Good intentions

It seems to me that I often have grand ideas but rarely see them materialize into the thing I originally imagined. Blogging is a good example. I imagined myself blogging at least once a day, maybe more. Kind of like those guys who make everyone else's blogroll. (I don't even have a blogroll. Maybe I should create one. Grand idea!) But alas, I am lucky to blog once a week, and then it is usually more of a pointing to something else than actually writing anything of my own. I am beginning to see my problem as a blogger, and I think I have noticed some things that make certain blogs attractive. Let's start with the latter first, then I can more easily point out the things I am doing wrong.

A good blog (it seems to me):
1) Limits itself to only a handful of topics. There are blogs on politics, music, movies, theology, and just about anything else you can imagine. But rarely do the popular blogs venture far beyond there single focus. From time to time a political blogger might insert some personal things. See for instance one of my favorite blogs Buzzmachine and the frequent personal posts.
2) Has a blogger who knows his/her stuff. I am beginning to enjoy AKMA's blog. I have always thought him a good and interesting theologian, but I had no idea he was a part of the emerging technorati. His blog is filled with personal anecdotes, but they revolve around his work as a theologian/minister, his obsession with all things internet, and from time to time his child's artwork. Rarely, however, is a post just about one of these things. Somehow they always relate to two or more, but never too much (see #1 above). To be honest, I cannot understand how this guy has time to do everything he seems to be involved in. Nonetheless, he knows his stuff! I am also starting to read a handful of political blogs, just for kicks. Three of my favorite: Buzzmachine, Eschaton, and Daily Kos. These three usually lead me to others.
3) A blogger who manages time well, or at least makes blogging a priority.

Now, what's my problem?
In short, I am the opposite of everything described above.
1) I would love to blog about everything. If you read my very first entry you will see all the things I imagined discussing.
2) Because I've spread my interests around, I have not become an expert (or quasi-expert) at any of it.
3) Time management? What's that? I always seem to find something more important to do than blog - something like playing Literati on Yahoo or reading other people's blogs.

Let's recall some of the topics of recent blogs. These are things, if I had the focus, expertise and time, that I could develop into a good blog.
1) Episcopal controversies
2) Reclaiming evangelicalism from fundies
3) Faith and poltiics
4) Happy hours
5) Third World Debt
6) and a few internet things (picture and music)

Here's the conclusion I've reached - I'll blog when I feel like it about whatever I feel like blogging. I don't need to succumb to the ridiculous notion that I could somehow create a blog that would impact the world or even a small part of it. The blog reflects who I am, and I am someone who moves from one interest to the next and then back around to the original interest, never really seeing one thing through. Blogs are good for this too!

What I can do is commit to blogging more often. I think about it a lot. Like the other night, Gail and I went to this new restaurant downtown, The Mango Room, for happy hour. It was pretty good and more importantly it was owned by a local, African-American woman. It felt nice to support local and a minority owned business. Lord knows these places need support to manage in a world filled with more and more cookie-cutter chains (read Johnson County). Anyway, I was sitting there thinking how I shuold go home and blog about the experience since I had broached the subject of happy hours a few weeks ago. Well that was Tuesday night and it is now Thursday night. I don't recall what exactly I had planned to say, but the food was good, the beer glasses were chilled (a big plus for me! Made the $.99 PBR taste nice!), and the atmosphere was top-notch. The happy hour food prices weren't that great, but the drink prices were decent.

Well my time is up. I promised myself no more than 30 minutes and it has now been 45.