Sunday, July 8, 2007

Brainstorming

After the excitement of making the 4 dollars, I decided I would look up some of the more popular blogs to familiarize myself with various formats and perhaps dig up some ideas. What I found was fascinating. Most people who make their living off their blogs have come up with great ideas. One man whom I came across would find photos and write brief little short stories about them (which were expertly executed) and then ask other people to write their own. This is ingenius, since it encourages interaction and people check the blog more frequently. His page also contained hundreds of links to other blogs and websites, each divided up by category. The blog had style, but wasn't overstylised. By comparison, my blog is childish.

This is encouraging rather than discouraging, however. It has swarmed my head with ideas, none very good, but the wheels are turning in new ways, and I'm confident I will eventually come up with something. Any ideas?

In the course of my research, I have also found that there are a lot of "professional bloggers" who make their entire living off of their writing. The particular gent I mentioned above just moves around Europe, writing blogs and hanging out with friends from various countries. I don't think I can make it to that level of comfort, but I'm not doing so much else with my time, so I see no harm in trying. One thing I have to do is figure out how to adjust this cheap layout. Again, any suggestions?

Anyways, last night I watched "Dirty Dancing" for the first time. I promised myself at one point in my life (and probably many times afterwards) that I would never watch that movie, but I needed Italian, and so I figured it wasn't really "watching" it as "studying" it. Today, like every other day, I woke up fulfilled, and lively (that's an alteration on a favorite Rumi line of mine, so don't accuse me of plagiarism); the sun was high in the sky, not a cloud to be seen. The past few weeks have been cooler than my first couple. Now I think I'm going to go to the lake and do some writing.

Ciao tutti!
-justin

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Justin, I hate to tell you but you have seen Dirty Dancing dozens of times. It's all Ms. Pat used to watch. I guess you can be thankful you don't remember. This blog needs nudity. Not you of course.

oktaco said...

feel free to contribute some pictures. nudity, that is. not of me watching dirty dancing with ms. pat. and not nude pictures of ms. pat either. that would be unpleasant.