ALL ABOUT BLOGS

Blog must be one of the ugliest words that has ever been birthed by the world of technology. I suppose essay would be too narrow a word for what folks do in a blog. Commentary is a little unwieldy and also not truly accurate. Blogs contain more than opinion and more than description. Miscellanea or miscellanies might work but no one would be able to spell those. So I guess a new word had to be invented. I would have suggested “crappile” or “brainleaks”. Something catchy and descriptive.

I read a few blogs. My daughter Monica writes one that addresses the concerns of parents of gifted children. My cousin’s daughter Marlee writes a very clever blog that is themed for each day of the week. Her dad, my cousin Peter, writes one that deals with big issues like spirituality, politics and the driving habits of Asian women. I also read a few blogs from folks who belong to my online writing group. Most of those are concerned, naturally, with writing and promoting their own work. Some are also more varied than that and are full of odd and arcane thoughts along with a few raving rants.

I have two blogs. One is a poetry blog that has been neglected for some time. Then there’s this thing that you’re reading now. This one hasn’t got much of a theme. Sometimes the postings are humorous. (Hopefully) At other times they are highly opinionated. Actually they’re always highly opinionated. I’ve written about important things and other things that are totally insignificant. I’ve even tried to sneak some poetry in here to raise the cultural level of one or two of my faithful readers. That hasn’t worked.

Some people make money at blogging. Professional bloggers sell subscriptions to their sites and do a lot of promotional stuff all over the internet. Most of those types are political or sports driven. Then there are non-professional sites that place advertising along side their rants and ravings. If they generate enough internet traffic for the advertiser then the company pays a small fee for the ad space. My inquiries to advertisers have been met with raucous chuckles. I guess a blog needs more than seven or eight regular readers to make a buck.

So why do this stuff? Well in some cases we just can’t help ourselves. There are those of us who are compulsive about writing and just vain enough to think that other people need to see what “brainleaks” we’ve had on any given day. Other bloggers are motivated by a cause, like my daughter and her parental concerns or my cousin and his driving need to convert the world to right-wing radicalism. Still others use a blog as a method of sharing useful information. Some are combinations of all those motivations.

My problem is subject matter. Sometimes I want to write a blog but I’m unable to come up with a suitable subject. Bragging about stuff is a big turn off. Racy and suggestive articles tend to lose straight-laced readers. Sports is a boring subject for most rational humans. Too much “Culture” is equally uninteresting. So you see my dilemma. However, today, I’ve solved the problem and filled up the page with this not so clever “crappile”. Have a fine day.