Blogging Temperaments

Sitting here this morning, I thought of the many approaches people have toward blogging. And it dawned on me that bloggers tend roughly to follow four basic approaches to blogging. Some people blog about what they do, some blog about what they think, some blog mainly about what they feel, and some blog about what they experience. Of course, any blogger can and often does blog about all four things, but if you read a particular blog long enough, you'll begin to see a pattern and a preference for one of the four approaches.

These four approaches to blogging fit neatly into Keirsey's four temperament clusters, with each cluster broken down into four subgroups, which gives the sixteen personality types of the Myers-Briggs personality system.

The four blogging temperaments that correspond with the Keirsey system are:

• NT Rationals -- tend to blog most about what they think
• NF Idealists -- tend to blog most about what they feel
• SP Artisans -- tend to blog most about what they experience
• SJ Guardians -- tend to blog most about they do

If you don't already know your Keirsey Cluster and Myers-Briggs type, take the Keirsey test here and the Myers Briggs test here to see if your type matches your basic blogging focus. Feel free to post your results in the comment box. And for those of you who don't already know my type, feel free to guess.

Ten Years On

I realized the other day that I've been a computer user and have been online for ten years now.

I'd wanted a computer as soon as personal computers were introduced, but because they were quite expensive at first, I was never able to afford one. If I remember correctly, the first IBM PCs back in the 80s cost a staggering six thousand dollars, with their monochromatic monitors and laughably paltry hard drives.

Fortunately, the trend has been that as computers have grown more sophisticated over the years, they've also become more affordable at the same time.

Still, for a long time, the price of a computer put them out of my reach. My first technological advance up from a typewriter was a word processor with a monochrome monitor, which I got in 1992. I think I paid something like four hundred bucks for it. As I remember, it had only one font on it, and you had two choices as to font size, 10 and 12, using the old typewriter terms of "pitch". Some word processors also provided 15 "pitch" as well.

The main value of this kind of word processor was that one could get their text perfect before committing it to paper. Storage was available on floppy disks, but each disk took only about ten to twelve pages of single spaced lines.

When a buddy of mine got one of the original Pentium computers, a Compaq Presario, in 1995, my desire to get one of my own only increased.

Finally, in 1998, after getting my inheritance after a two and a half year delay, I got my first computer. It was a 2 gig (count 'em -- two!) Gateway Pentium II. I had to pay two grand for it and I thought I was really uptown.

I signed up with a local dialup internet provider for 29.95 a month. That was back in the days of limited hours of service -- that thirty bucks was for only 150 hours of time per MONTH. Any time over that, and I'd have been paying a dollar an hour. Fortunately, they soon went to unlimited service. I can't imagine trying to keep within 150 hours a month now.

When I first went online, I was big into Yahoo chat rooms, which was in the days before advertising bots had taken it over and back when you couldn't use swear words in a chat room. For instance, if you typed "blow job", Yahoo rendered that as "puppy"! To this day, I can't hear the word puppy without snickering a bit.

I started with Windows 95, Internet Explorer 3, Eudora Lite email, and Word 97. I remember the first time I did an "illegal operation" -- it made me wonder what the hell I'd done and I was concerned that the cyber police were going to come along and fine me for something. I also remember the first time my computer froze and locked down on me -- I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong and thought I'd broken the damned thing.

I'd had some snail mail correspondents back then, but they all fell by the wayside once I had people I could email, instead. I soon discovered Instant Messaging, with ICQ being my first IM program. I didn't stick with that very long; I moved to AOL IM and then to Yahoo IM, where I remain today.

Not long after going online, I discover message boards about all sorts of topics, and I still enjoy participating on the number of them today, though I've changed which boards I'm active on over the years. NASCAR message boards were the first ones I was active on, but I don't even read NASCAR boards at all any more.

This was also in the days before blogs. At that time, people were getting personal web sites with decidedly bare bones graphics, usually of one uniform (and ugly) color with severe font restrictions.

I discovered blogging in 2004, when a friend made in a chat room in 2002, told me I should start one and write about my less-than-conventional life. I started and abandoned two blogs at Diary-X and Diaryland, mainly because of their bare-bones appearances and lack of customization features. Finally, I started a blog at Blog-City in April of 2004, which I still maintain today and it now has three-quarters of a million hits. I started another blog at Modblog in August of 2004, as a blog full of my actual sexual experiences. When Modblog crashed and most Modbloggers ended up at the first EFX2, I ended up there as well, but I decided to make my EFX a mirror blog of Blog City and move the sex blog to Blogger. When the first EFX crashed, I started another Blogger blog to be yet another mirror blog, and then recreated it once again on the present EFX.

