I was looking through the draft posts I have on this blog this morning. Cleaning out some that I know I probably won’t finish or have passed it’s time. If you’re a blogger, you’re probably like me and start draft posts with ideas then come back to it later. Well I had quite a few saved up. Some of them with just a link to something that I may want to write about later, or short notes or sentences that would spur my memory later so I would remember what it was that I thought to write about.

Coincidentally, I found this draft that I had saved two years ago and never got around to finishing it. It was saved July 10, 2008, and this is what I had written so far:

Is it the weather or is it that I have just been too busy to blog? It’s probably a combination of both but I am almost sure it also has a lot to do with the fact that I’ve started my summer reading routine. So nowadays instead of heading straight to the laptop and the bedroom when I get home from work, I take my book outside in the garden along with a nice cool drink and read until the sun goes down or get hungry, whichever one comes first.

It got me thinking whether I should add a little more variety to my life because I am still doing the same thing! LOL! Well, I haven’t been as religious about my reading as I had been. Facebook got me tied to my laptop most of the time and I was just thinking yesterday how I haven’t read much lately. I have been too busy chit chatting on facebook or being nosy and reading about other people’s lives on facebook. Yeah, I’m addicted to facebook just like I was addicted to blogs. I can’t stay away from it! So much so that I have let blogging fall by the wayside and the same thing with my blog hopping. I don’t visit as many blogs as I used to since now I get to interact with those same people on facebook! How about you, are you on facebook yet? Are you addicted too?

This weekend though, I’ve made a pact with myself to be more regular about my reading and blogging. Especially my blogging obligations. I have agreed to read and review several books and I am awfully behind. Months behind, actually. So today, I am turning over a new leaf and this draft post from two years ago just reminded me.

I love blogging! And now I’m loving facebook too and of course the network or all blogger networks, BlogHer. But lately, I haven’t been blogging much. I have been inconsistent about visiting BlogHer and only on Facebook do I carry on a semi regular schedule. The motivation to blog or rather to just write hasn’t been around in a while. I have been wondering if maybe I have taken on too much on my plate that’s why the motivation has waned. That could be partially it, but the more I read other bloggers, I see now what or where our ’slacking off’ is coming from.

This article on BlogHer about being “intimidated to write on my own blog” caught my attention today because it said everything that I had been feeling and thinking. I do remember the early days of blogging when we just wrote about what came to mind or what we happened to step on that morning. No one cared about grammar or spelling much less image and brand. We didn’t even know what those were. We just wanted to document the mundane happenings in our life that only we would probably care about. We didn’t think about attracting anyone much less an audience. And we certainly didn’t think we could make money writing about poop and laundry.

But it happened. The mommy bloggers were born and so was blog monetization. Everyone realized there is money to be had in blogging and we all jumped on the wagon. We spruced up our blogs, bought our own domains and started hosting our own blogs rather be on the free platforms. All so we can make money. And we did. Everyone made money; some more than others, but we all made money and we wanted to make more. I wanted to be like the super bloggers who quit their day jobs to just stay home and blog. Now wouldn’t that have been heaven?

As much as I need the extra money though, I just never found the motivation to spend as much time as they did to write copy, promote my blogs and all the other things they tell you to do so you can make more money. Worst of all, I started feeling intimidated to write in my own blog too! I started second guessing myself whether what I’m writing about is worthy of being on my blog. I was now pandering to sponsors and advertisers and I didn’t like the way it made me feel.

So maybe that’s why I haven’t had the heart to blog too much lately. Maybe it’s not that I’m inundated with work and my daughters suck up the rest of my free time with their activities. So maybe it’s not just sheer exhaustion and laziness that if keeping me from updating my blogs. Maybe it’s because I just didn’t think my life is worth writing about anymore. Now if that was the case, that would be truly pathetic because I do love my life and I do love to write.

The solution? I have been thinking about this even before I read the article on BlogHer. Actually, I had already started down the road before I read the article. The road is the one that leads back to the early days of blogging when I simply blogged for my own pleasure. When I blogged to unload some of the junk taking space in my head. When I blogged just to relax and not to work for money. When I blogged for myself and no one else. And if I am too lazy to update or decide to go on vacation for a while, I don’t have to excuse myself or apologize for being absent. I know where I’m going and that’s all that matters. I’m going back.

Dare I? Should I even bother? I’ve been ambivalent about what I want to do with my blogging lately and between that and the fact that I’m now about three times busier at work, there just haven’t been much time for updates. I’ve also been feeling uninspired of late. Just don’t want to write anything. Well not anything that even feels remotely like work, anyway.

So, should I dare to commit? Some blogger friends have taken on daily blogging as a project for 2010. Should I even jump on the bandwagon only to fall off later? It’s gotten me thinking…

I decided to stay off the wagon, but maybe follow sedately by instead. I’ll attempt to blog daily or as often as I can but I won’t be kicking myself if I stumble either. I’m 5 days behind the 365 project so should I call mine the 360-project-give-or-take-a-few? Sounds good to me!

So here’s to day 1 of the 360 project give or take a few. LOL!

A couple of typhoons went through the Philippines a couple of weeks ago and left devastation in their wake. It’s one of the worst storms to go through the country and left many people flooded out of their homes and livelihoods. One of the affected communities is my mom’s hometown in Pangasinan. I posted some photos and appeals for donations for the region on our newsletter, the Sagunto Star.

Just from that small region alone, I know of many farmers and small businesses whose livelihoods were virtually washed away. They have nothing left. Their investments, which were often financed through micro-loans, were flooded out before they could harvest. The full impact of the damage brought on by these two super typhoons, of the same category as Katrina, will be felt for a long time. Even though the sun is shining again, these small businesses will not be out from under the cloud for years.

Kiva.org is an organization that enables small entrepreneurs in developing countries to be able to receive financing for whatever endeavor they may have dreamed for doing but had never had the capital to start up with. Funding comes from individuals who sign on to the site and lend a little of a lot. What’s a little to us in dollars can mean a lot to someone else in a third world country. The basic idea behind Kiva is what that old saying about teaching a man to fish says. Relief goods are fine for the short term but if you enable someone to make a living, you’ve helped them for a lifetime.

HaveImpact.org is a Kiva lender. They have sponsored several entrepreneurs all over the world including the Philippines and they are holding an interesting challenge. They have pledged to donate $5 for every comment people leave on their blog post to Give a Hand to Philippine Entrepreneurs Affected by the Floods. Yes, that’s all you have to do to help. Click on the link and leave a comment. It’s not a hoax, read the updates from the blog author. They are running this campaign until October 31 so please take a minute and go leave a comment.

Even before the campaign is ended, loans have been given out to entrepreneurs. Check out the people who have already received their loans from your comments.