It's been very gratifying to have posts linked to or discussed by lots of other bloggers, but I also feel slightly uncomfortable with the fact that most of my readers come there purely for comics related writing. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but I dunno... I love comics, and am totally fascinated with the medium, but sometimes (a lot of the time, really) I want to ramble on about music and films or whatever, or write stupid little posts about how my dog peed all over the floor that morning, and I always end up feeling like this isn't gonna go down well with most of the folk who visit my blog. This is weird because I certainly don’t mind when other folk do it, but hey… whoever said my concerns had to be rational?

My main issue is with the personal stuff I post there from time to time – I feel weird about wasting people’s time with this stuff, and am also slightly uncomfortable with letting complete strangers know anything about me (even though almost all of the complete strangers who’ve ever contacted me through my blog have been very nice and friendly*). I dunno... I certainly don’t get too specific about my private life (and I don't ever intend to), but I’m still unsure about whether or not the mix I have on my blog works.

[Hideously self-involved question]
To those of you who read/have read my blog – is the mix of personal/pop culture stuff on my blog weird, or am I just being a nut here? I think I’m just being a nut here…
[/Hideously self-involved question]

I’m not sure how clear it is where I live/what age I am etc. These sort of things pop up every now and then, but not too frequently, and I’m not that bothered about people knowing my name, or where I live etc, so long as they don’t know, like, my address and phone number – there’s a line I wouldn’t be comfortable crossing, but I don't think I've came near to crossing it yet.

Erm… what else was there?

Ah yes - I have a comments section, but it’s not terribly active. I’m not bothered by this, but its true. It works well on other blogs though – Matthew’s is always very lively, for example.

Anyways, enough about my blog:

I’m genuinely very enamoured with a lot of the blogging that goes on out there – Matthew’s blog is a consistently wonderful resource of music and information, Flyboy is always very funny and interesting, Eppy (who does the Clap Clap blog) puts most other music writers to shame when he's on form, Moriarty’s Flat Earth blog was always a fascinating trip into areas of the comic book world that I was completely unfamiliar with, Journalista! is (as has been noted) a stonking comic book resource, I love reading David Fiore’s blog (I’m sometimes not sure where he’s coming from, but that’s part of the charm as far as I’m concerned), etc…

At its best I think that blogging of this sort is pretty fucking amazing – interesting people writing well about interesting stuff; what’s not to love? Well, I suppose it might get a bit insular at points, but I don't think that this often goes on to the point of impenetrability, though I could be wrong here...

I’ve got nothing against people who use blogging as a more personal thing, by the way. It’s fair enough as far as I’m concerned, but it’s not so much my thing, though the social element of Live Journal fascinates me slightly... like a messageboard/journal hybrid or something.

*Amusingly, I got a couple of angry e-mails once after I was critical of some of Warren Ellis’ comic book work. Welcome to the world of the new fanboy, where saying that Warren Ellis might not be that good is akin to opining that Thor could beat Superman in a fight with one hand tied behind his back and a whippet stuck down his throat.
 
 
Squirmelia
08:08 / 01.12.03
>What do you write about on yours?

Short stories, descriptions of people on the bus (real and imaginary), places I've been to, stuff that I've scanned, that sort of thing. Unlike a lot of LiveJournals, I try to avoid quizzes. I really need to write in it more though.

>is it a social environment where you discuss/debate/BS with others, or is it your comments only, just for you?

I do not really use it to discuss things with others very often, but people occasionally comment.

>do a lot of people read your blog?

I am unsure, but I doubt that many people read it. There are 95 people who have "friended" me, but that does not mean that they all read it, and does not limit it to them reading it either.

>if so, what do you think the appeal is for them?

Some of them have said they like my short story type things and descriptions of stuff.

> and if absolutely no one read it/commented, would you still do it?

Probably, although thinking that people might read it helps me to focus more and not just write whiney depressive rubbish.

>how do you feel about discussing your personal details? the basic facts, like your real name, where you live, how old you are?

I do not mind people knowing the basic facts, since it is quite easy to find such things in other places, due to the existence of electoral polls and the like, which give away all those details anyway.

> what about REALLY personal things, like your breakup, your medical condition, your admittedly bizarro passion for paperclips?

