Blogging Thoughts & Ephemera

• I love this as much as I did the first day I started. No, more. I've had a couple of flat periods where I struggled to post, and in hindsight my posts took a turn to the darker side of things, but that was really more of a sign of where my head was at than any attitude towards blogging. Black Dog blogging, so to speak.
  
  

• I love that blogging gives me the freedom to post whatever I'm thinking, without an editor (other than the one in my head). Freedom bordering on anarchy baby! I'm in awe of disciplined bloggers, the sort who have 'topic' blogs, or do themed days like Such & Such Thursday, or Something Or Other Tuesday. I could never be that disciplined.
  
  

• Friendships. I've made so many friendships through this blog, and the other blogs I read. Some of these friendships are only online, and some are face to face, and all of them are special to me. So much for The Internetz Super Highway Web making us all socially isolated, right?
  
  

• Discovering new blogs, and new circles of blogs, opens your eyes to the wealth of human experience out there. For instance, my recent discovered passion for knitting has meant that I've been seeking out knitting and craft blogs. Cruise the knitblogsphere and not only will you see every kind of knitter represented somehow, but the entire gamut of creativity. Some of the stuff I've seen has blown my tiny mind, and opened my eyes to the amazing creativity possible in what some people think of as a dowdy 'domestic' craft. Aside from blogs on a particular theme, just reading blogs from people who are documenting their lives can amaze, surprise, touch and sometimes horrify, but it's all human experience and elements of it connect us all.
  
  

• It allows me to play with language, to practice writing, to see if I can make people smile or think. That's a massive bonus for me. I don't use this blog as a writing lab, but just writing regularly does help me feel more confident in my own voice and enjoy the craft of writing.
  
  

• There are so many great writers out there in the blogsphere! Great blog writing to me is personal, creative, maybe touching, maybe hilariously funny, frequently suprising - I guess writing that has life and personality is what I really mean.
  
  

• Feedback. I've said this before, but having the facility for online commenting is what really brought this alive for me. Not just feedback directed at me, but the way that comments sometime develop into mini chat rooms of a sort. I guess it's all about connecting. You guys connecting with me, and sometimes with each other. I love that!