Yes, rant-y, curmudgeon week continues! How am I isolating myself today from means of shared communication and fellowship you ask? By declining to list my blog on an expat social network. Actually I'd completely forgotten about the whole incident until last week. I was researching our trip to Vietnam*
A while back I was approached via a comment by a well known expat forum/social site to which I am a member and I never do anything with. They were looking to list this blog as something like a local expert blog section. I was interested and then of course the reality part - you had to fill in a form and also put a big logo for the expat forum on your blog which of course links directly to their site. I decided to let the opportunity pass me by. I guess I am not interested in being a local expert. My "readership" are friends and family all over the world now but mainly in the US. They are used to imagination-grabbing entries like "I did the weekly shop and bought a lot of endives!" or the classic "I'm really tired and this is a cop out entry". I don't want to earn money from this blog, or quit my day job to write this blog, or write about stuff that interests anyone else than friends and family. God knows, perhaps I am flattering myself on that count too!
But I'm the type of person who is delighted to hear about your mundane daily crap. Because I read blogs for the same reason I keep one - to keep in touch with my friends and family far away. I want to hear about your commute, I want to hear about the techno equipment you bought then you got it home and realized it was wrong and had to return it and the shop attendant was a total dick about it. I want to hear about how you made that one potato dish you always make but it didn't turn out this time & it's a mystery why. When one of my sisters stopped blogging (for good reasons) I was sad all the same sad. I missed the mundane.
I would not like to feel like I am generating content. Plus after a while you get so adjusted to a country your expat status becomes less prominent. Still core to your identity mind, but you're not writing every day about how things between the two countries are different. Hopefully you all put up with the mundane well enough, or at least I post enough Munchkin pictures for you to tolerate it.
*Phoooooooooo!!!
A while back I was approached via a comment by a well known expat forum/social site to which I am a member and I never do anything with. They were looking to list this blog as something like a local expert blog section. I was interested and then of course the reality part - you had to fill in a form and also put a big logo for the expat forum on your blog which of course links directly to their site. I decided to let the opportunity pass me by. I guess I am not interested in being a local expert. My "readership" are friends and family all over the world now but mainly in the US. They are used to imagination-grabbing entries like "I did the weekly shop and bought a lot of endives!" or the classic "I'm really tired and this is a cop out entry". I don't want to earn money from this blog, or quit my day job to write this blog, or write about stuff that interests anyone else than friends and family. God knows, perhaps I am flattering myself on that count too!
But I'm the type of person who is delighted to hear about your mundane daily crap. Because I read blogs for the same reason I keep one - to keep in touch with my friends and family far away. I want to hear about your commute, I want to hear about the techno equipment you bought then you got it home and realized it was wrong and had to return it and the shop attendant was a total dick about it. I want to hear about how you made that one potato dish you always make but it didn't turn out this time & it's a mystery why. When one of my sisters stopped blogging (for good reasons) I was sad all the same sad. I missed the mundane.
I would not like to feel like I am generating content. Plus after a while you get so adjusted to a country your expat status becomes less prominent. Still core to your identity mind, but you're not writing every day about how things between the two countries are different. Hopefully you all put up with the mundane well enough, or at least I post enough Munchkin pictures for you to tolerate it.
*Phoooooooooo!!!
6 comments:
good for you- blogger should always know exactly why they're blogging and who for.
When I think about "generating content", then the blog becomes work. For some people that's appropriate, but I'm with you - I don't want to make my blog part of my daily job.
It is very heart warming to seen the P family curmudgeon gene has bred true through grandfather and father to you. :)
Word! Don't do what you love for money. Got that from a really wise friend of mine.
Here's the mundane from my end: dad made pina coladas tonight and I ate a lot of pretzels. The little fat nubby ones. Yum. Also bought new running shoes--black, hot pink, and electric blue--and learned to tie them so that the heels don't slide. Learned they don't use the word "consultancy" in North Carolina, and am still trying to figure out how the NCAA works. Will keep you posted on my progress.
Love and miss you!!
Amy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!
It is so true. Love things, make money at things, don't let them be the same thing as a rule. Always exceptions!! But it's been true for me.
Good for you! My blog is like my diary in many ways. I've had it 8 years now, and I can't imagine what it would read like if I were writing it with an audience in mind.
I also declined to put my blog up in the FS community for those same reasons (and the whole being a rep of the gov't, yadda yadda yadda). Besides, I like my potty mouth :)
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