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To Blog or Not To Blog

Posted on by D. Parker

1funny452I have always been me and despite many attempts to make me not me, I still seem to manage to be me.

That’s not always a good thing.

Read some of my stuff, comment, critique, praise, ignore, puzzle, or just do whatever you want.

That’s my blog bio…everything else you’ll learn in my posts or you don’t care.

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Every time I think I understand, even vaguely, how the world works, it tilts on its axis, spinning me right round, baby right round, like a record. Turns out, the blogging world is no different. Like everyone else on the planet (that might be a slight exaggeration, overstatement was never my strong suit), I have a blog. If I had a cat it would have a blog about sleeping, eating, and occasionally chasing a mouse lurking around the property. The mouse would have a blog about his adventures trying to escape the cat that bothers him while he’s trying to lurk around the property. And so on.

August 2013,  I started this blog to relax, to practice writing, and to be more concise, with varying degrees of success. My Very Me-ness doesn’t always translate well, but no need to worry (hear that brain, no need to worry…forget it, it’s not listening), I’ve been embraced by readers, bloggers, etc. and I feel snug as a bug in a virtual rug.

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Blogging has been difficult in many ways, but has made me fall in love with writing again, which guided me to start a year-long project to add even more happiness (Or contentment? Peace of mind?) to my life.

I more or less doubled my 7 goals in my first week http://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/03/dont-worry-be-happy/, even giving up 4 TV shows, but then I added 2, drum roll please, ok, I really only gave up 2 (math rules!).

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This week’s goals:
1. Remove 15 minutes or more of screen time per day and play a game with my son (I want chess, he wants Pokémon, maybe we need a Pokémon chess set).
2. Remove 100 calories per day (No cheating, it can’t be veggies…Step away from the cookies).
3. Remove 15 minutes or more of screen time per day and just write, doesn’t matter what.
4. Remove 15 minutes or more per day of sitting time (replace with Yoga and Tai Chi).
5. Spend 15 minutes or more per day submitting articles and manuscripts, especially knowing they might be rejected.
6. Change 15 minutes of internet time to relaxation and rest.
7. Give away, use, or get rid of 1 or more items a day.

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1funny433Blogging myths busted and wisdom learned:

1. Blogging is solitary. Wrong. Blogging, my friends, is social and addictive, like sugar, and as the song by Maroon 5 says (I’ve tried to get it out of my head, believe me), I need a little sweetness in my life, your sugar, yes, please!

2.You need to have something to say to have a blog. How snotty and daft was that assumption? Everyone has something to say.

3. Blogging is simple. Wrong again, complicated, yet worth it, despite the intricacies that sometimes make you feel like your head might explode. Mistakes have been made and more shall be made; it’s all part of learning.

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4. Success! I thought I needed to be a world-famous writer, then I saw comments that said I’d made people laugh, smile, and think. Anything else that comes along would be the icing on this delicious, chocolatey cake of a blog experience thanks to you, dear readers.

5. Blogging is constant. Wrong. As with life, the only thing you can count on in blogging is change.
For example, I believe the WordPress motto is: If it ain’t broke, fix it a few times a day.
Twitter seems to have a midlife crisis every few weeks and I don’t know what happened to Facebook.
There are: trolls, traffic, topics, taboos, privacy issues, time, concentration…what was I saying? Oh yes, so the question today is, to blog or not to blog?
For now, the answer is…why not?

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Author:

Very me

130 thoughts on “To Blog or Not To Blog”

  2. Reblogged this on ' Ace Social & Media News ' and commented:
    Really great writing and l to find trying not to be me., is sometimes a great way to be. Being a giver and getting the shaft not the mine has become an inevitable circumstance.
    Though trying not to be me and always doing the right thing as a Good Samaritan costs me dearly.
    I will always be a giver and there will always be takers – just have to accept the will of God. Amen.
    Anyway as always another Donnamazing post shared on here as well Ian x http://flip.it/9EOUS

    Reply

    1. My grandma, a wise and giving woman always said you should give as much as you can, even a smile can change a day. She said you won’t always get it back in kind or even from that person, sometimes you’ll even be wronged, but what you gave always multiplied and went around. You’ll receive from elsewhere. Told you she was wise. 🙂
      You’re a generous and kind person, Ian, I think you’re doing what needs to be. 🙂
      And thank you so much for the reblog, you really are wonderful. 🙂

