Check-in: Is this blog working?

Widdershin Writings, I wonder what's going on here sometimes, what traffic passes by when I don't have a window viewing this little e-ecosystem called my blog.

I paint a picture in my head of a little room full of trophies and thoughts, a storage space for my past. I look back at old posts and I'm tempted to edit, to revise and change, go antiquing with my words and restore everything, covering it in a layer of glossy paint so you can't tell it's even the same thing.

But that defeats the purpose, revision is erasure. I cannot deny my past and so will instead let myself stand in all my imperfections. This scar comes with a story. This post is a story. I will pull a Walt Whitman and let my multitudes contradict themselves. I don't have to like it, but the only change that makes is that I don't have to remain like that.

I started this blog two years ago. And the posts come in waves, peaking in the March through June period (though I wonder how much of that has been influenced by taking a class with Tony Prichard during these times).

So this is a check-in. An evaluation where we see if this is working or if the experiment called my blogging is a total fail.

But first:

This is one of many songs I received through mix CDs from friends over the past two years. It's by no means my favorite song off this particular mix, but on this blustery, dark, rainy evening in the middle of December with my arm covered in henna, it feels somehow appropriate. It's finals week and by any means I should probably be stressed out, worrying about studying. That's not my style.

Henna smells kind of funny. It's reminiscent of grass to me, only sweeter.

This blog as an ecosystem is adapting to the stimulus in my life. Mainly classes and stress if the content is any judge. But it's tracking my journey, taking snapshots of my life and putting out there for the public to see.

I like this, because it's exactly what Widdershin Writings is about. This blog is not about me. It's about my journey, winding and backwards and off in every direction imaginable. Stay with me for a bit and we'll see where the road takes us.

Getting back to my blogging roots

When I started this blog I hadn't intended it to be so deep or for the average length of a post to near 700 to 1000 words. Which I admit, makes it daunting for people because let's face it, you don't usually go to the internet to read massive amounts of text.

But looking back at some of my older posts (see any of the ones from 2008) and perhaps I'm not as far off as I thought.

So since I've recently chosen a new template and kind of redesigned this space, I thought I'd take the time to revisit where this blog is coming from.

The premise for this blog and its inspiration are really all tied into the title: Widdershin Writings. Widdershins means counter-clockwise or in a broader sense, that which is contrary to the regular. Being that I'd just read Widdershins, the word was fresh in my mind and I was, if nothing else, enthralled by the idea of this fantasy. I've been a sucker for the urban fairy tale ever since I'd read American Gods back in the eighth grade. So here was the water.

The seed was actually by a friend and mentor, the writer for CougCenter, Jeff Nusser. I was a journalism student of his throughout my high school career until he moved the summer before my senior year, and I remember talking to him a few times about blogging and watching as one of his other former students (and a friend of mine) created and used his own blog, http://rocketnumber09.blogspot.com/. It fascinated me. It was like writing a book or reporting or something similar, only it was all you and you could get feedback.

So this seed had been with me for a few years and I'd made a few half-hearted attempts through Facebook notes, but I felt like I needed my own space, somewhere specifically for blogging. And then it rained.

Being left-handed, widdershins seemed to fit. It's a word that seems to say I defy your logic, your direction, your silverware and scissors. I want to go my own way. I'm going to find my own path. And I believe that with a medium like a blog, that's what we have to do. We have to find our own direction and write to it and that's what I've sought to do here.

Some notes on blogging

I've been a casual blogger for going on three years now, and I feel like I've learned a few things. For example: the people you want to read your posts will read them regardless of length; however, if you only post text, you limit the medium of blogging.

I've p-lurked around a few of the Parasites blogs (a more or less full list can be seen here: http://nanotexts.blogspot.com/), and I'm liking what I'm seeing. Ideas are flowing. There isn't quite as much feedback as any of us would like, but I think that's a continual problem in a class like this. But I wanted to share something with the parasites.

Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g


Blogging as a way of disseminating information opens possibilities because you are not limited in the way that a hard copy paper is limited, which is one reason I really enjoy that Tony utilizes it as a main format for writing.

