Thoughts on Blogging

It was almost two years ago that I was forced to move to this new blog site. Before then, I was using the Apple proprietary program iWeb, and it allowed for some capabilities that I have not been able to recreate through WordPress. Yet, WordPress doesn’t crash resulting in the loss of data. The older site is still up, though I am unable to add further entries to that site or revise the pages.
This blogsite has had a different character, in that I spend much more time reviewing books, music, and movies, and less time talking about political, religious, or medical issues. Perhaps that was a mistake. I found that political topics tended to generate the most interest. To date, I have written 225 blogs and gotten 101 responses. Many of those responses were from my brother Dennis, whose comments I always appreciate. I have published all of the responses to date, except for one dude, unknown to me, who wrote a quite vitriolic comment regarding my “naivete” for believing in creationism and rejecting evolution as a valid hypothesis for the origins of the world as we know it. I would have approved his comments, except that they were quite foul-mouthed, and failed to reflect any substantive thought process. Please understand that I often do not agree with comments that come back to me, but I still post them. I have occasionally had friends personally e-mail me regarding articles on the website. I assume that these comments were intended to be kept private, and so have not posted them. I will often have friends mention that they’ve read a certain posted blog, but not comment. I do the same for other blogs, but realize that it leaves the blog author slightly uncertain as to the number and identity of the population that you’re writing for.
I have rejected the thought of developing a presence in the social networking work of Facebook, Twitter, or other similar sites. I continually receive messages to have certain people “connect” with me on Linked In, a network that truly confuses me as to its utility. If I wished to connect with you, I would find your e-mail address, and e-mail you. Why do I need Linked In? The standard social networks like Facebook create a larger issue, in that they encourage brevity of thought and absence of connectedness in ones’ thinking. Those networks are the ultimate in encouraging mindless prattle that occurs between two or more people. One is demanded to express themselves in short brief statements that fail any sort of real development of thought. Worse, Facebook best facilitates emotional expressions rather than discussions on important issues. For these reasons, I have not been on Facebook for years, and will never go on under the current environment of Facebook.
I have learned that one must not manifest diarrhea of the mind on a website. Since these are public forums, care needs to be exercised as to what is said. It is not that I would mutter extremist or revolutionary views, since that is not my cup of tea. Simply watching how the press destroys various politicians for fairly tame statements suggests that political correctness rules the social interactions among members of our society. Casting aside political correctness, I will try never to offend anybody.
I anticipate that this website will probably contain more personal interest articles and discussions as to what is transpiring in the lives of me and Betsy. I also wish to start using Lightroom to create photographic presentations. This might take some experimenting in order to get it into WordPress. I welcome comments and suggestions as to where to go from here. Or, just drop me a line and say “hi”.
Ken F. von Puyallup, WA