Saturday - The Problem with a BLOG is ...

... That you have to keep it up.

See, more than that, you have to keep it interesting. No one wants to stop by a boring blog. Since "blog" is actually a contraction of "web log," you need to have something worth saying to even have one. That was probably my first mistake; I assumed that I'd be interesting enough to amuse the visitors that happen to stop at this tiny mat of the universe. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Basically, my wife and I are pretty boring. We're stay-at-home, watch-TV, spend-time-with-the-kids sort of people. We're not tell-an-erotic-story-about-last-night's-date, have-an-interesting/insightful-political-view, research-and-post-an-interesting-or-unique-fact kind of people. We have things to say about nearly everything, but not everything we have to say is worth reading. And often, it's not worth taking the effort to post it, because it would be a long and drawn-out process just to get that far.

So, what am I to do with this blog space, then? To what end shall it come?

I could post fiction, I suppose. I seem to have more to say about things that aren't than I do about things that are. I'm not up on current events, so I can't comment on news. And for whatever reason, I find it difficult to post my opinions about things; it strikes me as impolite, or something like that. I can't put my finger on it. I guess I don't want to deal with the myriads of other opinions that may want to debate something I don't have enough interest in debating. For instance, I can talk all day about theology, but I'm out of practice with debating theology, so until I sharpen that knife again, I don't want to use it.

So I quandary day in and day out about what I'm going to post here. I'd like the one or two people that I know stop by occasionally to have something interesting to glance at when they do stop by, but ... meh. I don't think a blog should be hard work.

I could just journal here, I suppose. On the other hand, those entries tend to be meandering and sometimes are deeply personal. I'm not sure how much of that is worth reading, and how much I want read.

I could turn this space into an eBook, and just write something for you all to read, but now I'm back to fiction, and I should charge for reading my work. Then, even if you didn't like what you read, it's too late. I have your money and your stuck with it. Heh.

In the meanwhile, I have nothing to do or say. So this space collects dust. I suppose I can do some research on topics of interest and publish what I find. Then I'd have a permanent (well, as long as Blogger exists, I guess) record of what I've learned about that topic and can share it with anyone reading this page at the same time. What would I research, though? And in what format would I publish it? Outline? Narrative? What's interesting enough to me to hold my attention for that long? Science? Theology? English grammar? A new language? (I've been kicking around the idea of learning Japanese with my wife for months, but she's not a serious student about anything, and I don't feel right investing that much time/money into something strictly for me. Besides, being a Japanese translator doesn't pay what it used to, so if I can't profit from it, why do it? Personal reward only goes so far.)

So what? What should I do with this space?

I'm too boring to log on the web; I don't know if I deserved a blog. I think Blogger should screen people better and protect their server space, you know?

Hmm. Well, if anyone's reading, give me a "hollah," and let me know what suggestions you have for utilizing this space (without taking up my entire life, of course).

I'm going to watch TV.