My Take Or Yours?

I have an admission.  I was checking my stats recently and noticed that I had quite a few followers.  I was thrilled!  “Look honey!”  I said to my wife excitedly.  “I have almost 300 followers! I am scared.  What should I write?  How do I please all these people?  I am sure to write something that they don’t like or agree with.  How do I choose ‘safe’ topics?”  “Shut up and just keep writing.”  Was her response.  We were lying in bed so she probably just wanted to be left alone.

My wife’s answer sobered me up and I thought of the reason my blog was called ‘My Vuze’.  It wasn’t because I wanted to write what people were thinking or how they felt about something.  It was my opinion, whether popular or unpopular.  How I felt and what I thought.  If I changed that to satisfy my readers, then I would be dishonest.  I would be misrepresenting my blog.

From reading other WordPress blogs, I know that I am not alone.  Some writers double think the content of their posts so as not to offend anyone or even to attract readers.  If that’s your wish, sure go for it.   Not me.  Life is too short for that.  Granted, I won’t be rude, crude or offensive in any way and there may be a topic or two that I may prefer to steer clear of.  Some of my vuze might seem to clash with my spirituality but trust me, God is the ultimate base for my takes and I never claim to be more than human.

I promise never to doubt myself again. I would tell it like it is.  Or like I think it is.  If you don’t agree, feel free to tell me why you don’t.  Maybe your information can sway my opinion.

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Freshly Pressed? Well I’ll Be Damned!

It was my 149th post.  Just another take on another day.  And just like the other days and the other takes and the other posts, I checked my email immediately after publishing.  In fact, I kept checking every few minutes.  (Just habit).   I was not counting on receiving an email with the subject ‘Congrats, you’ve been Freshly Pressed!’ so quite naturally and being the suspicious person that I am, I was dubious.

 Freshly Pressed? Yeah right.  Nice one. Now what do these internet hackers want now?  Click on the message and I get a virus, right?  Finally curiosity got the better of me so I opened it, and there it was!  An email notifying me that my post ‘A Real Eulogy‘ was selected to be Freshly Pressed!  I read it again and again then sent a ‘thank you’ response to WP.   Thank goodness this blog was one of my best.   Nothing like getting a blog recognized that you personally think is among your worst.  Read my blog Freshly Press But Not The Best.

I started blogging on WordPress just over a year ago.  It was my umpteenth attempt at blogging but this time I vowed to stick it out and see where it takes me.   Like most bloggers on WP, one of my main goals was to be Freshly Pressed.  Not that I thought I was a great blogger but getting pressed would make me consider myself a genuine blogger.   I thought I was ‘different’ but that’s beside the point.  After a few months of blogging and waiting for that break, I got lost in my blogging world.  I found my rhythm and became more concerned with content than I was with getting Freshly Pressed.  Publishing a blog that I thought would be a good and interesting read became my main priority.

Getting Freshly Pressed was indeed an honor.  I now consider myself a blogger.  (I hope you do too).   FP gave me some legitimacy.  I thank the WordPress admin team for selecting my blog but most of all, I thank my regular readers and followers.  You take the time to check out my blogs and add a comment or two.  There are times when I feel like quitting but realizing that I have readers waiting patiently for my blog, gets me back on the computer.  Thank you!

I have kept all the email notifications and will be going through each of them and promise to view the blog of each and every blogger who liked my post.

If you are a blogger who have never been Freshly Pressed, keep on pressing.  Your time will come.  Stay true to yourself and your blogs, no matter what.  Today, I will bask in my recognition but I know that soon I will be right back to obscurity, toiling in the trenches.

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The art of writing

 

Writing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

This blog should have been aptly titled, ‘The lost art of writing’ since that is exactly what it is, lost.

 

While listening to the radio yesterday, yes I do subscribe to ancient technology sometimes, the announcer was having a contest where the question was about the small number of people who still do a certain act, to which the act was ‘writing love letters’.  And I’m not talking about writing on Word or Notepad.   Love letters tediously written by applying pen to paper.  Don’t laugh, believe it or not, we did that in the not-too-distant past.

 

Well I had never paid much attention to this dying art, if you could call it that.  I did, however,noticed that when I had to take a step backwards and actually write, it was an embarrassing process.  The pen felt awkward in my hand and I could not settle on a style.  The finished product looked like an insect had fallen into a jar of ink and after making its way out, wandered blindly across my page.   My writing always left something to be desired but with effort, I usually could produce something of worth.  Now it was just a humbling experience.

 

Remember cursive?  If not, don’t worry about it, it’s gone the way of the dinosaurs.  Why search for a writing utensils when your phone is in your hand and text-ready?  Even email-ready also.  It’s a shame.  The more we advance, the more we deteriorate.

 

The female announcer, apparently of the old school demographics, challenged listeners to write a love letter to their loved ones.  I liked that.  Maybe it’s too late to resurrect the art of writing but it sure would be refreshing to get a hand-written love letter once in a while, wouldn’t it?  Hey Christi, could you maybe post those letters on your station’s website?

 

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Don’t hate, appreciate the bloggers

Definition of a blog:  : a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also : the contents of such a site.  That my readers, is the definition of a blog.  You are thinking, ‘So what’s your point?’ Don’t rush me, I’m getting there.

Too often while surfing blogs, I read this from the blogger, “I am sorry that I am not very good at writing blogs but I’ll get better.”  Not always exactly in those words but an apology all the same.  I don’t know about you but I offer no apologies for the way I write.  I only apologize for errors in my blogs that got past my editing.  When I sit down to write, it’s usually about something that I feel passionate about.  I pour out my emotions into it and for that to be effective, I have to write the way I feel.  I try to convey my feelings to my readers so they too will feel what I feel or felt.  If doing this means taking liberties with the English language, then so be it.  (I get a few likes here and there so it must be getting through).

When I switch roles and go in search of blogs to read, the ones that often keep my attention are those loosely written, without language boundaries and laws of writing.  I am not saying that I enjoy reading some half-baked blog laden with spelling errors and poor grammatical structure, but when basic rules are thrown out in favor of a good presentation, I am all for that.  You understand what I am trying to say?  Then it’s fine with me.

Now as readers, we look for blogs that satisfies our thirst for whatever topic we are looking for.   We often get judgmental and accused the writers for failing to deliver if we are not satisfied in this regard. What we fail to note is that the writer is baring their soul for us.  This is the meat of the blog, the invite to come in and dine with the writer.  They share their innermost thoughts, feelings and desires.  When we criticize, we are crushing their hopes, trivializing their dreams.

I write as an outlet for my thoughts.  Of course I love to have readership and I enjoy a following but foremost is my need to get my thoughts out.  I could construct sentences with strong grammatical structure but boring and unappealing presentation, with the best of them but it’s not me.  I would rather not blog. ‘I saw a man today’ just doesn’t have the same ring as ‘Guess what I saw today?  Yes, a man!’  A few contractions thrown in for good measure goes a long way too.  I have no dreams of a book deal or being found and this enables me to write without constrictions and restrictions.  Get it out there, make sure they could understand everything and move on to the next blog.  That’s my motto.

So next time we feel the urge to dissect someone’s blog, let’s remember that we are privileged to be sharing their personal head space.  Don’t hate, appreciate.

For those of you who make a living with your blogs, I realize that your T’s have to be crossed and your I’s dotted as your career depends on it. For the casual bloggers like me who dare not dream, blog happily away!

Just my take.