In which conclusions are drawn & the future is looked to

I'm sitting here thinking about blogging more regularly & find myself getting frustrated before I've even started.

I mean, I've spent this whole summer learning about social media & The New Digital Age, in which "linkbait" is a word a bloggers are semi-celebrities & the whole of the Internet is at your fingertips. I've read Mashable almost every day for the past three months and spent time dissecting what it is that makes blogs work and fail -- how to attach a blog to a small business, for example, or use Twitter to start a fundraising campaign for a non-profit.

On Saturday I had a great dinner with Jolie O'Dell of ReadWriteWeb--she's a journalist who blogs prolifically (both for pay and not) about tech issues, start-ups, road "twips," etc. She enthusiastically recommended that I focus on honing a Blog-blog for myself (not just an Anneka-Goes-To-College-I'm-so-frustrated-with-my-paper-and-oh-yeah-I-joined-a-sorority blog), start my own Vimeo channel, & Develop My Personal Brand.

This leads to an effusive: My brand?

Although I think she misunderstood my lean when I said I was a Communications major, I'm actually very intrigued by new media--not to mention words, writing, and the interpersonal internet phenomena that is blogging & microblogging. But here's my issue: there are SO MANY goddamn bloggers in the world. People blog to share expertise, to vent, and to get up on personal soapboxes, for sure, but if I started Blog-blogging, I think it would be less about that and more about... sharing? Yeah. Sharing.

Anyway. Jolie is great. Top ten most beautiful people I've met in my life and clearly passionate, hyper-intelligent, and driven. Check out HER personal blog here for a more comprehensive look at what I'm thinking about.