blogging my face off

I always feel like writing.

Remember when Facebook came on the scene (or, perhaps more accurately put, when you arrived on Facebook's scene, which was probably about five years late since originally only those crazy college kids were using it...)?

Back in those days, the format looked like this:

Siobhan ___[status update]___

I felt compelled to write my status updates in complete sentences using the third person.

Siobhan just saw Hitch and she thought it was hilarious! 
Siobhan spent a week in Miami in the dead of summer and it was HOT. 

Spend enough time on Facebook and -- for a little while there -- I started to think in third person while doing even mundane activities. 'Siobhan Reynolds just closed her car door and walked across the street' and  'Siobhan Reynolds finished a PB&J sandwich.'

But I digress.

Now that I blog (and no longer write Facebook statuses like that), I want to write all of the time. Ideas fly at me constantly. Consider the fact that right now I'm writing about writing. (Did that just turn your brain inside-out? No? Yeah... uh... me neither.)

Instead of constantly thinking of my surroundings in third person, now I constantly wonder if there's a blog article to be made of it. This happens every time someone sneezes or sends me a funny IM or... basically does anything.

My writing brain quickly goes through a mental checklist. It's a little like a Choose Your Own Adventure.

1. Was it entertaining or interesting? 
• If no, then the adventure ends. Nothing to write about here. 
• If yes, then continue to step 2.
2. Was I the only person amused by or interested in it? 
• If no, and others were also amused, then are there more than 6ish components to the event? (Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. Six components gives me enough to write about.) If so, proceed to step 3.
• If I was the only person amused by the event, then there's possibly no need to write about it. Proceed to step 4.
3. The event was entertaining and had several components. Proceed to writing a draft article. 
• A draft article is usually just a title and a few notes.
4. Wait a week. Write the article. Is the event still entertaining? 
• If so, publish.
• If not, then let it accumulate dust. No trees killed in the making of that mistake.

I have something like 75 draft articles at any given point in time. Many will eventually see the light of day, and many won't.

Every day, I revisit my drafts. I plunk down a few more sentences, find pictures, ISWAC it, reorganize the content. In this way, there are always several articles which are nearly ready for publication at any given time. It's the best way to keep things moving with a blog in this format. Which is to say it's about nothing at all... or everything all the time.

Some blog posts take months to reach publication. Like Huff the Magic Marker.

Seriously, when was the last time you tried rhyming? Third grade?

In that instance, good things came to those who wait, while in other instances, it all happens very fast and in three minutes the article goes from conception to publication.

My favorite time to blog is early on Saturday mornings. I put on a pot of coffee, walk the dog, and camp out at the kitchen table and write till my roommate wakes up and/or the coffee's gone and/or it's time to join Carissa for a swim.

George is not very much help

And, of course, there's an app fer that, BlogPress, which allows users to write, save, and publish articles from any compatible mobile device. It's pretty extra user-friendly, and perfect for those blog-worthy moments that occur while I'm on the go.

What I'm trying to say is this: I am full of opinions and thoughts and, to my close friends, this blog is for you. Blogging relieves you of the need to listen to me talk ALL OF THE TIME about the stuff in my busy, busy brain.