baratillo @ cubao : www.baratillo.net

I am blogger. And that is what I am. I blog for personal reasons and I also blog as a sideline. And the truth of the matter is at this point its a good sideline but having said that nothing still beats my day job. I have often spoken about the personal reasons for blogging - (i) To point things out; (ii) To record, report and chronicle things; (iii) To move and to persuade people; (iv) and in the words of George Orwell SHEER EGOISM. In fact most if not all of those points I learned from Orwell and his essay Why I Write.

There are of course other personal reason why I blog. First, To talk and interact with people and Second, To make friends. As cheesy as it sounds this is one of the least sounded of thing about blogging. To find kindred spirits; comrade-in-arms; companions; & sons, daughters, brothers and sisters of your heart. Then of course you also meet persons you would rather have not met. It happens. Something always happen. Life is like that. And if an Eagle would mistake my bald head as a rock where he can crush the shell of turtle he just caught causing my untimely demise my thought about bloggers I have met would be something similar to what Bilbo Baggins:

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. -Bilbo Baggins (The Fellowship of the Ring: J.R.R. Tolkien)

In terms of percentages, Mr Baggins and I differ significantly. On the whole I relish I have had very positive and interesting encounters with bloggers. My bad experience with bloggers on-line and more off-line tend to be in a noisy minority.

But I digress. I also blog as a sideline. And for me this involves working for a blog network. I get paid to write niche articles. And recently I joined the BlogBank to put ads on the site. No I have not yet earned from the ads. But I am happy because there are benefits to joining the BlogBank and again its a sideline. The Blogging Life. And even with the ads I can still say or write about anything.

Recently and not so recently I have read and heard things said about bloggers who attend events. And often some people and even bloggers portray them in a bad light. So why do bloggers attend these events? Or why do I attend these events.

1) I am a blogger and a lot of the people hosting these events consider blogs a medium to which they can promote their product; show their event or even begin discussion about a certain topic.

2) Most of these events were established to deliver a message and often time to a wide array of mediums - Newspaper, radio, TV, magazines and Web-based media. And events organizers often use things like lunches, giveaways, and even raffles as an added incentive for people from these different mediums to come. They are promoting a product, cause or case.

3) However, as attractive and enticing these freebies are,. The main benefit one can get from these events is that one leaves with a story to tell. An event that promoted a line of printer with a trip an exotic locale or an experience gives you material to tell a story. A blogger is a storyteller and such gives you a story to tell. And if ever you find there is no story worth telling and then do not write about it.

So as a blogger do I feel obliged to write a post about an event? No. I will write about it only if I find it interesting.

So as a blogger do I feel obliged to write a favorable post about an event? No. I will write what I think about the product.

I am blogger I write what I want to write. And I go to events first and foremost because there is a possible story in it.