Running a blog requires at least two components: the will to run it and the content to put on it. A blog without will is bound to grind to a halt, and a blog without content is full of vapid talk.
Having decided to reopen my blog was just the first step. But even taking that step required that I first had an incentive more pressing than just being told I should do it; which is why I had not reopened it for so long. That incentive is found in the second component: the pressure my mind puts on itself due to the things I'd like to express my thoughts on.
These past few years, the best recourse I could find in the end was facebook; and when I say “best,” I mean primarily in the sense that it felt more homely — not because of its atmosphere, which is still ghastly. No, the major drive behind that motion was the fact that facebook was the one certain place I could find all the more interesting acquaintances I had made over the years and with whom I still had some drive to connect online. (Which is vastly different from personal contact, make no mistake!)
If not for facebook, I would find them in one forum or another; and while no forum seemed to grab my attention for too long, perhaps after the umpteenth time a forum had proven a catastrophe, let alone of such proportions, facebook had that newsletter-like presentation and an attitude of relative coolness. Being idle was more fun, because you were met with the content with no effort, no searching or rummaging through. Later on, the true colours of facebook were made clear to all, and it is ironic that I would say this, because I originally disliked facebook with a certain fervor.
Now, however, it has come to me that I don't want that idleness exactly, and the means by which media such as facebook deliver what is stated doesn't suit me either. And the pressure to express myself from within is both an agitation and an exhilaration. Amongst them, odd as it may be, will be discussions about the value of shallow factoids in modern media, but also critiques of works which have caught my attention, one way or another. I will also seek to address some requests that I have had from acquaintances and even a few friends from abroad. I hope to meet their expectations.
Have fun!
2015-07-30
2015-07-29
Coming back from a very long hibernation
It has been a long while since I took to blogging...
Dissatisfaction, a lack of a good sense of direction after a number of dramatic real-life and Internet situations with various pitfalls interspersed between them, as well as a general impression of disconnection with the medium: all drew me away from the exercise in a slow, drudging path with a predetermined conclusion. I'd open up Blogger after having come up with something I would have erstwhile considered noteworthy or just plain fun, ready to type out my thoughts; but then I'd suddenly feel uncertain or unenthusiastic, invariably telling myself that I will save this draft or drop the topic altogether, deciding it wasn't as interesting as I originally thought it was.
My wife has been telling me for a while now that I should pick up my writing again. And while I did consider her kind suggestions in earnest, it still didn't feel like it used to do. Frankly, it still does not. However, now that I put my fingers back to the keyboard with the intent to write again, something an old friend had told me a decade ago struck me quite aptly: that we don't just live on and on; instead, as the years pass, some parts of us die; that we, as people, don't live just one life, but die and live again. This exegesis is founded on a personal theory of trauma and incidence, but I must admit with both amazement and amusement that it is quite accurate, after all. I have to thank my friend for that insight in a more personal manner when next I can.
What I mean by all of the above is primarily that I have decided to put on again the writer's mask, if you will. It is an interesting experience, mostly because 5 years have passed (who would have known to tell me so back then!) and, frankly, while my writing tends to be as long-winded as ever, and there is this familiar sensation with writing, my thoughts on far too many topics have been worn with time and exposure to others and can no longer be deemed identical to what they used to be. I'm also in a very different position and thus can only have assumed a very different stance on life, even if I have not yet registered the fact myself.
Regardless: Hello, world!
Dissatisfaction, a lack of a good sense of direction after a number of dramatic real-life and Internet situations with various pitfalls interspersed between them, as well as a general impression of disconnection with the medium: all drew me away from the exercise in a slow, drudging path with a predetermined conclusion. I'd open up Blogger after having come up with something I would have erstwhile considered noteworthy or just plain fun, ready to type out my thoughts; but then I'd suddenly feel uncertain or unenthusiastic, invariably telling myself that I will save this draft or drop the topic altogether, deciding it wasn't as interesting as I originally thought it was.
My wife has been telling me for a while now that I should pick up my writing again. And while I did consider her kind suggestions in earnest, it still didn't feel like it used to do. Frankly, it still does not. However, now that I put my fingers back to the keyboard with the intent to write again, something an old friend had told me a decade ago struck me quite aptly: that we don't just live on and on; instead, as the years pass, some parts of us die; that we, as people, don't live just one life, but die and live again. This exegesis is founded on a personal theory of trauma and incidence, but I must admit with both amazement and amusement that it is quite accurate, after all. I have to thank my friend for that insight in a more personal manner when next I can.
What I mean by all of the above is primarily that I have decided to put on again the writer's mask, if you will. It is an interesting experience, mostly because 5 years have passed (who would have known to tell me so back then!) and, frankly, while my writing tends to be as long-winded as ever, and there is this familiar sensation with writing, my thoughts on far too many topics have been worn with time and exposure to others and can no longer be deemed identical to what they used to be. I'm also in a very different position and thus can only have assumed a very different stance on life, even if I have not yet registered the fact myself.
Regardless: Hello, world!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)