To blog, or not to blog, that is the question!

The last couple of weeks have seen myself and Sean at seanincognito engage in an industrious exchange of e mailings, hashing over the merits of blogging and whether we should continue to slog away at our keyboards day after day.

Sean was on the blog scene before me, launching seanincognito one year ago, a few days before I managed to put Podunk out into the wired universe. I had toyed with the idea back and forth but didn't really formulate an idea of what or where I wanted it to go til towards the second week of January. Once into the pool though, I quickly added to my workload, launching a Hockey dedicated blog called HockeyNation, a football one focused on Canadian football called Twelve Men on the Field and a political malfeasance blog called Boondoggle.

Interestingly enough the one that has become the forgotten one is Boondoggle, I rarely make a post there of late, perhaps I'm tired of the endless material available or perhaps I just have come to the conclusion that there is precious little we can do about our governmental abuse and thus should move on to more rewarding topics. Every once and a while I'll get the bug and file a story to Boondoggle but of late I have just stuck to my knitting at Podunk and HockeyNation.

At times even that has become almost a task instead of a joy, which is where taking a break from blogging sometimes comes in handy. As faithful readers will remember I more or less vaporized in December, to recharge my batteries (not to mention buy and wrap my Christmas gifts!!) the break has at least given me a chance to refocus on the idea of blogging and whether it's worth the amount of time it seems to take in a day (or more likely in the night).

I find it interesting to note that our little hobby is becoming more and more of a maintstream addition to our form of communicating. The word blog became the top word of dictionary entries this year a sure sign that it's part of our lexicon forever now. The readership of blogs is on the rise as well, as more and more people discover our on line communication and use it to help formulate opinions or just get a good laugh or have a good cry! While our readership is up, we're still very much in the baby steps phase, a good number of internet users are still unaware of blogs and what they are designed for.

Blogs Canada has a terrific list of blogs available by category and item of personal interest. They offer us a chance to submit blogs that readers have stumbled across and offer them up for your browsing. It's a pretty comprehensive logging of what is out there. They also provided an election blog forum this past summer as Canadians went to the polls.

There are even Blog Awards out there, not quite as glitzy as the Oscars, nor as financially rewarding as the Grammies, they will however give you an idea as to what's hot at the moment. This year, you can take advantage of the chance to have your say as to which blogs have caught your fancy, check out the poll here..

Of course 2004 became the year of the political blog, with elections in both Canada and the USA, blogging became yet another way of exchanging information, getting a message across or satirizing the pompous and yet to be deflated. Howard Dean had one, Belinda Stronach launched one (how many accidentally found the other Belinda blog?, erotica and nightware for all!) Paul Martin had one (though everyone and their dog suspects a party hack was the defacto poster or is that poseur?) PM the PM like me took some downtime I guess, his blog hasn't been worked on since the election and now is gone completely! Delegates to conventions, media personalities and anyone with a grudge could weigh in with an opinion. Blogs in 2004 became one part great equalizer and one part logjam of the information highway. Everyone and anyone could put their ideas on paper, from policemen to ladies of the evening and soldiers in Iraq, there was room for all!

Beyond that the commercial interests have discovered blogging, companies are beginning to use blogs to convey their message (possibly a sign that the end of the freewheeling blog era is at hand, nice revolution too bad it had to end!). With that comes the dangers too I guess, bloggers have been fired from their jobs for conveying too much of a wrong message (in corporate eyes) thus joining the ranks of the unemployed (no doubt to join those of us already ensconced and holding the high ground!!).

For me it's been an interesting diversion, a chance to pontificate, explore some Walter Mitty like existence of sending out great ideas and hope somebody notices. Some have, most haven't, when you look at the hits of the Big players of the Blog world, my little efforts are akin to the neighborhood newspaper I put together when I was twelve years old, short of the kids on my end of the street no one really read it, nor probably cared too terribly.

But none the less, it's a chance to work out one's frustrations with the world, bounce out some ideas or just stumble across some funny or sad stories to relate. My enthusiasm for the task will no doubt ebb and flow from time to time. Some days I get gung ho and pound out two or three entries some days I wonder why I just don't sit in front of the TV eat a gallon of ice cream and watch re runs of long forgotten shows. There are the days when "real life" gets in the way and blogging is the farthest thing from my mind, then there are days where I'm in the car driving and some great idea will hit me for an item, only to have it disappear by the time the car makes it across town.

I'm not sure what decision Sean will make, for me I hope he keeps writing, his blog entries have always been interesting and educating at times. His efforts this year have resulted in his nomination for a top blog of the year, he's got my vote!!

Of course I look at his work from the subterranean level of a quasi insider, having a slight concept of his process and his beliefs. Yet I think if I just stumbled across his blog I would add it to my favourites list based on its content and always fresh viewpoint.

For me I think the opportunity to put thoughts out there will continue, the odd day of drudgery can be made up by a kind word from someone who found something of interest and sent an e mail. Equally important are the people who drop a line to say you're freakin' nuts, where is that coming from! Debate is the key to free thought, so for those that bother to write keep it up.

Some say that the day of the Blog is almost done, a novel craze like the CB radio, it's destined to fade to a blue screen of death or to suffer that ever popular DNS error page status. For now though I guess I'll do my bit to provide the content fodder, you do yours to keep it all in perspective..