Blogging- Why Do I Do It?

None of us needs to justify why we do it, really.
I just thought after last night's post you might wonder why I started blogging.
Apart from, why not?

I'll be honest, this time last year, I didn't know what a blog was.
The only e mails I received were work related.
I knew of chatrooms. Me and a mate used to go in them as students, with names like Ho Chi Minh, and wind up Americans by going on about Vietnam.
It happened rarely, mainly when we couldn't find any more Tabatha Cash sites.

Profuse apologies to all Americans- we were nineteen with a bizarre sense of humour.

I discovered the medium by chance.

I am a betting man.
Not a compulsive gambler, there is a huge difference.

I never bet on horses, dogs, cricket, rugby, or anything I know nothing about.

I DO bet on football and elections.
For General Elections, I do my assessment months in advance, constituency by constituency.
If you travel a lot and are a chatty person, you pick up a lot of useful local information.
But I was also finding the internet pretty useful for finding out things I needed to know.
In fact, I was researching my prediction for the Scottish Elections, when Google led me to a couple of blogs.



The information on there was helpful, so I checked the blogroll.
Maybe some of these blogs would give me further gems.

On one of these blogs, was a post I had an opinion on.
A strong opinion.
And one of the commentors felt strongly another way.
Not being one to be quiet, I accused him of being an apologist for racism (which he was).

I could have left it.
Anyway, I returned the following day to find myself assailed.
It took two days and about ten long comments from me, but I like to think I fought the corner against closet racism.
And when this debate was over, I felt different.

The medium had caught me.

So I visited other blogs looking for fresh debates.
One of them necessitated me getting a Blogger ID.
Unfortunately, I didn't realise you could have a Blogger ID, without a blog, so I ended up having a blog.
I wrote short posts to myself thinking, hell, if someone DOES click through they might read it.
This happened sooner than I thought.

But something very important happened before it did.

I happened to be at a party where a girl told me a truly horrifying story.
Basically, her stefather raped her pretty much nightly from age twelve upwards, whilst the mother was on night shifts. It's not the first time I've heard such stories from the people it's happened to, but there was something so sweet about her, it did actually make me want to cry.
It affected me for days.

In a sense, it was the last straw for me.
It was the final proof for me that we live in a completely sick society where nobody really gives a damn.

I realised I believed passionately that we could do so much better as a species, than we are doing.
For years the intensity of my convictions were something that only emerged during the long political discussions myself and The Baker had at weekends after heavy clubbing sessions.
Or at parties.
I saw a medium where I could literally, say what I wanted.
With the arguments being judged on their own merits.

And they would be a matter of public record.
And yet, they would be distanced from me.
I could carry on as normal.

I embraced the medium properly in March of this year.
And here we are.

I wouldn't mind betting many of you have similar stories to tell.
On the whole, I think it is rewarding.

Found this over at Kizzie's.

60%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Austin Singles from Mingle²

My flatmate would disagree.

By the way, CityUnslicker has done a very thoughtful response to my post on interest.
It's worth going over and having a look at his take on the subject, before you make your minds up.

So blogging.
Time consuming, yes.
Waste of time?
Would I do it if it was?

Love the lot of you! xx