Well we've done reasonably well on this blogging project so far. I figured there'd be a break over the weekend, and yesterday I just felt so incredibly tired that I couldn't be bothered writing anything. However, a gap of three days isn't too bad for me, so I might as well get stuck into the next one. I probably have a few 'non-writing challenge' posts that I could write, but I do want to keep this up, and I'm curious about what Leila will set me as my next task, so let's get going on it.

So, what was the topic of this blog post meant to be? Ah yes that's right, about blogging. I often find myself 'blogging about blogging', but usually only bemoaning how terrible my update regularities have been of late. I know a few times in the past I've also written a "history of this blog" type post, so I won't do that again. I've also written quite a lot about how I wish my blog wasn't, so I'm also going to steer away from that. This post isn't meant to be exactly about where I want to take my blog, but more like "if this blog didn't have a history, if I wasn't worried about privacy issues, if I was a particularly awesome writer, then how would I want this blog to be?" I think that's fairly manageable.

Although in recent months I haven't kept particularly up to date with the blogs in my links list, over the years of blogging they've certainly provided with me much inspiration, and also made me a damn sight jealous of how awesome they are (some of them, not all of course). There are, of course, many different types of blogs: personal diaries, newsy blogs, political blogs, topic-focused blogs and so on. Often the good ones have a mixture of all of the above, but this can be pretty difficult to achieve in a way that isn't weird and doesn't make you go "gee they always talk about this thing, so what on earth is THAT post there for?" I have found myself particularly interested in blog posts that detail people's travels, or posts that are just funny, or posts that describe a fairly normal day's life for someone, but in a way that makes it fascinating reading. Perhaps overall, I've found myself liking blogs that do describe the blogger's life quite well, but do so in a way that's interesting, funny and makes you feel like you want to know what's going to happen next. It might be through an interesting style of writing, because you know them, because they write about an aspect of their life that interests you, or because they're just so utterly hilarious, but there's something about some blogs that makes you click on them again and again, curious to know what's going to come next.

But anyway, that's enough about "what I like about blogs". It is pretty obvious that if you like a blog you'll come back to it, so I imagine that in thinking about how I wish my blog was, I'd want it to be something that I would keep coming back to - even if I wasn't the one writing it. There's one part of me that would quite like the ability to have an anonymous blog, not necessarily one that was private (as I doubt I'd ever write in it), but perhaps one which wasn't linked to my real life personality. There's perhaps a sense of liberation in that theory, a chance for me to really write about whatever I please, without worrying about privacy issues to much (although with obvious care to maintain that anonymity). Yet, I think I would perhaps bore of that. There's a certain usefulness in having a blog that people who you know actually read. You don't need to tell them everything that's gone on in your life recently whenever you see them, because there's the possibility they already know it all. I know in Europe it was very handy to just post to my blog, rather than having to send 53 million emails out detailed to everyone what I'd been up to. Perhaps some day in the future if I become reasonably well known for one reason or another, my blog may form an interesting part of that persona: a place for me to share my point of view on things. Anonymity might take that away.

I also think it could be quite nice, at least in theory, to have a blog that is about one particular subject. Perhaps a cricket or urban transportation blog would be most suited for someone like me, and there would definitely be some interest in commenting on developments in my particular subject, linking to news stories, putting my perspective on things and so on. However, I could feel a bit "boxed in" by something like that. What if there was something really interesting going on in my life that wasn't really linked to the subject of my blog? Would I still have to run a personal blog in conjunction with the other one? Geez if I have enough trouble keep one blog updated I don't want to know how bad I'd do with two of them on the go. Often a forum can be a better way to discuss those sorts of things anyway, as you get way more feedback (unless you've got millions of people reading and commenting on your blog) and it's also so interesting reading what other people have to say.

So overall, I don't think I want my blog to be radically different to the way it is, at least not the options I've outlined above. I think ideally my blog would remain - primarily - some sort of commentary on my life at the time. Something that does provide a nice record for me when I decide to look back at a particular month, but also something that's interesting for people to read. There will be stories of my childhood thrown in, along with my opinion on something in particular, philosophical rants and so forth. I can do that and it is how I would want my blog to be, even in an ideal world where I could start over. The main thing that I probably want to change, interestingly enough, can't really be changed at the moment: that is, to come up with interesting stories about what happened throughout a particular day of my life. Obviously, with limitations around what I can write about my work, and also self-imposed limitations about what I'd want to write about my home life, and not much in between - there isn't much room for providing some sort of running commentary about what happened on a particular day. At the moment, there aren't many interesting anecdotes that I can retell, there aren't many interesting observations that I can make about complete strangers, simply because I don't really come aross many of them. Often the best blog posts I've read from other people tell a story about something crazy that happened to them on the bus or train to work, something random they noticed at the cafe at lunch time, or some strange conversation they overheard while waiting in line at the post office.  My life just doesn't seem to provide those opportunities particularly often, and I think my blog kinda suffers from that. It's really difficult for me to write an interesting post "about my day", especially if it's a weekday. It's not to say my life sucks, or is necessarily particularly dull, it's just fairly repetitive, and repetitive in a way that doesn't really lend itself to interesting blog posts.

Obviously I imagine that over time my life will shift into a different pattern. I will eventually get a different job, we will move house at some point (OMG I'd love to live here) and my life will change, hopefully into a pattern that does provide some sort of room for interesting observations and interesting blog posts as a result. I do think the repetition, the lack of interaction with people in general, and the way I feel so dependent on my car all the time, has been getting me down lately. After Europe it's just such a massive contrast, and just feels so uninspiring. I suppose that not having much to blog about can be fairly symptomatic of greater issues.

But the writing challenge is a good start. I know from past experience the more I blog, the more I find interesting stuff to blog about. Hopefully by kick-starting things a bit, I'll be able to turn this blog into something that does more closely resemble what I "wish it could be".