Idle thoughts on a humid evening

  1. For me, blogging has changed. It’s not that I’ve stopped altogether, it’s that it’s fragmented. I blog, microblog, on Twitter mostly, with occasional forays into FriendFeed and Facebook.
  2. And yet when I think of giving up this space, I find I don’t want to. All the other spaces aren’t 100% mine. This one is.
  3. Are people still subscribed to this blog, using their RSS readers? I find that if I tweet about a new post it might get some attention, if I don’t, I don’t know if it does. (Of course it’s entirely likely that people are still subscribed, just that the number of comment-worthy posts has declined here.)
  4. I have also been maintaining a paper diary and writing quite a bit. Over the past year there were a few things I wasn’t comfortable with sharing online and the diary was a great outlet. I seem to have gotten back into this habit. I’m enjoying it, and it gives me more reason to use a fountain pen.
  5. Reading, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have changed – I am continuing to enjoy bound paper books. Not sure if, or when I will switch to ebooks. If ever. 21 books read so far this year.
  6. It’s undeniable that ebooks would mean that the major nightmare of having to move and store books would no longer be a problem…
  7. However I don’t know if an ebook will ever replicate the complete tactile experience of reading for me. (Shall have to try.)
  8. It’s very humid tonight. I am sweaty and sticky.
  9. I love it when doing a task you dislike, reinforces how much you like the tasks you do like.
  10. I’m between books, what shall I read next?
  11. The house no longer feels like a home. Hopefully the move goes well. I can’t wait to start the process of setting into the new place.

Sorry it’s a bit disjointed. I did say they were idle thoughts. (written last night)

8 Comments

genevieve 15 March 2010

These are not idle thoughts at all! – they’re very useful and I’m teetering on a move to a microblog for some of the same reasons (some a little different). Same for me regarding the paper diary, it is a useful exercise and I’m going to keep doing it, as my blog wasn’t suited to that anyhow.
I don’t find Twitter that satisfying and I get annoyed when new people want to read the tweets – it’s a different kind of conversation, of course it must be awfully useful for mobile microblogging but I don’t do that, so I’m a bit at cross-purposes with it. For that reason I think I need to return to blogging, but maybe not in the way I used to. (Will send you a link to show you what I mean – I haven’t quite crossed over yet!)

Penny 15 March 2010

FWIW I sub to your RSS. I find my blog is heavily books-I-read these days. I just don’t find a lot to say or time to say it. But I don’t want to give it away.

Simone 15 March 2010

I’m still subscribed by RSS. Have you ever thought of using feedburner for rss, and then you can see your rss stats in there 🙂
Though I mainly put it on my personal blog so that people (grandma, parents) could subscribe by email to the feed.

In other news, I want to keep blogging even though I’ve stopped travelling(well, not permanently), though I still haven’t finished blogging about the trip, gah!!

Keep on blogging 🙂

snail 15 March 2010

Also by RSS…of course 🙂 My blog has always had a fitful existence…some months lots of updates, some updates bugger al. As you say, it is a unique space of one’s own. I have no idea how many people read mine nor do I care. It’s my space to do with as I please. Back when I used to handcode my blog, I wrote a script to grab the stats from the logs and was able to distinguish between people reading the page and people getting the feed. Now I have no idea 🙂

Sheena 16 March 2010

I hope you don’t abandon your blog – I’m staying away from Twitter in an attempt to limit my Internet consumption, and I check here every day. I also prefer thoughtful and longer articles to short bursts of commentary, and the animal pictures. I can sympathise with the humidity, it has been very muggy in Brisbane lately with all the rain, and I too am contemplating moving in the very near future, so you have my fellow-feeling for that as well. Books take so many more boxes than you think they will.

Deborah Fitchett 16 March 2010

I’m another RSS reader. I skim through my subscriptions really quickly and only comment if something pops immediately to mind because there’s another 30-odd posts to read and then work to do; but I do read!

Kim 18 March 2010

I am a reader over RSS! I feel you on having a space that’s my own, even if I don’t post to it frequently enough.

CW 25 March 2010

Wow, thanks for telling me you’re still reading. Thank goodness for RSS, I say, it does help you keep track of wayward blogs quite well 🙂

genevieve I look forward to reading your writing in whatever incarnation it takes.

Penny, time is the major factor, isn’t it? I have also been very bad with my book circle reading thus far. Part of the problem has been that I thought I’d borrow the books instead of buying, and there is a waitlist at the public library…

Simone and snail, I have thought about feedburner but that was at a point where I was deliberately not letting myself get all competitive and stats-driven with this blog, so I decided I didn’t want to know…

Sheena you should see all the empty boxes now. I think there are 100s!!

Thanks for stopping by Deborah 🙂

Kim your blog looks interesting, are you a fountain pen lover as well?