So this is what a hangover is. I don’t remember this picture being taken. Why am I putting this on the internet?
I was eating a PB&J out of tinfoil during class and thinking about blogging, as I often do. I had recently read a friend’s blog that he just started a few months ago and doesn’t update very often. Its future doesn’t look good—a few more months it will likely become another blog corpse silently occupying net space. As I read his first tentative posts, I was reminded of my own blogging beginnings that stretch back to my senior year of high school.
It was a secret blog, called The Drevet (now deleted), and I posted a mere two times. The first one was the obligatory and awkward, “Hello world,” in which it seemed I was preparing to face all of humanity and be utterly rejected. It was the kind of introduction that set the bar so low even I couldn’t reach it. After only two months I stopped thinking about The Drevet and life moved on.
As I continued to reminisce and munch on my sandwich, I stumbled across another phase of beginnings: college. At this point, I suddenly realized the striking similarity between getting drunk for the first time and blogging for the first time.
When I first overindulged, not a moment before I turned twenty one (wink), I was fascinated with the very experience of it. “Wow,” I thought, “so this is what being drunk is like.” It didn’t matter what came next in the evening because we were already having an awesome time through the act of inebriation itself, which was to us was inherently interesting.
In the beginning, I was also captivated by the phenomenon of blogging. The fact I could publish whatever I wanted for strangers to read and maybe enjoy was both thrilling and terrifying. And just as newbies feel awkward around alcohol, like they’re doing something taboo and exciting, I would get nervous in front of the computer screen, staring at the blank blog post box and wondering what I would say to the world. What if someone actually read it?
As a baby lush, I felt the constant need to discuss my level of sloshedness with my fellow drinkers, “I’m not drunk guys,” “Do I seem drunk?” “I’m drunk drunk drunk drunk drunk,” etc. To everyone else this kind of blathering indicated it was time to change conversation partners. The more experienced drinkers had already found out that being drunk is not interesting or special, but to me the topic was endlessly engrossing for everyone and worth repeating dozens of time in the same night.
Similarly, in the first blog posts, I was self conscious about the fact I was blogging and tended to talk about the act itself, how it was hard to think of something to write or that I didn’t think anyone was reading it (no one was), and the end result was that I wouldn’t say anything at all and my predictions would come true. And just like a group of okay friends that get drunk at home hoping for something exciting to happen and then end up going to bed early, I wasted the potential of blogging by using it in a sarcastic and apathetic manner, only to defeat myself in the end.
Through many unfortunate nights and some unfortunate blogposts, I learned the real magic comes with a critical combination of both substance and medium: blogging and content, or alcohol and activities. But like most things, this is the kind of lesson that one must learn through their own experience, though we hope for our own sakes that newcomers learn it before anyone heads to the bathroom to vomit.
And my metaphorical vomiting days aren’t over yet. I will always be learning both how to drink better and how to blog better.
Snotting black 
Love this post! I’ve been away from my blog for a couple of months, and like a true alco-I-mean-blog-o-holic, I’ve just returned… and it feels good!!! CHEERS!
*clink*
Great Post–Enjoying it’s sincerity and perspective.
Sank you very much!
[…] heather?) who really wants to write a cool blog but never come up with any topic cool enough (yes dreverts I am still eyeing that booze and far far away from that hangover). So I keep reading all the freshly […]
This one sounds very lovely 😀
hahaha…yep! you nailed it.
BAM.
Good stuff!
I just started blogging myself, and your metaphors are right on it!
http://www.cottonandlace.wordpress.com
-Cynthia
May the blogging continue.
I’ve been blogging for a little over three weeks and I get that nervous stomach every time I hit publish. I think about my next blog a lot too, kind of like an alcoholic must think about that next drink. Thanks for the very relatable comparison!
Good luck with the blogging.
Snot Back OK Blogging for the first time I remember a lot of posts with no comments.:+) I also remember my first comment she still visits me. I will never forget her breaking the ice. I think you have to be a chatty person to just chat away on blog posts until people may come by it can be a pretty lonley wait sometimes. I enjoyed your post clever.
