I had this in my drafts for a few months now, but I thought it would be appropriate for a one year anniversary post.
The Nonist was one of the first blogs that I subscribed to and religiously read and studied. The Nonist presented academia at its finest- with humor, and taught me about the historical aspects of a subject. This blog may not have been for everyone, but it thrusted the reader with mass information and absolute enlightenment on art, literature, libraries, science, Christianity, atheism, technology, and design. The writing has enough merit on its own regardless of what topic it was on. It was the reason I began blogging years ago (even if it was on LJ)
When I was recently sick, I didn't have energy to do much, especially look at my Google Reader. At the end of the week, I had 1000+ unread blogs. It was frustrating because after going through most of them, I realized the majority of them didn't have much value to them, at least what I consider valuable. I unsubscribed to 80% of them. Unless the photography was capital, the writing was attractive, I learned something on reading the posts, and there was substance to the blog, and visually inspiring I decided to still be a regular reader of the blog.
Posting a pretty picture is not enough for me these days. The worst about it? I fell into this allure of ADD blogesphere. I know not every blog can be fulfill the vacancy since the Nonist halted, and some days I do appreciate the voiceless content, if it's strong. I know most of us are artistic and blogging is a way to express ourselves. I get it. I appreciate it. It doesn't necessarily mean all blogs are for me, and same for you.
I'll admit, I think I have underestimated the readership I have. You are not imbeciles. All of you are capable of teaching, adding, developing in this community even if it is through your valuable content, pretty pictures or not. So why is it our blog posts have become more shallow? In my defense, I credit laziness, and lack of research. I don't want to be just a pretty lazy picture. I want to be a Nonist, a blog that teaches, adds, communicates, and brings something. I would rather have 5 valuable readers with strong content, than a quantity of posts with no quality.
I'm so thankful for my readers to help me bring a hobby into something more. I honestly don't know why you keep reading at times- I don't have cute outfits to post on, I don't pour out my feelings, I don't stir up controversy (although this post may not be the most popular with some), I don't write about my day, I don't talk about my weekend, I get behind on blog reading and commenting (I promise you will hear from me soon), I avoid using pretty pictures from weheartit.com as best. I just BLOG. Yet hundreds of people read my posts, subscribe, and they keep growing. So thank you, for all the inspiration, and letting my voice be heard in this tiny pocket of the Internet. It gives me hope that I'm growing with this community and I hope to learn much more of you. Happy birthday to my little blog.
I did have a giveaway planned (let's just say it ends with a Mini and starts with a Diana) but tomorrow I'll be much chipper. ♥
Love, Diana (like the camera)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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62 comments:
I agree.
happy blog birthday our.city.lights
you and your blog have become very important to me and i am so grateful that we found each other.
in relation to what you just wrote...90% of the time i feel that my blog of "fluff" is completely inadequate. but...it represents me. and it makes me happy. and i love being a part of the community and the people that i have met. and your blog represents you, and that's why i'm here:)
Happy birthday our.city.lights!
Thank you for being such an inspiration :)
x
Happy first year blog anniversary! I only discovered your blog fairly recently and I'm very happy I did!
Now off to eat some cake in celebration of the birthday. I'll even make it an extra big piece!
Happy blogiversary!
Happy Blog Bday!
When I first started blogging I got caught up in having to read the "popular" blogs. One day I realized that I was mostly pushing "mark as read." I would rather have 20 blogs I love than a messy reader any day. :)
Happy Birthday! So nicely put, Diana. I can really identify with what you're saying in terms of blog content, why I read what I read and why others just sit unread in my google reader for a million years. I'm really glad to have found your lovely blog, and will most definitely be back!
Nice post. A lot of this rings true with my 2nd blog (sigh We Heart It addict here), and a swift kick in the keyboard is sometimes in order to re-think what I'm putting out there. I appreciate your one year old blog wisdom, and it will make me think a little harder about future posts and putting substance out there instead of so much fluff.
Anyhoodle, happy birthday!
