After spending the best part of an hour this evening investigating the various reasons my old blog posts might not import into Blogger, I’m taking a brave and perhaps foolhardy decision.
I’m not going to import them.
This might not sound so earth shattering, but when you have a fairly complete record of almost daily journal entries stretching back to 2003, it feels like cutting your literary legs off. In a strange way it also imparts a degree of freedom I had not expected.
The chance to start again, to begin anew - to look forward, not back.
I will keep the past of course, and take it out to admire from time to time. I will investigate the options around printing each year as a book, and perhaps write about the strange journey towards publishing a book with a run of only one copy. Perhaps such rarity will make it insanely valuable one day, should I become famous (you can stop laughing).
Since the weekend several people have asked why I am doing it - why jump ship from WordPress (widely regarded as technically the best blogging platform). Why throw my hat into the Blogger ring?
For me, it has not been about functionality, or the platform - it has been about distraction.
I am a born tinkerer. I work as a software and web developer, meaning I am quite capable if given enough time and resources of building Blogger or WordPress. I coined a saying at work related to hacking (in it’s true sense) - “if you leave the door open far enough, I’ll take it off it’s hinges”. WordPress leaves it’s door open too far.
What does this mean in terms of writing an online journal? It means I fiddle with plugins, widgets, and doodads rather than write. Rather than share the story of my day, I muse over the latest trick I have discovered, or how I managed to migrate everything to Posterous, Drupal, or SquareSpace…
I am my own worst enemy - but at least I know about it.
So here’s to the future. A future filled with stories of the daily grind, children, parenting (however badly), cats, chickens, commuting, shopping, washing up, and a thousand other slices of my seemingly insignificant life on this spinning ball of mud.Here’s to all those who discover me on my journey - may you be (hopefully) entertained or amused as I share my various adventures, frustrations, victories and failures with you.
I’m beginning to like the idea of this “beginning again” lark.