April 12, 2012 Archives - Live like a Nerd

Archive for April 12th, 2012

Day 9 – My first blog post

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 April 2012 03:04 Written by Kadomi Thursday, 12 April 2012 03:00

This entry is part 9 of 9 in the series 20 Days Blogging Challenge

he first blog post is always the hardest, isn’t it? You start setting out, all excited, and mostly write into this big vacuum. At most, your closest friends know about your blog, if at all, and so it’s all about writing into the void, trying to find your own voice. At least, that’s what it was for me.

I started blogging in June 2008, over at Tank Like A Girl. My very first blog post was a short introductory paragraph stating my plans for the blog, and mostly a justification about why I moved over from Livejournal to my own blogging platform. My first real post was The proud and the few: warriors where I waxed poetic about my love for the WoW warrior class, and how overall they were very unpopular in my guild. Not just that. If you look at it today, you will find a WoW blogosphere dominated by druid, hunter and other healers blogs. Warriors have very little representation, and it’s getting less and less all the time. All the big names from my day, be it Veneretio, Linedan, Ciderhelm, Durnic, they all moved away from warrior blogging or even WoW, as did I.

My first blog in this blog over yonder was A New Road or a Secret Gate, a quote from The Road Goes Ever On by J.R.R. Tolkien. Just like in my WoW blog I tried to make the first post an introduction about what the blog would be about. My love for books, gaming, nerdy things, all combined. I think I have failed in this mission statement, and still do, because it’s mostly turned into a book blog these days. But I am trying, still trying. There are some exciting things in the works, at least something that excites me, and I am working on some drafts that veer away from the book focus. After all, I still game almost every day, and I have a blog challenge to finish.

If you compare both first posts, I feel the second one shows that I was a bit more used to actually writing by the time. Can’t quite believe it’s almost four years of (not very consistent) blogging. My journey from the medium traffic warrior blog to the low traffic nerd blog has taught me the most valuable lesson: blog for yourself, don’t blog for your audience. Write because you want to write. Rejoice when you have readers but don’t be discouraged when you feel no one is reading your stuff. Trust me, someone out there is.

photo by: _zhang

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Posted under blog challenge, blogging | 3 Comments

Review: Blood Rites

Last Updated on Friday, 20 April 2012 08:02 Written by Kadomi Thursday, 12 April 2012 10:04

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s been a while since I last read a book of the Dresden Files, but it’s easy to get back into them. From the first page to the finish, you’re head-deep in the action and whacky universe of the urban fantasy world of Harry Dresden. This book has probably the most remarkable start of all of them so far. Imagine our modern day hero, Harry Dresden, wearing his long, black leather duster, cradling a box of puppies to his chest, running away from purple, flying demons that look like monkeys, throwing flaming monkey poo at our hero. Yup, that’s the Dresden files for you.

While each of the Dresden Files is really a self-contained story that does not require prior knowledge of the books, I would say it’s easy to get lost in the myriad of characters introduced in the series. That’s really my favorite part of the books. Not the individual stories but the recurring characters, the continuity and the layers of Harry’s past that get peeled off, one by one. In Blood Rites we learn a good deal more about Harry’s mysterious faerie mother, and about the people Harry cares about the most.

The story itself that finds Harry working as production assistant in a porn production is not that captivating. It’s the details and really the overlying story arc that make the Dresden Files. As always, fast paced action that doesn’t bore, if you are into urban fantasy.

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