It is not just a phase

Recycled blog doodle from two years ago

I have now been blogging for almost six bloody years! Not that it is a marvellous achievement, as I have had my ebay account for much longer. The shit I have bought on that site over the years, the feeling of win, followed by dismay when you see what you have bought in real life. Most recently I am buying all the buttons in the world, so please feel free to send me some. Anyhoo, lets get back on to the topic at hand, which is blogging.

Although I have had periods of neglecting this old weblog of mine, cheating on it, by having quick fixes and short dalliances over on the book of faces and twitter. I have always come crawling back, because the urge to brain vomit overwhelms me and I need to share. What is brain vomit? For me, it is that gradual build up of pressure in ones brain, that is created from a volatile mix of stress and too many ideas. It has to go somewhere, so instead of creating a scene, by walking around the park in my pyjamas, muttering to myself, I blog.

The urge to share the good times, the bad times and the mediocre times, becomes second nature after a while. Not sure at what point, it just creeps up on you and you don't question it. It was a great comfort when I was up all night with college work and/or worrying about the mumborg. Instead of keeping all the worries locked in my noggin, I set them free into blog world. Gradually doodling took over as the stress reliever and I began to blog less and less. Now that the business (The Doodologist) has taken off so well, I am once again up at night and needing to brain vomit. I can't share the doodles, as that would breach doodle client confidentiality, until they are with their new owners, so back to blogging it is! For me it just proves that creativity in any form, whether it be writing or doodling or whatever, works as a mega stress reliever for me.

At first I preached the gospel of blogging to anyone that would listen, exclaiming how easy it was and how much they would get out of it. Not anymore! Some people are not born to blog, because they are too boring. Is that harsh of me? Probably, but who cares. I don't actually mean that they are boring (although some are), it is just that some folks don't have the patience that writing a good blog needs(whatever your own criteria of 'good' is). You need the early days of writing to no one, wondering if the internet was even working and why hasn't anyone bloody commented. It makes you a better blogger, because you find your own voice. If you look back at some of my earlier posts (don't), I use a lot of exclamation marks and don't capitalise the letter 'i', sheesh, what was all that about? My grammar is far from perfect now, but I have gradually improved (one hopes). I still love a good exclamation mark thrown in willy nilly! Even if it does make me sound like a rather excitable child, which couldn't be further from the truth.

Green, hairy and grumpy alter ego.. The Grumpus

You know when people say that they are just writing for themselves and all that bollocks? Well for me it is kinda true. I look back at the days when I was blogging frequently and I can really get a sense of what was happening behind the scenes in those days. I already regret slipping off into my lackadaisical airy fairy blogging ways, with months of no blogging, because life whooshes by and so many moments are easily forgotten. So yet again I am endeavouring to blog more often, maybe it will be a case of quantity over quality, but when the last marble has rolled off, I will at least have somewhere to read back on my adventures/mishaps.

Social media is a horrible turn of phrase, that turns you off faster than picturing Margaret Thatcher in the nuddy. It is however a powerful tool that allows you to travel through a magical portal and arrive into peoples homes, workplaces etc (waves to those reading). I would be remiss not to mention how fortunate I have been because of blogging, it has allowed me to start my own business, travel to America and express myself in many a creative way. Blogging isn't magical, I have put a lot of time and effort into it, but it is something that I really enjoy.

My six year blogoversary will occur whilst I am fannying around the USA, well the East Coastish side of the USA anyways. A trip that wouldn't have happened without blogging. I am sure I would have gotten round to visiting the USA at some point, but certainly nothing like this trip.  After convincing myself that I not only want 'but need' a tablet device, I have decided I am going to splurge on a Google Nexus 7, so that I can torture you all with updates as I travel around. Just need to count my buttons and purchase one, will probably get a wee keyboard too, as I am shit at touch typing!

For those in the know, as in those that actually blog frequently, non bloggers look away now!  What is going on with all this feedburner nonsense? What will it affect, if it does bite the dust? I presume that means no google reader,the connection to networked blogs on FB will go kaput and it wont automatically update twitter. None of those things are the end of world, as I manually update most social networks anyways, but is there anything really important that it will cock up? If so, what are you doing about it?

Edit: My lovely chum Peter the Dragon has recommended IFTTT, which is looking rather spiffy so far. 

Gosh this was a ramble, but better out than in, right? I will blame it on the full moon tonight, my palms have been looking awfully hairy of late.  Hoorah for blogging and all that bollocks.