After ten years of computer and internet use, I can't imagine how I got along without it. I've made friends from all over the world with my computer, bought items unavailable in my own area by computer, kept in touch with family much cheaper than using the phone or traveling. I pay my bills online, I get my news and weather online, found new relatives while searching my family tree online, and so on. It's made all the difference in the world in my life. I would give up my TV, before I'd give up my computer.

How long have you been online?

Libertine's "Blogger's Grab Bag of Topics"

Anyone who has blogged for any amount of time has dealt with "blogger's block", when nothing comes readily to mind to write about. The blogger might be tired, distracted, busy with other things, or simply uninspired to write. Some people solve this problem by just not posting on such days. But others, myself included, want to write every day and feel vaguely guilty if we don't put up something each day.

Like other daily bloggers, I go through phases where I'm really on a roll; things all around me become inspirations for writing and the posts almost write themselves. Unfortunately, there are other times when my creative juices have dried up; when I'm creatively constipated and have to pull out the entries, word by word, out of myself. Presently, I've been in that mode for a couple of weeks now, but I have a good reason why -- I'm working on another writing project that is sapping some of my blogging energy away from me.

But that isn't the point of today's entry. Today, I will show the reader my "grab bag of topics" I use as sources for blogging fodder.

1. Rants/Peeves
For me, this is the richest source of blogging material -- everyone has plenty of things in their lives or in general that just piss them off. These types of entries tend to write themselves. These are "what I think" entries. I find it best to write rants with a touch of humor to them, so as not to come off as a whiner, or a "whinger" as the British prefer to say it.

2. Daily Life
Again, most people find it easy to talk about things that are going on in their lives, both good and bad. These are "what I do" entries. I'd caution not to write too many entries about mundane daily events, however, as a little goes a long way here.

3. Current Events/News
Trolling the news sources for interesting news often provides good blogging material. I tend to choose political news or odd news most often, but any sort of news that interests the blogger is good, as it gives the reader insight into the blogger's personality.

4. Reminiscing
Talking about one's memories from years ago, or those of friends and family members give the reader a chance to identify or contrast with the blogger.

5. Lists
These can be humorous or serious and can be about any topic under the sun. These types of entries also invite reader participation. They can be personal, as in "My 25 Favorite Songs" or general, "25 Celebrities Who Were Only Children", for example. This is also a good format for writing entries about trivia/useless knowledge.

6. Quotations
Quotations that resonate with the blogger can be used in two main ways, either as a list of quotes, with or without comments, or a single quotation can insire an essay entry. I've also written essays based on a single word, which have turned out well.

7. Humor
Humor can be used in many different ways. One can write about funny things that have happened to them, write about annoyances in a funny way, post a funny cartoon or photo with our without comment, post a joke you've found somewhere or gotten in an email.

8. Informational
A blogger can write informational pieces about topics they have special knowledge and/or interest in. My blogging original started in this mode, as some people I knew wanted to know about my libertine life, the hows and whys. "How-to" pieces also fall under this category, as do entries about one's hobbies.

9. Opinion Pieces
This is related to the rants/peeves and informational categories. These differ as they're not necessarily presented as something that pisses the writer off, nor are they always strictly factual. These also tend to produce good comment interaction.

10. Polls/Surveys
This is related to the opinion pieces, but is more focused on the readers' opinions more than what the blogger thinks, per se.

11. Memes/Quizzes
Ranging from the serious to the silly, memes are good for days when nothing else comes to mind. They also inspire copy-cat entries for other bloggers similarly uninspired. These are best when used sparingly.

12. People
Other people, whether it's those in our own lives or someone famous, are often a source of good blogging material.

13. Photos and Illustrations
Using photos or other types of illustrations offer versatile entry possibilities. A photo can be posted for artistic value, for humor, or for something about it that inspired the writer. They can be posted with little or no comment, they can illustrate what the blogger is talking about, or they can inspire an essay.

14. Reviews
Reviews about books, movies, TV, and music are another good category, which can be useful to readers.

15. Odds and Ends
This is a miscellaneous entry cobbled together with bits and pieces of elements that are interesting but not long enough to make entries of their own. Such entries often include items from one or more of the other categories.

