Currently, I use two blogs. One is basically like a journal and is private. I find it a useful second diary – and try to do a version of the Artist’s Way Morning Pages when I can. Also, my skills at writing by hand have diminished over the years so badly that someone asked me once if I was writing in Chinese.
This is the other blog – and I look back at that first post in January 2005, and see that I didn’t have a clear idea of where I was going, but wanted to use it to write in a public way. Since then, I have kept a list of the books that I’ve read (anal, I know, but that’s how I am). I have written some book reviews. I have written about travel and about my family.
But there’s no particular focus, nor drive.
At the same time, facebook (goddamnfacebook) has thrown me into confusion – if I really want my words read, then I have a higher chance of it being posted as a “note” to facebook (to be seen by my over a thousand “friends”) – if it’s a quick thought, then as a “status update” and if it’s an even quicker thought, I suppose I should open a twitter account. A blog isn’t read unless it’s got a specific purpose, and a set of followers, and a blogger who is actively writing. 
I remember those days of the first blogs, and I was excited at this new form of communication, this insight into people’s daily lives and thoughts. But only a few years later, the world is a different place. There is so much chatter, and so many blogs. I myself follow only a few blogs, mostly entertainment ones, and in a very utilitarian, light manner – checking out a recipe that I’ve found through google, comparing a review of a short story to my own opinion of it.
So, what is this thing, Oh Blogdammit (I still like the name). I guess it’s more of a scrapbook, and an occasional journal, and much like the earlier bloggers, the idle dreaming of being out in the world in a public rather than private way.
I’m curious whether in this next period of my life, which feels like a significant one, whether I’ll be continuing at the same pace as previously, or increase, or focus the blog more, or even start a new blog… For now, I look back and my “dashboard” tells me I’ve made 55 posts since January 2005, basically about 10 a year… Today’s change of design/format at least gives me a sense of refreshment… (though it’s amusing that I could change it every day if I wanted to since I haven’t established an identity and following for the blog).
As a final note, I’ve started reading the book “Getting Unstuck” by Timothy Butler (a solid and trustworthy name, he’s lucky to have it), about career change – and I wonder if I’m brave enough to chronicle that process, as I consider my next steps. For now, it does serve to remind me that
Getting unstuck is: reflecting on what I like to do (writing is included in this); finding my way back into the flow of life where I’m excited about doing things, work and non-work; doing the work that’s required to get unstuck.
Getting unstuck is not: playing Bejewelled Blitz on Facebook. Wondering if it’s so cold (Sydney’s lack of central heating makes it feel far colder than Canada ever did) that I should just sit in front of a heater all day. I like list of threes but I can’t think of another for now.