First off, happy blog birthday :)
I heartily agree with the sentiment in this post. While I'm not one to post much that is mentally stimulating, I find myself becoming more and more selective about what I'm reading at least. It's such a joy to learn things from blog reading and come away feeling fulfilled somehow. I suppose it helps in making me feel that the incredible amount of time I spend on the internet isn't a total waste.
P.S. I've been meaning to mention the following to you for days. I was interested in joining the Slow Readers Book Club, but I'm having the hardest time procuring a copy of the book through inter-library loan. Since the title is so new, it appears that most libraries in my system aren't willing to loan it out to others until their own patrons have had a chance to read it. Completely understandable. If I come across it soon I'll let you and Gabbi know. If I don't make it by the March deadline I'll definitely read it sometime this year though. From the reviews I've read it sounds very good. Phew! This extra long comment now comes to a close ;)
Couldn't have said it better myself. So, thanks for doing a far better job than I could have :) I appreciate your honesty- I think we need a bit more of that:)
happy bday our.city.lights! i'm so happy i've discovered your blog and developed a friendship w/you! altho my main blog is a "style" blog, i can only take so much looking at outfit posts are talking about the latest trends and such. i love that you discuss photography, books...things that have a bit more substance. it's refreshing and i hope you keep it up! :)
I do think that there is a such an overwhelming amount of blogs out there, of varying quality, that we have to be hugely selective ... it's easy to get sucked into reading blogs on auto-pilot, in the same way that we have the TV on in the background, rather than engaging our brain more actively with something worthwhile. I love all the blogs I read regularly (there are about 30) ... they might not always post thought-provoking stuff, but I become attached to the people behind the blogs, and so I don't really care. If you are an interesting, thoughtful, worthwhile person, that comes across in your blog even if you have an off-week with regards to posting.
That was quite a long speech! Congratulations on your first blogiversary. I enjoy your blog very much. I hope I'm not one of the shallowing (not really a verb) blogs that you were thinking about! :)
Congratulations on your one year anniversary. I must admit, I'm in your boat - I have about 700 blog posts sitting in my read at the moment!
I've started to get rid of some I don't read anymore but it is hard - I tend to get attached to things for some reason and think I'm being mean to the person if I take them off my reader (not that they even know!!), I hate being mean!
But I am also trying to come up with interesting posts on subjects that interest me that may interest my readers.
I hope this will keep them coming around, even though I have been guilty of late for having less substancial posts. But I have an excuse, and I'm sticking to it :)
Anyway, must stop talking!!
Jen
congrats! i like your photos - i buy them. i like the way you write - i read your posts. i keep deleting blogs in my reader and some of the @^&*#@ things come back. i'm better at making jewelry and taking pictures of it than i am writing. i initially started my blog because i was 'supposed to.' i kind of like putting whatever i want up there - it's nice if someone reads it. i don't mind if they don't.
congrats on your one year blogging anniversary! how exciting!
can't wait for the giveaway too!
annnd I'm the blogger that always posts pictures and basically no commentary. is that a bad thing haha?
i would love to write more, but every time i do, my comments seem to go down.
oh well...
I absolutely agree with all of you and must say love all of your blogs as well (not just saying that!).
I think it's okay to have off days of course, and not always have mind twisting posts every time but I love how this is a community and we are set apart from the bloggers who want the popularity of it all instead of the love, if that makes sense :)
Big congrats on the big one year! So thankful you came into the blogsphere and you've come to share your lovely talent with us...and just like that, we'll be meeting Saturday. :)
Happy blog birthday to you! I really enjoy your blog - I've learned from it. Can't wait to see what the next year brings for you and your blog!
Happy Blog Birthday!! I am SO glad you and I became friends. This post hits home for me because as you know, I've been judged on a picture or having "pink" on my blog.
