Decision time

Homer:
You're right, Marge. Just like the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day, I kept saying, 'I'll go a little later, I'll go a little later...' And when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he'll ever come back again, he said he didn't know. Well, I'm never going to let something like that happen again!

After reading the FT Magazine's hype-bursting article on blogging last weekend I was discouraged about maintaining my blog, to say the least. It's an excellent article and it brought thoughts and doubts to the surface which had been nagging me for some time. Just like Homer Simpson in the quote above I had been putting off thinking about what exactly I was going to blog about and what the aim or message or tone of my blog would be. Then when I got to the "mall" (i.e. when I looked at my blog after a year of on again off again blogging) I realised I never had that sit down with my invisible friend to think about why I'm blogging and what I want to blog about.

I had originally wanted to improve my writing skills through practise from writing entries on the blog. The theory being that regular writing would help me get the creative juices flowing and help me put flesh on various ideas and thoughts I have. However I haven't written the articles I wanted to write due to a lack of time to develop the ideas. A tight supply of time and a free flowing supply of laziness and distractions have been my twin weaknesses which I struggle hard to resolve and master.

Shimoda's excellent new blog has taught me that a blog well-written can be interesting even when it's not an established writer doing the writing (as discussed in the FT article). So I am resolved to attempting to improve my blog and slightly change my blogging style.

From now on I will (a) think about what my blog is for, and (b) try to put thought into what I post. There is a large temptation to add exceptions to (b) but for the time being I'll try not to.