Soundtracked

Party For The Fight To Write

"When did you first start blogging? (Anywhere, not necessarily on WDC.) Why? What did you blog about? (subjects, topics, personal news, etc.) Has your blogging style changed since you began?"

Hey y'all! Thought I'd pop in cuz I really love this prompt and a couple of the responses I've seen for it so far. Plus, it's been way too long since I chimed in on anything, and I need to change that . So here we go.

I know I've told this story a bazillion times already, but there's always a few who haven't heard it yet, so lemme circle back around again. I just celebrated my 19th WDC Anniversary here; yup. I joined this site because I wanted a place that I could share my poetry, and for awhile that was great. Mind you, this was before the word "blog" was even a thing. But at some point, I hit a wall with poetry. I wasn't getting any responses, and I wasn't having much luck writing any poems either. I started a journal here at one point, telling little stories of my life, but even that got boring and I deleted it, probably because of an upgrade running out and needing the port space.

Life itself wasn't any better; I was unemployed, suffering from depression, and plenty of other things around me were going to shit. I think that was the spring/summer I lived at 542 without electricity for a few months. Luckily the gas was paid for by the landlord, so I could cook and have heat and hot water. I had a battery-operated charger for my cell phone, which was an HTC with a slide-down screen/keyboard one generation behind being a true Android. It had internet access before data plans were even a thing too. I could lay in bed and check out WDC and not have to worry about anything else.

Some days I would go over to the local library to use their free internet. I spent a lot of time there, and that's when I started blogging. At first, it was a means to keep my thoughts in one place should I ever start actually writing again. There was a bit of gibberish and a lot of ranting. I guess 2007-2008 (?? I don't feel like looking ) was probably not good times in general. But something clicked about 50-60 entries in. Before I went to the library, or even just to start my day, I'd skip over to the local Walgreens for a Mountain Dew and a copy of the Buffalo News (I was a staunch newspaper reader and crossword-doer). I became attracted to one of the women who worked there, and eventually we'd flirt a lot, but I was too pussy to ask her out, and she often actually kinda threw that in my face rather than, ya know, asking me out. But what happened from there is she became fodder for my blog. My reason for writing.

And somehow, from there, I gained a little following. I was even part of a little unofficial group of WDC bloggers, and we supported each other through and through...Creeper Of The Realm , Kåre เลียม Enga , chicochica , In Your Dirtiest Pants , Julie D - PUBLISHED! , and a few others like Noe and Catherine who aren't on the site anymore but I still see them on Facebook from time to time (apologies to anyone else I missed). These were like the Wild West days of blogging...no prompts or groups, just our day-to-days. People actually told me they logged on just to see what happened next with the Walgreens lady.

Long story short: We started dating eventually, some like 100 entries or so later. She was flattered once I opened up to her and delicately told her about the blog. And after that, blogging dried up for me for a bit; I felt I had nothing else to give to it because I landed the girl I'd been pining for in words. Luckily, poetry began to seep back in through the cracks. I kinda juggled the two for awhile, and once I found the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  I was hooked again on the blogging boat. I think it was Julie D - PUBLISHED! who convinced me to sign up, and that's where I met my Canadian homeboy Brother Nature and Andre, along with a bunch of other stellar people. Many times, when you go through a month of the 30DBC, reading the entries and commenting and having some back-and-forth, by the end of it y'all almost feel like a family; like you've all been through something special together. I've gone through it many times with various groups of people, and made a bunch of friends and people I admire to this day, even though I haven't competed in years (partly because I was running it for so long...but I still read all the entries and felt a sense of camaraderie through that).

I had to take a hiatus from blogging for a bit after the relationship ended and my life was undergoing several transitions. But once I got settled again I picked it back up, while still writing poems on the side. I joined "The Soundtrack of Your Life"  and met what feels like another generation of WDC friends...lizco252isback, Charlie ~ (and Cinn through him), Jeff , Sally , Lostwordsmith , NaNoKit , and again apologies to anyone else I've forgotten, because there's so damn many of you!!