We read you because you keep us thinking, feeling and for me? You inspire the HELL out of me, Diana. You don't even know.
xoxo
Happy blogiversary!! my, how time flies when we're having fun. It's been so wonderful getting to know you through your blog, and may there be many more years to come! :)
Happy blog-versary! I'm sorry you've been having an emotional week, but I just wanted you to know that I love what you do! You're an original. We<3 you. xo
What hanako said :)
I adore you and your blog because you're being YOU and I'm sure all of your readers realize that. Happy bloggy birthday mija! <3
Congrats! This was a very good post. I just started reading your blog, but I really like it.
Oh, Diana, I love your blog and everything you do!
Never stop blogging. EVER.
Happy birthday!
I love your blog, if only because it /isn't/ like anything else out there. You write beautiful, quirky, delightful posts that never fail to make me smile.
Whooo! Happy Birthday. Geez, long time no comment (so sorry!) You were one of the first blogs I started reading, and I still love reading to this day. I agree with everything in your post. I stopped blogging because I wasn't feeling creative and just lost motive after a while (but totally want to start again soon!)Anyways, you are totally cool because you listen to Demi Lavato and love cats. I'm excited for many more reads to come!
Alyssa
Happy Blog Birthday Diana! You are one of a kind lady, and it's been fun watching your blog become the major hub that it's grown into over the past year :)
P.S. Yes, my family does indeed read my blog!
Happy 1st darling, you are so amazing*
CHEERs***
love <3
hmm, i think i want to be a nonist too. i'd never heard of it but thanks for the link, and happy blogversary :)
Happy Blogiversary Dear Our.City.Lights!
So glad I got the opportunity to get to know you a little bit through your blog. Funny to think we would never have been in touch if it wasn't for our blogs.
You're one of the bloggers I look up to. And as Chloe said, you make this blogosphere a meaningful place.
I'm on the dark side, keeping it shallow ;)
xxx
Happy blog birthday Diana, I'm so glad that I found you in the blogging world. I love your blog (and you) because you just blog and you inspire me to just blog as well :)
happy blogoversary diana! yours is one of my fave blogs to visit and i think a lot of people feel the same and take it as an inspiration! (I'm quite a fussy reader too..) Keep up the good work and thanks for visiting my blog too!
Happy blogiversary! *throws confetti*
There are indeed so many blogs out there that one could spend more than 24 hours a day reading them. I have only a small number of blogs I read regularly (i.e whenever they update), others I only check sporadically, to read a week's or a month's worth of posts in one go - I actually like this a lot, reading a chunk of material from one blog at once, it seems to give a much better feel of the blog and the person behind it.
And in a way, what you wrote about in this post is actually the reason I post only pictures (of my own), and not words on my blog. I kind of feel like I have much more to show than to tell, at least at this point, and I don't want to just throw out empty words only for the sake of saying something.
happy blog birthday our city lights! thank you for your honesty diana...
everyone has a different idea of what a "good" blog is, much like the varying opinions of what a "good" person is.
regardless, i like to pick my blogs like a i do my friends.
i'm glad we're blog friends (as long as you'll excuse my use of weheartit photographs every now and again).
cheers to another year of figuring it all out.
Happy Blog Birthday dear!
Oh yes as we become older and wiser, our tastes and bloggy affinities may change. I hope to read more of Our City Lights for a long time.
I know my blog has transitioned from wedding to fashion and travel log to life. But it's also just me and I can't pretend to be anything else.
Stay true and we'll keep reading. :)
Diana, Happy Blog Birthday!
I am so happy to know I agree with you on this. Thank you for your honest and sharing.
I have come to discover the same thing, and when I do have time to read blogs I want to be motivated and inspired after reading one....you have done so. THANK YOU!!
Happy 1 year blog birthday! You should have a party!!! :)
& thanks again for recommending Jack as our wedding photographer!
Oh, I hear ya. I recently did a purge of my reader of all the blogs I found myself actually skipping and marking as read. The majority of these were blogs that merely posted pretty things they'd found on the internet and the rest I'd simply outgrown.
Happy birthday to the blog! I've gone through a similar process as of late, I just try to be more selective with the time that I spend on the Internet
Hope you feel better soon :) Mon Mode Blog
Happy Happy One Birthday for you!