Hyperlinks, embedded videos and pictures all offer the possibility of a greater, and here I mean that in the sense of greater as larger, experience for the reader. I'm not saying it's necessary to include these things, but I think it would be foolish to neglect them as available tools to work with. You wouldn't use the heel of your shoe on a nail if you have a hammer within reach, would you?

So post, play and explore the possibilities of this medium known as blogging. Especially if you're feeling stuck on what to say next.

Asks a question: a poem

What becomes of the blog untouched?
The final update, months if not years old,
it corrodes in the neverending
cached and saved on the servers of our Search overlords
zombies still standing
perhaps to come back and bite us when we least expect it
content builds character
context puts us in our place
But relevance forever holds them irrational
What becomes of the blog untouched?
Nothing.

Reflections

Yeah, the video is more than a little corny to start a blog post with, but I haven't exactly made this blog into your standard everyday collection of words.

Blogging as a tool is used two dimensionally when it so clearly has many layers beyond that. The words are usually the most important part, but form and format are essential as well. A blog without the occasional picture or video or hyperlink is nothing more than an online diary.

It frustrates me because it's not visually stimulating, which means people won't find it interesting, which means people are even less likely to read it than they already are. Maybe it would help if I explain that I come from a background in newspaper layout design, so readability is highly important to me unless you are purposefully trying to manipulate your reader's perceptions.

Despite having particular blogs in mind as I write this, I don't mean to sound disparaging or arrogant, I want reading your blog to be an enjoyable experience not just for me, but for all your potential readers.

A couple days after my book group created our Queen City Jazz Cut-up blog, I went back and found a giant mass of text with one picture at the top. It was literally at least a couple thousand words in a single block of text. So I went through with creative intent and separated it into manageable sized chunks so I wouldn't feel overwhelmed trying to read it.

But right, I started this trying to reflect on my blogging experience of the last few months. It's been an exploration of both form and function, guided loosely by the readings but mostly as an exploration of what I can do with the medium. I've enjoyed it as an opportunity to look at the creative aspects of blogging.

I like writing and having interesting things to say, but I feel like finding information to go along with that writing is just as important, just like Plurk wouldn't be the same if you couldn't include YouTube videos and pictures. Since this is my personal blog appropriated for use in Nanotexts, I think this will be the last post to feature the Nanotexts tag, but I will definitely keep writing.

Tired

I have half a blog post written in my head/on paper, but it's getting kind of really late for me, and I don't think I'm awake enough to coherently do justice to the ideas like I wish to, so instead of working on that post here, I'm posting this short message explaining why I don't have anything of substance in this space just yet.

Be warned though, I'm working on it and want to take my time to do this right. Just like I commented on Low's blog, I tend to lose myself in my typing. Which probably explains the vaguely stream-of-thought-style randomness that makes up most of my widdershin writings. I want to try and focus myself a little bit more here so that you, readers, whomever you may be, can hopefully take more out of this.

So thank you for your patience, and goodnight.

Day 32: Status Culture

Twitter, Facebook, Plurk, MySpace. If you're seeing a pattern, you know what I'm getting at. Hell, you can even have a status on your Gmail or MSN Live accounts as a special message to tell everyone why you're away from your computer and not IMing with them.

With current technology, we live in a status culture. You can update the world about every little thing you do from anywhere at any time (though let's face it, most of us don't care and would rather you only update the important stuff).

My point being, as a world community we are connected as close to instantaneously as we have ever been in human history. Half the time in conversations with friends, I already know half of what they have to say about what's been going on in their life because they send out tweets or status updates or blog about it, and I follow them.

So the question I ask, is: Is conversation becoming obsolete? Is it evolving and transforming to conversation 2.0? I've had entire multimedia "posting wars" with friends (Shout out mainly to Julia!) where we not only shared ideas, but images and songs and videos that back up and support those ideas. This is one reason I find myself liking Plurk so much. It facilitates that exchange so much easier than other microblogging services I've encountered so far.



If you think it's worth trying out, find me and sign up for one at the link below.

http://plurk.com/acelessthan3/invite