Has it Been a Month Already?

I've been blogging for one month, now, and I have a few key learnings (am I allowed to say that?) to share.

Key Learning #1: Searching for links is very time consuming.

Several times during the month I spent lots of time doing web searches to find corroborating news articles for my posts. It's much more difficult to find useful news articles than I anticipated. Maybe I'm not searching the right way, or maybe I should reduce my linking — does anybody follow links, anyway? :)

Key Learning #2: My personal schedule restricts when I blog.

I have piano lessons Wednesday nights, so it will be unusual for me to post on a Wednesday. Thursdays will be uncommon too, because I'm usually tired from working all week. Weekends are clearly the best time for me to write, because I'm not a very fast writer and I need the extra time to be thorough.

Key Learning #3: Creating your own blogging software is a lot of work.

I've been tweaking my scripts all month, and they're functional but not polished. I don't regret the decision to write my own (hey, programming is fun!) but I underestimated the complementary work: Reading HTML/CSS specs, compensating for different browsers, etc.

Key Learning #4: Blogging is fun.

I'm still new at this and the novelty hasn't worn off. I'm thrilled to get e-mail from readers, and cross-blog pollination is great.

Key Learning #5: I'm still a procrastinator.

All my life I've been able to get away with doing things at the last minute. With a blog, there's no deadline, so the last minute never arrives. :) I still haven't completed the links box on the right side of each page, I still haven't posted my work-in-progress essay about monopolistic restriction of supplies, and (shamefully) I still haven't begun an essay about globalization — the opportunity to publish something about globalization was one of my major motivations to start blogging. I also haven't posted anything in the Technical Articles section, despite the material just needing some basic polish.

UPDATE 2003-10-01 05:21:00 UTC: I forgot to mention that the blog archives are both calendarized and webified, providing a one-generation-ahead user interface embodying customer orientation, operational excellence, and prudent risk taking, all with a commitment to quality and continuous improvement.