Thanks for commenting and reading and liking!
Well I am new to blogging, but I am really enjoying it. I found the aimless blogs I start seem to be the ones I have the most fun with, when I plan a blog entry it is too ridged and formal. *read boring* lol.
hmm, the same applies to drinking doesn’t it?
Yes I believe so. You have to find your own style. Some like formal blogs. Others don’t. It’s potatoes and potatoes out there.
Great post. I hope to learn fast about the mixing of alcohol and activity. 😉
It would be best for everyone—best of luck!
hehee.. interesting point of view… alcohol and blogging..?
Yessir.
I found it deliciously ironic that you comment about your early, less successful, more self conscious blogging days where you were forced to write about the act of blogging. In any event, we can all relate to you!
I’m glad the act of throwing myself in the ironic whirlpool was not in vain. Thanks for reading!
Told a friend of mine is college, “I feel rough enough in the mornings without a hangover!” I like the idea of getting drunk on the living of life and vomiting up our rants and raves – interesting! Thanks for sharing!
May you enjoy the drinking life in deep.
You got bashed
http://theblogbasher.blogspot.com/2012/03/for-all-bloggers-out-there-people-that.html
I’m blushing with honor.
I learned the hard way to never accept a challenge from a co-worker that he can’t find your blog that contains very personal things!
But yeah, unfortunate blog posts abound.
I have no idea why I post under my real name now…perhaps eliminates the fear of “being found out”
For sure—-put it all out there and then there are no secrets to hide.
Sure—then there are no dark secrets to hide. My blog is too much a part of my identity to hide I think.
Oh, how many times I have started a blog, deleted it, swearing never, EVER to do it again!
Sounds like some mornings that I’ve had.
Oh, it’s such a great comparison. I’d use an exclamation point to emphasise how great it is, but I think exclamation points are the herpes of punctuation. Just picture the emphasis. I’ve had my fair share of abandoned blogs – and I know the feeling of ‘oh my gosh – what do I say?’ all too well, so it’s cool to see that there’s hope – you seem to managing quite well.
…….picturing emphasis………okay. I think I got it. Now you’ll have to do me the favor of picturing the same.
Thanks.
Exactly what I was looking for. Motivation for a new blog 😀
Its got to be tough to keep the posts coming on a regular basis.
It is occasionally, but usually I just type until something happens. I call it the blogging muse.
teeeheeee
*giggle*
Reblogged this on missleemarchi and commented:
Brilliant read. Love the honesty! Laughed A LOT!!!
Thank you so much! I am a new blogger too and your post helped me to relax a little bit.Humor is a medicine and a teacher!
So true! Thanks for reading.
Nicely put, love and completely agree with the last part!
Cheers!
Thanks Spider!
That picture is awesome and now I realize that a drink might make my blog better! Thanks.
Drink a little drink, blog a little blog, do what you gotta do.
Great post! Can relate to it on all levels, the drinking an obsessively talking about drinking and how much you consumed. The dormant blogging when you first begin ignited with passion until the second post needs to be written and it remains on its own in cyberspace. Great advice in the comment section as well. There are so many different view points on the right way to blog, you sincerely just have to write. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for the read—-I completely agree with you: in the end, writers gotta write.
I thing if you drink Alcohol then keep one thing in mind after drink if you fill bad or hangout your self then bring a dark black coffee:)
Coffee is also good at any time of day. Thanks for reading!
very soon I update some more story about coffee.
Good Blog. As a new blogger I already feel I have learnt a lot!
Now get out there and blog!
Totally hilarious.
I’ve had my fair share of abandoned blogs too. Good learning experience on what people DON’T want to read.
An important lesson indeed. Thanks for reading!
Reblogged this on Hemisferios Digitales.
great post!
Ah thank ya!
Reblogged this on cosmicthoughts2 and commented:
Oh, how familiar this feels! I am still in the very earliest stages of my blogging career, and have yet to taste alcohol (Seriously. Unless you count the tiniest sip of wine with my dad, which I don’t.), so I’m going through almost exactly what this post describes. Check it out!
