augustory & the story of my blog
I'm writing this as a response to Robert Birming's AuguStory, the story of your blog post.
I think blogging has interested me since I first discovered old Blogger (previously Blogspot), Livejournal, or Wordpress blogs around 2006. I have a preference for text-based content rather than video- or audio-based, and being able to read through pages and pages of someone's words is incredibly fun to me.
When I was in elementary school, I really enjoyed Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS. Somehow, I stumbled upon a blog online where a kid like me would write about what they did with their Nintendog each day. This idea blew my mind and soon, I was reading through every entry. I continued with this trend for a few years as I read peoples' Animal Crossing and Tamagotchi blogs.
I think the reason I latched onto this kind of content was because in real life, I didn't really have friends with similar interests. Most of my friends from school were people I befriended due to being stuck in the same classrooms or same school buildings for 8 hours every day. This isn't to say that these people weren't interesting or that we didn't share ANY interests. It's just that a lot of the time, I didn't know any other kids that also knew what Tamagotchis were (much less owned them), had hyperfixations on Animal Crossing: Wild World, or were as online as I was.
I tried a couple times to keep similar blogs to the ones I saw, but it never lasted more than a few weeks for me. I was just emulating what I saw a lot of the time, and while it was still fun, I got bored with it quickly.
In 2012, I started a blog on Tumblr. (It's still active, actually! I still check Tumblr and reblog interesting or funny posts.) It wasn't a personal type of blog, though - I just reblogged content from the fandoms I was in, like gifs from my favorite anime or photos of K-pop idols I liked. I know Tumblr frames itself as a microblogging platform, but it has never felt like a Wordpress or Blogger-style blog to me.
I think I'm having so much fun with Bear because I'm not pigeonholing myself into one hobby or fandom. Sure, my blog's name is Stitching because I love to knit, but I've been talking about a variety of things. I like having a space where it's not connected to my real life identity like a social media site. Bear isn't connected to people I've added out of obligation because we went to high school together, and I'm not seeing things from those people who I've drifted apart from. It feels like a space totally separate from what we've come to expect online with the proliferation of social media, and it's refreshing!
For August, I think I'd like to blog a little more frequently, especially about more mundane things. I don't want to limit myself to only posting when I have some cool or intelligent thing to share, otherwise I second guess what I want to say. I don't want to pretend that only certain words are good enough to be here - it's my blog, and any of my words and thoughts should be able to have a place here!
Before I end this post, I'd like to share what I've been listening to in another tab as I've been writing: Katamari Damacy BGM for Work & Study. I've never actually played any Katamari games, but I like the music and style! I recommend it to anyone looking for some playful, relaxing music to throw on if you don't like to sit in silence.