I've been seeing a lot of things about ways to learn about things for free. I mentioned MOOCs back in Super Bowl and FutureLearn, but I've found other programs since then. Recently I decided to actually look into something both recommended by various acquaintances and advertised regularly on Facebook: Skillshare.
There's a lot to know about this site and eventually, I will post a review about the overall site, but I wanted to highlight something about one of the free courses I signed up for. The course is called Blogging Basics and I chose it hoping to learn more to make me a better blogger. The first assignment is basically to figure out what your blog will be about, and that is where I'm having a hard time.
When I finally decided to actually start a blog, I knew I didn't have much to offer. I don't currently have any degrees in anything except the school of life where experience is the degree. I never truly got into any of the fandoms that I found fleeting fulfillment in. In fact, everything about my life is more of spontaneous decisions, going with the flow, and finding ways and excuses to keep from trying too hard. So why did I start a blog?
I was feeling unheard on topics that my husband is not a fan of. Then I realized just how hard it is to find reviews about certain things, so I set up two blogs. One is a review blog. I'm not a critic or professional reviewer, but a review is basically someone's opinion. Some of them have more merit than others for various reasons, but all a review boils down to is that it's an opinion littered with facts about the reviewed topic(i.e. specific book, movie, event, item, etc.) Sadly, I've yet to truly start on this blog though I have a list of things to review and post.
My second blog is this one. It's not regularly posted to and I haven't done guest blogs or interviews for it, yet. Maybe as I figure out where my niche is, I'll get some. For now, however, I'm still exploring my options is the best way to put this blog. Well, that and a way to air out what I think about various things. It basically is my way to vent when I feel unable to truly unleash my thoughts because I'll be countered or agreed with before I get a chance to explain my thoughts. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing counterarguments and various viewpoints of the same subject. That would be why I follow so many different subjects. The issue is that sometimes I feel as though my particular viewpoint isn't heard.
My husband is bad about trying to argue his point without truly taking in what I've said. I'll try to understand what he's getting at with his point, but it doesn't feel like he wants to do anything but hammer home his particular opinion and ignore any new information in regards to the subject. We actually spent over an hour once arguing over the wording used to say basically the same thing. I had stated it originally, then he tried to claim to disagree but kept repeating what he was saying, not even trying to figure out if there was a different way to say it to get me to understand what he had said. I, on the other hand, had tried to figure out what he meant and how exactly it was different from what I was saying. When he finally did change what he said, it was the same thing I'd said. Don't get me wrong, I can dig my heels in and be stubborn as well. It's just I never seem to be listened to and, apparently, he almost always has to be correct.
That's not to say he isn't correct about a third to half of the time. It just means that I got tired of trying to get him to hear what I was saying and found a different place to say it. I don't typically air out issues he and I have more because I feel it's private and not necessary to share with the world than anything else. This is an issue that makes me wonder if I'm actually speaking clearly or not since it happens with more than just my husband. Once upon a time, I loved trying to argue my point, but now it feels like the more I try to argue it the less I'm willing to defend it because it feels as though I'm not going to be understood anyway.
It doesn't stop me from wanting to get information about things and what I feel about them out there. So I found another way and that's where the blogging comes in. I doubt this is what the teacher meant by building a platform for your blog, but I've never been able to focus on a specific subject for a long period of time before changing subjects. After a while, I'll return to a previous subject. I have many interests and decided I didn't want to keep myself forced to follow only one thing, especially when there are so many things that I'll be looking forward to remarking about, just check out some of my past posts. There are reactionary posts as well as a small variety of random information.
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