Friday, April 18, 2014

Cool and cloudy in Tucson today

I'm feeling a little bit jealous.

I started this blog in 2009 as an extension of my branding as a radio dj.  I liked taking pictures at events I was at and thought a blog might offer people (who were interested) a chance to get a little 'behind the scenes' of my work as a dj and what happens at events I attended.  I'm no longer on the radio but I still enjoy taking pictures and telling stories to anyone who gives a crap.  If you're one of those people, I offer a huge hug of thanks for reading what my imagination drums up and checking out the visuals.

I've always been a little bit critical of my own writing skills despite using them constantly at my job.  I have a high school education.  I didn't learn the fancy way of writing that most college students learned when writing papers.  I pretty much write how I speak.  Despite this, I write more than most people while working at my job (and for fun, too).

I've had the opportunity to read a couple of things recently that Anthony has written for job related things.  He inserts big words that never occur to me should be used and has a remarkably fluid way of putting his writing together.  He's a fantastic writer.  I don't have that capability.  I write a thousand times more stuff than he does in a given year and he's got the skills.  I can't do a thing about it and maybe I don't need to.  But I can't help but be a bit jealous.  Who doesn't want to be a rock star at everything they do?

I've put a much greater effort into this blog in the last year than I ever have.  I'm writing more and posting more photos.  I decided it was a good creative outlet for me (I consider myself kind of creative) plus it gives me purpose outside of work, and the result has been it's slowly grown in page views and visits.  It's been a good experience to learn a little bit about how the internet works and what people respond to and search for.  I've forced myself to find things to post even if I've felt uninspired.  I'm not magically gifted or talented at anything but I make up for some of my shortcomings by putting in long hours of work on my projects and that includes this blog, photography, the occasional video, and whatever other creative endeavors I've taken a shot at.  I believe that it's a lot more effort for me than most people to keep from completely sucking!

Anthony's current job doesn't give him the opportunity to write much of anything.  That's too bad.  I've tried to talk him into starting his own blog so he can put that amazing skill to good use but he hasn't really had any interest.  But, I understand.  Writing a blog is a rather big undertaking.  It requires constant maintenance and new material if there is a desire to have people visit regularly plus putting yourself out to the world for everyone to see what you've created.  I've realized that it's not for everyone to do successfully.  I have seen hundreds of blogs on the internet that were started, have some regular posts, and abandoned.  I saw one the other day that stopped in 2010.  I don't know the person who wrote it, I hope they aren't dead.

If you're wondering why I thought about all of this today, it's because I took a picture of the cloudy weather.  When I downloaded it from my camera, I was thinking about what to write to go with it.  Then I started wondering what Anthony would write to describe the photo.  It would probably be something fancy and eloquent that would be about 500 words and 5000 syllables long that could be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and I was just going to write "Cool and cloudy day in Tucson today".  There's the difference between he and I.

It also occurred to me that I took the photo and wrote something about it and he didn't.  It made me feel a little bit better and also like I suck a little less.

I'll take it.

Cool and cloudy in Tucson today.
This was the grey view facing east of the TV station this morning.