here we go again...

Its been awhile since I posted any thing on this old blog, after coming back from my family's camping trip I had several appellate briefs due from work that just completely monopolized my time, and am now only starting to get a little breathing room and back to a normal pace. As inevitably happens when I sit down to write a blog post after I haven't in a while, I struggle to find something appropriate to write about...frankly, I don't consider my life exciting enough to share the mundane details of weekly routines, at least to have that be the extent of my blogging. Sharing those types of things from time to time, to share trips, and certain unique happenings seems completely appropriate. But those don't happen very often, and without any thing, the blog simply becomes an occasional place to post something that wouldn't fit on Twitter.

I was reading a friend's recent series of posts, which were varying reflections, or events, and his thoughts on the same. I believe that type of blogging is interesting, particularly coupled with the occasional posts about things one does. Then, not only do you get to keep up on your friends happenings and special occasions or experiences they have, you get to share and keep up with your friends and what they think about, which gives you insight into what they spend their time doing, whether it be reading and writing about religion/faith, news, parenting, sports, whatever.

I think now about applying this to my little blog on the web, but my time, in terms of what I spend my free time thinking about, is either related to law, books, sports, and politics. I don't really want to write about law, because that's my job, and honestly, its nice to have separation from that. I do occasionally write about recent books that I have read, but the reading schedule is sometimes so intermittent that it lacks any consistency, which is something, for whatever reason, I want to have when writing here (ultimately, I find the process of writing here and sharing to be cathartic, I can't explain it any more than that, and I am not even sure that makes sense).

This leaves sports and politics. The primary difficulty in writing about sports for me is that, kind of like reading, my ability to keep up with it is inconsistent. I tend to know what is happening with my teams, the Tigers, or MSU, even Purdue basketball, but to follow it to the point of being able to write about it, just not sure that is in the cards. And more to the point, while I like sports, its not something I really think is worthwhile to share.

Politics. I really enjoy politics, I enjoy analyzing both as a partisan with my own biases, and as an observing, attempting to strip myself of the bias and just be the observing commentator. Its something I naturally follow, between the shows I watch on television, the news I generally read, and what is casually discussed in our office. Before I migrated to blogspot, I occasionally wrote about politics at my old blog, but when I decided to start this blog, I had decided to not venture into politics again. There were various reasons for this decision, but primarily the decision was founded on the belief that the web and blogosphere is already inundated with an overwhelming amount of political discourse, discussion, and opinionating, and frankly, I didn't feel like my two cent observations would contribute anything.

But since then, as I have striven to be better at blogging, and have read the blogs of friends and acquaintances that I consider to be excellent writings, I've come to realize something. There was an inherent problem with my viewpoint towards blogging in the past, I think I even touched on these same concepts a couple months back here. I was starting to realize then that, selfishly and succinctly stated, I have to blog for me, not for others. Which means, I have to write about what interests me, just as I would talk about what would interest me when around friends. That's what sharing yourself, in whatever format or medium it occurs in, is about...its not about projecting what I believe to be an appropriate image, its about being who I am, and letting others see that. If that can't be done through this blog, and if its not being done to make money (which it isn't), then there would be no reason to genuinely continue up the farce of having a personal blog.

So, for the second time in a few months, I have written a lengthier post about the nature of blogging, or rather, how I see personal blogging. Guess everyone can see the neurotic, handwringing side of me now. However, whereas that previous post was more of the beginning of rethinking of how to approach this space on the web, this post is, I think, about moving forward. Its about writing quick hits and observations about politics, because that's what interests me. Its about the continued occasional blog posts, the random video clip that's funny or the recent trip or home improvement project. The blog is supposed to serve as a reflection of who I am, what I do, what I think about, not what I think I should share. If I can get that through my thick head, maybe I will continue to enjoy the experience of just sitting down at the computer, and typing something out, not worrying about what someone reading it is going to think. To reach that point of catharsis, where simply getting things out of my head, regardless of how silly or amateur it might be, is a worthwhile process.

I already feel better getting this out after its been rolling around in my head the past couple days. So...to write about what's been on my mind...I guess that would Palin's recent announcement, but I'll leave that for another post, this has gone on long enough.