Oh I understand completely! I am a new blogger myself and found it very hard to come up with content specially when blogging advice online tells you to pick one “niche”.
I kinda got lost after reading that but I now I have re-started it after 2 weeks of thinking what my “niche” was. In the end I figured that I would just write what’s in my mind & about my experiences. I leave it to the people of the world if they like to read it or not.
But back to the subject at hand, blogging is just like anything new you try for the first time. After a few posts, you find out whether you like it or hate it.
So true, so true. Blog on!
Reblogged this on thesuperawesomenick.
Very true, Snotting black. I could really relate to you this post. Thank you very much. This gave me much determination to continue blogging despite the uncertainties that no one could read it. 🙂 Keep it up.
I will if you will!
Great post!!! I thought I am the only person struggling in this blogging world :). I am blogging since past one year and just 151 posts old. I have got some friends who read it. I used to be regular but due to workload I have stopped posting often. Although I am restarting. I wrote below when I was just starting but it is still true and I am still novice.
http://straydog77.com/2011/02/28/novice-bloggers-confession/
My problem is I can not write for others. I can only write for myself. May be thats the reason I do not get greater audience.
Not at all: I think that ultimately you have to write for yourself. You have to enjoy what you’re doing since ultimately you’re the one spending the most time on it.
Congratulations on being freshly pressed! I started out blogging but more about poetry. After reading your post, I’m thinking mine would be a blog corpse soon. Haha! I rarely post, but I keep reading other blogs. I guess I’m more of an avid reader than a writer. I love your post by the way. 🙂
Well blogs need readers too. Thanks for stopping by!
You’re welcome! 🙂
With 749…wait, make that 750 now that I’ve added my like to your blog, I would say that you’re not drunken ranting anymore.
However, I will say that your piece has made me think about my own blog where I have written 18 pieces to date that are all sitting a black hole with virtually few readers. I find myself ecstatic to find that there’s been more than one person read it, not including myself in that number.
It’s ironic how we can sit with a million different thoughts and opinions running through our heads, ready to express them to everyone around us who will lend us 20 seconds of ear time. However, the moment we sit in front of a blank new post screen, the mind either goes into over-drive, tipping us towards a blather of verbal diarehia or, we suddenly find our once overcrowded brain drying up like a spot of water on hot, dry pavement.
Maybe, I need a drink first? I might not make sense but, I’ll get something written.
If you have time, you should read this article: http://www.thedaysofyore.com/cheryl-strayed/, the section that starts off by asking if she has any superstitions/how she gets started writing.
In short, she says sometimes you just have to get stuff on the page, so you should def. take your own advice and get something written. Thanks for reading!
Reblogged this on Adventures In Austin and commented:
If you blog.. or drink, you’ll enjoy reading this.
I was drunk and blank more than once before. I remember waking up in my bedroom, heavy-headed and does not have any idea how I end up there. I asked my friends who carried me home last night, they just say, “no, you left early”.
I wonder if it could happen, waking up in the morning and surprisingly seeing that your blog was freshly pressed, but wonders who the hell wrote that blog.
Hmm. Interesting. Would I be better of a blogger, drunk?
Hahaha I like the image of waking up and seeing yourself freshly pressed—I’ve had thoughts of how scary it would be to find someone hacked my blog and wrote something awful and made rude comments. Ultimately it might be a philosophical question.
Haha. You’re brave for posting a photo of your hungover self. Thanks for the honest post!
Thanks for an honest response to the picture!
Alcohol and Blogging?
Fun mix, haha! ‘cept I don’t drink.
Although, I do get some highs from the places the blog gets to.
Hi from Australia!
Helllloooo from Cairo. Thanks for stopping by—no need to drink to understand how blogging for the first time feels!
thankfully, haha!
Have to admit, though, blogging constantly is pretty amazing for me. It’s a crazy balance for me, but somehow I manage to do it.