Developing Usable Experiences

The Cathartic Nature of Blogging

October 15th, 2007 11:55 pm —  147 views

Here it is, a Monday night. It’s pushing 11:00 PM and I’m feeling pretty tired. Work was like a long sprint with worry jogging lazily by my side the entire time.

My server “interspike.com” has something terribly wrong with it. The server that has long hosted this blog and a few other sites and services for friends and coworkers, has taken to throwing errors and generally misbehaving in the most unpredictable and disturbing of ways. I’ve talked to tech support but I don’t see them being very helpful. For now, I’ve turned off mail services and killed just about every other process I could without totally crippling the machine. It all started when MySQL decided it didn’t want to play nice with the other kids. Argh. I can’t even talk about.

So in the interim, I’ve ported the most recent backup of this blog’s database1 to a temporary server running in my basement, aptly named “Igor”. This is on a decent machine I built myself from parts over the years. I call this my “custom” machine because it was one I bought parts for and assembled myself. It is on its second motherboard and third hard drive. It hasn’t always received the best of parts. Hopefully this incarnation will be stable enough until I can build a new server and get it co-located at a data center within driving distance.

But I digress…a little at least. The goings on over the weekend, the server issues I’ve faced, the work and school issues I face…not to mention the subject of writing to a blog everyday, has been on my mind. Does it help? Thinking about things? Blogging about the silly, meaningless, bullshix of mundane life? And who does it help? Personally, I think there might be something to putting one’s thoughts into digital form. Something almost permanent (ha…not if my server gets its way). It forces you to think, to articulate, to reflect.

Speaking of reflecting, hey Old Dog! If you think you’ll be blogging again, let me know. Once my new server is set up and in place we can get you back up and running. Unless of course you plan on blogging anytime in the next couple months. If you let me know, I’ll get you functional again. Otherwise I’m not going to sweat it. As my own system administrator, I have to draw the line somewhere you know?

Which makes me think, if I knew that nobody besides myself was ever going to read this post, would it make a difference in whether I posted at all? Something to ponder…but another day.

I need to go lay my greasy head on my stained pillowcase and not worry about school, work, servers, blogging, databases, updating, flying, school, groups, career advancement, greenhouse gases, my growing waistline…argh. It is what it is. Keep breathing. I’m feeling the dichotomous nature of blogging C’atrix. To blog or not to blog. I wonder if it’s that simple … but know it isn’t.

Image: Here are some more clouds. This was taken while walking into the building where I work last week. I’m not sure what it is, but clouds are so nebulous and fleeting. But hey, clouds are still cool, and scary poltergeist clowns are definitely not.

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  1. Sorry Ma, I lost your sprinkling of comments left over the weekend. I had even responded to every one of them. [↩]

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6 Comments 

Comments

6 Responses to “The Cathartic Nature of Blogging”

  1. mom on October 16th, 2007 3:37 pm

    dichotomous???

  2. Spike on October 16th, 2007 4:29 pm

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dichotomous

    One part of self wants to blog and benefits from doing so, the other part doesn’t and sometimes struggles to find the muse.

  3. Brandi Hoffman on October 16th, 2007 5:52 pm

    What if you DO know someone else is reading it?? Does that change things? Oh well =)

    How are you doing Spike? I’m doing okay, taking classes back at Central. I’m getting a second bachelor’s in Spanish right now. Maybe in a couple years I’ll go for a masters in teaching English as a second language.

    For now I guess I’m living out the MSI vicariously through your blog… well, occasionally and slightly anyway… I must miss it somewhat, but not too much =p =). Anyway, thought you might like to know I enjoy your pictures and reading your blog from time to time =).

    Take care, Brandi

    P.S. Did you mean for the drawing of your head to look a little like the moon? It kind of goes with “MOONlighting as a student” =)

  4. Heidi Winn on October 16th, 2007 11:38 pm

    Spike,
    I enjoy reading your daily blogs. Your blogs are very interesting, plus I’ve learn a few new words to use! The use of all your pictures are great too! I am very proud of you, juggling work, school, having time to spend with Wendy and helping your family with their computer issues. You always seem to the find time!

    So…keep blogging!

    Heidi

  5. Spike on October 17th, 2007 12:09 am

    Thanks for the kind words Heidi. W. is my inspiration, though I can’t let her know that. She is the world to me but I have to carve me way through things so she doesn’t think I’m lame.

    And Brandi, what in the hell! Thanks for dropping a note. I’m glad to hear you are doing well. And Spanish? That’s an interesting direction to take. But you go girl. SI isn’t anything special really. It’s close and it puts me in contact with teachers that just might be brilliant. But really, it’s so hard to tell sometimes. Keep in touch, will ya? Ten years. Remember. We’ll reflect and say, “I knew you when…”.

    And yes, my head is sort of like a moon. I noticed this but didn’t think anybody else would. You are sharp!

  6. Brandi Hoffman on October 17th, 2007 5:36 pm

    I don’t know how much you check your Facebook, but I added you as a friend. So if you don’t check it out that often, you might want to so you can at least add me =)

    Take care, Brandi

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