Thoughts on Blogging.

I feel like I need to write a "what's going on with me" type blog post.  I've not written an updating type post for over a week.  It might even be a little longer than that, I'm not sure.  I've not looked to be honest.  If I'd been really dedicated to making an effort with blogging this month then I would have started blogging daily again once I got over my cold.  But I didn't.  I really don't want to give up blogging - I've been a blogger for 10 years now which is a scary thought - it's definitely obvious that I'm not as in to it at the moment as I once was.  I'm sure that will change again, it always seems to.  the in between bit however is a bit boring and can be a bit of a drag!  In more ways than one.

It is a pretty amazing thing to realise that the last decade of my life has been recorded.  A lot of it isn't available online any more as the host I used for some of it (diary x) is no more, the other blog host which was my main one (diaryland) is still around but I have back ups of most of my blogs on there on my computer.  I used to say that was a good thing that so much was lost but actually I'm no longer sure it is.  Going back to read some of my very first blog entries does make me cringe in a lot of ways.  But it's a part of my history.  and it shows how I've grown and changed over the last ten years.  Both as a person and also as a writer.

I've never been big on editing or even really spell checking my blog entries.  And I don't censor what I write too much.  Or at least entries for my own blog.  I take more care over guest blogs and articles that I write.  The way I blog has changed a lot however.  I'm a lot more conscious of online safety than I used to be - when I was at uni I not only shared the name of my uni and which campus I was on (which I probably would still do now) but I also made several mentions to the hall I lived in - by name.  And most of the halls only had one or two wheelchair accessible rooms.  I do edit a tiny bit now as well, mostly changing a word here or there to a better one.  And if I spot missed words or spelling mistakes I will often go back and edit them even if it's months or years since I posted the entry.

The other thing that's different with my blogging now is how I rarely blog about CAB.  Obviously most of what I do there is confidential and I signed an agreement as such when I started volunteering there.  But when I first started blogging there was no limits on what I would talk about online.  It's something that as some of you will know has gotten me in trouble a few times, mentioning things about people I didn't think were reading...  It doesn't bother me not talking about CAB, a lot of the time it's interesting but not blog worthy anyway.  It's just somewhere I spend a lot of time and a part of my life that doesn't get included in much details.  And there are a few other parts of my life I purposefully don't (or rarely) blog about too which is a big change of ten years.  Just a sign of growing as a person.

Lately I've read a few books based on blogs.  Those are all very interesting and enjoyable.  Possibly because they were all types of healthcare blogs.  But it made me think two things.

Just what would be included in a similar book about a CAB adviser.  Although actually I suspect a lot of the reason why paramedic or doctor blogs etc are so popular is because we can all relate to going to the doctor or seeing ambulances.  It's not something I'd be interested in writing but if somebody else did...  And actually another CAB spent the week tweeting every client they saw.  I kept an eye on it and it was pretty interesting. Some I thought "yeah, seen clients like that" and a couple had me going "hmm I'm not sure what you'd do for that client".  You can see it on twitter here.

The other thing it made me think is that I'm not sure I could keep a specialist one topic only blog.  I think I'd get bored.  Someone referred to my blog the other day as a "disability blog" which I suppose it is.  But only accidentally.  It's my blog and it's about so much more than disability!  Just as I am Emma with a disability not "Disability who happens to be called Emma"

I do realise that I've not covered the "what's going on with me" points I intended to when I started writing this blog.  However I think it's long enough. And I have some other writing to do.  Until tomorrow.  Or some time soon after that anyway...