You’ve probably had this conversation:
new person: hey. i’m a new person.
you: hey. me.
np: *yadda yadda* Have you seen? *yadda yadda* Obama awesome. *yadda yadda* How do you know the person who rents this space?
you: Oh, I blog. [Damnit damnit damnit. He's gonna ask me what I blog about.]
np: Oh, yeah? What about?
you: *take a sip from drink in hand* I dunno. Maybe if it’s what.
And then you realize you’ve just done the worst self-promotion ever and butchered the English grammar structure.
I read Patrick’s post about blog mission statements on Monday and, well, realized I don’t really have one. I have a title and a subtitle for this blog and that’s as close to a stated purpose as I get.¹
I wonder if I should be disappointed or not, though. Does it really mean I’ve got about as much vision as [insert cliché blind celebrity of choice] or that any vision I’ve got has about as much clarity as [insert cliché clarity-lacking celebrity of choice]? I dunno. Maybe if it’s what.
I’m not on a mission. Actually, scratch that. I would like to find Curly’s gold, own more animated Disney movies than anyone within a 100 mile radius and build a house that has a playroom full of Legos. But I’m not on a mission via blog.
If you’ve got a single, underlying theme, then I don’t just respect it, I enjoy it. Trust me: my undiagnosed OCD loves the cohesiveness of that and keeps me coming back for more. But I’m all over the place here.
If I had to have a blog “theme,” it would be that this blog is the butt of a bar joke:
me: So a priest, an Irish guy, a black lady, two happily conjoined 35-year-old twins, a brunette, a staffer and a horse walk into a bar –
friend: Haha. Yeah…
me: – and they had an awesome time –
friend: * ? *
me: because it was like going to francobeans.com where there’s something for everybody.
friend: That joke sucks like a retired worker of the street.
me: Wait. Retired? So if the skills are a bit rusty, that means… that means it doesn’t suck that hard and I win!
See? This is my blog. One brain fart rippling through the html-air after another. This place is just a conversation armed with pictures and videos. Sometimes I talk about me and sometimes I talk about politics and celebrities. Sometimes it’s empty small talk and sometimes it’s slightly less empty small talk. Sometimes it’s even things I really care about. The only important constant is that I’m the one saying it. And I’m genuinely satisfied with that.
_________
¹Which reminds me: I still seem to have misplaced my pants. Have you seen them? No? Okay.
I was asked that question at a blogger event recently and I just replied: “My blog features personal reflections and experiences, complaints, movie and book reviews, some artwork and food porn.” LOL.
I think its better to be ‘all over the place’. One topic-any topic-gets old after awhile.
Haha. What was the response to that (other than “mmm, food porn,” of course)?
“brain fart” – that made me giggle so i’m just going to use it from now on. especially in meetings.
i think there are a lot of bloggers that don’t have any specific rhyme or purpose for the blog except that they love to write and put stuff out there. no matter what. and to me that just makes it all the more interesting.
Some of my favorite blogs have really clear ideas behind them. I like coming back everyday to that. It’s like going to a… pizzeria. I know I can get pizza every day, but it still isn’t like it’s the same exact piece of pizza day in day out.
Annnnnd… I’ll take wack food analogies for $400, Alex.
I like your site specifically because it’s got a bit of everything and, most importantly, it’s all you. I appreciate your varied interests, your disney collection (finally, I’m not alone!), your political opinions, your random stories, etc.
Keep up the good work and if you want to post about the pros and cons to the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Little Mermaid soundtracks then I’ve been working on an entry like that for a while now. It’ll be like a political debate…but we’ll be talking about Sebastian the crab.
Could it be? A Disney aficionado who understands? You are auto-invited to the 2nd Disney party I have ever hosted… whenever it happens.
I really liked what you said in Patrick’s comments, about your blog being a conversation. Everytime I visit your blog I find it SO EASY to write a comment, because your posts inspire conversation with me.
Hooray! Honestly: that makes my day.
“So a priest, an Irish guy, a black lady, two happily conjoined 35-year-old twins, a brunette, a staffer and a horse walk into a bar –”
Why does that describe what happened last Saturday night? Hmm. I think I should be more focused in theory, but then I and others would come to expect that; thats when burn out sets in.
Just fyi: that sounds like you had an awesome Saturday, but, as you always know, you were missed up here. We christened the baby out of that dance floor at Bourbon on Saturday night.
Same here with Lusty Reader- what I was really trying to say was that personal blogs are really just about you: your thoughts, your life, your own shit.
Unlike other people like Lemmonex who can write a food blog and interject her own life into it, or Lusty Reader who writes about well… Lusty Reading… personal bloggers often struggle to write without such a clear mission.
