Why do I blog, anyway? Is it all just about mememe?

In true viral blogger fashion, Ev Nucci, the Wacky Mom of the My Life is Murphy’s Law blog, reached out across the wacky blogosphere to play tag with me. And now I’m “it”.

This tagging thing is an interesting phenomenon. It’s a kind of pay it forward (unsolicited payback?) type of deal wherein, once tagged by a blogging predecessor, you in turn post about a topic preselected by some original blogger presumably interested in meme generation (i.e., traffic). Upon posting your response to the meme, you get pesky (or viral, depending on your attitude at the time) by tagging five bloggers of your own choosing, tasking them with responding in like fashion to your tag.

Often these memes consist of a top five approach; late last year I’d been tagged to present Five Things You Don’t Know About Me. That particular post was a fairly easy one to write, and it brought some traffic with it. However, today’s meme appears more difficult since it requires some fundamental introspection. This meme raises the question: Why do I blog?

Now I could just consider memes a waste of my time and ignore them. But I see memes, and especially this particular meme, as an opportunity to return to the basics. Quite honestly, I know I should periodically choose to review the reasons why I blog almost everyday, squeeze my mental grapes, stoke the fire burning inside. And therefore this meme delivers a very worthwhile question. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to tell me if I’ve delivered five worthwhile responses to it.

But first, a digression: just what the heck is a meme, anyway? The Modern Language Association’s Jargon File defines it thusly:

meme
/meem/ n. [coined by analogy with 'gene', by Richard Dawkins] An idea considered as a replicator, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the phrase ‘meme complex’ denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organized belief system, such as a religion. This lexicon is an (epidemiological) vector of the ‘hacker subculture’ meme complex; each entry might be considered a meme. However, ‘meme’ is often misused to mean ‘meme complex’. Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons.

Unhh! This definition is a train wreck in progress. It’s so complex, so heavy, that I can’t even attempt to lift it. So much for digression (and jargon, for gawd sakes); back (quickly, please!) to the matter at hand: why, indeed, do I blog?

1. I initially created Winehiker Witiculture as an online business tool. I wanted to draw interested readers to my business, a commercial tour company that I call California Wine Hikes.
2. I am a technical writer by profession, yet my extracurricular passions are hiking and wine tasting. I originally wanted to write about these two passions with a creativity that would balance the more rigid writing constructs required of my career. One can’t possibly write about wine and hiking with the dry poker face of a technocrat. At least this winehiker can’t. Or won’t.
3. A blog is, simply put, a living online journal. However, its interactive nature, as well as its tracking and reporting mechanisms, have allowed me to share my daily thoughts with the greater world. I don’t necessarily require ego strokes every day, but it sure feels good when thoughtful readers respond to the things I write. I’ve now actually hiked, camped, and saluted an untold number of 750ml dead soldiers with some of my readers.
4. Little could I suspect that writing this blog would open a number of doors to the wine world for me. I have now corresponded, met, and sipped wine with a number of California winemakers, some of whom have made extraordinary gestures. Whether they have written about me or invited me to be a member of their exclusive wine clubs, I am grateful for their attention, and I’ll continue to reciprocate as only a blogger can. After all, I love wine, and I love sharing the healthy and hearty wine experiences that winemakers and winehikers can have together.
5. I have believed that writing regularly and creatively could help me be a better writer. Sometimes I succeed at this; other times I’m just a hackneyed hack with a less-than-heartfelt homily. But whatever I believe about myself, I’m noticing that others enjoy reading my scribbles, and that’s reason enough for me to keep on keepin’ on down this blogging trail.

And now, the tag envelope, please. Will the following bloggers please come forward and respond to the question, Why do you blog?

• Farley at Wine Outlook
• Tom at Gambolin’ Man
• Rick at Best Hikes
• Ryan at Cal Wineries (yes, Ryan, you get another chance!)
• El Jefe at El Bloggo Torcido (yes, Jeff, so do you!)

Thank y’all in advance! I’m sure you’ll appreciate the mental exercise.

~winehiker

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 12:34 pm and is filed under grape squeezins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.