If I had a assion for paperclips, I would write about that. Very much doubt I would write about my breakup, medical condition, and such.

> and finally, how do you feel about talking about other people in your blog?

I don't like to do it, apart from maybe mention that I met up with them. Nothing more than that though.

>and do you ever, even once, think "this is going in my blog" (I have, more than once, and it disturbs me)?

Of course!
 
 
grant
11:58 / 01.12.03
I have a livejournal (as grantb) that's almost all cut and paste -- mostly emails sent by me or to me, and the occasional quoted Barbelith post. I like not writing for it, only editing what goes in from elsewhere... and making it seem personal but kind of creepy, like what's going into an Echelon file on me right now. You're all spies.

I also have a more blog-like blog, flyingfists.org that my friend Merlin set up for me. I try to post at least once a month, and always about something larger than day-to-day life that I find interesting. A Langston Hughes mini-bio, research on the medieval Catholic same-sex marriage rite, the history of Mayday and the Haymarket riots. The one that gets the most comments is a vamp up of a huge set of posts I made on here about Bird-Eating Spiders. Every now and again I'll put something up about my own life, but only rarely.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
18:17 / 01.12.03
I don't get information out of them like I do with the link blogs (which I guess was the original purpose of blogging) but I do enjoy the semi-personal connection you get with reading someone's diaryesque thoughts

Hmm, my first experience of blogging was with diaryland. It was very early on, I was in the first 500 users and the community aspect was very tight. It was also totally journal orientated and people really did use their pages like they would private journals. I'm not sure if blogging grew out of it or emerged separately or predated it... I kept my diaryland for about a year and then took a significant step away from the Internet. It was getting very sharp and bitchy at that time. Six months later the whole place was different and I flitted in and out. I don't even remember what year it was- must have been at least 6 years ago.

I started up again some time in 2002. In between I kept a paper journal, I've always recorded significant things because my memory just doesn't recall well. I often need that kick to really grasp how I felt about something. The blog I keep is kind of moving away from that a bit but not really. I think it works like my brain, it certainly exhibits the style that I write in but really it shows how I connect things together. The order of things and the categorisation are very necessary. I don't like the colour much anymore and the frames piss me off. When I have time I'm going to buy myself a book on html and I'm going to slowly reconstruct every inch of it.

I enjoy the order this brings me.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
15:58 / 02.12.03
My blog is not all I want to be, because I don't make the effort to post much more than what I find on news sites and stupid quizzes. I keep thinking I should make more of an effort to write longer posts of some meaning but as I can never be sure how much free time I'll have to do something (a half-written and probably soon to be abandoned review of GM's 'Animal Man' TPBs sits forlornly on my HD at home) never quite get round to it. However, I do have a tame right-wing American that I'm in a bizarre 'leaving comments on each others blogs' relationship with, so it's not all bad.

And BigSunnyD, your blog rocks.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
12:38 / 04.12.03
The phrase "I'm blogging this" has aquired a sinister flavour chez MC/LA. Every time one of us does something stupid, the cry goes up: "Ooh, I'm putting that on my Lj!"
"Yeah? Well, maybe I'll just blog the time you did (insert gormless thing involving tea/shoelaces/maths/porn here)!"
"That's not fair!"
"It's totally fair."
"Blackmail!" etc etc.
 
 
No star here laces
13:20 / 04.12.03
Well, personally I resisted having one for ages because I didn't feel that I wanted to declare things to the world in that way.

But when I moved away from britain, despite keeping in touch with people through phone, email, etc, I missed social group interaction with my friends.

So I wanted to create a blog partly as a way of writing fewer emails, and also as a way to chat to people as a group. I don't think too hard about creating interesting content for people who don't know me but just blather on about what's on my mind or things I think are funny.

I don't think my blog has anything like the quality of writing of Flyboys or Tryphena's and certainly nothing like the content of Flux's blog (which is officially a 'phenomenon' - it's only a matter of time before it makes that crucial leap to being mentioned in print media).

And I don't really have ambitions to create something like Woebot, or Eurotrash, Heronbone or even Belle de Jour - all of which I read regularly despite having no link to the writers at all, but simply because they are great to read.

