Thoughts on blogging

So I got a bit bored with that 'series' I was planning on to be honest. In the end it just seemed pretty obvious to me: sharing all the personal, deep stuff - the trials and tribulations, and the successes and glories I think is usually best kept for close friendships, where there is a good amount of trust and understanding, and where the people won't judge you for what you share. Online, if we're sharing publicly about our failures and our successes, I'm not sure that it's always such a good thing. ie. If I were to share all my struggles and things that keep tripping me up in my walk with God, I can see that would have a negative effect on how people see me, and they could potentially look down on me because of the things they read. Then there's the other side of it, where I share all my successes and the glorious highs: if I only share them, that also gives people a bad perspective, and I can make people think I'm better than I am. Thus, it seems a pretty hard balance, and no longer so obvious. Do we share a lot about both ends of this scale, or only share very little? Online, I tend to think it should be only a little, as I notice people tend to form judgments from what they read. But then what is the point of having a blog if I choose not to share things like that? Oh I'm rather confused now...

It seems my friends tend more to blog about things they observe than about themselves. I like that, because it makes you think about those things too. They are unselfish and often interesting. That's cool, because understanding people by what they say about themselves in a blog isn't very good. Therefore, my blog shall do the same! Yay! I feel like I understand more about blogging (see! I told you I think by writing! You're lucky - you get to see me thinking here :D). If you have any thoughts on this subject, I'd love to hear them!

I got poked by four guys and giggled

That's a Facebook reference by the way. Just had to clear that one up. Never know who might be reading this... It's a scary thing blogging aye! I've always been one for pretty much full disclosure. Never really saw the point in hiding things (unpretentious aye!), but the last couple of days as I've been blogging and thinking about blogging (it's heinously obsessive isn't it?), I've been considering a bit about what's appropriate to share online and what's not.

For starters, there's sharing just the normal stuff. Should I be telling people what I've been doing everyday? I certainly don't think I should be telling people I just brushed my teeth, or what I've had for breakfast, because how is that really going to help anyone? Doing that will just lead to people thinking I'm a waste of time. I got into Twitter a while ago because I felt like it was good for making me do things so that I always had some interesting activity to post about. But when I thought about it, I think that's a pretty bad mentality: simply finding value in my life by all the cool things I do. There's so much more to it than that! Yes, I believe it's good to be active and doing things, but modern society seems to now limit people to their achievements. Success is measured by how many runs you went for this week, or how well you did in your exams; if you're busy and doing lots of different things, you're doing well. It's all about the outside stuff. People seem to have forgotten the value of what's inside someone - their character. Sharing about the things you've done can perhaps help people to understand your character, but if that's all you post about and if you do it too much, people will think you're just those things. Often people, including myself, wish the Bible would tell us more about what Jesus did in the day-to-day scene. How well did he eat? How much did he give? Was he good at his job? I think it doesn't tell us because they don't matter. Jesus valued things completely different to what society valued, then and now. He looked at the heart, at what was driving the actions. 1 Samuel 16:7b "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." How do you find out what's going on in people's hearts? You talk to them! Assessing them purely on what they've achieved might hint at it, but I don't think it will tell us enough. If your thoughts on a person's character are based on their Facebook page, that's not a very valuable perspective to have, as it's a place they control. It's a place for them to advertise themselves to you. But you won't know their character from it. It can be a good thing for just updating friends on what you've been doing, but it can also be what people will solely judge you on, or you will judge other people on. Am I letting people know my values online, or am I fitting into the mold of an exterior-success driven society?

So that's my thoughts on sharing the day-to-day stuff online. But what about the deeper, more personal stuff? That can wait for my next post.

Witticism

That word's been in my head all day. Finally got it out PHEW! Like one of those annoying songs. Except let's be honest, it is a pretty swell word.

I had writer's block so I've come here to write. And also...

Yes, the essay continues. Word count is right up there now, and of the good kind too! The good legit my own words kind. Still plenty to do but it's coming on quite nicely. It's about the Säynätsalo Town Hall by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto if you wanted to know. Ok, you didn't. It's pretty ait though. Pretty inspiring I suppose. His stuff wasn't just about functioning well, but heaps to do with psychology too, like making buildings you enjoy being in. I like that a lot. They were even almost political, like he could put across his points of view through his architecture! Powerful aye! But not many people recognised what he was trying to do (I guess he was pretty indie) in his time so he got fed up and said architecture can't change the world and died, but then after his death peeps were like 'Woah! This guy was saying something!' Guts aye. But cool because now I'm one of those people. Makes me want to keep doing architecture really. Agh the agony of modern day choice: do I ditch it for Bible college? Do I do something completely different? Do I just blog fulltime? Do I shave? etc. Flip! I'm scared my wanting to go to Bible college next year is just because of hyperreality telling me I've got to do something different all the time to have a fulfilling life. There's that word again! Hyperreality... I'll save it for another blog. It'll be intense.

We got a new child to sponsor the other day. Her name's Gudiya and she lives in Nawada, India. Apparently our old one just moved somewhere for better opportunity. Hope so! As I was pondering our sponsored kids, I wondered if they have heard of, or maybe even have Facebook! (Clearly I'm in the zone with essay writing huh!) But imagine that! If they did, besides the language barriers it would be so much easier to become mates and really help them out and be involved. Would it? I guess I take for granted what a privilege it is to have a Facebook - it's such a great communication tool. But then like most things that are privileges, I tend to waste it, overuse it so that it goes from being tool to being vice. All day blogging and Facebooking have been going through my mind. Seems a bit unhealthy huh... In moderation Elliot! Good point, now end it before it becomes immoderate. You too Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Reader! Get outside and play! (When it gets light...)

