John’s Blog

I’m reading a lot of blogs these days, and a lot of my good friends are pretty well known bloggers with real readership. I’ve been thinking some lately about why I do this blog, and what I want out of it. Here’s why: at Mozilla we have something called planet.mozilla.org — it’s really a rollup of the blogs of anyone who’s associated with the Mozilla project. I’ve been wondering if I should syndicate this blog to that — I think a fair amount about things relevant to Mozilla folks (like my privacy post a few weeks ago) — and it would really widen my exposure & readership. I write a lot of stuff that’s not directly relevant, but think that breadth is good for people — I do feel like one of the problems with the “RSS Web,” and the Web more generally, is that people get personalized content much more often, and serendipity is not as cherished.

Anyways.

I think I’ve decided, though, that I don’t want to syndicate, because I don’t really care about developing a broader readership. I think that I mostly write as a catharsis for myself; as a way to get thoughts out of my head and into some sort of order. Sometimes it’s works, sometimes not so much. But even the act of choosing what to blog about helps me understand what I think about things. I find that I blog more (and write more) when I’m traveling — I think there’s an innate need to communicate with people I care about, in any way that I can. And while blogging is a bit of a one way street (the occasional comment notwithstanding), it at least helps with that need.

I think I like this just being the things that I want to pull out of my brain in whatever order I want to pull them out. My friends & family I think will generally live with that. I don’t think that I want/need to be more intentional than that. We’ll see.

Anyway, it’s dark in Tokyo now — have been waking up at 4 each morning. Good trip this time, but not the same as last time. Last time was more of an adventure, this time more of a business trip. On the positive side, it’s more comfortable here this time for me, more recognizable.

But also, cold & wet. Couldn’t convince Schrep (or myself, really) to go to the Fish Market this time around, so no pics of big dead tuna this time.

Working this morning, then heading to Narita to come home. Looking forward to getting back.