A realization set in today: it’s been only a little over eight weeks since I started my blog.  It seems like it’s been a lot longer but I have no explanation as to why.  I do know that I’m having fun photographing everything in sight, writing about random stuff and meeting new friends via the interweb.  I didn’t think I’d like writing and didn’t plan to write very much – but I do.  A lot.  I also didn’t think I’d make interweb friends because the interweb is a scary place – but I have.  And they are super fly.

When the idea to start a blog first popped into my head (which was inspired by my PodMate), I made a list.  I figured this list would help me decide whether or not to blog and what kind of blog I wanted.  So I asked myself things like:  Will I be dedicated enough to post every few days?  Do I write as myself or under a psuedo-name with an alter ego?  Do I tell my friends and family or do I want it to be something just for me, in secret?  How in the heck do I even begin to start?  All good questions to consider, but the one question that answered the rest was “what will I call my blog?”

A name.  It all started with a name.  I had a long list of possible blog names but none of them really sounded like me.  Well, I take that back; Don’t Hate The Bacon sounds like me but I don’t talk about bacon everyday (OK, yes I do).  I asked friends for suggestions (Shoop Shop, Photo Blob, Brooke Radio were among them) but it was a conversation that my PodMate and I had one morning at work that sealed the deal.  Our conversation may or may have not gone something like this:

Brooke:  OK, I’ve narrowed it down.  What do you think about Relatively Retarded?
PodMate:  Um…
B:  Nevermind.  What do you think about Not Nearly Normal?
PM: What?
B:  Next.  What do you think about Don’t Hate The Bacon?
PM:  How did you come up with that?
B:  Not cool?  OK.  What do you think about shutterbooger?
PM:  Shutterbooger?  Booger???
B:  Well, I’m playing off of shutterbug… how about shutterboog?
PM:  Hmmm…
B:  No…
PM:  Drop the g and make it shutterboo.
B:  shutterboo… [wheels start turning in my brain]

I mulled it over for a few minutes and then WHAM! inspiration struck and I knew that this was the name.  The PodMate showed me the ways of blogging, how to check things and what not.  But this was the name, this was it, and as silly as it may seem reading this, you try coming up with the name of something that you’ll share not only with your family, friends, co-workers but complete strangers on the interweb.  It’s quite hard.

And can I just say that I am so glad that I chose to share this with the people I know – the people who are in my life everyday, that I would terribly sad to live without.  I appreciate all of the feedback they provide and hearing that they look forward to reading my nonsense just makes me love them a little more.  And I like it even more when my friends join the Weekly Photo Challenge. *wink wink, nudge nudge*

So what was the WHAM! of inspiration?  I drew a logo.  For eight weeks I’ve kept my ink-scratched logo close by, trying to figure out how in the heck I was going to make it electronic.  Last night, I figured it out.  And for my first go-round with 1) designing a logo 2) creating it on the computer and 3) figuring out how to use it the way I wanted to, I have to give myself a pat on the back.  Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

Let the blogging continue, the photography forge ahead, the learning of computer programs progress, the stupid things I do never cease… because this is only the beginning, my friends.  And remember, don’t hate the bacon.