The obligatory apology for not updating my blog. But really, I'm the only one who this should matter to, so why apologize?
I have been thinking, not so much writing, but definitely thinking
(and thinking I need to be writing). My thoughts go every which
direction, but my hope is to capture those thoughts in some way back to
the blog, even if it's just short posts about what I've been thinking.
The obligatory section on what I've been up to lately. Finding
time to blog is difficult, even for somebody like me, who spends a good
majority of my life online. This semester though I'm taking 3 classes
which have occupied a good portion of my brain power and time spent
online and offline. In the past month I have acquired two new part
time jobs and resigned from one other, so there are big changes to my
motivation and my schedule. It has pushed me to the limits of my time
management skills, which I admit has been my downfall in the past.
Although I'm trying to channel my knowledge and passion of information
management into my personal life in very creative ways, it hasn't been an easy process. The good news for
the rest of the world is that I have always seen my labor as a process
of discovery. I'm willing to take the time, make the effort, and do
all the dirty work if it means down the road I can make life easier for
somebody else. That is probably why I need to blog more.
On the other hand, what has interested me and consumed the most of
my free time is all of this social media stuff. I don't think it's
about what I have to say on my own, but it is about what we all have to
say together. It's about the conversation. It's about what I can
share with you. It's about what you can share with me. So it's not
that my ideas aren't out there somewhere; random thoughts go to
Twitter, or they're commented and liked on FriendFeed, they're
documented on my Flickr pics and on Tumblr, and maybe now they're
recorded on 12seconds. We want to share and communicate, these tools
make it easy to connect and fill those needs. But what about the blog?
I think blogging in general will adapt and evolve like everything else, but this blog, my blog, will always have a special importance to
me, because in the mess of all of these tools, my blog is still my
space in the mess of spaces on the internet. It's still my home, and
the one thing I point people to if they want to know more about me.
Lately though, it hasn't been a full representation of me. I don't want to overwhelm people with every
thing I do online and every little detail of my existence, but I do
want people to know where I like to connect and what I'm doing if I'm not always contributing to my blog content. I think the blog can and
should be the truest lifestream, more of a snapshot into my world.
It's not a place where I want to push people to converse with me,
conversations happen naturally elsewhere and I'm ok with that, but it
should be a place where people can see what I'm about without clicking
everywhere on the internet to find out.
In my head I have ideas of how this could look, and I've seen these ideas replicated in other places. Though, in the reality of my
life, my blog will have to stay the way it is for awhile. The thing
that's wonderful about social media is that it's easy to use and get
started, but I think a blog should be a labor of love. It's where your
personality has to shine through, and that is something that should
take time and planning, after all it is your space in the mess of
spaces.