I guess for me everything runs in cycles now...it's been awhile since I've written poems regularly, and this prompt made it feel right for me to blog. I can't explain it. Maybe I'm still sorta feeling the cycle of having released two poetry books in the last couple years, and trying to promote them. I honestly struggle how to reconcile the fact that somehow my blogs and poetry collections have won Quill Awards, but that's probably just part of my own makeup. *Shameless Plug Alert!!* If you're in for a long read, I did an interview with Elle - on hiatus (one of my best WDC friends) for her offsite blog   about poetry and blogging. It's even in my latest collection, Mutants  , which Elle wrote a wonderful foreward as well. (Also, BIG apologies to Elle and JayNaNoOhNo ; your books will be sent out the first week of August. Promise.)

I'm not sure what else to say, and I don't have an ending planned for this part; I've been winging it the whole way off the top of my head. Lemme just say I have a huge appreciation for the people who came before me at the 30DBC, and for Emily , Wordsmitty ✍️ at "Blogging Bliss Newsletter Forum" , and Sum1's Home ...as well as Lyn's a Witchy Woman , Prosperous Snow celebrating , Princess Megan Snow Rose , and everyone helping out our blogging groups: "Blogging Circle of Friends "  and "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" . Please support them all in any way you can, and don't forget to post your entry here as well:

IN & OUT

The Blog Board  (E) Promote a recent entry in your Writing.Com blog here on The Blog Board! #1878897 by Writing.Com Support

Peace, and thank you friends. Your fellows bloggers are people too, so please respect them as such, regardless of their views (unless they're outright racists or scumbags or pedos...but the community tends to weed them out pretty quick, and that's part of why WDC is the best place on the internet).

Yo, this song might be as old as blogging itself, or around the same age. I picked it because of its message, and that basically is "Write on!" (coincidentally the WDC catchphrase). It's also a riff on the titles of two other songs: "Fight For Your Right To Party" by the Beastie Boys and "Party For Your Right To Fight" by Public Enemy (and when Slug from Atmosphere teamed with Murs they recorded "I Shot A Warhol" in the same style as Public Enemy's...the closing track, with each emcee in different left/right channels of the speakers/headphones, for a different effect). I could've chosen the lyric video, but since I include the lyrics anyway in my entries and I prefer live versions, this is what you get. Write on!!

"Party For The Fight To Write"   -Atmosphere

"And he said some got pencils and some got guns.
Some know how to stand and some of them run.
We don't get along, but we sing the same song.
Party for the fight to write, and write on!"

In case anyone's interested, I've been discharged from my physical therapy routine because the healing on my shoulder surgery has gone well. My arm still gets fatigued at times; especially now typing or actually writing. My next follow-up with the doc is at the end of the month. I can almost see the finish line!

Yes, you can max out a blog before you've hit the limit of entries. I've done it three times already, as measured by kilobytes or some other measure of computering we can't see. All it means is I'm probably approaching 1500 blog entries, and I use pics, links, and videos too much .

I wish I could talk about the news, because there's so much going on, but there's so much going on. In a way I kinda admire lizco252isback's new food blog, "Invalid Item" ...I like to cook too, but I'm lazy most of the time . I miss her political commentary and her Soundtracker skills, but this more than makes up for it and if you like food, which I'm sure you do, please give it a look-see and rate/review.

I'm so honored by everyone who participated in "Note: Hey!! I don't come around the newsfeed muc..."...we raised a whole boatload of GPs for "RAOK Upgrade Brigade Group"  and I'd love to see a trend of people donating their WDC Anniversaries to ROAK in lieu of Awardicons, MBs, and other accolades. #PayItForward

Alright y'all...good times talkin' to ya. Time to get back to another happy place, which I think is naptime after a little dinner of White Castle breakfast sliders. I think...not settled on the idea yet but a nap's definitely in the near future. Peace, I ain't all that bad but I ain't all that great; I went back to the lab and began to mutate, support your fellow bloggers, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!