March 18, 2002
Happy (Belated) Birthday, Weblog
I have now been doing this weblog thing for over a year. Yikes. I'm not ready to put links to "a year ago today" stories, since it would be too embarrassing (I know you think, "and the new entries aren't?" but I'll ignore you). But it might be worth thinking about what I've learned from this whole thing.
Not much, probably. I don't write enough personal stuff in here to really be able to analyze any personality changes in here. You might be able to infer things from topics I cover, but it is all pretty superficial.
It does make an excellent log of things occupying my time and thoughts. Looking back, it turns out I forget about a lot of movies I see or things I do if I am just idly thinking back about "what did I do the last 9 months?". So that is nice to have. And it is nice to be able to point people to my opinions on things, although sometimes I wish I went back and updated the entries after I had a little more time to process things.
This isn't really improving my writing skills, I think, since there is virtually no editing involved. The closest I get is going back to put in links to things. I also think my style has changed based on what is happening with other weblogs I read. Sometimes I feel guilty for not including enough links, so I try to be better about posting interesting stuff I find. Sometimes I feel guilty for not putting up enough personal stories, so I try to post more things like that. Sometimes I feel guilty for not putting up original content, so I try to do something a little more creative and put it up. All of this creates a really inconsistent weblog that I have a hard time believing anyone would enjoy reading regularly unless they know me.
Somehow, though, there do seem to be people who read this. Not a lot, but there are consistent hits, and not just when I mention geisha pictures or nude David Chokachi. Ugh. Gotta love the server logs. I haven't had any real reader interaction with people I didn't know except for the greymatter hacks, but I think that has a lot to do with my lack of focus. Maybe the theme song has it right!
Overall, though, I really enjoy having this habit. It is that part of me that would make a good archivist someday - wanting to keep a record of what is going on, record my thoughts in a semi-public place. I'm sure I could put more effort into making it be a more interesting and beneficial experience for myself and for anyone who reads it, but effort is something that is hard to find time for these days. The CSS layout is almost all figured out, though, I just need to do some cross-browser testing. And I may stall even longer to include some PHP sidebar generation so I don't need to sit through multiple agonizingly slow site rebuilds. I don't think I'm anywhere close to being motivated enough to switch software, although I am definitely overdue on paying for this one.
So, thanks for listening to me ramble, and lets all have a little toast for the not-quite-a-toddler weblog. Yay, simpleweblog! You made it a year. Let's hope the next one is even better for you.
(Nope, referring to the weblog as a person doesn't work. Interesting.)
Posted by babar at March 18, 2002 10:38 PM