Congrats! I just got the big Diana for xmas, Its so MAGICAL! I can't imagine how cool it would be to have a mini :)
I bought a diana lens from photojojo but would love to have the real deal. How fun.
I just wanted to add, that whether you add personal comments or emotion or not, your blog still helps others. If nothing else you inspire the artist to come out in all your readers.
Happy Birthday Our.City.Lights
I love this post. I love the brutal honesty and in a way I find myself critiquing my own blog through your eyes.
I’ve been thinking more about this topic lately as I have been gravitating more towards blogs make me laugh or have an interesting point of view, but I still enjoy blogs with pretty photos that give me inspiration.
Thank you for speaking your mind and giving us all something to think about. I am new to your blog and look forward to reading more in the future.
happy blog bday diana:) you are so lovely and im so happy i came across you in this giant blog world. this post was amazing as well, it put things into perspective for me and really made me remember why i started blogging in the first place. ive been very annoyed with blog popularity lately and i really need to just focus on the blogs i truly love with genuine lovely ladies behind them. ok before i start getting emotional im signing out. haha, congrats again on reaching this milestone lady. you rock:)
what a wonderful post. there are so many blogs, and really not so much time. so, i think you are wise to reduce your blog consumption to those that feed you properly. and i totally understand if you want to skip visiting my blog. substance is not really my forte, as you well know! :) no hard feelings. :)
hey diana! i totally get you on this. i used to write long, interesting posts on my blog, but then it became kind of a job and a stress and i felt like i had to please people by just writing SOMETHING. definitely laziness. and being overwhelmed by my lack of creativity (sounds weird huh) were to blame. even staying up on other people's blogs and commenting on them had started to become overwhelming. i've been in a major slump the past month or two (mainly due to some personal issues) but i've been trying to focus on a "comeback" and the direction i want to take my blog so it's not just floating here in cyberspace, but that so it has substance, so that it's ME, so that i can look back and have memories of what i was up to each year. . . like a JOURNAL. i really admire you and your blog, so much. i love the spirit you have about reading, writing, and photography. it's a breath of fresh air, really. thank you for being so inspirational to me and to everyone! and happy blog birthday! :)
diana, happy anniversary my love. i'll tell you what. there are a very small handful of blogs that are 'real' to me at all and yours is most definitely one. my boyfriend even knows who i mean when i talk about you leaving me a comment etc as the lady who's married to the big time writer and had an AWESOME wedding!!!!!
thank you for doing what you do and just being you xxxxxx
I say you shut the fuck up and let us love you like the fabulous bitch that you are.
You rock! I love your blog and I love how you tell it like it is!
our city lights is only a year old? Really? I can't believe our blog is older (even if only by a few weeks) you always seem to be so much more mature and knowledgable about blogging.
Anyways, I agree with what you are saying. I have about 10 blogs I completely adore and have started to stop reading the ones that no longer inspire or seem relatable to me. Why waste time reading something that doesn't really inspire me. Though I still like pretty outfit pictures and photography my favorites are so much more than that, it's the honest frank point of view that I'm most intrested in. Little slices of life.
Congrats on a year and here's to another! You are one of the loveliest blogs on our reading list and I know that Tangerine and I will always have a soft spot in our hearts for you for being our first (main) supporter.
-indigo
congrats! and i hope you have an amazing 2010 -in fact i know you will!!!
i take and write fluff all the time and post it cause i know my mom and others read it haha! but yes at times i do write with a little more thought and feeling and i do put more into what i say a lot of those times i am saying to love your self and forgive yourself and to accept your self and out of that i have come to see that i am doing it in part to reach out to someone who needs to hear it and in fact that someone is me! it has been such a beautiful thing! and im so grateful that i can come over here to your blog and be inspire by your words and your photos and your experience! thank you for that! yay for anniversaries :)
Happy anniversary! I love your honesty girlie, and totally understand your choice to downsize the number of blogs you try to follow, and truly appreciate your need for substance and originality. I need to do the same thing because, much as I appreciate so many different blogs for different reason, (even the fluff ones that are much like my own) I spread myself too thin and would rather focus on the blogs that I really care about reading regularly. My blog is lacking in substance much of the time because I'm not a very good writer or photographer, but I do like being a part of a little community. YOU are one talented lady who has so much to say, so I'm really glad that you do speak your mind. You rock!
