Baptism of Blog: First Post

I could not figure out why ordinary people would write blogs. Unless you have an extremely cool job, expertise in some very interesting field or were hysterically funny, it seemed odd that people would waste time writing blogs in the vain hope that others would stumble upon it, find it interesting and heap praise and respect on the author.

There are probably many other people who think along those lines, and maybe they're right. They might say that writing about yourself is conceited, self obsessed and a waste of time. And up until recently, I would have agreed.

But I couldn't sleep the other night and was wandering in and out of a semi-conscious state, and ended up thinking about how close we are to the beginning of 2009. It brought back a feeling of shock that I had when we were beginning 2008, and a realisation that no matter how you look at it, time does fly. A year may pass, and aside from a few key events you may not remember much specific detail on what you did in that time. So I thought the same thought I've thought every year around this time: "I should get a diary".

Somewhere to record what I was working on, somewhere to write what I did that was of significance (to me). But then I realised that as an I.T boy, I have pretty much lost the ability to write coherently. I cannot join up my writing like an adult, I have to print in huge capital letters and it takes ages.

On the other hand, I can type quickly and I have access to the Internet for most of my day. Often I'll be watching TV and find myself picking up the laptop and aimlessly wandering around websites, so hopefully I can make use of that time to write something down which might be interesting to me in the future.

That, combined with the guaranteed loss of any diary I'd use, led me to start the debate in my mind about blogging and its ups and downs

But I realised that the in my opinion, the key is whether or not you care if people read your blog. I personally am not fussed either way. Writing a blog is a selfish way for me to focus on what I've been doing and thinking about, and if others choose to read it, then so be it. I hate the 'Look at me I'm so awesome I've got a sweaty face and I like this kind of music and girls are awesome!' stuff on Bebo etc, hopefully a blog is a bit lower-key.

Of course, there are a few interesting blogs out there by interesting people, with huge groups of avid readers and that's just marvellous.

So, without an extremely cool job, an industry leading expertise or a naturally hilarious personality, in a truly 'New Year's Resolution' way I hope that I can post fairly regularly and that I can build up a place I can come back to to remind myself of what has happened and the views I've taken on what's been going on around me. I'll write it as if I'm talking to the reader, but that doesn't mean I expect that there will be any readers.

And if anyone who does stumble across this blog doesn't find it interesting, I recommend using the 'Greatest Website' link on the right and then clicking on Random Article - then hopefully something that does interest you will appear.

Goal: Justify my blog writing. Result: Self approved success!