Why? + A history on my blogging

As an internet citizen, and as a person that likes to share things, I've been writing on several blogs throughout the years. Each of them carrying similar purposes, such as photographs or simply as a place for me to share my thoughts.

But on occasions, when I share my blog to people, they sometimes ask me a question that I am still very undecided on how to answer. They would see my blog and appreciate the content and all, and then they would ask why I blog. 'Why do you blog?' I've been blogging for about five years now (wow, 5 years) and it's kind of hard for me to actually look back and try to find a purpose to everything that I've done.

Why do I blog?

Blogging for me at first was a means for me to share, and as a way for me to learn more about the internet. Back in 2005, the internet was expanding exponentially and really fast, so I thought it would be awesome to actually have a website for myself. And so it was for a while. But my beginnings as a blogger were rather inconsistent, and it was hard for a while to be able to blog constantly. I just didn't have the proper flow of thoughts to keep on going.

My first presence in the blogsphere was with 'The Newoz Complements'. It had no real purpose, but rather it was a space for me to vent in during my angsty teenage years. I guess it was from me actually using the website so much, and how obscure everything eventually became, that I decided to create a cleaner version of my first blog. The new blog was 'The Seconds, the Times and Moments of Newoz' (yeah, Newoz is my internet alias). This time I decided to be much more flexible/accessible in my way of writing and actually having a proper purpose for the site. I got my first digital camera, so I started to upload a few pictures, at a very slow pace. The website still contained a lot of obscure terms and bizarre ideas and stuff.

It was only just before 2007 when I started to upload my pictures in larger quantities that I decided to start my first photoblog. I had gathered enough pictures to fill entire posts. Then I chagned 'TS,tTaMoN' to 'Meta-W', which is to this day my kinda main photoblog. I attracted the majority of my traffic into Meta-W and it was quite a great blog. But then I started to feel like actually sharing my thoughts, rather than just pictures.

As the HSC approached, I took less pictures, and I stopped uploading pictures to Meta-W. Instead, I opened a new blog, this same blog. The blog's title is inspired from three-piece works by Steve Reich. He had composed various variations of the 'Counterpoint' theme with 'New York Counterpoint', 'Electric Counterpoint' and 'Vermont Counterpoint', I think. They are all very unique and awesome works. The purpose of 'Dot Couterpoint Dot' was for me to not only share my photographs, but to also have a space where I could expose my ideas to everyone.

Anyway, 'Dot Counterpoint Dot' didn't take off full speed until nearly 10 months after its creation. I blogged in it every once in a while, and then went ballistic when the HSC ended. As of then, I've been blogging for the sake of sharing my thoughts and experiences with people, along with my photography and other things I've made. I guess I can also, in a sense, open up a bit with my blog posting. Of course, as some may have realized, that I've gotten a bit waaay too open here, exposing a bit of the depths of myself. But then again, consider that I've been living on my own, really alone, for four months. What can a man do with an active mind in a prison cell and only a piece of paper and a pencil? It nearly drove me mad.

So then, today, when people ask me why I blog, I can't still even define the purpose of my blogging. I guess it is for myself, to form my digital entity and to share my thoughts to the world. I've met plenty of people, had considerable amounts of traffic through my blogging years, but I don't think I've ever been so successful before now that I have 'Dot Counterpoint Dot' as my main blog. 'Meta-W' still has the really old posts from my second blog, so sometimes I look back and realize what a tool I was as a teenager hahaha, and what a bad blogger I was. I guess I could restart Meta-W, but I haven't been taking good enough pictures lately. I sort of lost my touch in photography :(

I wonder what's going to be my new frontier in blogging. I'm really happy with ".Counterpoint.", but I guess I could do a bit more things with it.

Ok, now my room's a complete mess. As the Sun moves towards the north as the winter months approach, I'll try to have a different room layout to harness solar heat.