Don't have a lot to say today, but I did want to note the 5th birthday of my blog, All the Pages Are My Days!! Like a lot of bloggers (but not Doc and Dave, my original blog heroes*), I no longer try to post every day. I do post when I have something to say, and that's working well for me.
The blogging medium is a powerful one. With very little effort, one can put up a very functional site, and more importantly, can update it whenever there's a need. As a result, I actually have 4 blogs in total:
All the Pages (The one you're currently reading, updated every 2-5 days.)
::luminosity:: (The light within, my photoblog. Updated every 4-5 days with a new image)
Little Sweden, USA (A blog about Lindsborg, usually updated at least once a week with the Lindsborg Update (which is also available as a podcast.))
Midsummer's Day (a blog about Lindsborg's Midsummer's Day celebration, updated as appropriate.)
I've grown a lot as a result of blogging. When I was younger I thought about becoming a writer, but the closest I had come was never missing a chance to contribute to our department newsletter. I once went 10 years without missing an issue! Anyway, though I now see how far I have to go in terms of becoming a good writer, I have made some progress and would now list writer among my avocations.
I would also credit blogging for facilitating my development in the web technologies area. I've become technically proficient in a number of areas that I was directly exposed to as a result of blogging and these skills have dovetailed quite nicely with opportunities at work where I've been able to leverage what I've learned as a result of my blog activities.
Finally, there's the whole social aspect of blogging. I've met, both online and in real life, countless people that I would have never known if it weren't for blogging. I currently keep track of a few dozen blogs (thankfully, folks *don't* post every day!) and the variety of insights and perspectives I gain is invaluable.
Related to that, I'm fascinated by the visitors to my sites, wondering, for example, if someone views a recipe I've posted, "did they make that dish tonight? did they enjoy it?" There's no way to know who my visitors are (unless they tell me; come on, don't be shy, post a greeting in the comments!), but I can tell what pages folks view. My infrequent posts about Yorkies are the most popular, and there's also a lot of seasonality and topicality regarding what drives visitors to the site. (People search for Maui in the spring, and I got a lot of hits for Mission Accomplished in early May.)
And so, for not having much to say, I've taken quite a few words to get here. That's something I didn't realize about non-goal oriented writing ... if you let it, your writing goes where it goes, and you really don't know what you have to say till you've said it.
In honor of the occasion, I flickr'd up a Creative Commons licensed birthday cake photo to share:
Thanks to razzlefrazzle for the image.
* Jeneane was also one of the first bloggers I started reading regularly; like many of us, she's now an occasional poster, well worth reading!
