Some Knowledge

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Over the last year and a half I have spent many hours writing things for my blogs.  What I write ranges from personal observations to short articles on various things I find online or about hobbies I have.  I enjoy writing.  It might be that what I write is not very focussed, but it is an outlet for my creativity.

I have been doing a lot of reading in the last few months.  I check out a few books from the library each week now.  I also have a lot of books that I should be reading in my own library.  Right now, I am reading about writing.  I must have read a hundred books on this subject over the years.  I also took many classes in creative writing in my school days.  A blog is a good place to practice your writing skills.  I have learned a lot about writing since I have set up all these blogs.

Back when I was studying in the university, I never liked writing that much.  Writing was like a punishment or torture they assigned people to do to pass a class.  I guess I was missing the whole point.  You can learn things by reading about them, but you learn even more when you try to write something.  I have been thinking about what I want to write about.  I have been thinking of writing as a career.  I like this blog I have here.  It gives me a place to keep my thoughts and to interact with anyone who leaves a comment.

One of these days I have to make an effort to learn HTML.  I know how to code a hyperlink, which I have been using recently in classified ads for my paintings.  Of course, I can always use the console functions of WordPress to post pictures or links in the blog.  Still, I like to know the technical stuff.  Right now, I am concentrating on writing skills.  I want to learn how to communicate better.

One of these days I will figure out how to write a popular blog.  I think what I would need to do is have a popular subject to write about.  All these personal observations have a limited appeal to the general public.  For now, I am just going to keep writing about my thoughts and let anyone who wants read.  With all the blogs that get written to every day, it is amazing that anyone finds what I post here.  In the long run, paper publications will be doomed.  Once everyone gets connected, it will only be a matter of time before they come to prefer the electronic word to bulky paper publications.  Blogs are on the cutting edge of a media revolution.  All they lack is the mass appeal of something like television.

It’s hard to believe that I have so many posts to this blog.  I have not been working on this so much lately.  I have been spending my time reading.  Since I got a library card last winter, I have read a lot of books.  Right now I am trying to learn about Java programming.  In any case, this blog is huge.  I guess if you apply yourself to anything for a year you will get some kind of results.

That’s all for now.  I checked in on my art blog and got some people visiting there today.  There is potential in art.  I can sell paintings to people.  Right now, I am going to go read for a while.  Perhaps I will work on this blog this week.  Lots of words on the Internet.  Maybe someday I will read some of this stuff.

It’s been days since I’ve written anything for this blog.  I have been taking it easy on the typing.  It’s getting close to 600 posts here now, and this is my longest blog.  Lately, I have been playing games on my computer.  I spend hours running around chasing monsters.  One of these days I am going to make my own game world.  All I need to do is find millions of dollars somewhere and put together a team of game designers.  Shouldn’t be too hard.

It’s summer and there are summer things to do.  I have a garden to take care of, and all the odd jobs around the house.  I have spent a lot of time lately reading books from the library.  I just finished one about art auctions, and am almost done with another about eBay.  I am using the public library as a learning institution.  I read a cool book about computer game design a couple weeks ago.  I have probably saved over a thousand dollars already getting stuff from the library.  Why pay for something when you can get it for free?

I just thought I’d leave a post here to update what I have been doing lately.  One of these days I have to go through and read some of the things I have written.  This blog has over 80,000 page views now.  It’s hard to believe that many people have read what I wrote.  Anyway, I am just about to have some dinner, then maybe play games for a little while before watching TV.  This is my blog entry for today.  If anyone reads it I will be surprised.

I have not been posting here too often recently.  This morning I added three pictures of some of my paintings on my art blog.  I think for the time being I am going to concentrate on getting that blog set up and filled with images of my art work.

There is potential in art.  Even though the economy is rough, people still buy paintings and stuff to decorate their homes.  I have a bunch of stuff here that I have created over the years, and I like the idea of documenting it on a blog as an online portfolio.  Who knows, maybe someday galleries will consider submissions in an online format.  Who knows, maybe galleries are not necessary.  I am going to work on promoting my own work and see where that takes me.

So for now, if you want to see what I have been up to with blogging, check out the art blog linked in the blogroll.  I will try to add more work every day until I run out.  I may never run out, if I keep on producing work.  I will from time to time post more things here.  I need to learn how to focus on a project and also learn how to promote myself as a business.  Blogging is a great hobby.  Who knows, maybe some oil baron will like my work and make me rich.  A guy can dream at least.

I haven’t posted anything on this blog in over a week.  I’m just taking some time off to think about things and read some books.  I read an interesting interview yesterday with Matt from WordPress here in Inc. Magazine.  I like this blogging service.  I think it will be around for a lot of years.  I did not know that something like 3000 people make a living off WordPress.  Maybe I should not be so lazy.  There must be some way to cash in on all this functionality.

Anyway, I left a post here today so that’s about all I wanted to do right now.  I am thinking about starting a writing project again.  I am still interested in trying to write a book.  This blog is like one long crazy book.  I think they should have a feature on WordPress that counts up all the words you write to all your blog posts.  My best estimate for this blog is like a quarter million words.  That’s a lot of typing.  The letters on my keyboard are wearing out.  For a while I will continue to post infrequently.  Some day I will get back to posting endless random things here.