What is a commonplace blog?

Over the years, otrops.com has been many things.

It began life in April of 2007 as a personal blog. It was a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Much of what I posted in the early days would now be status updates. Over time, those conversations moved to Friendster, MySpace, flickr, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere.

The blog then became a way of keeping track of my attempts to improve my health. There were also a number of experiments with technology.

But neither a well being blog, nor a techology blog felt quite right.

Then, it slowly morphed into what would once have been called a commonplace book. Some how, that felt right. It's closer to what I've always been trying to do when with my reading (and other media consumption) and conversations with friends.

I began to realise that I was using the blog the way I used to use note cards, collecting bits and pieces that I find interesting. While doing this, I also wanted to understand what made these things interesting to me, understand how they connect to other ideas and spark conversation about these ideas. I've recently started trying to capture questions I still have at the end of most posts.

Because of this, I find I'm slowly moving away from artificial conclulsions. I tend to place my trust in those who end with openings, who are able to act despite uncertainty, rather than spending their effor constructing an argument. I'm trying to do the same here.

I don't know what kind of blog that makes this. Someone once called it "that weird blog". That made me smile. Nevertheless, "commonplace blog" feels just about right.