Hillside Meditations

Quite certainly this is a kind of meme, as well:

June 14th has been tagged International Weblogger´ s Day
.

Having signed up (why am I doing such things?) I am supposed to write something on one of three topics on blogging. Well, here I go …

Why did you start blogging, how long have you been doing so, and why have you continued?

Well, my blog is still quite young. I started blogging in March 2005, so I am really a newbie.

I started blogging because I had always wanted to do a bit of creative writing, had tried several journal formats, and had finally discovered the weblog as a format that I found both convenient and interesting.

From the very first moments I liked the way it was possible to both write for yourself and get published quite easily, and I like the way I can build a (small) community with whom to share feelings and thoughts and information and jokes and worries. Coming to know the people who read my entries and/or whose blogs I regularly visit (for blog-reading, in my view, is an integral part of blogging). In fact, though I am writing for myself mainly, the thought of some people coming along and looking for my posts and reading and commenting them gives me a measure of dicipline that I might otherwise lack.

And I can be published (publish myself) by very tiny installments instead of having to wait for my Magnum Opus to be written, corrected, edited, sold and published (which might very well never happen).

Blogging, even more than all the other writing I have done in computer-nets (BBSs, Usenet, my homepage, my metabolic mailing list, the diabetes-forum I am part of), gives me the feeling of being part of The Net, of having an online persona and an online existence.

Blogging makes me think more, read more, know more things. It is a way of creating and sharing, of meeting and showing, of pondering and expressing, that I would not like to miss again.

Of course there are moments when I wonder whether MY blogging is really worth the effort, whether MY time would not be better spent in another way, whether MY blog isn´t really totally unimportant after all. In these moments it is passages like this from The Speckled Band that keep me going:

“So next time you’re sitting there writing your blog and thinking that you must have the most boring existence on the planet and that no-one will actually be interested in anything you think, do or write about then take heed - it’s NOT boring! It’s just YOU and WHO YOU ARE! A person just like everyone else. A person with very legitimate and interesting views, ideas, dreams and beliefs.

Someone with a story to tell….”

So I do intend to carry on blogging for quite a while and hope I will get better and better with it - and I am looking forward to all the wonderful contacts I am going to keep and foster and get.

Whoahh! Sounds a bit like a school essay, doesn´t it?


To quote from the International Weblogger´s Day site: “This idea emerged from an ambitious weblogger named Rio who wanted to come up with something to express his gratitude to his friends that constantly posted comments on his weblog. The project blasted off sometime in April of 2004, and he started posting comments on random blogs about the upcoming event so that people would find out. Since it started off rather successfully, he has been more and more dedicated to making the project a reality, although when faced with the question of what would happen on the day, he has hardly an answer.

The idea of this site is to unite webloggers from across the world in a petition to the global community for a such a day as an “international weblogger’s day”. While yet an unofficial event, webloggers can commemorate the work of their peers by celebrating this day.”

See what Wikipedia has to say on InWeDay


Happy International Weblogger´s Day!

International_Weblogger´s_Day, blogging, meme, why_I_blog, InWeDay, International, Weblogger´s, Day

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I just realized that I have been taking part in some “Memes” of late. Not too many, I am not too keen on memes, but for some I was tagged and some I found interesting myself (and of course tomorrow is International Weblogger´s Day with another meme relating to it).

I just remembered a posting and a discussion on Cameron´s blog a few days ago.
To sum it up Cameron does not really care about memes, does not like to be “spammed” by tags, regards most of the topics that memes usually deal with as boring and uninteresting - and in my view is NOT totally wrong.

I wrote a comment on his entry regarding my attitude towards memes; I won´t repeat it here, just sum up the “Hillside Meditations Meme Policy”:
just a few for social reasons and for web-weaving and some that appeal to me (which makes them a bit more individual, as well), but I will take care to keep their share of my blog small (even smaller than so far) and generate my own content according to my own ideas and interests.

I think that should be ok

meme, blogging, boring, standard

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