What I love best about the blogging community is that it's a mixed bag. If you are looking for something light hearted, you can find it. If you're looking to be deeply touched, you can find. Anyone that puts time and passion into their blog is aces with me! And that's you lady. Happy bday to your beautiful blog!
Diana, happy late blog birthday :)
I wanted to write a longer comment on this subject, but my online time is very limited at the moment and I didn't want to miss congratulating you!
Just don't ever apologise for being who you are and doing what you want. I think there has developed a sort of unwritten law that you have to follow each other back, read each other's blogs, link back and whatever... but the fact is I might like your blog and you might not like mine, vice versa and so on. It's not an unfriendly thing, it's just the way things are :)
Anyway. Moving on!
lovely blog!
See, I can always count on you to be truthful, even when it's the hardest.
I too, have grown and changed a little, in terms of what I want to take in from the internet. I do more reading now than commenting, cos sometimes, the best things take the words out of me and all I can come up with is 'wow'. Doesn't do much as a comment I'd like to think.
Happy Birthday to our.city.lights, Diana! Thank you for being this awesome, this authentic and this true to yourself. It's very gutsy.
Happy happy blog birthday, Diana/Ms Our City Lights!!
I just wanted to say that I really do enjoy your posts. ^__^
Happy blog anniversary Diana. I have only just started following your blog but enjoying it alot. Cant wait to see what 2010 brings for you.
and wht you said about pretty pictures, I more get annoyed when people credit weheart it as their source. Sometimes I worry my blog gets to fluffy, but I hope Im finding oringal content and introducing peopel to some nice photographers and creatives. I hope youll keep reading even if I dont write much.
Whoa, I didn't realize your blog had the same birthday as mine! That's too cool. :)
I agree with a lot of what you said here. Sometimes I go through my Google Reader and unsubscribe from many blogs because it just becomes too overwhelming to keep up. I also often feel that I'm skimming too quickly through other people's art, getting inspired and then quickly forgetting about it as the other blog posts pile up! It's a hard thing to balance. I've had to force myself not to post when I don't have anything to say or share, because I don't want my blog to become something I wouldn't even enjoy reading.
Well, it's difficult not to be refreshed by your honesty; I all but nodded my head as I read this post. As someone who enjoys reading thoughtful writing (whether it is paired with lovely photos, or not), I understand the points you've made.
I've grown a lot as a wedding planner over the last year but also as a blogger. I've found that the posts I'm inspired to write as of late include more "thought" (I say that lightly as I am primarily a wedding and party blog) then "fluff" (the "this is pretty" post). I do, however, still post those. Adding more features that I can comment thoughtfully on (such as the slow readers book club) will add to the breadth of my blog and I'm quite thrilled about it.
In conclusion: thank you for your honesty, congratulations on your one-year, and all the best for the next year. I can't wait to hear more from you.
I JUST "talked" to memitherainbow.blogspot.com about this. I wrote:
"It is so much easier to get attention by doing something stupid than by doing something intelligent, being provocative just for the sake of provoking instead of doing what is truly MEANINGFUL, you know? I think it's very common that blog posts are made shorter / simpler because the blogger is afraid people won't read them, and that there is a great fear of being "difficult". I don't know why I'm getting so few comments on my last photographs, for instance, but many if I show what I wear. And I know a lot of my blog readers are what you'd called smart, educated, whatever. Maybe I shouldn't talk about MY blog, it's not typical for me, but the biggest blogs tend to be the most superficial and I'm not sure why. It makes me sad and disappointed."
I think that honesty shines through in the end - if you like your own work, if you take yourself seriously.
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