Blog on Blogs

So maybe you've been wondering, Does Lindy solely enjoy writing about herself?  What are her motivations?  Why? oh WHY!? does she blog?

I highly doubt you have been wondering that because it is my personal belief that all people think 90 to 99% about themselves most of the time and 10-1% about others the rest of the time.  And not in a selfish way, but in a natural human way.  Thought like "How does this affect me?" "What does this imply about me?" etc.  I bet it's people like Mother Theresa who think about themselves less and other more.  And I ain't no Mother Theresa.

Since that's been settled, I am going to go ahead and answer the questions I'm pretending you're thinking about.

I started blogging my sophomore year of college on LiveJournal.  It was one of the first blogging forums I knew about and you had to get an invitation from someone to join and you got one invitation to give out.  I really wanted to readers, so I told a boy that I don't know if I liked or not because he was not my boyfriend at the time, but at one point in my past we tried to date, but it didn't work out.  Anyways, I told him to read my blog and he said he didn't want to if I wasn't going to write in it everyday.  Challenge accepted.  I posted almost everyday for an entire year.  I'm pretty darn sure he never read it once.  But that's okay.  I got in the habit of writing and thinking about things to write about.  Then when I went to Grad School I joined MySpace (don't worry if you don't know what that is...it no longer matters.) and I wrote there.  Turns out though I can only get readers there if they also belong to MySpace, then MySpace died.  Finally I made a big decision (and it was hard, this is actually my SECOND blogger blog) to go "public"...like super public.  With that decision I had to apply all of the lessons I've learned along the way about what not to say and what is not appropriate to say, etc.  So let me assure you, by reading this, you in no way see everything in my life, just what I allow you to see.  It's also still a work in progress. 

That sorta go boring.  New question.  When I was freaking out about ending school and not having a job I went to see a speaker on moving beyond the White Tower of Academia.  She said that to see what I'm interested in as a job, etc.  Find people that inspire me and write them a note.  I never wrote a note, but the people who inspire me are all bloggers. 

1.  Dooce  She taught me that you can get fired for your blog.  That blogs aren't as good if you sound forced in your writing, and that corporate sponsorship maybe good for her family income, but is actually annoying for the readers...or at least me.  I no longer read her, but I appreciate the time I did.  Oh, I read her posts during her whole pregnancy, and she is the first woman to ever be completely honest in my awareness about what actually happens during pregnancy and giving birth.  I mean come on...of all the mom's out in the world, no one can ever talk about or even mention the MUCUS PLUG.  Or NESTING!?!  That shits important.

2.  The Yarn Harlot  This is written by a knitter, author, mother, friend, and wife.  She reminds me of my mom sometimes, but she is younger than my mom, which is odd...it's my mom 10 years ago.  And she's done so much in her life already and she's not afraid to admit the laundry and dishes are never done and that the house is a mess.  Once she posted a post where she went off on this crazy rant (and when I say once, I really mean, she only did this sort of thing that one time) and it sounded exactly like I would say when I am overwhelmed and nothing went right and I was close to an anxiety attack.  She had to go get beer.  See, she also appreciates a good beer now and then.  Her writing is natural sounding, informative, changes with her life and she has no ads on her blog.  She also doesn't gossip or talk too much about personal stuff, so I try to imitate that.

3.  A Quirky Girls Thoughts  This is my newest blog I read.  It's written by a girl in England, I think, and she is younger than me.  Still in college I believe.  Her blog is different because it's not written as a story and sometimes there are more pictures than words.  A lot of times she lists things to be thankful for, or things for her readers to be happy about.  Or she lists her interests at the moment.  Sometimes she talks about anxiety and how to deal with that.  It's not what I would have expected to choose as blog to read, but she always makes me happy or gives me a new perspective to think about.  It's very girly and about having fun with life...not about making your way through life.  Sometimes I think I need a reminder not to take life so seriously, and her blog helps with that.


As to my motivations?  Well, sometimes I have soooo many words in me and not enough people to talk to.  If I write it down in blog format, I can say as much as I want and the reader can choose to listen or not listen and I don't have to worry about wasting their time.  My blog is definitely for me...but I like to have someone to listen.  Plus I love the mystery of not knowing who's reading it.