Blogging is Hard and I Should Try Harder

    I've been on hiatus for quite some time and that's largely been because I've opted to do other things with my time.  I still thought about politics and I still had opinions that I voiced in a ranting like manner, I just never posted anything because I just didn't.  Blogging is a difficult habit to get into and, like so many other things, once the initial passion fades you quit.  I want to get back though. I need to practice writing. I need to find and hone my voice as a writer, as well as my mind as a thinker.  It's not like I stopped looking at blogs or focusing on the news, I'm actually kind of surprised at how much time I'll spend reading the blogs of others and come away with new thoughts.  I just generally read those things and then proceed to pace around the house thinking aloud looking for all intents and purposes like a crazy person.  (As an aside, I think we could make the mentally ill look more sane by providing them wooden pipes and glasses with a book thrown in for affect. )

    When it comes to blogging there is much that seems so easy to access.  You could basically make a blog at the drop of a hat and Google has a fair amount of neat features that makes it easy to actually create a non-crappy blog with all kinds of bells and whistles.  Simultaneously, it seems like there are so many blogs out there that are of dubious quality that it should be easy to just pick up the keyboard and become an internet sensation with a reasonable level of talent.  Then you realize that actually being able to write and have something that is worth reading can be really hard.  People have taste.  Simultaneously there are bloggers out there who are sublime.  (Aside part two, how did he find himself on the transformational study abroad trip.  Makes mine look like crap.  He has these profound observations on the nature of himself and his role in the universe, I got white supremacists.) They write poetically, they write cogently, they have recipes that are delicious.  All kinds of cool things happen in the blogosphere and it can be disheartening to try to make one's voice heard in the raucous arena of the internet.  So much of it is so vast that something good may never be found and when you find something captivating you may not want to wade through the dreck of cyberspace to find something else.  We choose our internet hang outs and stick to them much like we would in real life. 

    At the end of the day, I want to write more.  I want to have some kind of portfolio of my thoughts and arguments.  Looking back at my earlier writing, I also want to be less of a hack.  I have this lofty ideal of my own intellectual prowess but going over my old posts, well, they're less than inspiring.  In addition, my brother-in-law started a blog and I'm nothing if not competitive.  I will bury him under my prose!