uninspired or simply realistic?

a question, or set of related questions, has been niggling at me for a while...

is there a point to blogging? what value does it add? who cares?

in the little spare time i have for the online world, and one of my favourite pastimes, i am debilitated by these questions.

i have so many ideas for blog articles and yet they get stuck in the execution. no pressure either... the average blogger is supposed to churn out at least one post a week. i'm just happy to think about being able to blog once a week, and then fall exhausted on the couch or bed to spend the rest of the evening in a vegetative state.

whatever it is i'm hoping it's not going to last long... in the meantime - what do you care about?

corporate value proposition

i found an interesting article on corporate value proposition whilst researching for work - how to write a strong value proposition.

this also ties into one's personal value proposition or, as some like to call it, your elevator speech. i have always struggled with this in describing what i do... even more so in trying to describe what it is i want to do / be. perhaps it's because i haven't completely figured it out yet. more likely is that it's not a traditional role and there isn't really anyone out there i could refer to for a frame of reference.

the closest i have ever come is to say that i want to be a chief happiness officer. but what is a chief happiness officer? how do i become one? it's the transitioning from what i do now to what i want to do that baffles and scares me slightly.

another blog that runs in the same vein is personality not included (if you can ignore the "shameless" promotion of the book of the same name).

a point to ponder in pondering the question "what am i doing with my life?"

frustrated with windows live writer

argh! windows live writer won't set up any of my blogger blogs... and i don't know why. all i know is that it gives me the following in an error box:

An error occurred while trying to connect to your weblog:
Unable to connect to the remote server
You must correct this error before proceeding.

there is nothing wrong with the connection as far as i can see. i've searched the web, no similar error anywhere.

basically what has happened is i'm accessing windows live writer (wlw) via a new user account on my machine, so it's asking me to register all my blogs from scratch, as if it's a new installation. i thought there may be something wrong with the current installation, so i downloaded and installed the new 2008 version. still the same error...


whilst searching for help, i came upon this useful blog - whateverblog. - written by a guy on the wlw development team. there's also the wlw blog.

help, anyone?

of blogs and new bloggers

a colleague is "starting a blog". how is he starting his blog? by writing his articles up in a ms word document, printing them out, and circulating them around the office. his rationale is that he wants to start the blog up with a whole lot of articles behind its belt.

sure thing. i can understand that.

i can't understand the whole printing and circulating thing though.

1. if you're not ready to subject the 'web to your articles yet (and keep in mind no one knows what your url is, so you're pretty much just shouting out to the void), then why oh why would you subject people who can't get away in time to them?
2. printing? at least email it - you are looking to appeal to an e-savvy audience, no?

all in all though, some interesting thoughts have been produced, and will no-doubt arise to some interesting debate. now just to wait for the electronic version...

the same... only slightly different

my life has changed significantly recently, and yet has remained the same. this echoes the antithesis that has always intrigued me... the rhetorical contrast of change remaining the same.

i've pondered moving to a different blogspot address for some time, but didn't really get around to putting this into action... after all the site has been a part of my (online) identity for so long. well a change in surname, and thereby a change in my (self-) identity, seems a perfect opportunity... and voilà: I present my new personal blog.

the same victoire... only slightly different.