Screw everything

Worthless pursuits of a lifestyle or people who are never attainable.

Perchance, it's not what I really want.

Empty worries of money, or mostly opinions

That belong to others and shouldn't be on my mind.

Ever.

This blog has proven itself quite worthless. Given I used that word twice in the last minute or two, it must be significant to me at the time...or I might want to increase my vocabulary. Either way, this place is getting stale and I keep wanting to be somebody else.

Those in whom I wish to confide some of my inner ponderings come here at most once or twice. I suppose they stop by to be polite after I invite them or in order to satisfy their initial curiosity of what I might have on the blog that's anonymous. Once it's done it's done. Accidental visitors or those who come back with surprising consistency seem to merely scan the content, like a google bot simply taking note of my post being there. Click. Like a two-dimensional picture. And it's out there for another lost soul...or maybe for nobody.

Why to keep blogging?

It seems that one of my early posts on why to start blogging is something I should read, which really justifies my first bullet point in that post. From time to time though I feel like there is no value here for my dear readers and I almost don't want to bother writing at all. Then I try to think up of something useful which really doesn't seem to be helping and ends up contradicting that vague theme I created on this blog.

But then something happened. Last week someone left me a very encouraging comment. I naturally felt I should return the favor and visited their blog. Right at the beginning of the first post I saw it said,

"I was reading someone else's blog a little while ago and I just... It hit me somewhere inside that this might be the only place that I can write about almost anything I desire and, still, I'm holding it inside."

Whether the blogger was referencing my writing or not, I thought that even one person saying something like this after visiting NotYourRegularGirl would make all my efforts posting here worth it. Helping someone realize that they are not alone, just making them stop and think is probably way more important than simply writing a personal journal.

What's the most important word?

My blog is one month old now. When you point out how old something is, people often say "Time flies". It doesn't seem to be the case with me, and I really don't want it to be so. Too many aspirations, as always, never enough time or motivation to get everything done.

Instead of reflecting on my baby-blog's development, getting a print of its tiny cute hand, putting its first hairs in the envelope, or writing down those first awkward words (that really didn't count as words), I decided to take a picture. No worries though, we didn't have to bother the kid with camera flashes. There is a pretty cool and free google app (www.wordle.net) that does it safely.

Basically, Wordle searches though your website, and comes up with a picture or a cloud of words used on your source. The size of each word is proportional to its frequency of usage, so only the most "important" words stand out. For the purposes of convenience, some articles and conjunctions are ignored, making the pic free of giant "the"s, "and"s and so on.

Without further ado, here is my young and confused, but very sincere blog!

(click the image to enlarge)

Who is my audience?

Do you ever get that unpleasant feeling when you try getting someone's attention for a while, but instead you only get weird looks from bystanders witnessing you being ignored? I sure do.

Starting a blog was like an attempt to gain someone's attention for me, and now even with no passersby around, I feel a little discouraged with not much traffic here. But unlike in real life, when I write a post, I am not crafting my messages for anyone in particular. For example, normally addressing some sort of Joe, I would call him by his name and speak a language he understands. This is how you get your point across, right? It doesn't seem to be the case with this personal blog. It's as if I was in the middle of nowhere, crying words out loud and hoping that there is someone who will:

1. hear me,
2. understand me,
3. be interested,
4. stick around to engage in a meaningful conversation.

Sounds almost impossible, but there are bloggers out there who manage to be quite successful with this.

Perhaps, the truth is that you do have some ideal audience in mind, maybe even not in the form of real visiting people yet, but a target audience. Let's figure out what these people are like.

First of all, they would have/know how to use internet, and would have at least some proficiency in English. They are from all over the world. A few of them might know me personally. They might be in the same boat as me trying to figure out their life after college. Could be that they are not like me at all, but they would want to know more about the perspectives I am taking. Sadly, this whole description doesn't say much.

Would be glad to hear your thoughts on the issue.

What's in a name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

Shakespeare's words certainly make sense even in the modern world...or maybe not. Let's say that a great blog, no matter how terrible its name is, would still be getting amazing traffic. Then how come such domain names as porn.com or diamonds.com are selling for millions of dollars? A name must be important.

My blog's current title is really not what I intended it to be initially. Because I got around to blogging after millions of people have tried it for themselves, it was rather challenging to find a decent domain name that wasn't taken already. I was even more frustrated to find out that most of those early birds of blogosphere were just hogging a domain name without keeping their blogs active.

Here is a shortened list of titles (what would go before .blogspot.com) that were not available for me:

• Piecemeal
• Sincerely Yours
• On the Move
• Where Is Home
• Food4Thought
• Find Myself
• My Amusing Life

Only the very last link from this list leads to an active blog. All the others, even combined, don't have a dozen posts. With such popular publishing systems as Blogger or WordPress, serious bloggers need to think extra hard and be creative to find a domain name that was not previously taken and abandoned. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that every single blog created by you should be a long-term commitment, but seeing a 2-line post written 7 years ago with nothing more added, breaks my heart. Another great domain name that's wasted.

People in developed countries don't litter so much outside, they seem to do so a lot online though.

Why to start a blog?

There are so many reasons people undertake blogging. Here I am going to share why I decided to create Not Your Regular Girl:

• To understand myself

Penelope Trunk, one of those people who swayed me to finally start posting here, wrote this in her brilliant Guide To Blogging:

"A blog is a great way to figure out what you want to do with yourself because writing regularly is a path to self-discovery. "

I definitely agree with her reasoning, seeing positive results from when I used to keep a journal. I think of a blog as a dresser with my messy thoughts being organized in multiple drawers. While I am "cleaning up", I figure out what all I have and where it belongs.

• To build relationships and make friends

This is a huge one that sets apart a personal blog from a simple journal for me. I am a fairly extroverted person and would love to know more about the people who care to read through my at times silly thoughts and ideas. It is great to write hoping that there is someone out there who will hear and understand you.

• To learn new perspectives

Sometimes we are too wrapped up with our daily lives not having time to reflect on our ideas. Writing something, especially knowing that it could be read by hundreds of people, you give it more thought hence maybe seeing a new way of looking at usual things.

I also hope to hear from people holding different points of view. As with a lot of bloggers, feedback is enormous for me, and I would love to see my readers' comments.

• To become a better blogger and grow professionally

I am planning to start a professional blog after I get more accustomed to the routine. Arun Basil Lal in his post at DailyBlogTips suggests that

"A generic blog can act as a platform to learn and experiment. If you are consistent, over time you will find your best niche and will have lots of experience and authority."

Blogging requires a lot of self discipline and motivation. This experience could also help me with my communications career...or maybe something else, you never know.

• To improve my writing

This one is connected to the previous statement, but I still decided to make it a separate point because it means so much to me. Taking writing classes in college, I realized that there is nothing more effective at improving my writing skills than continuous practice. I aspire to become a communications professional, and proficiency in writing is a must in that field. Things get even more complicated when you find out that English is not my native language. So, feel free to e-mail me or leave a quick comment if you think I made a mistake or used a word incorrectly. I promise, I won't be offended.

Well, we finally got to the end of this lengthy list. Thank you for sticking with me. If you are looking into starting a blog, don't worry about my reasons for posting. Instead, try listening to yourself and come up with your own "Why to start a blog". Good luck!