Bear Blog Question Challenge
- Why did you make the blog in the first place?
I'm never afraid to make a shitty little blog!
- Why did you choose Bearblog?
I love how simple it all is, because really I never needed that much in terms of writing. What I do need, however, is somewhere where I'm not stuck fidgeting with the html and can organize my posts simply and easily. I know it sounds kinda lame, but html blogging was too much to juggle for me and a total pain, it made it hard for me to hold onto my ideas and focus on writing. I like that there's still an element of community engagement so I can see other blogs on the recent and trending, because I do love reading blogs, but it's not so much that it makes me feel like there's a bunch of pressure to act outside of what I want to do and who I am. It's like everyone has a standard spiral notebook they're writing in, and while the colors and the pens they use might change from person to person, mostly it's what people write about or the photos they take that defines their blog. Usually I'm pretty gung-ho about going wild with creativity, and to a point I still am, but I like that people are usually more focused on their blogging here since Bear wasn't made with hosting unique sites in mind, like say Neocities. And if you've seen my Neocities, you know I still think visual self-expression is important and amazing! But I know not everyone wants to take the time to mess around with the visuals, but they have great stories to tell about their own lives or just interesting thoughts to share. I love that there's somewhere for people like that to feel like their voice is equally important.
- Have you blogged on other platforms before?
Oh my god, very much yes. It's practically my hobby in a sense. I have tried everything out in some way at some point, as long as it was free and I knew it existed. I actually would love it if I could unlock my old Jugem account for old time's sake, but also I've used Blogger many times, a lot of other defunct websites and web services like freewebs and Xanga, to be honest if someone sent me a link to an archive of an old blogging website and said it was me, even though I don't remember it, I would be inclined to believe them. I really have always love the idea of writing about my life or how I feel online and able to be seen. I don't really like the idea of everyone I know in person to see what I write, but I do like knowing others can read and possibly connect with it. I think much of this comes from being a young adhd weird girl and an only child wondering "is this weird? Do other people feel the same as me?" all the time and getting no solid answer. So, now that I'm older I know it doesn't matter, but I like this system all the same because it's what I've grown used to and what I enjoy most. If I can't find my people in my real-life peers, by god I'll find them with the best way I know how.
- Do you write your posts directly in the editor or in another software?
I am writing to you directly from the editor. It just seems like an easier way to do it. I think it might be kinda nice to have a wysiwyg markdown editor but it's not such a big deal since markdown is so easy to learn and I'm not sure why adding an extra step really makes things easier for me. Maybe if I was making more ambitious posts I would feel differently?
- When do you feel most inspired to write?
See, that's the thing people get wrong. I often feel inspired to write at the worst moments when I'm about to fall asleep or I'm in the thick of doing something else. What I feel most of the time is that I don't want to write, until I'm in the editor and I'm about two or so words in. I have to work with feeling like this the best I can. I can say from experience that motivation and inspiration almost always follows action, and I often tell myself "just try, even if you don't have anything to say". It's uncomfortable and it's annoying, but those feelings quickly melt away into a cathartic focus session of writing that always leaves me feeling better than before. My brain is really good at avoiding what's good for it, and it makes grand excuses that seem so reasonable (I'm too tired, I'm too sleepy, I don't even know what to say) in the moment but never seem to hold when I actually get started. I think to better answer the question, I often have a lot to say after a long while of reading what others have written, quotes curated on tumblr blogs, watching youtube opinion essays, and consuming all kinds of media. Eventually, my building desire to engage spills over into a blog post that to me seems inevitable but to outsiders must seem random.
- Do you publish immediately after writing or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?
It really depends. If I'm feeling like I'm coming from an emotional place, or that I'm just not in the mood to proofread and clean it up a bit, it goes to the drafts but...I know myself enough to know it could stay there forever if I do that. I think I'll have to one day go through the drafts of me complaining about something stupid and admit to myself no one really wants to read me go off about an enraging reddit post I saw or how Google Stadia was dumb but could have been cool or all kinds of ranting that quite frankly doesn't transform the anger into something productive or interesting, but is just me venting at best. I don't mind critical analysis or being at hater but I don't like being seen as someone who just rants and raves about asinine topics without some meat for people to chew on. I don't like to echo the same stuff people say too often if I can help it because I think someone reading can be rightfully irritated seeing the same thing over and over and feel misled into thinking I had some sort of novel take on whatever the topic is when I honestly didn't. It's my blog and my rules sure, but I like holding myself to a few small standards even just for myself to look back on and know I didn't encourage something I personally get burnt out on from other people. Being a lil hater is an art I respect but have yet to master. Besides the hateration in my drafts, there's some personal posts that got a bit too personal that I genuinely want to clean up one day, and stuff like these questions, where I just didn't have the time when I found them but I do want to do them! By the way, feel free to direct me to more like these. As you can tell, I'm having too much fun with them lol.
- Your favorite post on your blog?
Always my most recent post, but I guess that's actually two posts meant to be connected and might one right after the other, so maybe it's those two. I think whatever I put effort into in the future will be the new favorite. I do get rather embarrassed at my old stuff the older it gets...
- Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, changing the tag system, etc.?
I really want to implement a tag system! But I am so stupid. In my defense, I just got hired at a new job and I'm leaving my old one, my birthday is coming up, I've got a birthday gathering tomorrow for my sister-in-law, and I'm just plain doing a lot right now. It's all good stuff, as I'm making more creative stuff and I'm really getting a lot of things done I've been wanting to do for a while, but I'm so busy!!! I genuinely still cannot understand how people are doing tag systems on here and I would like to very badly. I know it's on me for just not understanding or maybe I'm just not reading things right. I would love for posts like this to be a certain tag, personal posts to be their own tag, more serious posts to be their own tag and so on for people to better navigate. I swear just give me time!
I tag anyone who wants to do this :)