I started blogging on blogger in August of 2008. Prior to that, I thought I was terribly with the times because I had a (drum roll please) MYSPACE page. My daughter had signed me up for the myspace and I did absolutely nothing with it for months. Then I got the brilliant idea to post some of the stupid stuff that I found on the web to a myspace blog. Heavy on the poop humor (I am being totally, transparently honest here by admitting that I, Liz Arakelian, do indeed find poop humor to be hilarious)
Shortly after the dormant myspace was created, I also got suckered into creating a facebook page. This was prior to facebook becoming the next big thing. Myspace was still "it" at that point in time. My facebook page lay dormant even longer than the myspace did.
I had contemplated blogging for a few years before actually taking the plunge. I was deathly afraid of lifting that cloak of anonymity and possibly opening the door to every creepy stalker out in cyberspace.
My introduction to blogging was "mommy bloggers" and "craft bloggers". Neither of which really appealed as something that I would want to do for myself. I valued my children's privacy and did not want them to kill me, hence the kibosh on the "mommy blog". (besides, Dooce already made her millions at it. What could "I" do that would not be a mere cheap imitation?). As for craft blogs: crafting is something I do for relaxation and taking a photo and documenting every hat, every blanket, every mitten would suck all the joy out of that process immediately. So even though I spent many happy hours perusing other peoples craft-ish blogs, alas, twas not to be as far as coughing up my own.
I had had a very bad habit of getting into cyber arguments (anonymously of course) on other people's blogs. This is not something that I am proud of. It is representative of a very, very big character defect (or sin, if you want to call it by it's rightful name). The subtitle of my blog "tis better to light a candle than curse the darkness" marked an attempt by me to say something proactive rather than simply dissing what everybody else had to say. Those early days of blogging were a mix of odd stuff that I found to be amusing (minus the excessive gross out humor: that was still being sent on over to the myspace blog at that point in time) and endless political rants. Despite my desire to be more positive as opposed to negative, I cringe today when I think of how mean spirited a lot of those early posts were. I was coming from a very conservative place politically and was not shy about dissing anything with even the faintest whiff of liberalism hovering about it.
My views have somewhat evolved since then. Despite what some of my more conservative friends say, I'm hardly a stark raving socialist; I've just finally listened to a few people (husband included) who aren't quite so, ah, dogmatic in their views.
Somewhere in there I grew a clue that endless political rants of ANY persuasion really are not going to help change the world. Mostly, what they do is preach to the choir. And tick off everyone else.
Along with that glowing realization, came the evolution of my blog into more of a personal diary. Really, that is all that we can share with each other is our own stories. My own ideas can intersect with that, but I'm not sure that there is always a political solution to those things. I am so glad that I am NOT a politician, because then I would have to deal with these things for realsies. And that is NOT a happy thought!!!
Mostly these days, I write about my relationship with God, my recovery from an assortment of wildly dysfunctional behaviors and every so often I manage to insert a little humor here and there.
Being as probably one of my most dominant skills is the use of words, I am not at all immune to the possibility of being published. Or not, as the good Lord wills. If the only writing I ever do is on this blog helps someone else on this journey called life, then so be it.
So look around, read what catches your eye and don't be shy about letting me know what you think. Thanks!!!!
