My New Tea Blog

I just added a link in my blogroll to my new blog about tea on Blogger.  I set this up a couple days ago and have posted a few things there about tea and some poems as well.  I thought it would be interesting to try to write on one subject for a change.  So far I have had no visitors to this blog, but I added the link here to see if I can get any traffic.

That’s all for today.  If you get a chance, check out my other blogs.  If I get bored with writing about stuff, I might put up a fiction blog as well and see if there is any interest in that.  Anyway, I am off to work on other blogs for a while.

A Fine Day

I haven’t posted anything to this blog in a long time.  I just thought I’d stop by today and leave a short note on what’s going through my mind.

I have been reading about the new FTC rules about blog posts.  It seems they want you to notify people if you get paid for posting anything.  It seems they want to fine you $11,000 if you break their rule.  Well, nobody has paid me anything for anything I have written, here or anywhere else.  Perhaps I should start a blog about beer.  Perhaps some nice breweries would send me free cases of beer for writing reviews of their products.  What an evil plan.

So, today I have been reading.  I have been reading about music.  In fact, I think I am going to go back to reading about music.  It is a wonderful Fall day, and I am having a good time reading about various things.  This is my blog post for the day, paid for by nobody.  What a wonderful world we live in, with the government trying to mess with everything.

New Books to Read

I went to the library yesterday.  I checked out two books on knives.  These books have all these cool pictures of knives and of damascus and pattern welded steel.  I spent most of the morning reading one book on how to make knives.  I find these kinds of books interesting.

Since last February, when I got my library card, I have read a lot of books.  Libraries are cool.  Why would anyone have to pay money to read a book?  The letters don’t wear out from people looking at them.  Sure, the pages eventually wear out, but hundreds of people can read the same book without doing too much damage to it.

I checked out a huge book about games the other day.  I am glad I did not have to pay a hundred dollars or so for that book, because it is not very good.  The other advantage of the library is that I actually try to read the books I check out, because I know I won’t have them for that long, so they don’t just sit around on a shelf taking up space.

I think I am going to go out shopping for a while this afternoon.  I go to the book store now and skim through books.  I have not bought anything aside from some magazines there in a long time.  I think half the people at the book store go there just to browse.  Anyway, that’s all for here today.  I mainly hooked up to the blog here to approve a nice comment.  One of these days I will get around to expanding the text here on this site.

Just Another Day

I hooked up to WordPress this morning to approve a comment.  Myspace is down this morning, so I am doing my morning blog entry here.  I really don’t have a subject, but this is as good a place as any to ramble on about nothing.

I have been going to the library every week now for the past eight months.  I check out movies and books and spend a lot of time reading these days.  I enjoy reading a lot.  I learn all kinds of things about different stuff, and it doesn’t cost me anything.  There are a lot of books at the library, and I can sit there and read magazines all day if I feel like it.

I played Morrowind for a few hours yesterday.  I am going around to all the dungeons in that game and getting all the loot from them.  I did some reading yesterday about how to add things to that game.  When I finish with the areas of the game that are decent, I might start making my own castles and stuff.  It will be good practice in doing game design.  Of course, this is off in the future somewhere.  Right now, I am just wandering around and seeing what kind of things I can find in this interesting world.

That’s all for today.  I have some places I have to go this morning and things I have to do.  I will probably go to the library this afternoon and check out some more stuff.  One of these days I will get back to working on my blogs.  Until then, this will have to do for a post.

Thinking About the Blog

I used to post stuff here several times a day.  Lately, I have not been writing much.  I have no idea what I want to do with this blog.  Right now, I am thinking about using it as yet another online journal to write stuff.  Perhaps I will start posting fiction.  As if anyone reads fiction blogs.  I think right now I am just going to post something once in a while for my own enjoyment.  So far there are over 90,000 page views on this blog.  That’s a lot of people, but I’m sure most of them bounced out once they saw nothing but a lot of text and no pictures.  In any case, I don’t feel much like writing today.  Perhaps some other day I will get back to working on this blog.  For now, it’s just interesting that this thing has grown to where it is today, and perhaps in the future I will make something good out of this project.

What I’ve Been Up To

I haven’t posted anything to this blog in a long time.  I still write, but lately I have been doing a lot of reading.  There are so many books at the library that I spend most of the day just reading stuff.  It is interesting to read books.  I think I want to write books, actually.  This blog is going to be another place where I can post my thoughts.  Right now, I am thinking about writing some fiction.

It’s still interesting that so many people find this blog every day.  A lot of the things they read are stuff I wrote a year ago.  I’m not even sure people read the stuff here.  I only have a few photos, so they are not looking at my pictures.  This was a good experiment in blogging.  All this writing seems to have improved my writing skills.  Now, all I need to do is stay on topic.

