Blog growing pains

Today, in preparation for my presentation in Las Vegas, I was flipping through my slides from my ERE break-out session last fall. Not that long ago, but as far as the world of blogging in the staffing industry is concerned, it may as well be light years. Wow...I'm feeling a little dramatic today ; )

Back then, I was talking about blogs as if nobody had heard of them (many hadn't) and explaining to people why you would want to blog in the first place (recruiters like to make a direct connection between an activity and a hire...hard to do with blogging). I think it's possible that the staffing industry, despite the fact that most companies won't allow blogging, at least understands the medium now. I'll find out in Vegas. No jokes about what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, OK? Trust me, if I stink up the place, it will make its way back up to Redmond. They (the people that have time to make up silly names for things that really don't need names at all) call the warm winds that come up the Pacific Coast from Hawaii the "Pineapple Express". If it comes up from Vegas as a result of a stinky presentation, it won't smell like pineapples in my office ; ) I'm getting off topic and I'm hungry.

Anyway, looking at that presentation put me back on the mindset of 6 months ago. I was still in the "wheee...this is cool!" space then. All of us bloggers have been there...it comes after the fear of pressing the submit button on your first post and before that dreaded moment when you realize you don't have something fascinating to say every day. This much later, I'm beyond the novelty, and I am thinking about some new things:

1) Fast Company aside, you wouldn't recognize me walking down the street so there's no need to get an ego about it. I definitely see some people (anonymous nameless people for the sake of the discussion) in the blogging space getting their egos in a bunch. Recognition from the media is cool. How cool would it be if they saw me sitting on my couch in my PJs with a clay masque on my face, eating coffee ice cream like it's my last day on earth (not that I would ever do such a thing)? How cool is that? Blogging can make you feel famous but you are not (well, at least I am not). Your voice is just louder. Just like Vanilla Ice. How "cool" is he now? But anyway, I'm digging the Fast Company thing.

2) I am not interesting on a daily basis. It's not possible unless you have someone writing your lines. Or maybe it is possible, but just not for me. I've decided not to force it. If I don't have anything, I don't have anything. My weekend was filled with a trip to the vet, house cleaning and magazine reading...zzzzz. I just can't imagine that anyone is interested in how to stuff a benedryl into a snausage, which was the excitement in the Hamilton home this weekend.

3) It's really hard to straddle the line between having conviction and credibility and being wrong. The blogging medium is about expressing opinions...otherwise, what is the point? It's really hard to express those opinions (or my view of the universe) in a credible way without becoming too self-involved (see #1 above). I'm trying to turn off my blog voice the second I look away from the site. I think people become too invested in their blog identity and that is when it can get ugly (just a general observation). Frankly 99.9999% of the population doesn't care! Despite the fact that I'm constantly analyzing what's going on relative to my ability to blog about it (it's a binary decision...can I blog this or not?), When I leave here, I'm just Heather (like my neighbors give a toot what I do). It doesn't follow me in life, it just whispers "blog this" every now and then.

4) I really thought that blog trolls would get to me. They just come on your blog to correct your grammar, criticize your interests, etc. They so don't bother me like they used to. Don't get me wrong, there's a little bit of exhilaration in the ensuing fish slapping ritual. But it's just not a personal thing for me...anymore. People in life are just like that and I feel sorry for them. Perhaps we bloggers are doing a service by giving them someone to criticize so they don't take it out on their dog/SO/whatever. That is not an invitation to troll here! If you've got an opinion on something relevant, let's hear it. If your opinion is "Heather can't spell", "Heather has too much time on her hands", save it. We knew that already. ; )

Anyway, just some things I have been thinking about that some of the other bloggers out there may have noticed as well. I'm not sure if I'm just noticing it because the medium is involving or because I am getting past "whee!"