Why not?

Lets get this out of the way. I planned on starting this post the way I like to start my Sunday mornings. Slowly, calmly and with a lot of thought and reflection. I however feel I must get this bit of ranting out of the way before I can do any of those things, so please forgive me.

I've told a few of my friends that I am starting a blog, and every single person immediately responds with "Why?". 99% of the things I say are sarcastic and/or exaggerated, so I've been countering with something like "Because if I'm going to rule the world, I need to develop a following" or "I'm branding myself for my future fortune and fame"

This complicates the problem more often than solves it because some do not understand how a person, particularly a 22 year old every day college student, can be a brand. Those that do understand it do not see why I would want or need to attempt such a feat.

So this is my full out explanation of why I am starting a blog, why I want to be a brand and develop a following, and why you might want to think about doing the same thing.

As i mentioned earlier I started this mostly for myself. I love to write. I have about 10 or 15 notebooks dating as far back as middle school filled with my thoughts or dreams or anything I felt worth keeping track of at the time. While I still enjoy journaling, the notebook is basically obsolete. I am much more likely to update something via laptop or blackberry, hence the ease of blogging.

While it sometimes pains me to look back at the at those notebooks, I am glad I have a self written record of my feelings. I am very big on self reflection. Too many people do not know themselves. This is one of my biggest gripes with the human race, but we won't get into that now. The point is this blog will allow me to look back one of five or ten years down the road and know, at 22, what was going on inside my head.

Reason number two. Branding. The most relevant example that comes to mind is Bethanny from Real Housewives of NYC. There were multiple episodes about her Skinny Girl cookbook, margaritas, cocktails and so on. She even had Alex design a character based off of her actual appearance that would serve as a logo for everything she produced from that point on..

Now, I do not plan of creating a signature line of drinks or products or anything else marketable, but that's the idea. I want to put my thoughts out there in hopes that people will find them interesting on a personal level, so that when I truly get the hang of this and begin putting out career oriented advice and projects, someone will already be reading it.

In an industry (who are we kidding, a world) where your image, opinion and reputation can make or break you, I think it is important to have some self documented information in cyberspace that future employers or clients can refer to and know what you're all about. Even if it's just a personal blog. I equally hope that this blog helps someone figure out how to do something better. That it be the interesting bit or new point of view of someones morning. What the blogs listed to your right are for me.

I am not naive. The only people that will probably read Six and Oh are my friends and family, perhaps a random Twitter follower, but you never know. My goal isn't necessarily to achieve the most site traffic, but hey, you never know.

Now, for my attempt at advice :)

I think blogging is great, and everyone should do it. Firstly, because we basically all already do. Myspace (if that even matters anymore), Facebook and Twitter are all basically blogs. Though you don't write the information full out the way I do here, they are all sites that document your thoughts and views. Whether we like it or not people are already forming opinions of everything we think by what we post on those pages, so I now prefer to put mine in paragraph form.

Whether you make your blog public or not is irrelevant. Maybe no one sees it, maybe you plaster the link all over town. Either way I don't think anyone was ever sorry they took time to sit back, sort through their thoughts and explore them on paper (or in this case on screen). Take it from someone who has record of what they wanted to do after school in 8th grade, you will at the very least get a good laugh out of it.

Moving on. Now that that's behind us...

Happy Sunday :)

Sunday morning is my favorite time of the week.

This is how free I normally feel when I wake up on Sundays

 There are many reasons for this, the first being secrets. If you haven't noticed, I am a blog junkie, snoop and self proclaimed expert at analyzing other human beings. This means the Post Secret blog is my guilty pleasure. The fact that they release their secrets every Sunday morning, my favorite morning, makes it even better. If you're not familiar please check it out. My previously mentioned irritation at people's lack of self reflection is somewhat soothed by this site. It is so inspiring to me that people mail out their most personal secrets so the creeps of the world, like myself, can indulge in knowing something about someone elses life. Everyone has a story, and it is my goal to hear and understand as many people's stories as I can. Post secret allows me to do that with dozens of people a little every week.

Another reason I love this morning is that it's usually my day off. It gives me some time to think, breath and now blog. Time to clean and do laundry and shop and organize and see friends. Todays agenda consists of

laundry mat

mall

car wash

total room overhaul

time with friends

I believe I can accomplish all of the above, but not unless i get moving. I will post the outcomes of the above list, and hopefully have something good to show for it.

I planned on Sundays being my day for the best posts, but after the "Why" discussion I am out of time and focus for the moment. Perhaps I'll continue later, but it may have to wait until next Sunday.

More to come,