So, I just passed my 6 month blogiversary and I thought I’d write a quick post on a few things I’ve learned about my own writing. Now that my blog is starting to get a kind of identity, I’ve decided that there are a few subject areas that I will continue writing about, but there are also a few that I will keep off this blog. What prompted this post is that as I’m learning this blogging etiquette thing, I realize that sometimes, when a well meaning person writes about a topic of interest but doesn’t know a lot about it, the article can be downright maddening to someone who’s an expert in that area. For example, anytime I write an article about government programs or economics, I think Nicole and Maggie’s blood pressure goes up a few notches when she reads them. She’s always very diplomatic about saying that I have no clue about certain things and I do value and listen to that input.
Toxic Chemicals
Similarly as a chemical engineer, when people write about chemistry and have a bunch of facts wrong, I go a little bananas. Almost always, it’s a well meaning mom trying to go green for the sake of her family. Usually the person’s understanding of science and toxicology is limited and on more occasions that I can count, they confuse which chemicals are in which materials and/or site other blogs or news articles that also have the information wrong. It just perpetuates the cycle of bad information. I was even at a green products conference at a design firm a few years back and one of the keynote speakers was getting their “toxic” chemicals confused. And I use toxic in ” ” because environmental exposure is all about weighing the risks and exposure levels. You can’t eliminate all chemicals from your environment and even if you lived in the woods as a hermit, you’d still be exposed to a variety of naturally occurring toxins. A chemical is a chemical whether mother nature makes it or factory.
High levels of exposure to just about anything is bad for you so the key is to manage and minimize your exposure to the obvious bad actors. That’s why a low doses of medication can be fine and even helpful, but if you take too much, you’ll OD and it can kill you. When someone publishes a scientific study about how something causes birth defects if you take 1000 times more than someone’s normal daily exposure level, I question how valid and relevant that is to my own life.
Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. If anyone wants me to go more into detail about chemicals, I’d be happy to because I can go on and on about it. So, back to the topic as hand, here are the things that I think will be off the blogging topic list for now:
Animals
Despite being surrounded by a ton of outdoorsy animal lovers, I do not have any. I never thought about writing any crazy cat lady stories because I don’t come from a pet lover’s perspective. I’m sure it’s as annoying hearing about a non-pet person talk about pets as it is for a non-parent giving you advice about how to discipline your children. However, I also probably shouldn’t have written about chasing seagulls with my car in the parking lot of Walmart either. I don’t have a kin-ship to them like a long time dog or cat owner, so I should just shut my pie hole. I blame it on Babci. To her animals are either food or have a job to perform (like horse, or sheepdog), so I’ve kind of inherited that opinion that pets are luxuries.
The Government
Although I know government is complex and there’s a ton of things that could possibly be done, my editorial opinion isn’t based on any real knowledge of the inner workings of politics. It’s based on my outside view of waste and people gaming the system time and again. That’s skewed my opinion quite a bit. I like to debate about what could be done in a utopia world, but I am not the authority on the subject. I should just keep my observations to myself or actually read books about the topic first before I write about it. Right now, I’m not itching to go read a textbook on the government, so I think I’ll just table the topic altogether.
Religion
I have a very jaded opinion about the establishment of religion. It might have started around the time my family priest scolded my mother after church and made her cry. He was telling her my sins that I confessed in privacy and yelling at her for being a bad mother and in front of all the exiting parishioners no less (I think that was the must humiliating part for her, cuz you know what church ladies are like). I’m pretty sure that was supposed to be some sacred thing that you’re not even supposed to do even if you confess to murder, but churches are run by humans and unlike God, they fallible.
I know religion helps a lot of people and I absolutely adore the communities that some churches create, but I really don’t want to debate God and his place in my life on this site.
Things I love and will continue to Blog About:
- Crazy Stories about Babci
- Crazy frugal things people do
- All things slow and home makery
- Do it yourself ideas
- Business Stuff -how to build teams, project management, cost cutting, growth, etc…
- Ways to Save Money and Spend Less than you Earn
- Ways to dig out of poverty
- Stories of triumph, hope and perseverance
So in summary, I’m going to commit to improving my content and write about things that I have a lot of experience in. Oh, and if you notice that I have no clue about something, or want more about a certain topic, I’m all for getting that feedback. Thanks.
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