      Reply

      1. Now l have finished with tears of joy from your comment.
        She passed her wisdom over to you as you have the same kind heart and she was as you are a really good person 😀

      2. Thank you, I always think of this quote when I think of her,
        “Life is mainly froth and bubble
        Two things stand like stone —
        Kindness in another’s trouble.
        Courage in your own.”~Adam Lindsay Gordon
        Hope this day treats you kindly Ian. 🙂

  3. Dear Donna — i’m so glad you decided “to blog”… I was afraid i was about to read your resignation. (But maybe that’s just because i was giving serious consideration to writing my own – for the 9 to 5 job, not my blog… But i think about resigning from that too, because i have no time to write anything else.) Need more coffee to stop my own meanderings. Co-ffeeee…
    Have a terrific Tuesday full of hugs! 😀

    Reply

    1. I was thinking about stepping back as I started to write the post, Teagan, but as I wrote I remembered why I love it, it’s pull, it’s passion and I couldn’t do it. 🙂
      Resignations are tough, knowing when it’s the right time to move on. I don’t know enough about your work situation to give an opinion, but as for the blogging, Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      Don’t go!!!! Take some time off. Only give us an installment every fortnight or once a month, but don’t leave us!!!!! Pleeeeeaaaassssee!!!
      Have a lot of coffee, a mountainfull if you must, but don’t go! 😉
      Have a lovely Tuesday, sweetie!!! Megahugs!!! 🙂

      Reply

      1. Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry — it was just a passing thought. 😀 Actually the next episode is finished except the last line. Need to figure out an appropriate posture or mannerism for Felicity to have when Cornelis exasperates her yet again. 😉
        Mega-hugs right back.

      2. OK, I can breath now! 😉
        Ooooo, now you’re just taunting me because I have to wait. That’s ok, the reward of patience is patience, whatever that means. 😉
        Megahugs! 🙂

  7. I love that first bit from your bio (which I love by the way). You’ve hit so many points here that reflect some of my thoughts on blogging (always a love / hate relationship). I step away when I need to but it is addictive. Reminding myself that I started this for me really helps me keep things in perspective when a post doesn’t go as planned or if I’m feeling pressured to blog.
    About those 100 calories though? Really…? I couldn’t just eliminate parsnips?? 😀

    Reply

    1. Thank you kindly Karin. 🙂
      You’re so right, taking breaks and reminding ourselves why we blog can help get through the tough spots and see the other side. 🙂
      I had to give myself a qualifying for the calories, poor parsnips, they really are the downtrodden of the veggie world. 😉
      Hope this day treats you and your parsnips kindly. 🙂

      Reply

  8. Two things: 1) I’d bet you could find a Pokemon chess set and to be honest, the two games aren’t that different. 2) What kind of writing/articles do you do that you submit somewhere? Where do you submit?

    Reply

    1. I’m sure there’s one out there, just picked up a Star Wars chess set at a yard sale, so it’s a compromise.
      So far I’ve been submitting mostly the same stuff I write here, but I’m going to try some different stuff. Any suggestions where to submit and how? 🙂

      Reply

  9. Well done. Blogging is very addictive. But the dark side is sitting down a thought and poignant turns light hearted or vice versa.

    Reply

  12. I am not a writer, but I am a blogging addict because I have something to say and love to read what others have said. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

    Reply

  13. The clapping hands above your goals is priceless! I am thrilled that your answer is “why not.” I love everything about you and your writing style. And your goals – can’t forget those…so important. You are planting seeds with those. 🙂

    Reply

  15. Keep blogging – your posts are not only entertaining, but darn close to the way things are! I’m always asking myself the same question, a break for me might be in order.

    Reply

    1. It’s always a tough choice, isn’t it? When I started writing the post it was my intention, but it made me remember what I loved about it…I keep trying to get away but they keep pulling me back in and I’m glad. 🙂
      Take a break if you need one, Mary, but not too long, we’ll miss your beautiful art. 🙂

      Reply

      2. Or maybe we are, wait, aren’t…are, now I’m confused, did your crack squirrels break out and race over here?!? 😉

  17. I hardly ever go more than one or two days without blogging but for me today it will be “not to blog.” I’m getting directly in my pajamas after work, watching the rest of the bachelorette that I didn’t finish last night, and hope to be asleep by 7. I can barely keep my eyes open. I have insomnia all the time but even the sleeping pills didn’t help last night. It was a rough one.

