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Monday 12th 63F, bright and breezy. The forecast is rain or no rain. Can two weather forecast services both be wrong?
There was a story in the Danish national media on whether blogging and vlogging constitute "real work." Half of Danes do not believe these are real jobs. While I am unlikely to ever make a single penny from my own ramblings, I do believe that blogging and vlogging are just relatively new branches of the entertainment industry.
Traveling entertainers had to be basically competent to survive in the past. The difference is that these days almost anybody can put out material onto the internet. Survival is not an issue provided you can maintain a connection with the outside world. Public libraries provide computers and internet connections so you could actually blog from there at zero financial cost.
Traveling entertainers had to be basically competent to survive in the past. The difference is that these days almost anybody can put out material onto the internet. Survival is not an issue provided you can maintain a connection with the outside world. Public libraries provide computers and internet connections so you could actually blog from there at zero financial cost.
Many of these modern "entertainers" place themselves center stage. This requires that these people do not immediately repel potential watchers, nor readers. The viewer or reader makes a lightning fast judgement and moves on. Or hovers, however briefly, in the desperate hope that the blogger or vlogger will not quickly become irritating.
Some bloggers/vloggers are campaigners for their supposed causes. Others passionately want to share their superstitions, hobbies or pastimes. I used to worry over every word when I started blogging. Now it has become as normal as breathing. It was never a case of finding something interesting to talk, or rather write, about. Shutting me up was always the problem. I can write complete and utter garbage all day long. As long as it interests me. Judging from my viewing figures there are at least a few souls out there who feel some sympathy for my thoughts and activities. Though never a lot of them they do add up over the years.
Some bloggers/vloggers are campaigners for their supposed causes. Others passionately want to share their superstitions, hobbies or pastimes. I used to worry over every word when I started blogging. Now it has become as normal as breathing. It was never a case of finding something interesting to talk, or rather write, about. Shutting me up was always the problem. I can write complete and utter garbage all day long. As long as it interests me. Judging from my viewing figures there are at least a few souls out there who feel some sympathy for my thoughts and activities. Though never a lot of them they do add up over the years.
I set high standards for myself not to be deliberately outspoken and usually delete early morning thoughts on the latest political mess. The main problem is that I don't like any of these charlatans. Being a politician is NOT remotely a real job in my world view. It is the little boy or girl desperately trying to impress a completely disinterested parent. What a shame they didn't choose conjuring or juggling instead. Perhaps they did?
Why would a tricyclist blogger talk or write about politics, or nature, or whatever? Good question! All of my main interests are extremely "narrow interest" however you look at them. Tricyling is practically a dangerous sport if long term survival is the name of the game. I won't delve into my other minority interests here. Just take my word for it that your are very unlikely to find another person in everyday life with a similar interest. Gathering narrow interests into an untidy bundle is not a way to make friends and/or influence people. You'll just have to take my word for this.
The only time I ever met another tricyclist was by joining a club for tricyclists. The trouble is I'm not really a joiner. I don't tend to stick rigidly to that one interest. My mind soon wanders and off I flutter to find another fragrant flower to savour the nectar. Fortunately for me, if not all of my readers, I like landscape photography. So as soon as you get bored with my rabbiting on you can look at the pictures. Or just look at the pictures and completely ignore the text in between. Or neither. Enjoy the backgrounds? Probably not.
It is an incredibly competitive world in here. Few have a true USP. So must rely heavily on personality and/or appearance to break through to online stardom. From my own YT viewing habits I believe that personality is the major factor in why I watch a particular channel. Fortunately, for mankind as a whole, I do not usually appear in any of my videos and only rarely on my blogs.
The beauty of blogging or just following a blogger or vlogger is that you have a completely free choice. Whether you go or stay is up to the individual. A free choice from amongst the delicacies arranged on the vast table that is the Internet today. If the stuff they produce lies within your tolerance levels, or even spikes your casual and always ephemeral interest, then great. Otherwise, there are literally millions of other sources of entertainment and entertainer out there. Just don't shoot the messenger. They are usually pedaling [or peddling] as hard as they can.
You could even entertain yourself by becoming a blogger or vlogger yourself. Just go easy on the kittens, make-up, tattoos and/or cleavage. Your material should not need such flashy props. Even if you do become an overnight YouTube billionaire and global "influencer." Miaow! 😸
Moving swiftly back into context: A late morning ride to slightly more distant shops. It thundered overhead and heavy rain merely added to the misery of already soaking wet roads. Three tracks of spray just find more targets to wet. A crosswind sees to that aspect of partial immersion. Needless to say I was soon soaked from head to [quite literally] toe.
My purple socks were soon navy blue and my feet cold and squelching. I paused in an arched farmyard entrance to don my tailored bin bag. A plastic, refuse sack, by any other name, but sold as a cycling jacket. It was that, or continue in my tailored pillow slip. More commonly known as a cycling jersey. With all the qualities best avoided in rain. Like blotting paper absorption rates and total transparency to wind.
The rain eventually became bored with falling and stopped on the return journey. Now I was carrying 20kg and 50 liters of shopping. I had an uphill race with a young lady riding a people carrying tadpole. She was cheating and had a battery and motor. Just escaping from the loud whine was enough to urge me onto a win. 14 soggy miles. My socks were still sopping wet when I returned to Chez Hovel. That's the only nice thing about a wet ride. You can discard the clothing which has tormented you until you finally climbed off.
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