I actually think my concern’s are totally superficial. I’m fine with what I write. I just don’t know how to describe it to someone who has never been here before. People seem to wince at the mention of being a personal blogger, while they light up and ask questions if you’re tech blogger, or a music blogger, etc. I just wish I sounded better on paper, if that makes any sense.
I’ve started telling people mine is about pudding and Daniel Day-Lewis, ever since last summer when I dedicated an entire week to those two subjects. Sometimes at once. Also, I have no idea where I came up with the idea in the first place.
It was a weird time for Smell The Glove.
I should really reprise that theme week, though. You’d be amazed how many posts you can get out of pudding and Daniel Day-Lewis.
Pudding and Daniel Day-Lewis? I first started saying my blog was for people who liked cheesecake and JJ Abrams projects.
That conversation about “oh! what do you blog about?!” happened in DC on Saturday and I was like.. “oh jeez…”
I know. I feel like an idiot whenever I try to answer it.
In fact next time I am asked, “what do you blog about?” I will respond, “How cougar hunting is so last year! I am going to get a Puma hunting license instead.” You can use it, its cool.
Haha. Nice. It is cool.
I am the exact same way- If I had a theme I would constantly be colouring outside of the lines on that theme so I don’t see the point.
ps- I have your pants. They look really good on me too. Can I keep them for a while?
You found them?! Yeah, definitely. Oh, the places you will go while wearing those pants.
I thought about this same thing after reading Patrick’s post. I like to answer the “what do you blog about” question with “a little of this, a little of that.” Because that’s really all I’ve got.
I kind of wish I could use JP’s cougar hunting line, but I don’t know if it’d have the same effect.
Maybe not the same effect, but a fantastic one nonetheless.
“Have you seen them?”
Check with the strip club. It just seems logical.
You think they’d give them back? Something tells me they’ve got a finders-keepers policy.
My blog is my best kept secret, it is my “secret life”, no one who knows me from my “normal” life -whatever that may mean- knows about it (maybe one person, who actually caught me), so I never thought of it having a mission, mostly it is about writing when I have something I want to express without any censoring, whatever that may be.
Your blog, though, I must say, many times I feel like I go there when I need “wisdom”, when things like the train wreck happen, or the shooting in the Holocaust Museum, or the Disney’s black princess… Your blog makes me think, makes me wonder and makes me questions things. I love that. And this is why I keep coming back for more.
Thank you for that. All this thinking today really makes me want to start something new; something uncensored and clear.
oy, i hate that question too, because my blog is most definitely *not* anything cohesive. mostly i brush the question off with “eh, you know, just sort of a personal thing talking about the stupid shit that goes on in my life.” people who don’t blog don’t really *get* blogging without a “purpose” anyway – like a sports blog, or a tech blog, or whatever – so i don’t bother trying to get into it with them. i’d rather blow off the question than try to explain why blogging is fundamentally awesome.
So much of me wants to start a new project that has a really clear sense of self. But for now, I’ll just keep saying it’s about stuff.
Your blog is what you make it. It’s an extension of yourself. As long as you’re happy with it, it’s all that matters.
Totally agree. I just wish I had a headline.
I really dont think anything in my life DESERVES a mission statement.
I hear you. It’s sort of like putting an “objective” on a resume, right? Like, clearly I want the job, but other than that, I have no idea where this is going.
I’ve never been stuck in that situation, because I don’t tell people about my blog! I have made an idiot of myself trying to describe the kind of theology I study, though.
I have a pretty clear vision of what I do on my blog: I write about what I want to write about and the things that interest me. Simple as that is, I sometimes lose sight of it. I see what other people are doing and I want to do that too. I think about trying to be funnier or writing about relationships, but I would suck at both of those! Eventually I come back to my senses.
I like your vision. But it is so easy to lose sight of it. A lot of me wants to be something different; not abandon this, but add something different.
Nobody puts baby in a corner!
I love not having to define myself. One day I’ll be talking about mucous plugs, the next day I’ll put my For Serious cap on, and that’s? Okay.
So obviously, I love it here. Your corner and mine should have coffee sometime.
Coffee would be nice. Oh, and maybe a fritter or a scone, too.
My blog is the same way. I don’t have a theme or mission either. I classify myself as a personal blogger so that means I can talk about whatever…whenever. I think I like it that way.
I agree. I like talking about whatever, whenever.
I don’t have ideas too behind my blog, you’re not alone and in fact when I read my blog, I question my intelligence :p
Ps. You left your pants at the bar with the twins!
Oh, I totally question my intelligence. It is highly questionable.
And my pants are at the bar? Then back to the bar it is!
Theme? What theme? Would that increase my readership? Do I want to increase my readership? Ack. Too much pressure.
It’s a lot of pressure. But you already have a theme: brilliant writing.