Saturday, December 01, 2007

Saturday Scribbles

November's over, so is my structured commitment to DrawMo! and NaBloPoMo. Now what? I was trying to explain to someone who doesn't blog ( she hardly ever uses a computer) why I blog. The short story is that it helps me maintain a record of accountability and it's a place to journal my activities.

I started blogging as past time...

curious about some of the how-to's: learn some html; take digital photos; use photoshop; learn to upload/download; play with Flickr; share my artwork; etc. I don't consider myself a writer so I always feel like I'm struggling to come up with something to say. I'm not a storyteller. If I went to the dentist, I might say so, but I wouldn't feel compelled to give more information (unlike my husband who can go out to get the mail and spend 20 minutes telling me what took him 5 minutes to do!) I'm not trying to sell anything, the art I create is to indulge myself and decorate my home or give away as gifts. I still feel a little uncomfortable with the whole socializing/chatting stuff - I don't think I play well with others. I know my family members read my blog, they never comment and I'm okay with that. When I do get comments, I try to respond, but "Gee, thanks!" wears thin after a while. I've joined a few communities and while I enjoy checking in on their activities I tend to look for the bottom line and look at the visuals. I have a hard time when it comes to making comments (even when I really like sometime) because it usually sounds like: "Wow, that's beautiful! I love it." and I know I'll get a "Gee, thanks!" in my gmail inbox straight away. I must confess I do have a fondness for a few fellow bloggers and I do catch-up with their blogs from time to time. But I just don't seem to have enough time and there are so many things I want to do!

So, where do I go with the future of my blogging? I'm tending to be more open with my blog being more of an online diary. Even when I was keeping a personal journal (offline), where I recorded my morning muses and nightly notes, it took the tone of how-am-I-going-to-get-from-A-to-B or a introductory paragraph that was the prelude to a To Do list! I don't fret over would've/could've. I don't have the time or energy for wallowing in angst. I don't have the desire to persuade others to my way of thinking. I don't feel the need to engage in controversy( my politics/religion/sex - my business!) I do want to improve my writing skills. I do want to keep an easily accessible record of what I'm working on and what I'm doing. I do want to share and socialize with a select group (I'm not sure what I mean by "select" - whether I select them, they select me - it's both static and active - this new flavored social networking in the world-wide-web... but I do appreciate the opportunity to expand by community outside my physical small town!)

I'm going to try and post more frequently. Daily? maybe, if I can figure out some format for me that works with the who and am and the what I want to do.

1 comment:

Donna said...

congrats on fulfilling your month long commitment. I can't imagine doing something every single day for a month-- way more structure then I could do :-)

I find my blog a great way of seeing the projects I've done -- of being able to look back and have a sense of where the focus has been in my studio... Hope you can find the format that works for you.