On blogging

x180 brings up a good point about blogging: it gives you a very skewed perspective about a person. Reading my blog, you might think that I’m a dork with interests in anime, macs, and ballroom dancing. I usually end up watching movies or playing Soul Calibur II (or, even better, Twinkle Star Sprites) with my friends on the weekend, and I’m perpetually tired.

Actually, that would be pretty damn close to right. (I also have a potty-mouth, but that waxes and wanes over time.)

Of those listed, the biggest filter on what you read in my blog, it seems to me, is do I have time to write about this right now? Quite often, the answer to this question is hell no. When you read a post, it’s often because I’m putting off sleep to try and write… and, suddenly, my perpetual sleep-deprived state doesn’t seem so mysterious to me.

Still, I sometimes wonder what impression this blog gives to those who haven’t met me in the flesh. I generally have something to talk about, however mundane, when I post—whereas I’m frequently at a loss for words in day-to-day conversation. (Admittedly, my posts seem to elicit as much reaction from people as my conversational attempts….) Any thoughts about myself are tinted by my perspective, and I am my harshest critic. Also, I know who I am—and so I might assume knowledge about myself that others might not have.

Additionally, I absolutely love ellipses, em-dashes, and parenthetical statements when I write; while the editing process usually reduces those for any formal papers, these posts are lucky if they get read-through once.

I’m sure this fact pains Brian, my unofficial editor, even though it probably doesn’t surprise him.

For those who do know me, I’d be surprised if anything I’ve written has really changed your impression of me. Okay, maybe a few of you have thought something along the lines of “I’ve never seen Brent drop fifty F-bombs in one paragraph,” or “Brent talking about dancing is like a fish talking about walking,” or “sumbitch owes me money.”

Nevertheless, for those who know me, I figure this is the next-best thing far superior to actually having me in your lives.

Ultimately, though, this blog is a memory-aid for my sieve of a brain. That gives it a slightly different purpose than most blogs have; while it’s nice that(/if?) you want to read along, it would still exist in some form even if you didn’t. If you find it mostly boring, that’s because my life can be pretty dull at times—but I’m all right with that. (I have two expectations of my life: that it will be long, and that it will be boring.) You’ll have to look to the next guy to stick his head in a lion’s mouth while freefalling at ten-thousand feet after having jumped out of an exploding helicopter (extreme!); I’ll find (less-extreme) pleasure in my daily interactions with others.

And inasmuch as blogs have given me another way to interact with others—however flawed—they’re pretty damn nifty.

 

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