5.29.2007

Useless?

I’m feeling more and more like this blog does not have a raison d’etre. That could be partially my fault. It has no focus, no theme, no defined audience (save the two people that read it because I read theirs), and I’m getting awfully low traffic here. Solutions? (Well, for one, how ‘bout a few more comments, people? Not that I haven’t overanalyzed everything and left nothing to be said, or posted about something completely inane, but recognition is nice)

  1. A theme. Yes, it was supposed to be this language stuff I guess, but I seem to have lost that now that I’m focused on Chinese. I’m also going to be taking a Japanese class occasionally (read: as often as I want or have time), but none too intensely. So that means there’s very little Hungarian, Romanian, Swahili, Farsi, Aramaic, Punjabi, or Xhosa experiences anymore, which is fine, because they were a diversion from my focus languages at the time: Russian and German (the former being my favorite, the latter being far easier), but since I’ve moved to Chinese, that’s it (and Japanese because it sounds prettier).
  2. (almost like #1) updates on a hobby: do I have a hobby? The clear answer here is: no. Unless it’s wikipedia-ing (we need a noun like ‘to google’ for wikipedia; is it to wiki? And what’s the past tense?) arbitrary grammatical constructions of anamorphic languages… yeah, that’s a real creative outlet. So I’ve decided I need a creative outlet of some kind. I have few of those talents. I’d like to spend more time with photography, and I think I got some good captures from this weekend. They’re on Flickr. I would also like to spend more time on the piano. I’m familiar with very little, but that takes time time time (and it’s time...) So I dunno about that. If I had enough time, I’d really like to get back into writing stuff and posting it in installments here, but I haven’t written in a while. I’ve got some good stuff on hold and all, but haven’t felt right about progressing with it, since I don’t feel in the correct frame of mind to keep it true to what it should be.
  3. Something having to do with the ‘there needs to be a word for that,’ project. A collaborative effort seems nice, but it also seems at the expense of quality and usefulness, no? We’ll see how Eric feels, but I’m leaning toward an online equivalent to my Moleskine where a few of us can work on or edit current entries and stuff, as opposed to everyone and their brother submitting words that already exist or are based on their own names and mean “supercoolawesomeness,” as there’s a lot of that on Addictionary.

In short (not), I need to come up with something to do with this thing, salvage it somehow, so without anything definitive to write about regularly (it’s okay to write about unremarkable things knowing that someone’s reading them. This is the html version of talking to a brick wall, and if I’m gonna do that, I’ll talk to a REAL brick wall so I can at least hear myself), it's been difficult, and has become somewhat of a vestige. It seems, however, that the blog has become a necessary part of an individual’s identity, non? Well, let’s see what happens here, as the future of ForeignWords ever hangs in the balance.

Adieu.

2 comments:

Affable Olive said...

I know how you feel about the comments thing. When we started this what... we had at least 6 readers floating around our blogs. I'm pretty sure it's just the three of us reading each other's now and I know that's not much fun. You can't quit though! H'n'B hardly makes comments cuz I know she's busy with life and all, but you can't leave us. I know I'm behind on the update wagon too though. Maybe we just need to resend all the links to those that formerly read our blogs and try and get a resurgence. That could work if everyone checks their e-mail. Perhaps maybe add a few on that mite be interested in reading. Also, a blog really doesn't have to have a focus. Mine doesn't have much consistenc and neither does H'n'Bs but we do have our regular subjects. Like with me, you can count on something about music popping up at least once a month or about something crazy that happened out here in the boonies (but the boys are gone right now, so nothing has exploded lately). Blogging is an on going project and a hobby and incase you haven't noticed, you are writing here. It's like how I keep a journal. Even though it's not what I really want to be writing about, at least I'm still in the habit of doing so. Otherwise, all my writing energies go into trying to kick it to get school work done. Blogs are outlets for creativity and you never know... you may just be blogging one day and then you come up with an idea. Just stick with it. You know I'm still here, if that's any consolation at all.

Anonymous said...

I am in agreement. I feel the same about my blog. Sometimes it's deep and introspective, sometimes it's inane and lighthearted, sometimes its an outlet for my desire to write - sometimes it's just... nothing. And I wanted it to be all of those things (except for the nothing) and much much more. And even though we are supposed to write for the sake of writing only - without any response or without any feedback it can begin to feel pointless to continue with it. I applaud your desire to find a purpose to your pages. For me, I don't want to "theme" mine so much as I want to have the time to make a true piece of myself. To write all the thoughts that come to me when there is no outlet. To make it even a condensed story of me (my Life... in a nutshell).

I miss the time to write. (sigh)

If it helps - Im still reading. Sometimes the comments don't come - which I know can be frustrating. My page views over there on 360 keep going up but the comments much less so. I did try to comment on a recent blog of yours a while ago... and for some reason it wouldn't post. Hopefully that won't happen with this one!