Blog Hopping

So, like many people, I have a group of blogs I check on a regular basis. Some are checked daily and some are checked once a week. Because by now I know how often they tend to get updated.

But this can take a lot of time. Luckily, I have the time to spare since I'm retired. Although I keep thinking about starting a home-based business. Some days though I have other commitments so I don't have time to do a lot of blog reading.

I've also dropped blogs and picked up new ones over the years. Sometimes it's because the blogger has stopped updating regularly, sometimes it's because I've lost interest, and sometimes it's because the subject matter has become something I don't agree with or find disturbing. Granted, that's actually been a rare case.

Usually, I drop a blog because the blogger has stopped updating all together or else so sporadically that it's months between posts. One person actually switched to FaceBook so I was able to add her there and be advised when she did update her blog.

Some people use feeds to keep track of the blogs they follow but I've never bothered. I get enough email as it is not to include feeds from blogs. I tend to prefer having to actually check blogs as I can figure out which ones I like by how often I'm willing to check them out. Sometimes a new blog starts interestingly but then something turns me off it. It could be the writing style, it could be the posts themselves.

Writing style is definitely a huge factor in how well I like a blog. The most interesting subject in the world can be butchered by poor writing. That's one of the reasons I try to keep my blog's style light and breezy. It doesn't always work because there are some subjects I take very seriously and find difficult to write about in anything less than a serious manner.

Then there are the days when That Mood strikes. When I can't be serious and have to be smart-alecky, sarcastic, and engage in all manners of puns. Luckily or unluckily, it's been a while since That Mood has struck so I can keep to my usual weird, twisted sense of humour. I'm not sure if it's lucky or not when That Mood strikes because while I enjoy it, I'm not sure how funny other people find it.

One thing I do find is that it's hard to find a good humourous blog. Writing humour is vary hard and it has the potential to fall flat so easily. Comics make a good substitution and I have a long list of comics I check just as regularly as the blogs. In fact that's how I start, by checking comics first to get in a good mood if I'm not already there. Which, of course, adds time to my reading.

But then again, isn't that why people blog?