The Unbearable Lengthiness of my Entries

I finally had the chance to celebrate my birthday with my friends by having dinner at Uncle Cheffy Eastwood last Saturday. It’s the first time I have seen most of them in weeks. Some, even in months. Anyway, the ribs, seafood and panizza were all great. But as always, the best thing about the night was the company of friends. Staying in Eastwood until 2am still didn’t seem enough for all the stories and the laughter. Hopefully, Christmas party comes sooner than we expect it!

Anyway, Ralf asked me how come my entries are long. And sometimes, even hard to read, I inferred. Haha. He said that it doesn’t quite appeal to the current reader since they are more used to witty one-liners or photoblogs especially with the emergence of one-stop multimedia-enhanced blog sites.

I told them that I consciously veered away from such sites knowing the pressure to conform and satisfy the common format. I chose old-school blogging because I have been accustomed with it for the past five or so years of my life. I want the entries’ thoughts to really become my site’s focal point. Thus, my “no frills, pure writing” blog.

Thinking more about Ralf’s question, I came up with another reason: My communication skills rest on a cornucopia of run-on and verbose sentences and my sheer inability at editing my thoughts. Thus, I speak the length of my train of thought which often results to lengthy and often incomprehensible bursts of words. Of course, there’s my conscious effort to heed the call of succinctness which may be proven by recent entry reductions in terms of amount of words. An average of 560 words for 11/24-25 entries versus 310 for 11/28-29 entries. However, I am still a work in progress. Also, this entry will most probably be an exception in the meantime though.

Going beyond proving that I treat this little corner as my personal commitment to help other people help themselves, I also perceive my site as an avenue and motivation for people to flesh out their thoughts and converse as well. Though one-liners may pack the punch of clever and wit, it often lacks the conversation-like feel of fleshed out blog entries. We are bedazzled but are we inspired?

I certainly do hope that, even though you’ve often probably come to the end of an entry with “WTH was he talking about?” in your mind, you’d still bear with me and my lengthy entries. I hope that the entries stimulate. you to reflect on your life and realize the essential things. May it also challenge you to not settle for one-line wonders but labor through lengthy troves where scores of treasures abound.