Johan's Blog

This was my tryout blog and I learned a lot from it. But as I felt the need for a personal blog I decided to revitalize this blog after 6 months of inactivity.

Letters and Quill

This was my tryout blog. I published articles on it for almost 6 months in the first half of 2009 on a wide variety of topics. One of the many lessons that I learned from this blog is that you should focus on 1 topic, or on a limited number of closely related topics. In May 2009 I started an online training on professional technical writing and I didn’t have enough time and energy left to keep on blogging. At that time I had over 1500 unique visitors per month. It was my intention to start more focused blogs after the online training. I decided to pull the plug on the life-support of this blog. Thank you, you have served your purpose well, may you rest in peace.

Fast forward 6 months. I just launched my blog ‘Life with ME/CFS’ on living with the disabilitating disease Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and I would very much like to start a technical blog in 2010. I haven’t decided on the topic yet, but suitable subjects are: linux, Mac OS X, open source software, gadgets, and/or blogging. But what if I want to write a book review, a movie review, some personal not ME/CFS-related stuff, or to experiment? Hold on, I already have a blog for that. Without any new articles for the past six months this blog still attracts over 1500 unique visitors per month and the occasional positive comment. All I have to do is to start publishing articles again.

I probably will not publish any technical articles anymore on this blog, although they have been the most successful ones.
I recently lost my job because of my disease and am on disability. This is now, but what about the future? I accept my condition for now, but I expect to get better again, with or without help. I am not one for giving up hope, at least not without a fight, so I expect that one day I will have to go looking for a job again. When, where, how, and what kind of job I do not know. Maybe writing for these 3 different blogs will help me find answers to those questions. I have the greatest expectations for my technical blog, but that’s for 2010.

Good plans, good intentions. For 2009 though I will focus on this personal blog and my Life with ME/CFS blog.

Topics you may expect on this blog:

• book reviews
• movie reviews
• audiobook reviews
• personal stuff
• the past month in pictures
• maybe about politics
• maybe the occasional rant
• maybe about writing and blogging
• …

My tryout blog is dead, long live my personal blog.

Resources

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Personal blogging, ME/CFS