Pi’s Good

Today was Pi Day!! Not officially (it’s actually tomorrow), but because there’s no school on Saturdays, we made an exception. A few of the 7th and 8th grade math classes had a math-off today, which (of course) we were laughed at for. My class nearly beat the top 8th grade class (I’m in 7th), but it ended up in a tie. We owed a lot of our points to my friend, Maxine, who memorized 120+ digits of Pi. The winning class – or classes – got a pie (how appropriate??) and über-mathlete status. It was awesome.

Speaking of being laughed at, today I stopped importing my blog posts into Facebook. Why? There really isn’t any reason for them to be there. In fact, I would rather have people come to my site. That way they can see what it looks like and really “get the whole package.”

But there’s another reason. A couple days ago, some kids in my class Google Images searched “Spencer Tweedy” and found pictures from my blog – some more embarrassing than others. I know: I shouldn’t care too much about what other kids think. I love writing, and I love the blog community, but it can be stifling when too-cool-for-school kids come across your website with a bad attitude. To tell the truth, that’s part of the reason I’m so self-conscious of my writing. Sometimes I won’t publish posts because I don’t think people will like it, or because I don’t like it.

Another thing is angst. So many kid-bloggers are angsty little teens who think that by complaining on the internet they’ll find something. I don’t think the internet is really the greatest place for venting. Here’s when the oh-so alarmist quote of the web-wary comes in: There’s lots of bad stuff out there! It’s true; there is a lot of danger on the internet. But I can see why someone might reach out to the web community. A lot of kids aren’t lucky enough to have someone that they can talk to or share their feelings with – somebody decent, at least.

A while ago, back in December, Austin Scaggs wrote a post called “Spencer Tweedy, Boy Genius” on the Rolling Stone Smoking Section. In the post, he says, “When he’s not performing, Tweedy enjoys reading — he’s almost done with the Christopher Paolini’s fantastical novel Brisingr — and venting on his blog.” At the time, this sorta kinda offended me. I thought, “No, I’m not one of those kids. I just enjoy writing.” But now I realize it’s not necessarily a bad thing to vent on a blog – as long as you stay, I dunno.. “down to earth” maybe?

Tavi – from Style Rookie – has been a big inspiration to me. I’m no fashion blogger, but I think her writing still has a lot of meaning. Reading her blog reminded me that writing doesn’t need to be so serious. I can take a day off, I can make a post that’s less than 500 words, and I don’t have to maintain this sort of child-professionalism that had been stressing me out.

When I began my blog (nearly two years ago, I think), all I wrote were things like guides and reviews. I never wrote anything about my own life. In fact, I never really did until late last year (when I found Tavi’s blog). It was all about acting like a writer on the internet, not blogging. I talk about this in a post called “I’mma Own It.”

“Hi there. I haven’t posted in a while, the reason being A.) Sick, fever, cough, blah. Last week was basically just filled with tons of TV and mindless vegetating, hence the un-creativeness, and B.) I’m going through yet another one of those “blogging related questioning” times. This time, instead of worrying about how my blog looks or what the topic is, I’m wondering why I resist making posts that are… time locked. I mean all of my posts usually have nothing to do with “the now” and are more like references. Maybe I trained myself to make posts that people might bookmark and come back to. But what I’m realizing now is that when you write about what’s happening now, people will be more motivated to come back often–because it’s time related. So, on that note, I think I’ll start writing more of the ‘haps, kay? After all, I am a kid. No need to be professional or anything.”

I think I pretty much “hit the nail on the head” with that post. It’s true: I trained myself to make posts people would come back to and bookmark, like how-to’s or tutorials. It was part of a mini-entrepreneur phase I had, where I read blogs like Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneurs-Journey.com. I’ve gotten passed that now, but I still read blogs like ProBlogger.net and DailyBlogTips.com, only because they’re interesting. Most of the time I skim through their posts for writing tips or exercises.

It really feels good to get that off my chest! Now I really don’t care if jocks at school say this is “gay” or “stupid.” It’s fun, healthy, and entertaining, and anyone who gives me/bloggers crap for it is, well.. let’s be nice. Eat it ;)

Peace & thanks,

Spencer Tweedy