Photo by Ryan of Rymus.net: Colm Bracken (In Fact, Ah); Me; Matt; Ryan. I’m just now emerging from a dozy haze…no I didn’t overindulge at the Blog Awards on Saturday night, rather I was over at my parent’s house last night and complained that I seemed to be suffering some kind of allergic reaction. My [...]
March 2006
Good luck to all the Irish Blog Award nominees tonight. The big event starts at 7pm in The Alexander Hotel in Dublin City Centre. I’ll be there with my glad rags on and am looking forward to meeting everyone. I’m still debating on whether to bring my camera; with all the talk of anonymity around [...]
Eve enjoying the wind in the garden today. We’ve not seen as much of this face as we would like lately which makes me think those so-called terrible twos are here.
Paige over at BlankPaige has been supposedly suffering a bout of Blogger’s Block. Although her posts are as hilarious as ever and to her readers’ eyes nothing would seem to be amiss. I do know what she’s talking about though. I’ve been feeling it myself of late; It’s that edge of panic when you realise you’ve not blogged in a couple of days and you can feel what readers you do have trickle away and still nothing is coming to mind. So you think to yourself you’ll just go through your blogroll and see if anything inspires you. Instead the quality of blogging only serves to fuel that inner-critic. The one that vetoes every single potential post that does make it’s way to your brain.
Another factor that I’ve discovered is that more and more people that I know in real life are coming on and reading my blog. I think my mother has taken to telling everyone she meets to come on over and take a look which is great (wave at cousin Lisa and auntie Helen) but it’s having the side-effect of making me really self-conscious. Now instead of just wondering if I should post something because it might be a bit rubbish, I also have to think about whether or not it’s going to come back to bite me. It’s like the blogging version of stage-fright.
When I think of the blogs that I love to read, the ones that give me a little smile when I see that they’ve updated and I can’t wait to pull up my chair, grab a drink and enjoy the read, I realise a few things. Firstly I just don’t get excited by one of the most popular of Irish blog subjects: politics. Sure, many of the blogs I love talk about politics and current events but they do so in a way that makes it personal, funny or relevant. The same goes for tech blogs or gadget blogs or knitting blogs or any niche blog. It’s not the subject of the posts that draws me in it’s the voice behind them. Some bloggers could write a post about watching paint dry and it would still be interesting.
So this makes me think that perhaps it’s not what to write I should be worrying so much about, but rather how to write it and if I’m being honest and open. If people connect with you then they’ll stick it out through blogging thicks and thins.
You see now…there’s that voice, the one that’s saying “Ha ha, your brother just read that and is going to give you a right slagging about being all touchy-feely.” Well, I’m posting it anyway.
My mother insisted that my sister and I come over for a clear out recently. So much of our old junk from when we were growing up is still being stored at our parent’s house in the attic and in our old bedrooms and every now and then we make a half-hearted effort to go through it all. It’s a task worthy of a Greek legend though since we only ever seem to scratch the surface of it all and the pile of old toys, books and keepsakes never gets any smaller. It doesn’t help that it’s very difficult not to get distracted by memories and once the photograph chest gets opened it’s a lost cause.