However I do agree with the posters upthread that blogging is a fantastic way to improve one's personal writing skills. Over time it just becomes easier and easier to splurge out your thoughts in a coherent manner in print, which is one of life's vital skills in our text-based era. Blog to get ahead!
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
15:35 / 04.12.03
Big Sunny D: To those of you who read/have read my blog – is the mix of personal/pop culture stuff on my blog weird, or am I just being a nut here? I think I’m just being a nut here…

I like the mix on your blog, man. I think you have one of the best pop culture blogs out there, and you don't really post all that much about yourself, but enough to place other things you write into context.
 
 
moriarty
16:35 / 13.12.03
I've been so busy with school that I've barely even touched a computer in weeks. So today I'm checking out some of my fave blogs, and I come across this. "I've never made any great secret of my love for moriarty's (hopefully merely resting) comics blog."

Awww. I felt all self-conscious about responding to Randy, BK, Bio, Matthew, The D, and their kind words, but it really was nice to read that the blog is missed, especially during this stressful period in my life.

Thanks.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
22:06 / 13.12.03
I haven't blogged in about a month. I can't exactly say why.
 
 
Goodness Gracious Meme
22:37 / 14.12.03
"I don't think too hard about creating interesting content for people who don't know me but just blather on about what's on my mind or things I think are funny."

Same here.

(*reads Randy's* comment. Wonder when i last posted anything political/current... )

I also have another angle, which reading the thread seems reasonably distinctive. It's an entirely self-centred one.

I use my blog therapeutically. I don't *explore* big scary stuff on it (friends have occasionally asked me why i post such personal stuff. my response is that I'm good at boundaruies and don't post anything that I'm still finding difficult) but I do record it once I've begun to deal...

As someone suffering depression, and still occasionally having big mood swings, I find it incredibly useful/perspective-inducing to have an easily checkable archive of my moods.

And there's something incredibly useful/powerful for me in putting this stuff somewhere public, rather than 'hiding it away'. I'm aware also, that ocasionally i use it as a way of getting people to contact me, when I'm feeling too crap to ask for help.

I run my blog in conjunction with a personal journal, and have used both in conjunction with counselling.

I'm also very interested in narrativising therapy and my blog is a bit of a workshop on that.

Have newly acquired a livejournal, which grew out of wanting to maintain contact with a specific bunch of people in the UKBi community and lends itself more to rants/conversations/lateral somewhat injoke stuff.
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
14:28 / 16.12.03
Another big "Hear Hear" for Big Sunny D's awesome blog. Variety is the spice of your life examining web presence.

Here's a question, one I've been struggling with, does anyone else find that their blog just sits there because all of their keen insights are posted on great message boards like this one? I mean, I've posted so much stuff on this site about TV, Film, Comics, Books, Music, et al; all of which would sit quite nicely on my blog. Occasionally I'll link to threads on my main site (which posts updates to my comic in a vaguely blog-like format) but I feel kind of silly cutting the stuff out of context and throwing it onto my blog.

Thoughts?
 
 
bigsunnydavros
21:48 / 16.12.03
Aww - thanks for the kind words guys. I was getting a bit self-conscious about my blogging for a while there, which is why I've taken a bit of a break. I'll be comming back sometime around New Year, so look out for that.

In response to Benjamin's question, I actually find it easier to write pop-culture stuff on my blog, though I'm not sure why.

Theoretically, I prefer the interactive environment that message boards offer. I love talking about all of this kind of stuff in real life, and there are so many people on places like Barbelith that I would love chat with about, say, New X-Men or Punch-Drunk Love or whatever. And yet somehow I never quite manage to engage with messageboards as fully as I'd like to. Weird.

Maybe I've secretly been a monologue-loving control freak all along!
 
 
Tryphena Absent
22:02 / 16.12.03
I've been thinking about blogging quite a lot in the last few days and basically I've come to the conclusion that my blog is a proper extension of my headspace. I use it to separate the fictions that I make up about things and the reality that I actually see in the world. Once something is out of my mind and in hardware I can take it apart and analyse it and breakdown all of my perceptions. Everything that I write about is something that I'm deeply concerned by though not necessarily in a negative way and I generally find that I have an incredibly poor memory so if I feel anything is significant then I'll write it down. It's also far easier to express criticism than happiness but I tend to recall things in a positive light so I'll often only write down the hate and not the sweetness. Occasionally if I think I've created an actual fictional piece that somehow expresses my mood or the intonation of my feeling (christ I'm such a synaesthete) than I'll upload it because it will always invoke the same mood in me.

