Thursday, January 22, 2009

Do I need a purpose?


Someone said that to me - that nobody reads blogs except other bloggers. That may be true, I don't know, but why would that matter? Does it matter? Does it even matter if anyone reads?

I don't know.

Well, George W. Bush is home in Texas. That's nice for him. And we're all speeched out right now and, like with most things positive, the comedown is a bitch. I'm left wondering, what am I doing? What is it... that I'm doing? I've been rambling a lot on this blog. Moving from subject to subject. It began with my depression but, as it turns out, things have been pretty okay lately. Well, a lot of things have been crap but that's just because they've been crap, not because I have some sort of chemical imbalance making me miserable when things aren't, in fact, crap. Sometimes it's not depression - it could be your shit life.

And I talked about animation. I don't have any animation news. It's not a news site. And I don't have great tips for you (oh, but if you're just starting out and going for an interview, enough with the goddam life drawing - if we can't see it applied in your animation drawings, it's no use to you. And don't keep showing earlier and earlier work until you leave the director with his last memory being the first poxy flip book you made at age 6 - hey, maybe I do have some tips). So there's a limit to what I can talk about in the day to day life of an animator.

And then there's just life stuff.

And it's all okay, I guess. Most of it's stuff I really want to put down somewhere.

But it's 2009. A new year. Do I need more structure on this blog? Do I need a reason for its existence? Do I need it to lead to something? To have a goal to work towards with it? Something I could do for the entire year so that I look back at the start of 2010 and see what I was working towards? Or should I just allow it to be my play place? Do I need Depression Mondays or Animation Fridays or The Sunday Reason For Not Commiting Suicide (if I miss that one week, Depression Monday comes with 10% extra free depression)? Or should I just shut the hell up and get on with whatever it is I'm doing here?

I don't know. What do you think?

10 comments:

Lisa G said...

My blog has no purpose other than to be a hobby for me and a place to put out there whatever I need to put out there. Frankly, if I'm having a shit day, I want to write about it. If I'm having a playful, meme-y sort of day, I'm going to write that too. I think we as bloggers get caught up in what other people think our blogs should be, when what they should be is whatever the fuck WE want them to be. Do your own thing, and screw the lot of them is my opinion. Course, it might not matter, since I'm another blogger, LOL! I like your blog just as it is :))

Zymp said...

I'm no blogger, and I read your blog. I enjoy reading your blog, and I think the only reason to write a blog is if it brings you happiness, or just helps to relieve the sadness in your life. So if it does that, I don't see any reason to stop. The way I see it, the blog is for you first, and for the reader second.

Harriet said...

To answer your question: No.

Betül said...

I started blogging for the reason of putting my extremely important thoughts out there, sharing it with the world and making a change. Yeah right.. you guessed right, soon later I figured that I take myself too seriously. So that's a good outcome, right? World is small, internet is big and people spend so little time surfing on your blog (if they are not your friends who know that you will be asking questions about your posts therefore they have to be careful while reading!) Eeh.. I guess I still like it though. Blogging may not bring the world to me, but it surely made me learn more and get to know people (like you - well you know, I know an animator's nick name and a web page and thoughts about Bush.. right? that's good, no?) Whatever. I am learning and being a better reader (than I writer, I think) therefore I like it. And my answer to your question is a no, also.

susan said...

Dearest Animator,

I am going through the same Existential questions myself.

Hang in there. I love reading you and get all happy when your blog shows up in Safari's feeder.

Susan in the States.

Red Pill Junkie said...

Sometime ago I read in Wired the article of some fellow who announced the era of the Blog to be officially over. He argued that there were too many blogs out there now, so if your purpose for having a blog was to attract a million readers and obtain a book deal, you might as well forget it; he also said that all the cool kids in the net were tweeting and vlogging (with a 'v') on Youtube.

But, as my fellow commenters have said, if your idea of the blog is just to write about your life, the occasional work rant and thoughts on your passions, that's quite fine by me.

As for me, I consider myself more of a Blog commenter than a proper Blogger. I started commenting on Blogs a couple of years ago, and it grew so out of proportion than I even got a gig as Admin on a website—where I do keep a small blog, which I don't really have much time to tend to :)

So why do I do it? I guess for the same reason some people climb mountains, practice bungee jumping or play WoW: because it has filled a part of me that needed to be satiated.

Because I like it :)

Humphrey Erm said...

Well, I started a blog while my arm was in a cast, which revolved around writing a sci fi story per day. Secretly I thought I was going to attract some other amateur writers specifically sci fi fans, but for now there are no comments at all to suggest that I anyone I don't know have read them :P

Then my arm was healed and I started to draw again and gave up on that blog. I'm not sure if I'm suited for blogging, but I enjoy reading blogs, and you should just write what you want, just like you have done from the beginning.

I would however love to hear some animation tips more often, since I am an aspiring animator and all :)

Andy Latham said...

A person's blog is what it is in my opinion. You might start it with an intention, but it will evolve.

Mine has always been animation-based, but it's intention has changed over the years. I'm even at a point now where I'm wondering if it's worth me even continuing it.

Anonymous said...

I have a Myspace, a Livejournal, a Facebook and a Blogger. The main incentive for all these blogs? Unadulterated random abuse, hyperbolic sarcasm and outright cynicism. I let people know what I hate and what I think is wrong with people who like what it is I hate. It doesn't concern me what other people think, I know a lot of people think what I do and how I do it is humourous and I've embraced all of it.

I do want to write a book someday, and I'm going about it in the way I think is the best way to do such a thing, but all of my "blogs" and "online journal" accounts are an outlet because I know what I put in them is pretty much garbage, an outlet for useless negativity in the hope that what I have left is meaningful. I am not under any impression whatsoever that my blog is going to get noticed (not in the way that helps me "get a book deal") especially when I consider that where I live, not many people read anything other than the sports section of their local newspaper.

But when I finally write this "book", you can bet the first place anybody will hear about it is in my fucking blog.

Brian Sibley said...

I know of a lot of non-bloggers who read blogs - but who cares?

Do it for therapy or a hobby or egoistic self-engrandizement: it doesn't matter because they'll always be someone reading and that makes life just a tad less lonely --- I think...