I started my love affair with blog.com on a cold day in autumn in the US. It was my way of unleashing the heat of ideas sparked by the series of discussions during the WB-IMF Annual Meetings in Washington, DC. It could have been my way of making available a public proof that I was there to “listen”, an alternative of sort to the government requirement of a “certificate of attendance”. Running dry of creative juices on what name I shall baptize my blog site with, I turned narcissistic: markraygan.blog.com. Why not?

The Annual
Meetings at the Constitution Hall

The first two entries were smooth. It came natural for me to post my 2 cents on the issues floated at key discussions involving us fellows. But the next days became a drag; I was losing steam. Maybe the excitement of the Meetings coming to a close and me having the time to explore DC and NYC again prevailed.

Almost a year later, I decided to revisit my blog. I had a research proposal that did not fly off, so I thought of trimming and posting it as an entry instead. So there it was: “Social Media and Mobilization”. Still, the interest to continue blogging wasn’t there. I wasn’t as drawn to blogging about “cerebral” issues as I was to eating.

Quite recently, out of nowhere, a friend quipped: “Why don’t you blog about all those food of which photos you’ve been posting on Facebook?”

That was the “Aha” moment. Why not? There’s been so much investment around the waist that I’ve not recovered any returns from, in terms at least of getting to help people narrow down their options on where to hang out and dine. But that was the Samaritan orientation; the real score really was I just wanted to have another way of presenting my gastronomic adventures. And since I’ll be off to two countries within the same month (this June), I thought I better warm up.

So I did my first food blog. It was about my dining experience at Wildflour Cafe+Bakery at BGC. I’ve been wanting to be in that restaurant, so it was somehow obligatory for a blogger-wannabee to feature the realization of that which I had been planning of tasting for quite some time.

The second chance came when I went out with some colleagues for lunch in Dumaguete. It was a local restaurant that lands on my list of favorites. The rest of the dishes were delicious. but what to me deserved some pounding on the keyboard was a unique dish: their twist to the nasi goreng. For their version to be generously mixed with fruits (bananas and mangoes), it sure was a pleasant surprise.

Counting… Two food blogs! That was a feat. I was excited already to do more. I was reviewing my posts; and while I noticed myself being overly “TH” (trying hard), I gave a needed pat on my shoulder. So there, I was already getting a hang of food blogging that I looked forward to inputting an entry almost every morning. But just when I was about to hit my third food entry, blog.com crashed. I couldn’t access my account. The main site, blog.com, couldn’t also be accessed. You could just imagine my frustration. It’s close to being in love and finding yourself unable to give a reason to continue falling.

One day passed. Two days… Three days… One week. Error. Site fails to open.

That’s it. I had enough of being patient. I called it quits. Once this blog.site is restored, I’ll snatch my entries (as if many) and transfer them to another site. So here it is. A new love affair. No longer with blog.site.