my longest post in weeks

Prompted by the aforementioned Inquirer article on blogging, I suddenly feel the need for one of those meta posts on Why I Blog. As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted much lately. There's a few reasons for that... one of them is that I've been trying to answer that very question. For a few weeks, I had no good answer. I don't have a good one now, but I've got a few fair ones.

Ultimately, I agree with Jim Capozzola. "One doesn't blog for other people. One blogs for oneself. Plain and simple." I might have said it differently, trying to avoid all those clunky ones, but the substance of it's dead-on.

While I'd certainly like to believe that readers get something positive out of reading no loss for words, when it really comes down to it, that hope probably exists for selfish reasons. Satisfied readers come back for more. More hits = an ego rub. I'd be lying if I said otherwise.

With that admonition out of the way... blogging does more for me than stroking my ego. I see two primary benefits I get from it (with a fair amount of overlap between the two).

1) It's a place where I can improve my writing, ability to express myself coherently, and so on. It's absolutely the case that I could just write down my thoughts privately as a means of practicing writing. Frankly, though, if it were only for my eyes, I wouldn't put all that much effort into making anything halfway decent. Knowing there's an audience increases my motivation to polish.

2) This'll probably sound weird, but I think blogging makes me a better thinker. It hasn't always. When I started with the whole online journal business, I had diarrhea of the keyboard. I wrote about the most inane and miniscule details of my day. Back then, I didn't have an audience in mind. But at some point I realized how boring it all was. Even writing that way was boring me. Now I try to limit myself to saying interesting things. Whether an entry's about politics, sports, or just a tidbit from my day, I strive to say something that's at least mildly entertaining or thought-provoking. And that's not a simple task (at least not for me). It's all too easy to observe life passively, without engaging with whatever's going on at a particular moment. Blogging makes me look for the interesting things in life.

So. I use blogging as a crutch. I'd like to wean myself off of it at some point (huzzah for mixed metaphors!), but for now it works for me.

blogs in the news

The Inquirer has an article today on Philadelphia-area bloggers. Nothing new or shocking in it, but they interviewed a few people I've met: Susan of Suburban Guerrilla, Kamil of Zogby Blog, Jim of Rittenhouse Review, and Nicole of The Go Fish. Kinda cool, huh?

six out of seven of my semesters of swat will have been in mertz

I've started moving my stuff back to Swat. I'm living in the dorm I lived in freshman and sophomore years, so just being in that building again brings back all sorts of memories. Good ones, for the most part, but vaguely bittersweet in hindsight. A lot of memories are, I guess.

I'll spare you the rest of the trite nostalgia and leave you with the gist: Swarthmore feels comfortable and familiar and I'm glad to be going back there. But at the same time, I'm ready for all the lasts that come with senior year.

Yeah.

not a real post, but it'll have to do for now

As promised, I've put up a few pictures from my recent trip to Bermuda. I didn't take all that many pictures down there, and all of these are from one night walking around St. George's.

and the blogging rhythm has... vanished

So I haven't been posting much lately. I think August is the laziest month of all, what with everyone (and by everyone I mean people that are involved somehow with schools) imagining all the work that'll start up again in September and avoiding anything that comes close to it. That's how I feel at least.

Plus, I don't really have much of interest to say right now. I'll get my pictures from Bermuda up at some point, maybe even tomorrow.

Really, though, I've been busy. With good, happy things that put me in a good mood. Yeah.

back from bermuda

Seven days away from any responsibilities does wonders for, well, everything. I'll have some pictures up at some point soon. But for now, since it's still the weekend, I'm going to sit back and enjoy life.

la

Not many posts recently, I know. Summer does that to me. Plenty o' good stuff going on, but nothing you readers would want to hear about.

I'll be away for the next week on a cruise with my family to Bermuda. I'll be doing lots of reading (three cheers for a relaxing vacation!), so expect some pictures and potentially interesting thoughts once I return.

But for now, enjoy the first week of August.