A blogger without a corset
Writing as expression
During recent exchanges with friends, I began to wonder why I do blog. Well, I have views, I have opinions, I have prejudices and I have bigotries, a blog is probably a forum to expose those weaknesses of scripted diarrhoea.
I like to write about a lot of things, I began this foray into opinion writing long ago when I was in secondary school, unfortunately, in one instance, my text was full of errors a that junior took the opportunity to crucify me with the put down that I was not worthy of a school certificate pass in English.
But for long, I have been better at expressing myself verbally than in writing, that seems to be levelling out, English by the way is my mother tongue by reason of it being my first language of expression as opposed to Yoruba, my parents tongue which I only began to speak well just around the age of 10.
In polytechnic I wrote under the pen name of Who Else and posted my diatribe in front of the college restaurant, however, it provided no means of exchange and commentary.
Over time, lots of professional friends advised my to go into technical writing since I seem to have the knack for breaking down technical complexities into everyday analogy, but I never really developed that ability beyond the occasional service on newsgroups.
So, I blog for many reasons and when I started blogging in December 2003 and it felt like a release, because the complaints and frustrations I have had over time could be articulated better with the thinking that attends the opportunity to write.
Temperamental at worst
Besides, I have found that bits of my history and large swathes of my memories have been recalled as I have put together my copy, in fact, I am at times fearful for what I remember and the way I put it all down - I could almost be too expressive.
However, when I analysed my temperament on the Keirsey Temperament Sorter it suddenly appeared I need an army - It might not mean much to have the temperament of a Rational - Fieldmarshal, but then you would not have a name Akin if you were not a warrior of sorts - Akin means warrior-hero in Yoruba (Spoken in Western Nigerian).
From the graphic attached I am a judgemental, thoughtful, intuitive, extrovert - that almost sounds like barrage of insults, but I cannot agree more. Though, I have probably unachieved in that respect too.
The extrovert in me allows me to talk about all those other elements of my temperament.
But then, my blog is also my personal journal; it is about me, myself and I, the things that affect me and those things I am affected by. I suppose the masthead says that much.
This is no horoscope
It is not used to send smoke signals nor is it to be used like a horoscope, though most of what is in there, bears semblance to people living or dead and events that have actually occurred. I am no prophet, mystic or seer, so my blog has nothing for how to live your day from some zodiac chart.
So imagine my amusement when I found out about a site called How Much Is My Blog Worth as if I would try to sell my journal to anyone for anything, I cannot see the point.
Don't list the buggers
However, it appears this site makes calculations based on where you are listed or rather the blog fans you have listed on your blog.
So, where someone has got the world and its wife in their blog roll, you can expect the value to be over $20,000 whilst my lightly annotated blog is worth a smidgen over $2,000. I am not however inclined to pop every blog rag on my blog roll to up the figures.
Conversely, there are bloggers who badger other bloggers to list them in their blog rolls, I would not know what for, apart from some need for validation or worse. It might be these people have not clearly thought out exactly what blogging is all about.
That does not mean people who find my rants interesting should not list me if they are so inclined, but it is patently uncouth to request a listing and I think any request of that sort should be black balled.
If a blogger finds it easier to bookmark interesting blogs on their web browser rather than publicise their blog interests, that should purely be the blogger's prerogative without having to be under duress or undue pressure.
Bereft of endorsements and refreshing
So, it is refreshing to see blogs that have no personal endorsements, just general Internet sites of interest - people should therefore not seek to chisel their tripe into those blogs upsetting the primary premise of the blog owner.
Unfortunately, the blog worth system gives blogs like these have a value of $0.00 regardless of the traffic those blogs entertain in terms commentary and visits - there must be something flawed in the calculations, but who really cares?
This affectation of blog-fashion-victims is like saying, place of picture of me on your mantelpiece because I already have one of yours - Get Real! - This is beginning to annoy me.
Web logs by Akin Akintayo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Netherlands License.