I decided to start my blog a week or so ago, but then the question hit me.
How do you actually start one?
I mean I'm 38, at least for another couple of weeks or so, and there's an awful lot of history behind me to try and sum up... so I'm not going to bother. Some of it will come out in future postings, of that I'm sure, but for now we'll wait and see what appears when.
So why am I here?
I think I realised, some time ago now, that MySpace is dead - at least it is for me. As long as it's free I'll leave my profile up there, but I really feel no desire to visit the place any more. What started out seeming like a good idea, quickly descended into a mess of random comments, and invitations from self-promoting entities with whom I feel no connection. For God's sake, authors (or maybe their publishers) are setting profiles up for their books! "The Bible wants to be your friend on MySpace" - trust me, it's only a matter of time!
As for the bulletin board, well once I got past about ten friends that became as good as useless, and though Jude (my other and better half) enjoyed doing them, I quickly got bored of those questionnaires with things like "When was the last time you had an Ice-cream?"
My main reason for joining was to keep in touch with a couple of existing friends who had pages. They've got my email address though, and my phone number, and if I need to I'll still drop by now and then.
Then there was the blogging, which I did get around to now and then. That was my main interest, but with all of the distractions that quickly followed, it became easy to 'forget' that part of it.
There were some positives to come out of it, of course. Not least of which was meeting Jude, although it turned out that we had a common friend - who recognised me when Jude showed her my profile. So it was a start point, but little more.
No, it's safe to say that I have little cause to visit that particular site any more. Just consider my page 'inactive'.
As for this place, well I'm hoping to motivate myself into posting fairly regularly - and maybe even pick up some passing traffic (i.e. readers) now and then, who knows. Essentially, though, it'll be a glorified diary.
I was never much for diary writing as a kid, I think mine used to stretch to things like:
Wednesday 14th May
'Went to the pictures with Mick Bradbury and his Mum, saw Bedknobs & Broomsticks"
Hardly Pepys. Not that I'm expecting I will be now, but I do enjoy writing somewhat more (we may come to that in a future blog).
In addition I'll use it for venting my spleen (who doesn't?!), sharing details of some cool people/places with anyone who does show up, and - mainly, I suspect - muttering to myself.
Think of this as a virtual vagrant - a computerised unwashed tramp, talking to itself in the corner, and occasionally sharing its thoughts with the world. Only there won't be too much of the "Shee theesh handsh? Theysh deadly weaponsh mate!"
Finally, as I used to do in the one 'journal' that I briefly kept in my adult life, I might share little things that I've read (or heard) that have entertained me. Here's my first offering, from a book that I've just started reading...
"[my great-grandmother] gave up her religion to marry a Methodist miner. He fathered five children and then, with an inconsideration towards womenfolk for which northern husbands are noted, promptly and irrevocably died."
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