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Every town has one - you’ll be driving somewhere, could be off to the supermarket, or 5 miles away up in the hills. But he’ll be there, with his bull mastiff, walking, going nowhere, same expression, same gait, same casual sports attire. Even when you move home, he seems to follow, relentlessly striding out, unconcerned about the weather, or the constituency of the surface. I’ve never spoken to him, never will; I even saw him with a girlfriend once, forever moving, seemingly apart, distanced from the world around them.

Now I’ve begun blogging I need some inspiration about what to write about. I don’t want to write about blogging (though maybe I am already) as that is over-saturated. Nor do I wish to do productivity as per GtD (Getting Things Done), lifehacker or zenhabits. No, first of all I am going to do some themes, so that I have some structure to my posting, along with a bit of variety. So the next thing is: what themes might I wax maniacal about? Obviously I not only need to know a little bit about my subjects, but I also need to demonstrate some interest. I’m sure a lack of passion might get picked up by whoever might stumbleupon my blog!

Todays theme is writing about my newbie blogging experiences. Sometimes you do random things when you’re presented with an empty browser. I started looking for domain names (unsystematic I know), with the word blog or blogging within them. After a few pathetic attempts:yblog, bigbobblog and so on, I gave up. No point in wasting cash on a domain name when I’ve nothing to punt to the world of screen huggers! So now I need to bring myself back to writing, these computer things are like a cookie jar, they fill your head with information junk and pretend there are lots of shiny new things that will enrich your life - invariably they don’t!

I also decided that I needed to become an expert in wordpress, I checked out amazon and saw a few books, but most geeky folk seemed to say ‘hey just check the help files’. Now forgive me, but not only does the wordpress site look unduly technical, but reading one screen out a time, and finding all the information I need will take ages. Books are good, they look nice, they hold a load of words and you don’t have to print out 5000 pages with adverts interspersed.

So now I know a little more, domain names aren’t what makes a blog, and sometimes geeky people don’t know best. Sometimes old style books and notepads work better than booting up a pc and remembering your remember the milk login id. But now I’m veering over into worlds I don’t wish to dip my toe in (productivity and task managers). This blog is about versing my personal attitude to this blogging malarchy.

When I was a kid I always wanted to be a writer. I remember a teacher asking me what I’d like to write about and I said ‘anything’. I’m in the same predicament now - I feel an itch to write something, but I don’t want to be one of those bloggers who just scribble drivel. Neither do I want to add to the the word landfill that most of the blogosphere has become. And even if you add something new and fresh to the outside world, there’s no chance of it rising above the pile of folk competing for your mouse clicks.

It could be that I should have been a freelance writer, someone who writes about any topic for a living. Or a journalist, someone who can report about others lives, yet perhaps have no niche of their own to speak of. I don’t want that, I remember Marilyn Manson used to be a music journalist then realised he could do better. Okay he may not be your cup of tea, but the idea’s there - what can I contribute, what is it about me that sets me apart?

I know I can write short stuff, I have ideas for books, but my mind just tends to encourage me to put on paper what comes to mind, i.e. a minddump. I’d like to commit all these ideas into one place, but why, for what purpose?

Perhaps I simply need some sort of routine, to have a goal to aim at? Yet that requires commitment, real blogging needs commitment and a desire to write regularly. I have that desire, but don’t have the direction. Symbolic of my life, maybe?

I’ve read all the stuff about either doing personal blogging, or finding a niche. If you’re like me, you only read on if you feel there’s some new information you grasp at. But now I’ve read all the stuff about blogging, affiliates and getting things done I’m feeling empty.

After putting fingers to keyboard I’m getting the feeling I’ve done a word dump myself. So I’m arguing against myself. Ah well, next time I’ll write something world changing. And perhaps that’s the crux, you’ll never write something world shattering, but you’re writing about something that matters to you.

I have this eye twitch, too much gazing at this screen. Driving me mad.

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