Two years blogging. Checkup

It's All About You. Every wednesday I write a private letter to you.  And when I talk about you - who else - I talk about me too.

This week I'll be blogging exactly two years. Every wednesday I write one letter - in a public blog - to you about what's puzzling me. A book. One sentence. A song. The clouds up in the sky. Saudade. Sharing a memory, good quote or poem. A picture. An image. Sometimes ancient images. Mostly in a historical context.

My blog is thoughtful and light. Above all it's sharing the love for living life. My life. Our lives. Down to Earth. With respect. Doing it my way. Against the flow of superficiality. I want you to puzzle, wonder, smile or cry. I want to walk, with the two of us, in our chinese garden. More

For today I did a checkup of my 'Live life! - wednesdayblog'. This is the score I have given myself:

Adaptations following checkup:

• #2 and #3 Change title of blog to 'Wednesday. Letter to You'. It's more exact the focus or niche what I'm pointing at with my blog.
• #8 Is it all about me? I'll ask you. 
• #18 Collaborating with other bloggers. I've to focus more on my blog community.
• # 20 and #21 Skip this. I'll not focus on keyword-rich titles and search engine optimization. Not interested.

The first year was tough. My second year of blogging was easy. For me it's all about routine. Just sharing me with you for us once a week on wednesday. It's out of love :)

Question: What do You Think of the Useability of My Blog? Is it Useful, Interesting or Entertaining?

Moments Like These

It's not the moment that a subject pops up. It's not the comments. It's not the RT's. It's not the compliments. It's the writing of these sentences in a blog that makes me happy.

To be more exact. The very moment that I realize that I wrote down another memory, dream or opinion makes me happiest. Most of the time this happiness glows in me for a few seconds. Sometimes for a few hours.

Today and tomorrow this blog feels like mine. In a few weeks from now I'll recognize the words I wrote before.  But in a way it's no longer mine. It could have been written by anyone.

Question: Does this ring a bell?

Focus

It feels strange. Yesterday I ran into my first Facebook-suicide. He - I'm not telling you - shut down his account because he spend "too much time on social media". He had to "focus" on other "more profitable" activities.

So be it.

What's my opinion on all this? Don't really know. I guess something like the real-world suicide: it's your life and your choice. Live your life or step out! At the same time I feel so well balanced. Social media for me is so much easier when I stick to my concept 'maximum of 40-60 friends' on Twitter, Facebook and BlipFM. It keeps my timelines at ease. We can't be in control of all the tweets, newsitems and music on planet Earth. I'm in control because I'm out of control. Let it float.

P.s. I wrote a couple of times on this subject before. Read this: 'Virtual friends. The distance is so much bigger but the format is the same'.

1 year blogging. My own favourite blogs. Which one is yours?

Happy anniversary! It's my 1st year of blogging. I wrote a little on this before. For me my blog is a mirror. My mirror. My public mirror. Next to that it's the archive of my dreams, puzzles and thoughts. For me. For my kids one day.

On the one hand it's an easy job: I write as I think with a lot of questions and wonder. On the other hand it's transpiration: I'm not allways in the mood to write another blog. Week in week out on Wednesday. Sometimes a blog takes me 10 minutes. Sometimes 1 day. Most of the time it takes 1 to 2 hours.Will I grow up and ever celebrate my 2nd birthday? I don't know. May be I will. May be not. 

In retrospect it was fun to blog. I wrote the kind of things - and in the same format - I usually write in private to a friend. These are my own favourite blogs: 

1. Most successful 'Any idea how influential images are?'
2. Deep drawing 'Stones 99 names of. Stones boring? 99 + 1 ways of looking at them' 
3. Most instructive 'History gliders (or sailplanes) in 3 pictures. Most distinctive evolution: launching method'
4. Largest survey 'Looking for a Prince (m/f) on a white horse? You are looking for Jesus!'
5. Most made with love 'Book review. Pamuk' Museum Innocence. Aren't we all surrounded by thousands of tiny little things of the ones we love(d)?'
6. Without blogging I would have not written this 'Kate Bush. Mystic on 'Aerial'. Invitation to be nondualistic' 

Question: What's is your favourite blog of 'Live Life! - wednesdayblog'?

P.s. To my readers. Please give back feedback once in a while. In a public comment or in a private e-mail. Don't forget that I need affirmation every now and then.

