This post is written in response to pketh’s post.
I posted on this topic before. That’s my very first post titled “why//blog“. So basically, this is the 2nd addition kinda thing.
Blog originate from the word “weblog”, which is basically a web log of events that occurred. Such a simple idea of web logging evolved a lot. Some blogs are providing how-to helps, some people used it for diary purposes, etc.. Early this year, top search engine, Google Inc., acquired Blogger. [Perhaps those people at Google thought that Blogger rhymes with Google and they got to buy it.] According to the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2003, Microsoft is getting into the bandwagon of blogs by introducing a new software, as part of the upcoming Tablet PC Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.7, called “InkBlogging”.
Okay, I completed my long-winded introduction.
I started blogging on June 20, 2003. That’s around 4 months ago. No one introduced me to it. I frequent blog sites to read about comments and stuff. I longed to own a web site, it’s not easy to maintain a information-based web site. It’s very hard to get visitors if your updates aren’t regular enough. Your counter will look miserable, that is unless of course you messed with it and set it to a higher value. [My counter is at around 500.]
Blogs, on the other hand, are much easier to maintain. You just keep posting. It’s not any easier to get visitors though, but it’s much easier to have regulars. Thanks to link exchanges here.
I chose Blogger as my service provider with a rather unusual reason. I thought, since Google owns Blogger, it’s got to have a extend quality. And since a big company is supporting it, I won’t receive an email saying, “Due to bandwidth constraints, we have no choice but to stop offering free services.” I am grateful, so I leave the advertisement as it is. It is not because I do not how to use style sheets to cover it. It’s just a simple way of saying, “Thanks for hosting me.” [Although, I have to admit, I kinda fail to place the "Powered by Blogger" button which they insist we have to.]
I want to start a commentary-cum-journal kinda blog. I thought that would be more interesting than writing about what happen in my day. I mean I spend so much time in front of that white box that emits light, that there’s nothing much to write about.
I do have my writing style now. I want my blogs to look formal, yet the contents are informal. I use complete sentences, minimal abbreviations and no more than one smiley per post. =) [Okay, I've just smiled so I can't do it again.] My subject titles all consists of two words separated by 2 forward slashes, e.g. “exempli//gratia“, which is what “e.g.” stand for in Latin. I did not write this blog to improve my English, but it seems that it did improve my English to a certain extend.
I am interested in Web Designing. Blogging turns out to be a good way of doing web designing. My web designs go with a certain style too. It has to look simple and pleasant too. If you view back all the web designs and presentations that I did, all of them has a white background! [Unless, of course, I am told to use another color.] Anyway, for the next design for my blog, I am using a darker background, it’ll be more aggressive looking. Feng Li says my designs are too mild. pketh calls it sweet. Cuixia says it’s girlish. Okay, time for a change of styles.
I found myself enjoying blogging. I am grateful to all regulars. It’s a very good tool of expressing yourself. It’s not important if you have visitors. I remember the times that I only have 2 visitors per day. Now, I get around 10 per day. [Though most of them stumbled here through accidental Google searches, I'll blog on this soon, it's rather amusing.]
I meet some interesting people through blogging too. You can find their blogs at my Tomodachi (”friends” in Japanese”) section. I find viewing photo albums very interesting. How shall I put it? It’s like a windows to other parts of the world through your computer. I’ll make a photo album soon. But as I am using Blog*Spot’s free hosting service, I can’t host anything except blog contents with them. All my images are hosted by my ISP - SingNet - which, by the way, offers a pathetic 2 MB web space and a ridiculous 30 MB email! I want a 30 MB web space instead!! I’ll get Tripod to host my photo album probably..
If you don’t have a blog, go try having one. If you hate it, abandon it. Blogger has a very complicated start up process though. Typepad is pretty good as it runs on Movable Type (same people with Typepad). I am very impressed with Movable Type. It’s way cooler than the others. I have seen one running on Active Server Pages .NET (ASP.NET) too, very strange.
How do you feel about your own blog? Is it just to practice your writing or something more? For those of you who don’t have blogs and I’m sure that’s many of you - have you ever thought about it? [Ripped from pketh's posting.]
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