Virginia Breeze

It’s the big Memorial Day Weekend boys and girls. What do we all have planned for these three days of fun? Are we going to the beach to see how much the water has warmed up since January? Are we staying home and cooking meat on the grill? MMMmmmmm. Meat.

Are we going to the pool and display our body fat to the world? Or are we going to go to bed and stay there for three days?

Being sick can be such a drag. I don’t appreciate enough the fact that I rarely stay in bed for more than a few hours to get some sleep. I mean if you are so sick you can’t even scrape yourself out of the bed and sit in front of a computer then you are REALLY NOT WELL.

I would have to be taking the BIG NAP in order for that to happen.

This morning I have been thinking about Lorelle again. I swore I wouldn’t go back to her blog because I was such an idiot the last time I was there. But I can’t stay away.

I did manage to refrain from leaving any comments however. So no damage done. Instead I am going to leave a comment here! Then if it turns out badly I can delete it!

Lorelle wrote a post about being a successful blogger and writing about things that interest lots of people. Makes sense, right? But then she says that lots of bloggers are writing about the same thing and that’s a drag. And clearly she is right again. Who wants to read the same thing over and over again?

But how do you write something very original AND something that lots of folks find interesting all the time? That’s pretty difficult it seems to me. And how do you know lots of folks will find it interesting when you are planning and writing it?

This is why I get crazy when I go over there. I end up with these contradictions and questions without answers. Maybe it’s clearer to you. Please let me know if you have the answer.

Anyway, it is a holiday weekend and Beth warned me several days ago that today (Saturday) needs to be a “cleaning day”. Because I invited a bunch of people over on Sunday (tomorrow). And so the house must be cleaned today. And the grass needs to be mowed.

But first the yard needs to be raked because of the freakin huge tree that likes to drop leaves all summer long. And these leaves can’t be ground up by the lawnmower she tells me. They can’t be mulched. They will just have to be picked up eventually in tiny little pieces if I run over them with the lawnmower.

I want so badly to have this tree cut down. But she refuses.

More frustration. Do I carry a lot of frustration around? Maybe so. Maybe i should let it all go and just breathe. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Repeat five thousand times.

Alright. Things are much better now. Time to go rake, mow, dust, vacuum, arrange,empty, pick up, water, spray, shop and do other stuff too.

Do many things but not write. Stay out of this chair.

This is not going to be easy.

Update: I think that the idea is for bloggers who don’t have a particular blog theme like living healthy lives or collecting stamps or sports for example is this. . .Try to bring out your uniqueness as an individual. Try to express something that just has “you” written all over it. And try to make “you” entertaining or at least interesting. Connect to the things that interest you and help others in any way you can.

That’s what I am trying to do and maybe I am not succeeding. But that is the goal. Does it meet Lorelle’s criteria?

If it works I believe it does. And if it does not you all will sail away and I will have had fun trying.

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Update : Here’s a nice post written about Lorelle that helps me focus on the actual person who is behind the blog. It even has a photo of her. Apparently those are hard to find. She must be a distant relative of my wife.

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Well here we are and it’s the weekend again. The weeks are going by quickly now that the warm weather is here. Why is that? Maybe the heat warms up all the molecules in the air and that makes time go by more quickly.

Doubtful Einstein. And we can’t say time has been going by quickly because we have been having so much fun. Well, maybe you have been having a great time.

But it was not a fun week for your aged blogging buddy. It rained a lot for starters.  And then I found Lorelle’s reply to a comment I made about a month ago when I was experiencing blogger’s remorse and spent time wondering if anyone cared.

Lorelle suggested I not blog for awhile. Find something else to do. Don’t they have group recreation projects in the Happy Hotel where you and the other psycho’s live?

She didn’t say that but I can read between the lines. And she really is a nice person but somebody shoot me before I ever respond to one of her post’s again.

And then there was the surfing forum where I started posting some of my surfing guy photos. I have been trying to do the forum thing because you are supposed to do it.

So I posted some photos and this is what happened. My first mistake was misspelling Rudee’s inlet.

HIM: you would think if you have a house there you would actually know the name of the inlet…

ME: I do know the name of it. I just didn’t spell it right. Did you ever misspell a word?

Probably not in your state of near perfection. Could you please let the sun shine for a few days.

We are tired of the rain.

HIM: I think I have misspelled a word or two in the past.

Sure. I will make it foggy again tomorrow morning but tomorrow afternoon I will allow you to have have some sun. I will keep it rather sunny for Friday and Saturday too. Happy?

Things were going pretty good at this point. I had arranged for some nice weather and my new friend seemed fairly content since I appeared to understand his grandness in the scheme of things. But things started to go south shortly thereafter as I posted some of the surfing photos you see around here.

HIM: I guess I am not the only one worried about our newest poster who can not spell the name of the place he lives and has a true fondness for VB, young boys and fat chicks. Great pictures of some ****ty waves though.

HIM’S FRIEND: got any killer photos of you david—barrels–airs–floaters–video?????????

