there comes a time..

whereby in every blogger's mind, the following question would resound.

"should i continue blogging?"

and for that, one must examine the reasons that drive people to blog.

1. An avenue for ranting aka "I had a bad day, X scolded me, Y betrayed me and Z tried to kill me."

Ranting, whether to a friend online, to a buddy over coffee or just personally over a written entry in a diary - is supposed to be healthy and encouraged. Pent-up angst and inconsolable problems often trouble each and everyone of us to some degree. Blogging could help with releasing some of those bad bad feelings. Especially if you are better at expressing yourself through writing. Ranting works wonders for me. Heh.

2. The place for deep thought and philosophy aka "what is love? if love is a piano, play on, give me excess of it"

Many a times, reflections and perspective can be obtained by penning down a few paragraphs. People could read what you've written and reply with some profound comment that would push you to think further than you'd ever.

3. Pseudo-online communication tool aka "this happened to me today, i'm feeling good in australia and please don't miss me too much"

This big world has significantly seemed alot smaller with the introduction of the internet. I wonder what people used to do for fun before the internet. Gosh! But anyway, when you have friends all over the world, writing a single entry recounting all events would save you much time and effort repeating the story 10 times to 10 different friends over the next couple of weeks. Oh plus you can post up photos and videos. Very handy.

4. Attention aka "I have posted up pretty pictures of myself pouting, winking and angling my face in different lighting. Please adore me and tell me you think I am extremely cute."

I can't really explain this reason for blogging other than... boredom? attempt to elevate self-esteem? Oh I know. for the lack of better things to do in life. But it could be a good way to get (wrong) attention.

I'm not really sure why I blog. It's a combination of reasons 1-3 I suppose. I don't even know who reads it, who thinks it's funny and who thinks I should just shut my trap up and whine to death in a corner. But seriously, I feel as though this blog is pretty public, accessible to a wide variety of people that know me. Which poses the problem of personal privacy - how much do i want to write on this blog? and if i cannot turn to my trusty old blog for answers - why should i even continue blogging?

Many questions. Uncertain answers.

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On a totally different note, I had a wonderful dinner with an old friend today. After such a long time, I finally told him how I really felt about his ex-girlfriend, her flaws and undesirable attributes. I thought he would get offended at my blunt delivery of honesty. Instead, he agreed with me on many points and told me thereafter in a lengthy sms that he felt it was indeed very 'REFRESHING' to hear things like this.

I was kind of taken aback. Afterall, who likes to hear criticism?

Maybe I said the things that he had to hear for himself. Maybe I said the things that he thought was real, but had brushed aside for unknown reasons.

Maybe people should (in a tactful manner) tell one another their flaws and suggest ways for improvement.

Oh well, if your good friend cannot honestly tell you things - who else would?