Blogging: The spontaneous flow of emotion

So, it took me about an hour to write my first post on this blog . . . When I told my friends to go and read what I'd written they said that it sounded a little too proper for a blog post. It's true though, I spent half my time editing and re-writing certain words and sentences in order to get some witty remarks in there. I was pretty positive that I am not the only one who edits their posts and that they were overreacting to my editing.

However, the other day in my English class a girl did a presentation on blogging in which she talked about how blogging is supposed to come straight from the heart; it's supposed to be unaffected and unedited. She also found that blogging improves a person's writing abilities because they know that they are writing for an audience. So, there's a trade off between edited writing and natural flow; there are benefits in each area for a person's writing.

This natural flow of writing reminds me of Wordsworth's idea of the spontaneous flow of emotion in the preface to Lyrical Ballads.In this preface, Wordsworth discusses the "correct way" to write "true" poetry. "He sees poetry as acting like Nature, which touches all living things and inspires and delights them. Wordsworth calls for poetry to be written in the language of the "common man," and the subjects of the poems should also be accessible to all individuals regardless of class or position. Wordsworth also makes the points that 'poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility'" (151). (http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/wordsworth_and_coleridge.htm)


This idea applies to blogging as well. Blog so that people can understand what your saying! Blog about things that everyone can relate to! Blog for the natural man! Blog for ya life! So, I tried writing this post without editing . . . (I may have tweaked a sentence or two), but how did I do with the whole "spontaneous flow" thing?

The Blog Name Generator

So, I think that one of the hardest things about starting a blog is picking out a name for it. I had no idea what to call my blog, none. That is why you are all graced with the lovely title, “Gray Area.” I have no particular attachment to this name, but I thought that I could create some sort of ambiguous mood with it. So, if anyone has any suggestions for a new title, hit me up.

While I was looking for a blog name, I resorted to going to the internet for suggestions. Did you know that there are tons of Blog Name Generators on the web? It’s ridiculous. I have participated in web name generators before, just because. I have done several like, what would your sixities hippie name be—Rose Dawn Phoenix Dust and what’s your stripper name—Raine Bow. I have no idea how they come up with some of these words to put into the names.

So, I came across this Blog name generator out of desperation because I couldn’t think of anything good that day. I found a pretty good site that you should check out if you are ever in need of a blog name:
http://gzzt.org/pages/weblog_name_generator.php.

Here are some of the suggestions it gave me which caused me to name this blog, “Gray Area.”
Textual Page/notes
Grey Days
Nude Diary/Nude Loft (personal favorite)
Hobo Fantasies (what does a hobo fantasize about? I don’t know if I really want to know)
Cool Life (very original)
Bodacious Visions
Crooked Updates
Blank Thoughts
Bum Timer (How could someone live with themselves if they picked this name? Is this a bum to go with the hobo theme or is it your butt? Why would anyone have a timer on their butt?)
Sexy Days/ Sexy Updates (this is the hotness)

Those are just a few of the quality names that I found. If anyone out there can find another name generator with really ridiculous or good names, let me know.

Procrastination at its finest

So, I’ve done it; I’ve finally decided to start a blog. I have been thinking about starting a blog for a couple of years now, but I could never bring myself to do it. The creation of this blog acts as a rite of passage for me, I guess. Today, I have passed into the threshold from pen and paper into the digital age. This has been a hard transition for me to make in the past two minutes since I started writing, but bear with me.

I guess you can say that I’m a traditionalist. I have a slight aversion to following the trends of the digital age. I realize how sad this statement is because it’s not like I’m 65 years old and can’t even work a computer. But, I think that my aversion to the trends of the digital age started on the day that my parents decided to switch out our Beta Max player for something called a VCR.

I remembered being very confused on that day, or maybe I was just sad because I could never watch the Care Bears movie EVER again. I know that my brother praises that day because it marked the death of him having to hear those bears sing about “the Forest of Feelings” everyday. The digital age had betrayed me on that day.

I remember eyeing the first computer that my family got very suspiciously as well. It was a cheap IBM or something, but there are pictures of my brother on Christmas morning with his mouth hanging open with joy as I scowl in the background. Every computer we had after that broke down because they were cheap. And I started to reaffirm the fact that you can’t trust electronics, they always die in the end.
But it was on one of these cheap computers that I first discovered my love of writing.

At home, I have a lot of notebooks, and journals filled with writing that is most definitely blog worthy stuff. But I think the real reason that I haven’t started a blog is because it would just increase my growing procrastination. So, the lovely stories just offered to you are an example of not only the bile of my mind, but also of procrastination at its finest.