Sunday, April 29, 2012

Has It Really Been a Year?

Yesterday marked one year since I posted my first blog entry. Has it really been that long? Then again, sometimes it DOES seem like it's been a really long year. A lot has happened since last April, though not everything makes it onto these pages.

When I started this blog, I wasn't sure what I wanted it to be. It's probably obvious from the way it wanders that I STILL don't know exactly what I want it to be. If nothing else, it remains an exercise in writing for me. I read and wrote a lot as a kid, even won a prize or two for writing in elementary school. Later, like most teenagers, any writing I did was mainly limited to school assignments, and angst-ridden or anti-authority song lyrics. As an adult, aside from grocery lists or notes in greeting cards, most of my writing has been advertising copy and headlines as part of my job (I'm a graphic designer). I'm not bad at it... at my first job in advertising, my ability to turn a clever phrase even earned me the nickname "Headline Queen", which also came with the much-coveted "Elvis Salute". (Thank ya.... thank ya vurry much!) But writing the occasional ad copy probably isn't going to make me a better writer. Writing this blog at least makes me slow down, makes me stop and think more critically about things like sentence structure and word choice.

Friends who know me are probably amazed that I've written 70 blog posts in the past year without dropping a single F-bomb! While my spoken conversation is liberally peppered with profanity, I've tried to avoid it here. It's not because I want to keep this blog PG-rated, but because it's a challenge for me to abstain from them. You have no idea how difficult that's been... swearing is in my DNA. When my late Scottish grandfather was four or five years old in Edinburgh, he'd stand outside the pub and sailors would pay him a nickel to hear him swear. I understand it was a skill he'd learned from my great (or great great) grandmother. So yeah, I come by my proclivity for swearing naturally, and I appreciate the value of a well-placed profanity. I'll still try to avoid it here for the challenge of it, but don't be surprised or offended if you stumble upon the occasional curse word here now and then. After a year without them, I'm inclined to relax that self-imposed rule a bit.

For now, I think I'll also keep the blog fairly anonymous. Although it's mostly just friends and family reading it (and damn few of those, truth be told), it's still out there in the wilderness of tha interwebz, and I'm a little paranoid about making too much personal information available to anyone with a web connection. I know, I know... It's probably a little silly, but ya just never know. I don't expect that this blog will ever have a really widespread readership, but I'd rather be overly cautious in this age of identity theft and personal fraud. That being said, most of the blogs I enjoy reading tell personal stories, so I may relate more of what goes on in this monkey cage if I think it might have some entertainment value. I think I can do that without divulging my full name and social security number. (But maybe not without profanity!)

So here's to beginning a second year in the blogosphere. I can't promise that all my posts will be interesting or entertaining, but I've enjoyed writing them so far. Not only is it a personal challenge, but it allows me to express myself about what goes on in my corner of this weird and wonderful world. There are still a lot of things out there that make me wonder if it's just me. Maybe it's you, too... after all, aren't we ALL remarkable monkeys?

2 comments:

  1. Keep it coming Monkey! We enjoy your writing and look forward to reading it when we can get a quiet moment or two...

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