Another Thing to Blog Home About

On the day of the fourth anniversary of this blog, I was consulting with some continuing education providers and determined that a blog was an excellent way to share information and interaction. We decided to start a new (private) blog. So on the anniversary the beginning of my blogging, the usefulness of this medium and its central role in my life was reaffirmed.

I began my blog worrying that I'd have nothing to blog home about. At that time, I was in a dead-end but lucrative website management job. The job provided security but sapped my passion for the Internet. Blogging proved to be a vital outlet and motivator for me to make profound changes in my life and to reaffirm my love of the Internet. The blog encouraged me to seek out news and developments on and about the Web that I could add my thoughts and experiences to.

These changes are reflected in my first anniversary post where I discovered I did have something to blog home about. Finding this outlet and passion, it helped convince me to leave my job and get a master's and doctorate degree where I could study the Internet.

My blog was also picked up by Backbone Magazine, giving me additional reach. The blog also helped with my admission to both my graduate programs and has helped me cover several tech conferences.

All these changes had started to bear fruition and by my second anniversary I declared that I had no time to blog home. I haven't gained any extra time since then, in fact it's probably worse.

I am studying online topics (moving more to the mobile Web and networked mobile apps) at PhD program at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information. I have completed my coursework and now have to get ready for the various steps of actual dissertation work. The life of an academic does offer lots of opportunities to attend and discuss interesting (Internet and mobile) seminars, lectures, and conferences. I've also started work as a teaching assistant for a research methods class. In addition, I recently started a couple consulting jobs helping organizations with e-Learning and with mobile apps. I also manage to spend a lot of time with my family. We enjoy the cultural and recreational life of Toronto, as well as the value of a board game, DVD, or old-fashioned pretending.

I have to admit that the busyness of my current life has encouraged me to neglect this blog, such that for my last blog anniversary I didn't really feel it was important to acknowledge the milestone. I still loved my blog as it really had opened a lot of doors and helped change my life for the better. I just felt it wasn't as central in my life.

But when I was at the meeting last week and I started talking about the various topics I could share with the group via a blog and how it enabled group participation and communication, I got really excited again. Earlier today, I just finished setting up my second ever blog. Finding out that blogging was still relevant, timely, and pivotal in my life was a reaffirming for me of the medium's power.