I'm sure there are more categories I use, but this is all that comes to mind at the present time. Feel free to include some of the elements in your "blogger's grab bag of topics" in the comment box.

Blogging Is Its Own Reward

I've belonged to Blog Catalog, a blog bookmarking site, for about a month now and I've noticed several generic-type blogs there that seem to exist for the sole purpose of making money. Such blogs have little to no content that indicates the blogger's personality or interests.

Also, I've seen a related type of blogger who seems mainly interested in statistics: hits, increasing their ranking in blog clearinghouse sites like Blog Catalog, comments, etc. They offer to read and comment on your blog in exchange for you doing the same, and don't seem to care whether their visitors have a true interest in their blog's contents, just so long as it drives up the statistics and rankings.

Don't get me wrong -- I am pleased to see a lot of visitors on my blog and I cherish the comments I get. But because I don't do much "shameless promotion" of my blog, the hits and comments I get are from people who are truly interested in what I've got to say and their interaction on my blog isn't solely motivated by a desire to increase statistics on their own blog. Indeed, I'm a bit disappointed when I encounter people on my blog who are thus motivated.

I joined Blog Catalog mainly to find other blogs that I'm truly interested in reading, hoping others would likewise find my blog interesting. Though I'll add nearly anyone to my friends list there who asks, only those blogs I'm actually interested in and/or who were my friends before I joined Blog Catalog go in my neighborhood.

I've never made a dime off any of my blogs and though I'd not ever turn down any money offered, it's not my motivation for blogging. One of my prime motivations is to make people think of things in ways they might never have considered before, particularly in the realm of sexual ethics. From the unsolicited emails I get, I see that I am doing just that and one such email means more to me than any money I could make or getting a top blogger award.

Plus, blogging is just plain fun. I've met lots of like-minded people while blogging, while also making friends with and gaining understanding of those who have a different view of the world.

How about you? Why do you blog and what do you see as your most valuable "reward" from doing so? Do you belong to any blog bookmarking sites and, if so, why?

Blog Housekeeping

As some of you know, I originally came here when EFX2 started showing signs of major instability back in August. I already had a mirror blog at Blog City, but there were a few minor stability glitches there as well, so I decided I needed a third blog to archive my posts. Blogger has a reputation for stability, so I started this blog.

Unfortunately, I could not import all my entries in one fell swoop, so I've been having to bring them over and paste them in one by one, backdating them as I go. Blogger's text editor is somewhat awkward and aggravating, randomly choosing to save my posts in a microscopic default font size, regardless of the size I chose, with it sometimes taking multiple edits before it would display in the chosen font size, so it's been very slow going.

EFX crashed for good in the first week of September, so I put all my efforts then into finding old blogging friends there and encouraging them to set up new homes on Blogger. Many did so and for about a week, it looked as if this would be our new permanent home.

Then, a few days ago, Keith found a new home for EFX, using WordPress MU. People quickly flocked back, but many were not happy with the lack of features and options for customization.

Another solution was found and went online this morning. It will have most of the same features we knew and enjoyed at the original EFX before it crashed and burned. So, I've spent most of the morning setting up shop over there, mainly getting the place to look like home again.

We still await the restoration of our original posts there, but I'm guessing that will return shortly.

Meanwhile, I will continue my slow transfer of posts from Blog City here to Blogger and hope to get it complete in a week or two.

The Lovely and Talented Chica-X

This new template was created for me by the lovely and talented Chica X, who also did my template over at EFX2. She's a very talented young woman who has designed templates for a number of people both at Blogger and EFX2.

To see my blog design at EFX2, click here

To visit Chica's blog, click here

Over the next several days, I'll be adding elements to this blog, as well as trying to move the vast bulk of entries over from my other blogs.

Libertine Avatars

Since I began blogging a few years ago, I've made avatars of myself on various sites. Following are the ones currently in my collection:

These are my Yahoo IM avatars


This is "Libertine Simpson"


This is an Elouai "doll"


I forget where this one came from


South Park Libertine




Three small avatars from Abi-Station

I enjoy making these icons and avatars of myself. The Yahoo avatars actually look quite a bit like me. Feel free to post any of yourself in the comments and let me know of any avatar making sites I might have missed. And don't forget to vote for which avatar of me you like best.