I blog at terrible moments

So I have a 100% 2000 word A1 essay poster thingy for my ArchGen paper due on Friday for which I have now written 10,768 words of research (not one of those words are my own), and of the actual essay I've written 0 words. So not going smashingly to be fair, and I got a bit bored (anyone would if they'd just got home from a great night at youth group 30mins ago like I did and had to continue researching!) so I figured, HEY! Time to update the blog.

I nearly left a smiley face there. It felt an incorrect thing to do on a blog though.

A correct thing to do, I've noticed is to write short paragraphs. That's why the last one was very short. Helps to keep your attention I think. Possibly.

It seems a bit pretentious though... That's something I aim not to be, as I'm trying to make Katie Ward (OI LUV 'ER!), among others see. (That's a little joke, or quip if you may. I know they don't ACTUALLY think I'm pretentious. Or DO they? *shifty eyes* <-- can you do that in blogs? Can you do arrows like that in blogs? This is quite exciting to be honest. Someone's going to have to teach me the ropes about blogging! Or perhaps they shouldn't, because then I can have a really indie blog that's completely original. Yay! Should probably close these brackets.). There. Is having a blog pretentious? I suppose it could be. Depends on the motive really. Personally I just really enjoy writing and having fun distractions. I don't really mind if anyone reads this or not. (Thanks if you are! I hope you're enjoying yourself. I am!). I write quite a lot. I write all my prayers. I used to get scared that doing that would mean I'm just forcing it all and not really able to talk to God, and yes, to be fair, for a while it was a bit that way, but I think as I've persisted with it it has really become a relationship and he is responding to me. It's so cool! I just start out writing my thanks and praise and then as I think about stuff and write he leads my thoughts to things that I guess are pretty important

(new paragraph) and then I'll start writing questions and praying about it and then as I ponder these things he leads me to answers a lot of the time! Truly it's quite awesome. I'm grateful as. Then I read the Bible and it's like he's writing back to me. Sometimes related to what I've been talking to him about, sometimes completely different but pretty much always like 'Woah! I totally haven't considered that before or lately!' God's awesome. He's the only one deserving of that word. Awe-some. Awelots I reckon!

I also write heaps in architecture. Just ask any of my archi friends! Perhaps you don't know any of them... Do some Facebook stalking, you'll find them ;) <-- HA! Take that blogging etiquette! I winked. It's weird though because I didn't actually wink... Pretentious aye! Yeah, I write heaps in architecture, like possibly even more than drawing (I do a fair bit of that too). I love researching and writing stuff out. It's how I learn. Actually, it's really dumb because I always end up writing too much (heck, I've probably lost almost everyone (if anyone started) by now because of the excessive writing!), and so I study badly and write essays badly (I've got to cut down from the 10,768 words to just 2000, but actually way less than that because they're all quotes!). Yeesh!

What did you think about my title? Misleading aye! Like you might've read it thinking something terrible had happened to me, but I was just saying I have a bit of pressure with architecture assignments. Reminds me of the Next magazine cover. The main article's about Brooke Fraser (SWOON!) and the caption by her photo says 'Marriage, Separation and Something Else' (didn't actually say that, I just don't remember the last bit), so I opened it up quick-snap! because I was like Guts! Brooke's got a divorce! But it was nothing to do with divorce!!! (Did you like the three exclamation marks Jordan? Oh. You stopped reading.) It was just about how great her married life is and

how she's been separated from her old life living at home because she's always touring, which she enjoys! Ridiculous aye! I KNOW! Blimmin hyperreality... Hyper-what you say? Great question. Hold it. I'll tell you next time. Or another time. Time's a-runnin. Cheeky time...

*Enter cool sign out like Bernie Cowan's tonight on the video at Windsor Live (trololol.)

Heavy Blogging Ahead

Only two days until I finish this sucker of a design assignment (it's pretty much the biggest leech I've ever had to deal with...), then I'm free (besides two casual 100% assignments for ArchGen and ArchHTC but let's be honest, I'm sick of being concerned about my uni work...) ... to get blogging! Reading Katie and Jordans' blogs these last couple of days has been really fun and made me want to do my own. Properly. Like with the cool background, and daily posts, and a good mix of everything like music, musings, videos, design and architecture stuff, things I've done and regularly... It'll be an online scrapbook for me to unleash my creative soul! I can't wait! I just can't wait to do something different to design. And to sleep. Sleeping is definitely going to be high on the agenda for the next year after the couple of weeks I've just been through. 4hrs then 5 then 7 then 2 then 4 just doesn't cut it. I'm almost falling asleep just writing this and it's only 11! It's gonna be a real mish to push through to two as planned... Yikes! Anyway... that's a good enough intro into my blogging days. Back to the slow drain of design... Actually... I'm pretty destroyed... I think I'll sleep then aim for a 5am wake up. Man the body clock is screwed! Last night I stayed up until just after 5! Trololol. Night world! A.k.a. Elliot, to himself.