My Impression of a Russian Doll...

This blog inside of my blog shall be a blog about blogging in general.

It should be noted that while this blog has nothing to do with the blog topic chosen for this blog class at the beginning of this blog quarter, that this blog should, shall, and will be treated no differently than any other blog inside of my blog.

 Like a Russian doll of awesomeness this blog evolves and morphs to fit the requirements of both this class as well as my daily mood as I see fit. In this moment in blogging time, we will ask ourselves, as well as anyone who cares to listen, things like: "can blogs be literature?", "what makes a blog popular?" as well as just taking a general over-arching look at "why the word 'blog' in itself sounds so silly".

Getting 'write' to the point (classic wordplay) - Blogs can be literature. Simple as that.

While I'm not an expert in the field, what does the word 'expert' really mean? I am at this moment the only contributor to this blog and in that respect the judge and jury of its content.

This is not a universal law however (not many of those exist). Not all blogs are literature - they all simply have the ability to be. We aren't all homeless, though inevitably we all have the potential to be - admittedly unrelated but equally true.
Take a blog we looked at earlier during our time together:

http://idreaminmilligrams.blogspot.com/

This blog could easily be transformed into published work. There's quite a readership out there for the thoughts of an insomniac. The topic is interesting, there's illustrations, and the content is essentially bottomless as it gains more and more traction with each sleepless night. There's hope to be found in the light-hearted nature with which the blogs commander in chief retells the crazy experiences of her forced subconscious and it is in the tone and writing style of the blog that the blog in turn finds its subsequent 'bloginess'.

http://design-fetish.blogspot.com/ - this blog on the other hand (we'll call it the left hand for imaginative purposes) probably couldn't be literature. I'm not going to go as far to say it definetly couldn't as Tom Brady was taken in the sixth round of the NFL draft and Kansas City still has a baseball team so clearly anything is possible, but I will say it would be a stretch. The style and content are pleasing, delightful, and even at times informative, but it's simply not the sort of thing that could be turned into literature. The creativity is in what the blog shares rather than the voice and experiences of the blogger themselves.

As for what makes blogs popular? As someone who lived far before I was born once said: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." They were right. Popularity can't always be explained. I think that clear passion and talent will eventually be discovered however. Applying that principle to blogging: if one is passionate about their writing and entertaining in their execution of it, they will, more likely than not build a following. If they don't it shan't be a worry for them though as they already have the ability and passion to carry on.

Followers should be the surprise at the bottom of the cereal, not the breakfast.

What?

You should buy the cereal because you like it, not because plastic binoculars are taped to the inside of the box.

What?

You should write because it makes you happy, not in some strange convoluted effort to 'win'. People follow stupid things all the time, one only needs to spend 10 minutes on YouTube to figure that out.

This blog has grown since it's inception (Leo) and will continue to evolve.

Science (and The Big Bang Theory)  have taught me that evolution is essential to a species survival.
This blog is a species in this example.
Blogging keeps me fresh, keeps me honest, and allows me the rare opportunity to write without being bound by the classic restrictions of most college classrooms. Whether or not anyone reads this is unimportant. I certainly hope people do, but it isn't why I write.

I write to make sense of the nonsensical.
To put into words what would otherwise float weightlessly through the space in my mind.
To entertain both myself and any potential passers by.

Final Thought -
We were asked in our prompt to use our own blog in our discussion. What fun would that be however without sounding unrealistically vein and arrogant? We will never know.
Warning - bountiful amounts, nay alarming amounts of sarcasm to be used momentarily.

This blog on the other, other hand (assume some sort of surgery took place allowing this hypothetical hand to exist in line with both the right and left as we know them now) is a beautiful hybrid of the two. An impossibly individual marriage between internet banality and deeply meaningful writing. The ability to change lives, as this blog has undoubtedly done, however shouldn't be considered 'regular' or expected of any other location on the internet. Like an oasis in the desert this blog is a welcome respite from the otherwise useless opinions and ponderings of any number of sources one could get by simply 'Googling'. Modesty and self-awareness be damned. This blog is blogging. The question and the subsequent answer. Whatever you were/are/ or may in the future be looking for, you have found it here.