I Blog Therefore I - Actually, That's a Good Question

Who is that spectacled, bearded chunk of fine man meat? Sadly, the world will never know.

But seriously folks.

In the wake of this week's beer mania, Rob raised an interesting question in that post. Once which frequently haunts the dark hallways of my mind as well. So much so, that I have often started to write something down about it, only to decide that it's just not worth wasting the digital paper on. Essentially he asks himself why stay in the beer-o-sphere when it is currently wall-to-wall-to-wall with bloggers already? Admittedly, I believe the beer side of blogging is far more crowded that the cocktail (my reasoning is convoluted, and not really needed here), but still he raises a good question.

It's been a rather interesting week for us over here at Drink A Week central. A couple of cool little things (not worth mentioning) happened, and one very awesome thing (not gonna talk about that for a bit) is going to happen for the site, and it (along with Rob's musing along the same vein) combined to make my pondering of 'why blog' go into overdrive.

When Ed and I started this venture, it was mostly because we were taking the time to write down the recipes we came up with during our experimentations, and I was all, like, "we should blog this!" The problem, it turns out, is that I seem to have a bit of a blogging pathology. At first I felt as though one post a week just wasn't enough content (even though our only readers were two friends of mine, and a ten year old, arthritic dog named Emperor Pugpatine). So, if something relating to cocktails plopped into my noggin I'd go head and write up a little something. When football season got into full swing, Ed's weekend shifts became too busy for us to dabble in drinks. The idea of no content at all made my insides wiggle uncomfortably, so I tried to fill in the gaps with whatever caught my fancy.

Then I became a stat whore.

As I watched our visits increase every month (not by much, but still) I figured it was a safe bet that we were actually attracting readers - And search engine bots. Those ethereal readers, I decided, deserved more than just a drink recipe every now and then plus the highly occasional missive about whatever. Most importantly, I suppose, I love spirits and cocktails. I love trying, and learning, and interacting with others who feel the same way - And at the core of my pathology is an inability not to share that as long as I've got the ramble-space to do so.

But the real problem with blogging is that it's so easy to do, one can head right into the deep end of the pool without thinking about it. If one is serious in regards to what they are writing about, they will be serious about what they are writing as well. Eventually you (i.e. me) realize that there is a great horde of people more talented and knowledgeable about the world of cocktails and spirits than you. With those kinds of resources out there (from all of which I have learned a great deal thank you very much) what the hell's the point? Why not just create a static page with God knows how many links and let other people click away? Is Boozle taken?

Most often, when describing the dyad that is Ed and myself, I say that he is the mixologist and I am the reckless enthusiast. It's this reckless enthusiasm, I think, that is the main force that keeps me from turning out the lights, laying off the monkeys, and sticking to drinking exclusively. I'm just having too much fun. However, I don't think the question of whether or not the writing half of this isn't worth the investment of time and agony (writing is not a pleasant task kids) isn't going to go away anytime soon.

And by the way - If you're as tired now of reading the word 'blog' as I am of typing it, please accept my most profound apologies.

Comments always welcome or feel free to e-mail us at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.