Right now I think I am going to go back to reading for a while.  I checked out three books on writing today.  There are a lot more books on that subject at the library.  It never hurts to learn more about what you do, like this writing hobby of mine.  One of these days I will turn it into a business.  Right now, I am off to study and have fun.

Learning at the Library

I have not been writing so much in my blogs this year.  I have a new pastime.  I read books from the library.  Over the last six months I think I have read more books than I have in the last few years.  The local library does not have a huge collection, but they do have a lot of interesting books in the nonfiction section.  I have only scratched the surface of the business books, and I have read a few books from the money section as well.  Right now, I have a lot of books on writing as a business.  There is no end to the information you can get for free from the library.

I have had a bit of success with writing things on my blogs.  It is time for me to move on to more important projects.  I will keep writing posts here once in a while, but I have no more interest in writing an encyclopedia of strange random things on totally disconnected subjects.  I have saved thousands of dollars by checking stuff out of the library, and gotten information that is fairly specialized in the process.  The day is coming when all information will be available for free online, but that day is off somewhere in the future.  Right now, I think I am going to close down my computer and go back to reading books for a while.  Reading is the poor man’s university.  Perhaps one day this will pay off for me.

Reading About Search Engines

I just finished reading a book called The Search that I checked out of the library yesterday.  This was an interesting book.  I learned a lot about the history and development of the various search engines.  I like reading about the net.  I like writing stuff that ends up on the net, like this blog.

I haven’t been doing much else besides reading today.  I just hooked up to check my emails and see how much traffic my blogs are getting.  I might go back to reading books for a while after I am done here.  One of these days I will get around to writing a book on something.  Right now, I just feel like checking in on everything and leaving a few posts to keep my blogs active.

Originality

As I have been reading books lately, I notice that a lot of different authors say the same things.  It seems they do this thing called research.  They look up what other people have to say on some topic, then say the same thing, only in different words.  This is not very original.  This is what parrots do.  They repeat the same sound sequence they hear.  How is this beneficial to anyone?

In some ways, repetition is what writing is all about.  If we did not use the words of a given language and repeat them, people would not understand what we are talking about.  The problem I see is, why bother to say the same thing as so many other people?  If you want to say something original, you have to make up your own scenarios.  Then there is fiction.  How many times can a person tell the same story, but just change the names?  I don’t write much fiction.  I don’t read much fiction these days either.  I am interested in facts.

I guess if you look at it closely, the facts do not change in life.  You can only write things that are true if you are trying to convey information.  One person’s version of the truth might not be another’s.  Writing is about what you say and how you say it.  There are many books on the same subject.  Every author has their own take and style on their material.  Originality is in the particulars of any piece.

So, why am I writing about originality?  I want to develop my own style of writing.  I want to make something out of my words.  This blog is my publishing platform for what I write.  If I can’t be original, there really is no point in writing things here.  All the posts I wrote about various things I found online were not very original.  Oddly, that is the stuff that gets found and viewed.  These original posts get very little traffic.  Still, this is the kind of thing I want to work on and develop.

Right now, I think I am going to open up my word processor and do some brainstorming.  I need to come up with a good idea for a book that will sell.  I really have no idea what I want to write about, I only know I want to write.  Perhaps I could use the Internet to write a book.  Google makes research ridiculously easy.  There are only so many facts I would allow in a book.  Too many and it starts reading like a list.  Then there is the question of documenting sources.  Why bother?  I have a huge store of facts already in my skull.  Time to dust of the brain cells and see what they have to say.

Working on the Blog

I have been thinking about working on this blog again.  I need to write some useful articles on things to get some practice.  The thing about writing useful stuff is that you have to do some research.  This should not be a problem.  I went to college and studied physics.  Research should be easy.

Right now I am just killing some time before I go back to reading about how to make money as a writer.  The thing about making money as a writer is that you have to get people to give you money for something you write.  This is the same thing involved in doing anything for money.  It helps if what you write is useful when you are looking to get paid.  Maybe I am just not useful enough.

I read about advertising for a while this morning.  I might go now and write an advertisement for another one of my paintings.  So far I have 11 advertisements up on Craigslist and only have a few spam replies trying to sell me make money products.  Still, it is an interesting experiment.  I have wondered if a person can sell stuff on Craigslist.  Well, you can, if anyone wants what you are selling.

This blog is huge.  I can hardly believe I have written so much in the last year.  It has given me something to do as far as developing my writing skills.  What I need to do now is find some kind of writing gig that pays.  I wrote for helium.com for a while before I started this project.  That never worked out so well.  Right now, I think I am going to go back to reading books for a while.  This blog can take care of itself for the time being.