My friend Dave asked me this question recently. I think it's a good question, and I think most bloggers should give it a good answer. It really boils down to a few key points, some of which surprised me.
1. Keeping in touch. I think maintaining a blog will be a more civil way of keeping in touch with people than mass emails, which I tend to send only when something really bad happens. This way I can get news about the general, daily, and weekly events of my life out to people who care. This also allows me to focus on individual letters and emails, which I think should be more personalized and allow for a lot more intimacy.
2. Work. I plan to use blogs as a means of eliminating paper from my writing classes at Hirodai. This past semester I was handling about 400 sheets of paper a week, which was just astoundingly wasteful. Maintaining this site should help me help my students when they have problems with their own blogs.
3. Personal discipline. Keeping up an appropriate rate of new entries will keep me writing and thinking. I need to establish more of a routine in my daily life, and this is part of that effort. Initially, I was going to try for daily posts, but I know I'll often be either too busy or not busy enough to post every day.
4. Rejection-free publishing! I do want to start getting some of my writing out there for others to read. This blog will give me a way to give excerpts and short pieces that don't seem to fit anywhere else a test run.
5. Shameless careerism. I'm starting to network as part of my professional development as a teacher. This blog will give my colleagues somewhere to check in, share ideas, send messages, and it will give me a means of giving back as well.
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