Blogging

Blogging is simultaneously simple and complex. The simple bit is writing something interesting. Or simply writing. The complex bit is, er… a bit complicated, obviously.

I write for myself, my most critical audience. I attempt to let the stream of consciousness flow from my brain to my fingers without much impediment. Choosing the topic helps immensely here; I made the decision years ago not to stray too far into religion, politics, world affairs, security, race, sports, and things I obviously know nothing about.

I have failed, and will fail, at my attempts at self-censorship. ‘Contentious’ is not my middle name.

Given those apparently insurmountable obstacles to popularity it’s a wonder anyone reads my blog. Really.

In the place of writing for wider appeal I write about myself, family, experiences likely to be shared with a not-me reader, and stuff.

I write and post at a time that suits me; catering to my closest readership. I pick titles that serve to remind me of the content behind. Or is it below?

In late November 2015 I started to blog daily, responding to the installation and early use of a daily journal app on my phone. My daily streak lasted a whole and previously unprecedented month; which was nice. After that miss I’ve done well; another streak is ongoing.

It’s not about streaks; it’s about enjoyment, a process, a journey. Getting there, wherever there is, is almost incidental.

Focus on the minutiae of blogging for a moment - the technical aspects of the sport - is something I’ve mastered in the past, a couple of times with WordPress and, more recently, with Jason Irwin’s 10Centuries (10C) blogging platform. Ok, so there’s not much to fiddle with using Jason’s service; so I fiddled with CSS anyway.

Right now, prior to the 4th generation of 10C going live, I’m messing about with Github Pages - it’s a surprisingly rewarding process getting things to work.

Blogging and administering via Git (even with help from the Github.com web interface) isn’t for everyone, though with suitable Git apps it’s really quite easy after a while, especially using a good Markdown editor.

I’ve refrained from asking Jason to add a Git repo posting method into his already complex mix. The ability to post via an ADN private message, or via the 10C Web interface or using Evernote or, in v4, Microsoft’s OneNote, probably gives existing and potential users enough options to gain wider appeal.

(Other services exist, YMMV.)

I am Baz. I am still not a blogger.