When I initially started blogging last summer it was on a small website that I cannot for the life of me remember, and then more recently I switched to the hosting site Weebly, which was very basic and simple, but suited my needs just fine. Those blogs were mainly for my own personal use (don't go looking for them, most of them have been deleted), as I improved in my writing and style. That site had very little in the way of features or accessibility, however, and I was unable to get a firm foothold on my writing there. Once I decided to truly start writing and publishing just a few weeks ago I began using tumblr, an easy and convenient site that is perfect for an avid social networker with little real blogging experience. But as I explored tumblr from both a writing and reading perspective, I came to the conclusion that it was too "Twittery" for my liking. Now I'm an avid Twitter user, with over 30 thousand Tweets since 2009, but I want to be able to differentiate my social networking from my writing, and I decided that shooting for a more writing oriented, true blog style would be more beneficial to me than the micro-blogging of tumblr.
As I said, I'm a very experienced Tweeter, and anyone with knowledge of my Twitter feed knows that while I sometimes depict worthwhile opinions, most of my Tweets are pointless garble or song lyrics. I hope that by starting this new habit of blogging I can begin to work on my skills as a writer, while fully fleshing out my ideas and opinions. I hope to finalize this blog page by the end of the day, and also to copy my two latest tumblr posts over to Blogger so that I won't be completely starting for, scratch.
I also wanted to choose a new blog title that better reflects the entirety of the blog. Naturalized Texanian is a term that I proudly use to describe myself. Being born in Oxford while my dad was studying there, I cannot honestly call myself a natural born Texan, but since I've been in this beautiful land I've grown to love and accept the idea of being a Texan, and also a Texanian, which is a word I created to describe someone who doesn't simply live in Texas, but proudly proclaims their land's glory, and shows true dedication to exemplifying what Texas is about. Now it may sound pompous to assign these attributes to myself, but I believe that part of being a Texanian includes having a sense of personal and communal pride and self respect. So the title of this blog doesn't necessarily describe what I will be writing about (which is anything and everything) but actually describes me, and one of the qualities I proudly exhibit.
So I hope that my fickle nature toward choosing a web page hosting service doesn't reflect on the future of my blogging, and I'm setting a goal for myself to average at least 2 posts a week and possibly more than that, so that I can establish my own writing routine and style. Although my thoughts and ideas are clearly mind-numbingly profound, I often have trouble accurately conveying them to others, and via this blog which is more than an offshoot of my social networking use, I will try to work on this in many different ways. As my dad told me just today, the only to reliable ways to improve writing are writing reading, and I'm now getting into a habit of doing both. Although it will be a difficult road to leave behind my mindset of reading and writing as work, that I developed throughout high school.
Well as my quest for the perfect blog hosting service comes to a close, I begin a new adventure, venturing even further into the world of formal blog writing.
God bless,
Joel Childers
- The Naturalized Texanian
I'll leave you with an image of my Texas Pride at my senior prom this past April. It's hard to tell but the vest and tie are both Texas Flags.
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