ME: Sure. Just send me a SASE and I will send you an autographed copy. And thanks for asking. I knew you would come around.

ONE OF THEM: your photos are awful

ME: Appreciate your honesty there Gas

And things went on for awhile in this vein until one of the guys suggested that the FBI might be interested in some of my photos. Apparently he feels people should be dressed up at the beach like they were back in 1910 or thereabouts.

But enough of that. And then there was the guy over at LinkReferral who came out of the blue and gave my photoblog four 2’s when it had been getting 5’s and had an average of about 4.9 (no more). He also left a comment. It read:

Nothing great in this. Put up something new and useful.

Thanks guy! What did I ever do to you? Do you know some guys who post at a surfing forum?

Oh well. The nice things people say from time to time MORE THAN make up for these folks who walk around spreading negativity. And I guess this is the price you pay for trying to stir up some traffic.

But, thankfully, it is the weekend. And it’s not raining outside! It looks like it wants to but clearly someone is keeping their crooked finger in the dam.

Thanks guy! You are a Prince! But you really should start to wear a hat when you are out in this wonderful sun.

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And Jordin if you run into anybody who is spreading negativity around just let it slide off your beautiful self. They are out there but you need not be afraid.

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***

Lots of things make you happy of course. But what makes you MOST happy on a REGULAR basis in terms of your blogging effort? I have been wrestling with this question the past few days.

I hope that we can share some comments and ideas when this post is published. I really hope we can.

First of all it may help to look at this question in terms of the present moment. In other words if you say that down the road somewhere something will happen (hopefully) with your blogging and that will make you very happy most of the time.

Your happiness comes from imagining that day.

Let’s just toss that one out the window for the purposes of this post and concentrate on the present moment. What is it about blogging today that makes you happy on a regular basis?

There are a relatively small number of bloggers who are making a good income blogging. Do you think this makes them happy most of the time? I suggest that in many cases it does not. Once the novelty wears off there will be other needs to fulfill in order to be happy. Here is a post I read recently that was done by a very successful and brilliant blogger.

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/blog-struggles-surviving-the-when-blogging-goes-bad-blues/

Blogging can be a pain even when you have thousands of readers. I know that thousands of readers would not make me happy for very long. Because being excited and being happy are two different things. And I feel like there is something about blogging that does make a worthwhile activity on a regular basis.

It’s not the excitement of a traffic spike. It’s not the income that it can potentially provide.

It’s the satisfaction that comes from creating something with ideas and photos. And then taking this creation and sharing it with someone. It’s the photo that makes me happy. It’s the idea that I have expressed in writing that makes me happy. And I can do these things on a regular basis.

I am creating something. And this creation may not be great. It may not even be good sometimes. But if it makes me happy then it is worth the time and effort it took to put it together. And when someone looks at it or reads it and has something to say about it, well, that’s just the frosting on the cake.

Cake is really good by itself. But frosting makes it so much better. And we all could live without another dessert for the rest of our lives. But I doubt we would do that unless we were forced to do it. Relationships and conversation are the frosting.

If I ever stop having these good feelings about posting something then it will be time to stop doing it. Even if there is a positive cash flow or lots of positive feedback. It really is that simple for me. I am curious about the notion of having lots of readers or making money here. But I actually don’t think these things will ever happen. And it doesn’t matter because the happiness that comes from creating something is more important. And frosting without cake can only take you so far.

It’s like the guy who loves his job and says only half in jest that he would pay someone just to be able to come to work every day.

Why do you blog? Have you sorted it all out? I would be very interested in hearing what you have to say about the subject.

Does anybody besides me write an email once in awhile and send it to someone who never responds in any way? I’m not talking about every day but maybe once or twice a month. Or maybe it is just me. I sent an email the other day to someone who writes poetry. I would say it was a hobby on their part. Jut like yours truly. We are not talking about Robert Frost here in either case. This is someone in my niche as the saying goes.

And no response has been forthcoming.

It always seems to be guys too. Lorelle has been blogging for over ten years and she writes books. But I know that if I put a comment on her blog and I need some help she will be there with a response.

So I am working on a follow up letter to use in cases like this.

Dear Fellow Blogger,

This is a response to your non-response following the original email I sent to you sometime last month. First of all let me say again how much I enjoy your blog. There are a couple of misspelled words here and there but who is counting? The important thing is that you have a few posts that are very good. I was talking with you wife last week and she says there isn’t a day that goes by that you don’t manage to spend at least twelve hours at the computer. So it must be very satisfying to see your efforts start to pay off.

Before your lovely wife published her name and address on the internet I used to wonder how couples manage to enjoy themselves when one or both were busy blogging and working outside jobs.

And now I know!

Thank you for sharing some of your experiences with me. I must admit that I was hurt at first when you didn’t respond to my email. But it’s all good. And in some cases it is all very, very good!

You can bet that I’m looking forward to sending you more questions and not receiving your replies in the future!!

Your blogging friend,

David