Blogging

Blogging is kind of odd- like Jen's magnificent boobs say - you put intimate bits of your life up there for people to read.
And as Steph noted and I have often thought -you also look at the world through the eyes of a blogger; thinking - I could take a photo of that and write it up, so in some ways it motivates me to be more aware of the moment; I’m sharing it and I want it to be as colourful as possible.
It is a record of what I did in this life – sort of a diary. Mine is about the things that are important to me: Doing stuff, the family, environment, cool science, home life, all the things that I would talk to my mates and family about. My friends and family read it to find out what is going on and what we have been doing and with a click can share our adventures and trials.
It is not anonymous, well not really. There is some meager protection for them in that I don’t put my last name up but there is enough info in the blog in different places to make it a 10 minute Google job to get my work phone number.
It’s a compromise – I write some posts for a specific person and others are less than appropriate for some of the readers (but I post them any way). Some are for family, some are for me (like the tunes I listen to at work). Some are for the kids in the future and most of it is for you, the 10 or so people that regularly read and comment. I don’t post anything politically too controversial because you never know which way the wind may blow and this is a permanent record, also attached to my wife, son and daughter – all of whom have no say in what goes up.
It is also participation in a small but fantastic social network – you guys in the blog roll to the right are to varying degrees either merely interesting people who I will probably never meet (Andrew Bartlett) or are very real friends for whom I have a great affection and share more and know more about than my in real life friends. Like I said in an email to one of Libby’s friends (family?) when enquiring as to the birth of her little girl a few weeks ago – it is amazing (I think I used the word strange but I mean amazing) even when you only know someone through their blog, through a public exchange of paragraphs – how much affection / friendship there is. You poor yourself a bit at a time into those paragraphs and there is often more there than a casual chat with a friend. I sincerely want to meet all of you – how could you not want to have a beer with this man
I'll admit that it is done for an audience: there is a little of the exhibitionist – (i.e. Steph’s blog) – in most blogging but its not like getting thrills showering where some stranger can perve on you because, as I said above most of you are no longer strangers.
This post was prompted by the question Leesha’s put to her readers regarding what did we want her to write. In answering I’m answering to all of you should you ask - Well what ever you want, I don’t want to read what I would write, I want to read about the things that you'll are motivated to write about. That’s what makes this blogging thing interesting.

Steve