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what’s next

April 13, 2005 — Leave a comment

today marks the second anniversary of my time here at JS and what a long strange trip it`s been.

i actually started blogging a week earlier at blogspot and somewhat dissatisfied i moved here. i`ve seen people come and go, seen the member rolls grow from 4000+ to whatever epic number they`re at now.

over the course of 2 years and nearly 1200 posts, i`ve participated in quizzes and memes, shared my life down to the tiny, trifling details, i`ve waxed poetic about my love, i`ve railed about the inefficiency of bureaucracy, i`ve bitched about my job; i`ve tried my hand at satire,  voiced my opinions and stood up for what i believe in and i wonder, where do i go from here?

i don`t want to stop but i fear that i may be repeating myself or just unable to articulate some of the thoughts that are bouncing around in my head. i have all these ideas for brilliants post in my mind but the minute i sit in front of the computer the most cohesive portions of those thoughts flee leaving with an outline but no body.

even a post as whiny as this has suffered rewrites and deletions to numerous to mention. writing posts used to be an effortless exercise. thoughts flowed as fast as i could type, driven by some inner need to be exorcised, now i must chase them down, trap and tame them before they lend themselves to be shared.

some time last year i was forwarded an opportunity to take a survey conducted by a University of Essex student at the institute for socio-techinical research doing his PhD. i did it and thought nothing of it, until an email showed up in my mailbox last week, explaining that he had moved to the next stage of his research and was preparing to interview individuals.

i found what he was doing fascinating and replied to his email almost immediately after i got. we negotiated the date and time for the interview, which was initially scheduled to be conducted via Skype on Sunday; early afternoon my time, early evening his; but due to aforementioned circumstances didn`t quite work out that way.

it was interesting to spend the better part of an hour documenting my history, inspiration and motivation as a blogger. i think the interview has given me a lot more perspective about what i do here. it`s never been about fame and fortune for me, there are no book deals or television appearances in my future. but as an exercise in writing, i have disseminated information in a coherent manner, i`ve improved my skills; i hope; and the people who read my journal; either once or repeatedly; have always gone away with something.