    Reply

    1. Sadly the Sandman and I have a complicated relationship so I understand completely.
      Hope you can have a better night and a better tomorrow. 🙂
      Sleep well and dream of handsome blokes. 😉

      Reply

  18. Blogging is great, but damn is it addicting! WordPress comment was priceless, has to be the most frustrating thing in the world!

    Reply

  20. I’m having precisely that kind of blog or not to blog week – in between vacation and taking care of mom – but you’re right. It is addictive. A way of connecting.

    Reply

    1. I find that times when I feel stressed or don’t feel like I have time is exactly when it seems to hep, strange, but true.
      Hope your vacation has some good times and hope your Mom is doing better. 🙂

      Reply

  21. I think that once we stay blogging, we can’t stop. At least not for long. I’ve been blogging since the 90s. I’ve taken breaks but I always come back to it. It keeps me going and keeps me connected to people.

    Reply

      1. Yes, it’s part of who I am. At the end of the day, if I haven’t blogged, it doesn’t feel right.

    1. You’re right, I think of writers they need to express what’s inside and this a perfect medium.
      Thank you kindly and you as well. 🙂

      Reply

  26. Frankly, if it had just been the photo of Harrison Ford, I’d have liked this post 🙂

    I’m impressed that you made some progress with those very demanding goals and that you’re planning some more.

    Reply

  31. Loved your thoughts on WordPress’s motto! 🙂 I would have to agree. Good luck with all your goals! You’ve written them and let people know. That actually makes achieving them easier.

    Reply

  32. As I’m reading this post I found myself nodding like a bobblehead.

    Yes – I like your observations.
    Yes – I LOVE your bite-size goals. I really must give them more thought.
    Yes – I agree with your blogging myths debunked.

    Great post!

    Reply

    1. That’s quite an image! lol 😉
      Thank you.
      Thank you.
      Thank you.
      Thank you kindly. 🙂
      Hope this day is being good to you. 🙂

      Reply

    1. I know I was one of those people until I started blogging…perhaps it’s like people who think they should open a restaurant because they like eating at restaurants? 😉

      Reply

  37. Your 7 goals are very inspiring!!
    When you said that blogging has “made me fall in love with writing again”, I feel the same when I think of what blogging has done to me!
    Thank you for sharing another fabulous blog post!!!

    Vivienne X X

    Reply

  38. It’s like you are in my head! Great post – keep on blogging! Those goals though, wow I can’t even remember them now. Good luck! And I love your gifs. That’s my goal to learn how to embed gifs.

    Reply

      1. lesser minds aspire to great ones…
        Where do you get the cool gifs? I don’t want to steal anyone’s artistic property that’s why I’m confused with images? Does that make sense?

      2. When you make a gif or a meme you choose whether they’re going to be public or private so I assume if they’re public people want people to use them – if they want their work done you’ll usually see a ‘signature’ or site on the work. If you feel uncomfortable, use your own or cite where you found the work (but that’s unlikely to be the original maker). 🙂

  41. You have articulated a dilemma I face with each new post. I call it the “Who Cares” syndrome. After I write an article (sounds more prestigious than “post”), I argue with myself before pressing the “publish” button, thinking “who cares what you have to say” etc. I end up publishing anyway because I have to remind myself constantly that I’m doing this for me.

    Reply

    1. That’s the thing, isn’t it, you have to do what makes you comfortable, if people like it, they will like it, if not, what are you really doing it for? 🙂

      Reply

    1. Thank you so much, Sarah, for the reblog. 🙂
      Yes, Sally Field always makes me smile (when she isn’t making me cry). 🙂
      Hope this weekend treats you kindly. All the best. 🙂

      Reply

    1. My blog door is always open, of course, it’s hard to read the posts with all the ads ruining them. Thanks WordPress, greedy.

      Reply

      2. And for the Like buttons to work, less ads clogging up the blogging arteries, and so much more. WordPress sucks.

    1. Thank you kindly for all the #bloglove Jonathan. I’m still mulling over this question.
      Hope you’re having a great weekend so far. 🙂

      Reply
  48. Pingback: Featured Blogger: Head Over Heels // yadadarcyyada | Ace Social News Desk

    1. Thank you so much for the remarkable reblog, Ian. Hope things have been well (all things considered). Thanks again for the #bloglove and hope this week treats you kindly. Big bloggy hugs xox

      Reply

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