I’ve felt like I’ve been neglecting this blog lately, and wanted to get focused on it again. As it happens, I ran across the 7 day Challenge from Andrew Emmett‘s blog (via Lee’s entry), which seems like a good idea to get me started again.
The idea is to write 300 to 400 words about each of the following questions over the next week:
- What the purpose of my website is, who I am and why my blog is unique.
- Answer one question I think people visiting my blog may have.
- Write a blog post on the same topic as one of my most popular posts.
- Share a photo I took this week and tell you about it.
- Embed a legal youtube clip that I either found today or created myself. Then tell everyone about the clip and related information.
- Create a blog post on a subject I’ve never blogged about here before.
- Share hints or details of what I intend to write about in the future.
I’ll warn you right off I’m not going to be really paying attention to that 300-400 word goal. That would take attention and effort, and we all know I don’t put any of that into my writing.
So let’s go…
Purpose
Originally, the real purpose of Caddickisms was just so I could get experience working with blogs, so I could then apply that experience to my job. To do that, I decided the focus would be on movie reviews and the distance learning industry. I wanted to have a personal tone, but not go into my personal life at all. In fact, at the beginning I wrote anonymously. By a few months in, I realized I was writing very few reviews, and mostly concentrated on distance learning and corporate life, with a large slice of sci-fi rumors tossed in, and had begun to throw some personal life posts in as well. Over the last 5 years I’ve lost almost all focus on distance learning and related technologies and moved almost exclusively to the realm of the stereotypical personal blog, focusing on my life with an emphasis on my entertainment choices. It’s a much more personal blog than originally intended. I feel like I used to write more “important” (and well-considered) entries years back, but it’s possible that people get a better sense of me now (well, parts of me, but more on that below) and I’m okay with that.
Who am I?
Given what I’ve just said, it’s a little odd to admit that I’m a rather private person. There are whole swaths of my life that will never be touched on in this blog, let alone dealt with in any detail. But there is this: I’m a distance learning specialist at a global company and I enjoy all the technology that goes along with that – computers, social media, data management, etc. I have degrees in Psychology and Education. I’m a husband and father of 2 girls, struggling to stay out of debt and plan for the future. I like movies, especially sci-fi and fantasy, but really anything done well (and some crap, truth be told). I want to improve in many areas, and I want to find a fun outlet for my creative side – and some of that might show up on this blog.
Why is this blog unique?
It’s not, honestly. There are a thousand blogs created daily of people spouting off about their life. But there is this: my blog has fewer grammatical and spelling mistakes than most of them. And that’s important.
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Hi Jeff,
First of all cheers for joining the blogging challenge.
A great post which I enjoyed reading. I can relate to liking sci-fi movies, done well and yep rubbish also at times.
Looking forward to the next post.
Do you use twitter? If so, please let me know your id. If you don’t wish to share, that is fine also.
All the best
Andrew
Andrew recently posted..Welcome weary blog travelers- take a seat and warm yourself by the fire
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Jeff says:
January 29th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Hey, Andrew… thanks for coming up with the challenge.
I haven’t succumbed to Twitter yet, though I’m getting closer. Still seems like a bit more hassle than it’s worth right now.
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Jeff, I have to admit that this is the first entry of your blog that I have read, but I can’t wait to read more. I have to say that I’m sure your blog is unique, and have to admit that I have laughed at “my blog has fewer grammatical and spelling mistakes than most of them. And that’s important.” I loved that. I look forward to reading more of your entries, and seeing you participate in the challenge. If you do join twitter, I would like to follow you. Though I understand not wanting to join, I was on that verge for a while and was the same way about Facebook. Now I’m on both daily.
Good luck on the debt! As you know, I’m working through that as well.
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Jeff says:
January 29th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Obviously you have a keen sense of humor, so thanks for that.
I am on Facebook every day… almost all day, to tell the truth. Well, technically it’s open on the computer next to me every day, it’s not like I interact with it all day. Anyway… that’s part of the reason I’m not on Twitter: I can only stand so many narcissistic interruptions in one day. And then listening to other people too? No thanks.
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You know what I realised as we’ve been exchanging comments on these posts? I can’t remember how we met? Was it through someone else? Or a blogging program? At any rate I’ve always enjoyed that our tastes ARE quite similar so it’s interesting getting your take on films that I haven’t seen yet.
Lee Sargent recently posted..Why do you want to quit your day job – the seven day blogging challenge
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Jeff says:
January 30th, 2011 at 12:25 am
It was actually because of a post you wrote about Jim Mirkalami, who was spamming everybody at the time. When I searched on him after he spammed me, I ended up finding your blog because you had already written about him. I liked how you handled him, and how you found out what his deal was. Then I ended up reading a bunch of your posts and realized you were intelligent enough to hold many of my opinions, so I started commenting.
In fact, here’s my post about Jim, linking to yours (now lost to the ravages of time): http://www.caddicks.com/blog/2008/03/01/jim-mirkalami-the-actual-story-revealed-quit-your-day-job/
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Lee Sargent says:
January 30th, 2011 at 12:35 am
Oh wow! That’s right and that’s a name I hadn’t thought about in quite a while. I actually pulled the post under threat of legal action (which was totally bogus but I really didn’t need the hassle). I remember reading your League of Extraordinary Gentlemen post now but I don’t recall commenting which now that I check I indeed did
What’s really awesome is that if I came across that post today I would still comment on it!!!
Lee Sargent recently posted..Why do you want to quit your day job – the seven day blogging challenge
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