Reining in the blogging impulse

(This was originally posted on my Chinese blog; and yes it was written in English)

I've been inhibiting my blogging impulse since the Spring Semester began. To make up for that loss, each time I am struck by some good idea but don't have the time to flesh it out, I briefly record the title in a notepad and hope to come back to it later. However six weeks into the semester and two weeks before the spring break, I finally realize that it is all but impossible, because the backlog (or inventory, depending on how you see it) just keeps growing, with more than a dozen items on it now. Having so many good stuff sedimenting in the brain is like having a lot of food in the stomach -- you know it's not such a great feeling -- and overnutrition can be as painful as malnutrition.

Many of the potential entries have even taken full shape in my brain and it really takes just a short while to download it from the brain to the computer. I think this is in part attributable to the difference of driving on my own and riding the bus. When driving, I listen to the radio and the flow of information or music keeps my mind busy. But when it comes to waiting for the bus, that's really a lot of free capacity in the brain, and sitting on the bus staring at all those strange faces...that's simply "thought-provoking"!...(yeah several of my potential entries are bus-related)

I also came to realize that the blogging behavior has an unmistakably impulsive nature. It is often most efficient to do it when you really feels like doing it. Revisiting the items on my backlog, I generally feel less compelled to write and it takes a while to recollect the thoughts. On the flipside, it is perhaps those things that still excite you after some time that's truly valuable.

I told my friend that recently I always wish I had 48 hours everyday, so that I can get everything I want to do done. It seems that this fresh feeling has come along with the new year of 2008. 2007 witnessed so many of my personal failures that it easily eclipses any of my previous years; or maybe I was just too lucky all along. Yet I came through the ordeals feeling more in love with life itself than ever before. I should really thank God for endowing me with such an unfaltering passion for life. I know that when I get older, I'll look back at this age and say: what a beautiful journey it was.