I’ve decided to tackle two of Lorelle on WordPress’ blogging challenges at the same time and talk about why I blog and maybe a little bit of how I blog
Lorelle’s first challenge is to describe blogging. Sounds simple enough. Except we aren’t allowed to say, “Blogging is typing thoughts on a topic into a text editor that will post those thoughts onto website via the blogging engine of your choice.” I’m fine with that, actually, because it really doesn’t describe what I’m doing right now. Honestly, blogging is about writing about something important to you. It’s thinking about what you’re reading or doing and writing about it. It’s about finding a cool bit of information and preserving it for future reference. It’s about exploring a favorite hobby, or learning about something new. Occasionally, it’s even about actually teaching.
Simply put, blogging is what you bring to it. If you bring to it a thirst for knowledge, then you’ll come away having learned something. If you bring to it a desire to understand something better, you’ll walk away with a new insight into that topic. If you bring to it a desire to just get your thoughts down somewhere, you’ll find a sense of rejuvenation. If you bring to it a desire for instant fame…well…you’ll either find yourself receiving a level of notoriety you didn’t want, or you’ll burn out quickly when you realize it’s not that simple.
The cool part about being a blogger is that you get to combine a wide array of skills, skills I happen to enjoy using. You get to read and do some research while you’re either fact-checking or diving deeper into something. You get to write. You can choose to learn as you hand code your HTML or LaTex into your posts. If you aren’t super shy like me, you can hold conversations in your comments and build relationships with like-minded people. You get to explore, not only the topic, but yourself as well. What is this topic? Why is it important to me?
Lorelle’s second challenge is to describe what you need for blogging. I’m a pretty lightweight blogger. My job and my schedule pretty much leave me blogging at home, so I type away on my stationary laptop. I do keep a notebook on me at work for those flashes of inspiration. Other than that, I use Google Reader and EverNote to find interesting information or inspiration and start organizing resources. I’m a fairly simple blogger, I guess.
