Blog Redux

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I have been periodically contributing to the Penn Alumni blog, Frankly Penn, and I have always liked the exercise of writing.  I like to be creative with my words, and I do write well.  (Though, I can’t always proofread, spell or catch typos well.)  My past demonstrates that words are my medium. 

While overnighting in Houston due to a cancelled flight, I ruminated on how much I should be writing again. I thought about returning to my blog. However, my first attempt at a blog was unorganized.  I just wrote paragraphs. I tried to be thoughtful; I tried to be funny.  In hindsight, I was treating my blog entries like my status updates on facebook.  They were observations on the world, comments about pop culture, rants about people close to me and kudos for loved ones.  In short, when should have been microblogging, I tried to stretch them out into a marcoblog. 

Still I like the name of my blog and I didn’t think that everything was lost.  Also recently being in California (ergo the overnight in Houston) reminded me of the very reason I came up with the name focused around the Aboriginal belief in songlines.  There is something visceral that excites me from within when I am on US route 101, like I am being connected to travels and lives bigger than mine and beyond my experiences on these stretches of road.  As I perceive songlines as spiritual transportation routes between oneself and one’s beliefs, values and things sacred, I see the metaphor from the physical – major thoroughfares that link families, commerce, ideas, goods and more between all sizes of population centers. 

So, my goal is to go slowly and focus on my passions and great interests.  In asking myself about my passions and interests, two topics came up as passions: food and travel.  This isn’t a big surprise to me and probably not to anyone who knows me.  In following up on these two topics, I went to my Twitter bio in which I’m supposed to talk about myself in fewer than 160 characters to flesh out some additional writing topics: 

Funny, witty, sometimes snarky, happy, gay Irish American foodie & traveler in love with Australia, rugby & the Olympics... to start.

That’s a lot. I’m pithy and even with the ellipses, I had seven characters to spare. Yet, I hit on the food and travel immediately in my Twitter bio.  I’ll start with those two and get regular at posting on those two topics.  Plus with my two Frankly Penn topics: My Top Penn List (A Penn-themed Top Ten List) and Locust Walk Talk (Travel stories featuring Penn and Penn alumni – I am really addicted to travel), I can aim to have at least weekly content for my blog.  As my writing continues, I know that I’ll add additional topics to my now-structured writing exercise.

In the meantime to experience my snark, feel free to follow me on twitter @IrishWombat.

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