I'm blogging in my underwear at present. Not in a saucy way, but in more of a holy-cats-it's-hot-today-and-I-refuse-to-sweat-through-another-T-shirt-especially-when-the-washing-machine-is-broken sort of way. It's only 32º (that's 90º, to those of you who work in Fahrenheit). I know that's not very hot if you're from Egypt, or India, or Oklahoma (hi, friends from Oklahoma). But it's enough to turn me into an irritable, sweaty, lethargic bore with a clammy tomato face.
Now that you have that attractive image in mind, let me proceed with the blog post.
So, I haven't done much blogging this June. This is what I have done:
- worked very hard. OK, quite hard. I'm not a miner or anything. However I have returned to work on Big Brother, which involves sitting in a grubby portacabin for nine hours a day with no natural light. So not completely dissimilar to mining.
- gone to three gigs: Britney Spears (free ticket, much fun), Kings Of Leon (we got told off by the woman behind us for standing up, to which Jenni replied "Do you think we're at the ballet?") and Bruce Springsteen (brilliant brilliant brilliant).
- been to the dentist for the first time in a few years. Terrifying.
- been to the theatre twice: Hamlet (starring Mr Jude Law. He wasn't bad... he was just a bit too... Jude Law) and Jewels, which is a Balanchine ballet and reminded me of a magical sparkly Christmas.
- been a bridesmaid for the third time. You know what they say: 'Three times a bridesmaid... obviously a loser'. It was Claire and Hywel's wedding, so let's blame them if I end up a miserable spinster. Although actually I see myself more as a jolly spinster.
According to this article, 95% of blogs have been abandoned. One of the reasons it cites is that bloggers have moved on to Twitter, where they can express a thought quickly and get an instant response. I think that's the issue with me. I love Twitter. I use it to ask people's advice, make stupid jokes, get information, share music, see what the funny people are saying and occasionally vent my rage. It's made me lazy with the blog, which takes much more effort and provides me with much less feedback and interaction.
But I don't want to give up on hattiehattie. I feel it's part of who I am now and I'm determined not to let another month pass with only three entries. Please shout at me if I don't stick to my word. Shout gently, though.
8 readers just couldn't let me have the last word:
Please don't join the ranks of the fickle 95%
Keep up the good work and stay charming.
It kind of seems inevitable that the one will affect the content and the frequency of the other.
Don't beat yourself up about it. Can you put the tweet app/widget (check my lingo)up top, like it's the continuing life of the blog, instead of in the margin? I started noticing it when the posts dried up, it's perfectly legitimate.
Twittering doesn't mean curtailing extended narratives anyway: http://www.danbaum.com/Nine_Lives/New_Yorker_tweets.html . (It may help to be insane and angry though.)
The thing on one level is that it makes for a kind double life and additional complications and mysteries. I'm wondering now, for example, if seeing old Bruce - even when you are doing so in some kind of not-my-purchase professional capacity, is a more miserable memory than going to the dentist? Regardless of halfarsed media moodswings on the matter, he's essentially the least cool thing in the world to confess to engaging with, but that's why he's the coolest.
I mean, that's an absurd observation but perhaps it will be sometimes somehow irksome to have the two existing in parallel.
I'm warming to Twitter because I've realised a few laudable souls actually use it with restraint and wit. Strikes me it can make for a cyber-Dorothy Parker or a prose-form Google Calendar depending on how dull one is. I like reading your blog and it's nice to see a new entry but once a pleasure becomes a chore and a burden it often seems time to torch the mother and dive in the river to new adventures. And I like the Tweets also.
Do what you want is the main thing and ta for what you do.
Lorks, have they got you in Borehamwood for that? If so, the immediate outside world probably has less to offer than the portacabin.
Interesting to read this post, as I jumped my blog ship this very week. Posts were a toil, taking hours or, more often, just being deleted. I really enjoy twitter, but because what it offers is so different, it can't be blamed for my cessation. Maybe I'll rediscover the aspect of blogging I liked.
Anyway, although I had my own problems with blogging, I wouldn't want to see the blogs I like falling by the wayside, so keep it up.
I'm such a tool.
I just saw your Bruce thing, missed it entirely when reading yesterday.
I was tired and avoiding homework.
Another reason I implore you to stop this evil blog.
Please don't give up the blog. The writing here has a different character, and is always a good read.
If you stopped this blog I would have nothing to live for. FACT.
You're all so nice.
(Although Claire - creepy.)
I have at least 4, possibly 5 blogs out there that have been woefully left alone to wither.
At least 3 of them were ideas that, were I to have pitched them to an editor of something respectable would have been laughed out of the office.
Still, they're out there somewhere. Perhaps they've learned to survive without me and are now updating themselves.
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