I suppose that I use my blog in the same way that BiP's does though I rarely bother to explore my archives. I find them tedious to be honest with you... especially anything in the last 6 months of university because I was so miserable and I can almost see the shiny veneer that sits over the rotting wood of my mood at that time.

I also have a livejournal. I don't use it all that much at the moment and really signed up because I was so damn sick of posting comments on other peoples anonymously (I like comments sections A LOT).
 
 
Matthew Fluxington
22:38 / 16.12.03
I hate to sound like a total braggart, but since I last posted in this thread, my daily numbers have pretty much doubled! I'm now getting in the 900-1000 range on weekdays, and 300-500 on weekends. Most of that came from a sudden influx of new readers thanks to the massive hype around an LCD Soundsystem song that I was hosting, but the numbers have been consistent, so I guess it's going to stay this way for a while.

I'm proud, but also kinda amazed.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
12:08 / 17.12.03
Benjamin Birdie Here's a question, one I've been struggling with, does anyone else find that their blog just sits there because all of their keen insights are posted on great message boards like this one?

I've found that it's the complete opposite, though possibly it's because my blog is the shiny new toy. But if I find something interesting I don't have enough time often to write something in both my blog and here, and my blog gets first dibs.
 
 
bigsunnydavros
14:01 / 17.12.03
Congrats on the obscene number of readers you have Matthew - that's just insane! Well deserved though...
 
 
Olulabelle
21:29 / 17.12.03
I have a livejournal and a blog. I use my livejournal really just to write silly personal things, and very few people know about it or pay any attention. But my blog on my site is different and I am always aware of how it will read to other people whilst I am writing it.

That sounds like I write my blog for an audience and I guess in some ways I do, which is the opposite of what some of you have said. Mainly what I write is just day to day thoughts of mine; it's not so full of links and comments on the interwebnet and it's not so full of useful information. But I know people read it and I am aware of them when I write. And whilst I know that my Mum is probably my most regular visitor, I also know that other people also regularly read it.

So anyway. Up till now I haven't contributed to this thread, mainly because I was very aware that contributing meant announcing the fact that I had a blog; I worry about it being a/not very good and b/uninteresting and I didn't want you all to think that I was a complete fuckwit.

But today something lovely happened. Today I received my present from the Secret Santa project. For those of you who don't know, Secret Santa is a project whereby if you have a blog or personal site you register it, the computer picks you a name out of its technological hat, you read that person's blog and then you send them a gift that you think they will like on the basis of what you read. Someone also sends you a gift they think you will like on the basis of what they read on your site, and it's all very lovely and handy-holdy and la la la.

Anyway, the point is, I got this gift and I was so happy that I danced around the room and grinned like a cheshire cat all day and the reason I was happy was not because of the present because I haven't even opened it yet. The reason I was so happy was because of what my Secret Santa wrote on the gift tag.

My Secret Santa wrote: A Merry Christmas from your Secret Santa! Your weblog is a joy to read. I really like your writing style.

My writing style!

I know it's not much, but what struck me was the fact that someone who has never met me or known anything about me read my blog and liked it enough to write that on the tag.

And I think that rocks.
 
 
Yotsuba & Benjamin!
01:46 / 20.12.03
All right. For Real This Time.

I've rechristened my blog-self and am completely serious about it this time. Cause I've got this pretty new tool. So, please, come check me. It's really beautiful and I've already posted the shit out of it. I love it.

Support the Barbelith Blogspace.
 
 
ibis the being
17:56 / 23.12.03
After I resigned from a small webzine, I started up a blog so that I would continue to write, & have an outlet for my writing. Also, though it's a bit immodest of me to say so, my coeditors at the-logos told me I had a small following over there and I didn't want to lose it.
 
  

Page: (1)2

 
  
Add Your Reply