Life in progress. List 28th June 2010 12.27h

My to do list. My public to do list concerning Twitter and Blogging (disordered):

• Check out writer Dulce Maria Cardoso. I want to read one of her books because she said “I love just let time pass by”. I blogged about her before.
• Re-read Tom Holland's  book 'Rubicon'. Find out why Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Was it survival? Vanity? Or ...? It's a spin-off on this blog.
• Read poems of one of my friends.
• Listen to music of one of my friends.
• Decide if I'll write a bookreview on Robin Olds book 'Fighter Pilot'. I finished it last week.
• Write a non-read-review on book ''THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. How Our Most Ancient Moral Text Can Renew Modern Life'. A book I'll never read.
• Check out website of cloud lovers:  www.cloudappreciationsociety.org. They really exist!
• Find out why Winston Churchill refused twice his Duke title after winning World War II. He was such a proud men and jealous on his nephew's title. Why did he refuse the title he earned himselves? Vanity?
• Re-reading Gerald Brenan's book 'South of Granada'. It's input for a #dream #travel post for @kirsty_wilson
• Pick out the 7 books I'll read in this years summerholiday. I love puzzling on this. Pick up books. Browse a little. Smell at the book - I really do. 

Question: What's your list?

Life is more

To be honest. I don't feel like blogging anymore. In a way I lost my appetite. The urgency is gone. Next to that nobody really seems to care. Nobody seems to wait for what I'll write next. Last few weeks I'm making up my mind about my wins. More and more the feeling grows in me to commit web suicide. Life is more than Twitter, BlipFM and Blogging. How strange to be back on Ana Carolina's song 'Mais que isso'. It's the image of my first 'Live Life!' blog.

Question: Is my concept of 'win win' wrong? What image fits better?

Birthday. Almost 1 year old

Yesterday I was not happy with my blog 'On Cincinnatus and Julius Caesar. Do selfish genes feel by definition: the chosen ones?'. For me it was a good blog: informative, personal and to the point. I do not really know why I was discontent. In a way my final blog didn't meet the unwritten expectations I had before I wrote one sentence. All I wanted was write about Cincinnatus. And end with the remark that this modest role model male from old Rome is rare is history. After written the first paragraph I was puzzling on the reason why Cincinnatus behaviour is rare in history. Why is power over others addictive and tempting? Why  do we want to stay on the top and is it difficult to give power back? To be honest I don't really know. I entered a world full of fat words: groups, aggression and power. I entered a world I not always want to enter: what is a human being? why do we do what we do? how to live my life?

In a couple of weeks I'll be blogging for 1 year. I started blogging after I realized that Twitter's format of 140 characters is too oppressive for me sometimes. In retrospect my main unconscious target past year was: being honest to myself about all the facts, dreams, illusions of life in order to being able to live life. In a way I'm trying to define "life". For me my blog is a mirror. My mirror. My public mirror. 

Question: Is my public mirror worth reading? If yes or no: 'why? What blinkers do I have? You can comment on this blog in public or send me a private e-mail.

Virtual friends in 2010. The distance is so much bigger but the format is the same.

The world seems so exhibitionistic these days. I like privacy and intimicy. To be honest I'm not impressed by Facebook, MySpace and other friends-from-friends internetsites. I like to follow a few friends on MySpace. Look at their pictures and lurk a bit on their public "communication" but I don't feel the need to read, listen (and smell, taste and touch in the future?) to their friends and friends-friends. Why should I? For me all this is leisure time. I don't have to sell my business.

What do I want? I just want to have a few friends. Better a few friends I know very well than have 1.000 "friends" or "followers" I only know shallow. I like to know what my friends read, how their job is, what they dream and where they travel to. I like to share pictures. Share only in private. Why do people share so much of themselves? Why so exhibitionistic? Does "it" work better? What is "it"? Better for gaining new friends? Better for challenging life? Is hidden underneath it: the need to be in control of one's life and of their friends lives? If yes, why the need to be in control?

Why do people have the need to have more than 50 friends? Are they seeking for affirmation or love? Does it boost one's ego? Desmond Morris tells in his book 'The Naked Ape' (1967) that our human behaviour is largely evolved to meet the challenges of prehistoric life as hunter-gatherers who lived in groups from 40-60 people to survive. This “40-60 people group” concept is according to Morris still alive. It's something I always recognize in my personal life. I stick to my 50 friends. It keeps my timeline in Twitter quiet.

Virtual friends in 2010. For me it still feels strange to be a friend to another human being on the other side of planet Earth. People who I never saw in real life and probably never will see in real life. It's distant, virtual and digital but at the same time we have to invest in our distant friends too. Listen to them. Talk to them. Give them attention. Give them affirmation. Be honest. The distance is so much bigger but the format is the same.