To blog or not to blog?

February 18, 2005 | In Blogging |

That is the question of our times, it seems.

My answer must be to blog, because as I write this, I am uploading the blog software to post this. I feel I’m jumping on the blog-wagon a bit late, but hey, I’ve been busy with other interesting things.

Actually the real question of our times is: “What to write in our blogs?”

I’m going to start with a few rules for me:

1. I will try not to be a nombriliste, which is French for “focused on my own navel.” So while I will definitely be giving my opinions here, which is the point after all, I will try to avoid shutting out the rest of the world.
2. I will try to limit the stream of consiousness and write in such a way that most people can understand. I’ve had to rewrite this post already to adhere to this rule.
3. I will try to write in standard journalistic English that hopefully even second-language English speakers can read. That doesn’t really cramp my style because I have none. Plus, I’d rather spend time thinking about what I write instead of how clever it sounds.
4. I will try to avoid jargon and computer slang, because after all, not everybody’s life revolves around the internet. I will also try to avoid inside jokes, but since I broke that rule with my previous first post, so I will allow obscure references–nuance.
5. I am, however, still free to be creative and make bad puns. I am also free to make spelling and other mistakes, errare humanum est (which I did not know is a quote from Cicero–I love quotes and they are allowed too :-). Obviously so are emoticons, those little sideways punctuation faces–but I’m a traditionalist, so I keep them as text and not little images.

OK, I already broke the stream of consciousness rule, so maybe it’s time to get on with the show.