’Tis a Strange Ol’ World

I’ve noticed a couple of coincidences, lately.

Firstly, remember when I mentioned the bad week I had? Well, most people I know—and some I don’t—also had a bad week that week. (The next week pretty much slipped by uneventfully; I’d be interested to know if everyone else’s did too.)

Secondly, I haven’t been interested in blogging lately. Oh sure, I’ve been posting once in a while, including a couple of MSN conversations—which is kind of a cop out, because it doesn’t take any thought; just monkey work to format it all—but I haven’t really had an urge to come here and wax thoughtful. And the coincidence part is that a lot of other bloggers have been feeling the same way. A lot of bloggers have simply given up, and stopped posting to their blogs; a lot of the others have been posting, but such half-hearted posts that you can tell they’re not really into it.

Maybe it’s the time of year. Perhaps, when the weather starts to get a bit cooler, people start to get melancholy, and introspective. Then again, I would have assumed that feeling melancholy and introspective would spark blog posts, rather than hindering them. If it really is because people are feeling melancholy, then I’d expect a sea of amateurish, semi-nihilist poetry, and poorly-written treatises on the meaning—or meaninglessness—of life. Blogging is, after all, about the most narcissistic communication medium of the 20^th century. It’s a breeding ground for that kind of writing. So I guess my theory doesn’t hold water.

As an aside: I realize that I didn’t start blogging until the 21^st century, but blogging has been around since the late 90s or so. (Blogger was started in 1999, but the concept pre-dated Blogger, I think.) I’d been interested in blogging since almost the beginning, based on some buzz I was seeing in places like Wired, but it wasn’t until I started actively following some blogs—and realized how vapid and useless most are—that I realized that you don’t have to have anything deep or meaningful to say, to have a blog. It’s just a creative outlet. I guess, in retrospect, that it’s a bit strange that I was convinced to start blogging because most blogs are useless.

I should probably end this post with a paragraph that sums it up, but I got nothin’. I can say this, though: I’m actually feeling pretty good these days. Don’t be fooled by the tone of this post; I’m not feeling melancholy or introspective myself. Being disinterested in blogging isn’t the same as being disinterested in life. And I’m sure not going to stop blogging, because I know that I’ll get interested again, and probably soon.