The Fun Guy's Journal: 191.6 76 months

I started posting in this Slashdot journal on a regular basis five and a half years ago, as a way to publicly throw my hat over the wall as I began a serious diet.

Back before the turn of the century, when I was a postdoc at Michigan State, I had a blog for a year or so. It was under the website I'd designed for the lab where I worked, hosted on the web server I'd set up. This was back before the neologism "blog" had been invented, back when the Internet Oracle was the Usenet Oracle, and back when 2400 baud at home was common and 14.4 was fast.

This Slashdot journal, in one of the most obscure, difficult-to-use parts of the blogosphere, was originally intended to be about dieting and science. I never really cared much about "traffic". If I had, I would have moved it out into a more visible arena, although in 2003, there were many fewer venues for someone to start up a zero-cost blog. I just wanted a place where I could talk without interruption or editorial edict, interact with people who were like-minded (or not), and update on my own schedule. I was never very controlled about topics, so it's since covered work, career, family, sports, books, and various and sundry other topics.

In the last year and more, I've laden it with cathartic rants and crese-de-cour arising from my unpleasant foray as a manager of a toxic, bitterly divided group of unhappy people. I've been climbing out from under the stunned depression arising from that experience, and have been working through (if not sharing) more thoughts on the nature of success, failure, happiness, fulfillment and motivation. Let the record show, however, that this journal grew to cover writing and fiction in a significant way back in the halcyon days of 2006.

I've started three other blogs in the past couple of years, under various monikers. I let one go dormant, shut down the second and re-launched it as the third. The third blog was done in combination with a concerted effort to explore social media, something I'd not done previously. None were linked to this one, as I prefer to keep these spheres separate. Although I wanted to use a different voice as I covered different topics, I find that my native personality guides what I write. I'm not a firebrand, a troublemaker or a braggart. I prefer to be polite and respectful, even when I'm disagreeing with someone. If I have controversial opinions, I tend not to voice them unless I have a reason for doing so. I'm uncomfortable using profanity in public, and I don't talk much about sex, politics or religion. I don't go looking for fights, but I don't like to be pushed around or to lose.

I know that there are other people who have been blogging longer, on Slashdot and elsewhere -blogging more steadily and to greater accolade. Some are wide-ranging, some have a laser-like focus on one topic, and one topic only, be it baseball, politics or knitting. Some of them are insightful and eloquent, others stir up trouble and do wacky stunts in order to build an audience. Why? Well, if my heart and soul were tied up in my blog, if it were the sole source of satisfaction I had in life, I'd be blogging all the time. Similarly, if it were a place for me to practice my craft or build up a following that supported my livelihood, I'd do the same.

So why am I saying all of this? Because someone in one of those other spheres just congratulated me on having a blog for an impressive eight months. Setting aside how impressive that actually is, has it really been eight months? And is that a long time? Since many blogs sputter out after two months and a dozen entries, I suppose that eight months is notable enough. Nothing like five and a half years, but not a bad start.