The blogs that never were.

I suffer from blog guilt.  I look at my statistics and see that faithful readers have come to my site and have been turned away without fresh stories.   Not very many faithful readers mind you but some.    It isn’t that I wasn’t thinking about blogging.   It’s just that this week they all hit the trash can.   Here are the top five blog stories that aren’t going to happen this week.

#5:    Yes I really can cook.     My husband’s birthday was on Monday.   I successfully made an incredible green bean casserole.   I stole the recipe from a friend.   It involves cheese, butter, sour cream, more cheese and bacon.   I didn’t burn it.  People had seconds.   Really that’s all I had to say about it.   Not long enough for a blog.

#4.  My husband is amazing.    There is a fine line between a nice sentimental blog about your spouse and a blog that makes people feel queasy from too much gush.    I was having a hard time with the fine line so I hit delete.   He is amazing though.

#3.  I’m a crazy parent.   My kindergartener was assigned to the orange reading group.   I don’t know what this means.   Does orange mean she’s in the second highest group because orange is the second color in the rainbow?   Does orange mean she’s in the highest reading group because orange is so bright?   Does orange mean that she is in the lowest reading group because orange reminds me of clowns which she can be when she’s supposed to be paying attention?    I actually voiced some of these questions to my sister who happens to teach kindergarten.  She took a deep breath so she could avoid punching me and then told me I was one of the crazy parents and I needed to reevaluate.   Who wants to read a whole blog about that?

#2.   Its raining.  I like rain.   I already blogged about this last year.    Rain, Rain.      I need someone to tell me if people like to see old blogs reposted.    Or should I come up with something new to say?   I’m in a quagmire.

#1.  National Novel Writing Month  I have two friends who are writers by trade.  One is a newspaper columnist.  One is a novelist.   I think they are both incredible.   I briefly contemplated participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month.  It’s in November.  You’re supposed to write a 50,000 word novel in just one month.  Last year there were over 200,000 participants and 50,000 people actually completed a novel in a month.  I’m so curious.    That’s how far I got on the blog.   Probably not a good sign for a full novel.

Whew.   I feel better.   Like I confessed and the guilt is gone.   Read on my readers.

 

Advertisement

Flip Side: On Writing

According to Wikipedia, there are currently 156 million different public blogs.    This number is daunting.   As one member of that 156 million I wonder what it would take to get noticed by more than my five loyal readers.   The fact that I used Wikipedia as a source is proof that I’m probably not willing to invest the kind of time in research that it would take to be noticed.

I asked a few of my regular readers why they thought I blogged.    These are the people who read my blog whether they want to or not.   They live with me or work with me or see me pretty frequently.   I think they might be worried that if they don’t read it I’ll ask them about it.   They are right.   Here are their off the top of their head responses:

My mother:   It’s fun.    (This is true.  It’s also a very supportive comment.)

My BFF:  Because you want people to know what is going on and you like to write.   (Very true, very supportive).

My sister:  She burst out laughing.   (I’m not sure what this means.  But the truth is that one of the reasons I blog is to make my sister laugh so I guess its working.   My favorite blogs are the ones where I watch her read them and she can’t breathe and tears are dripping down her face because she’s laughing so hard.)

My husband:  Because you need attention.   (ahhhh the ones who know us the best….)   To his credit, he was kidding.   I can tell when he’s joking because the corners of his eyelids crinkle and his eyes sparkle – it gives him away.  But just because he was joking does not mean it’s not true.

There are other reasons.    I blog because sometimes things I hear about in the world make me want to rant.    My poor family can only handle so many of my tirades against injustice.   Blogging forces me to rationally think through why I’m up in arms.  When I’ve managed to think it through, I feel better.   I can sleep.

It takes me about 45 mintues to do a single blog.    It’s like a mental workout.  I blog because sometimes life is hilarious.  I blog because sometimes life is painful.   I blog because it forces me to examine my attitudes.

I blog because sometimes God is so good that I want to shout out His praises.

I blog because my uncle blogs.   I’m trying my best to keep up.    Want to see why he blogs?  Check out www.doncanonge.com.

Art, Uncles and Synergy

Ever notice that others can bring out the best in you?   My entire life my Uncle Don has been one of those people.  Uncle Don is one of the most competitive people I know.  He’s also one of the most talented.  Let me give you a random unsolicited piece of advice.    Do not start a contest, game, story, joke or in this case BLOG with Uncle Don….unless you plan on investing some time and possibly some money in keeping up with the guy!

So I’ve been blogging for about two months now.  It started in Rwanda as a way to keep people back home informed that the team was, in fact, still alive.    I ended up really enjoying the blogging and it was a therapeutic way to process the overwhelming events we saw each day.     I’m also by nature a number’s girl and it’s too fun to watch the daily statistics and see exactly how many people are coming by to read the newest post.

I have to sidebar here as an example in my point of this blog and tell you that my mother is standing over my shoulder correcting my spelling and grammar.

About a month ago, my uncle joined the blogging nation and I’ve been trying to keep up ever since.  Last night I went to the library for my daughter but brought home a book that is sure to give me a leg up….WordPress for Dummies.   Watch out Don….

For those of you who have read this far and want to know what all of this has to do with art, you are going to have to read Uncle Don’s blog post today… it’d called Dylan’s Lion.

www.doncanonge.wordpress.com