Posts from Memory Lane: Generalist Blogger's Life

These posts were written during the summer while I was in Bangladesh, in preparation for the upcoming academic year. Long story short: when I looked back at the archive, I didn't have the desire  or the time to put them up. But now, since I'm coming back to the blog, I decided that some of them aren't half bad. Read on!

 
I always wondered what it would be like to be a subject blogger. To host one of those blogs that had a label attached to it - J's fashion blog or her social justice blog or whatnot. And while I've participated in those projects before, I always come back to this generalist platform that I loosely call a personal creativity blog, but really focuses on everything from activism to understanding the self.

Posts from Memory Lane: The Anxious Blogger

These posts were written during the summer while I was in Bangladesh, in preparation for the upcoming academic year. Long story short: when I looked back at the archive, I didn't have the desire or the time to put them up. But now, since I'm coming back to the blog, I decided that some of them aren't half bad. Read on!

No one wants to read a blog about writing.

At least, that was the advice that I got from the plentiful 'blogging gurus' available in articles written online for those who are just starting out. As a result, I shifted my focus away from things like Friday Fiction and writing advice towards more general pieces and, though it was true that I enjoyed being able to branch out and not get all meta-narrative about the creative process, it also caused me to start having anxiety when I did want to write about writing. Was it a taboo topic? Was no one going to read it?

I think this is where you can say that I became beholden to the reader. I wanted to make my blogging more marketable and palatable, regardless of whether there were 200 people reading it or 2. Somewhere along the line it just got to be about readership rather than idea creation and spontaneous publication. And almost everything else felt more freeing.

A Day in the Life of a Failed Fashion Blogger

Not too long ago when I was working on this blog, before I had all my notions about women of color and feminist identity, I thought that I would make it into a photography blog. Indeed, last year I posted a photo a day for half the days of the year, working on my life in pictures. Although I didn't focus on it, I also took a lot of self-portraits. And thus, for a while, I entertained the thought that I would be a fashion blogger.

As you might imagine, that thought dried up pretty fast. Perhaps you will take some of my considerations to heart if you've been thinking about starting/changing to a fashion blogging focus. Or perhaps some of you have gone through the same feelings! Here they are:

Is Blogging "Giving It Away For Free"?

Hi all, today's post is about blogging, media, and the freelance market. Since it was pretty long in typewritten format, I decided to record it; listen up, and then leave me a comment about what you think!
(The transcript is available after the jump, and it includes links to some things I mention)

Check out some more of my writing and stories, including one I read aloud: Pressing the Record Button.
You may also be interested in some of my other opinion pieces, including What Blogging has Taught Me, Single Sex Education for Women and Girls, and Discrimination and Mixed Metaphors.

What Blogging Has Taught Me

I started this blog in 2007 as a place to essentially blurt out my thoughts in rants and other highly-energetic forms of writing. This week, I have been going through all (literally: every single one) of my blog posts in order to retroactively label and interlink them (as per the advice of Darren Rowse of Problogger) with more current posts, and it has brought me to see how I've changed over the years since I've started this blog. So, I would like to share some of the interesting reflections I've had on writing here and growing up.

Thoughtful Return & The Website Re-vamp

So, things are looking a bit different around here at The Cowation. When I returned to the United States last month, I decided that I needed some goals (other than the ones I had already set, of course), and that included making my online presence more cohesive and regular. Thus, a website re-vamp was in store!
I've decided to lighten it up, add some more doo-dads on the main page, and make sure that the links and buttons are front and center. I will also be committing myself to a pretty regular posting schedule that will be revealed day by day as the weeks pass on. Plus, now that everything is interconnected, I will be directing you lovely readers to my other various pages strewn about the internet - especially my DeviantArt and my soon-to-be-opened Etsy store! Speaking of which, I have put up all the artistic and family photographs from my trip to Bangladesh and my Basic Drawing class artwork on my DeviantArt page - check it out! Some things are also in the "Scraps" category, so be sure to see both.
Anyway, let me know what you think of the changes (and the new vexel banner - I had to recreate it since the tragedy of hard-drive death besot my poor computer last month).

Check out some of the interesting new work I have done since the re-vamp, including my DIY Interlude series.

The New Semester

I have returned!
I guess this means that my occasional writing must be changed into the more regular and typical writing that expresses the college lifestyle in all it's glory and triumph... blah, blah, blah.
After spending my month-long winter break in a perpetual sense of dread towards blogging and the undeniable march of time meted out by both failures and the offhanded victory, I have been coaxed once again out of my shell to start blogging. But in a more casual sense, I believe.
I had made all these beautiful plans to start up the 365 project again or work towards a better and more consistent blog posting time, but I think that the only resolution that I can really hold myself to is to write a short something every week and make some ideas happen on the page. So... here is the collection for this week.
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The transition from break to semester two of my college experience was a doozy. I had gone through my typical yearning to be busy and bustling, but had also stumbled into the idea of doing these things on my own time. In a sense, I was much lazier than I had been before. I would create, but then do nothing for days on end. Then I would watch TV or hang around. This was not a bad thing for the time of course, but only a poor precursor for my inevitable return to a flash-bang New York City college experience. I was not prepared.
When I came back, I found that I had four book-heavy classes, an audition that I had totally forgot about, and many little administrative details that needed finishing. I was in a haze from the jetlag that I wished hadn't come and the remote bout of homesickness and desire to be back in my bed or with my boyfriend. But, as I entered through the portal of the dorms and crashed down onto the bedding that had been provided for me, I immediately felt comforted in the fact that this was not, as I had feared, completely foreign to me. I persevered through the next day by buying some simple items with a few friends, getting myself back on track logistically and figuring out the cost of books... the last one was not so pretty.
Though I fell in love with my classes this semester, the book load is immense (34 books in total bought) and I keep having a headache trying to think of myself on that schedule. Amazing classes, heavy reading. No problem! My new moniker is to schedule myself in such a way that things get done without loss of my sanity. We'll see how it goes.
To sum up the first few days back at college, I have felt like there are so many things that I didn't get to do during the break, and yet I don't regret that. I feel like I have a more concrete plan here than there, so that's probably why that happened in the first place. My lack of impetus created a vortex that I could not emerge from. Therefore, this semester I will begin anew rather than wallow in the pit of despair - as I was wont to when no one was looking in the back corners of my house.
Here it is not all glitz and glamor, but I am going along for the ride.