Wow I'm on a Roll!

This will be the second blog entry in as many days for me!

I've just been thinking lately on how so many of the "special interest" type articles found in local newspapers really are not that substantial. They read like the semi-polished writings of bloggers. The topics are often promoted by the writer to the reader that you as the reader should view this as nostalgic or it should cause you to reflect and bask in my brilliance as a journalist / writer, for I have taken something that is mundane, and well, rehashed it yet again and still have failed to inspire.

I noticed this a lot during December, as columnists in our local papers (which we don't subscribe to but inevitably end up on our driveway a couple times a week) grappled with the meaning of the season, what Christmas is about, and examining quirkiness in others.

Through it all, what really struck me was these were the "professionals". They were ostensibly the ones who had gone to school and earned degrees in Journalism, or English, or Communications, or whatever. One columnist I can't stand reading is one that comes across as a pompous writing instructor at a local college. She (or the newspaper that pays her to contribute) is always sure to make it clear that she has a MFA, is a published author / poet, and teaches at the school. I inevitably find her writing to have a condescending tone to it. I'm sure she and the newspaper editors feel it is witty and insightful. But, come on... how important is it to waste the ink and paper and energy to send out a 1/3 to 1/2 page article on why she thinks there should be extra credit given to adult students who can come up with the most creative reason for why they don't have their writing portfolio ready to turn in on the assigned day in class?

So I wondered, how many of us in the blog world are essentially doing the same thing? There are probably many polished writers or those who earned a degree in Journalism, English, or Communications that have blogs and perhaps "journal" to it religiously because they are not part of the "inner circle" of that trade.

I admit, I do not have a degree in any of those, but I did consider becoming an English major early on in my undergraduate college career. A family friend advised against it, and I don't know if my following that piece of unsolicited advice has been a bane or blessing to me in life. Probably a little of both. But, I also admit that my blog is more or less an ego based thing for me... my place where I can be heard (yeah by all 2 or 3 of you who read it) without being interrupted or censored. Hey, at least I honestly say as much in the opening post and the subtitle to the blog. :)

So, what do you think? Why do you blog, or do you even blog? Are you living out the next best thing to being a published and respected journalist or author, or is there some other idealistic thing that you feel is being accomplished?