My blogging hero is not some A-list super-star journalist with thousands of page hits per day. He is not even a typical journalist at the moment, although he certainly has had journalistic training. So who am I talking about, and why is he my blogging hero?
Bonus -- I know the blogger personally.Photo: Amelia Freidline
Meet Arie Vanderhorst. Arie started blogging back when blogging was invented (as nearly as I can remember, anyway), and had the first blog I'd ever read. According to him, he didn't start his blog with any specific purpose in mind -- he just made it up as he went along. Now it's an eclectic mix of Jayhawk basketball talk (gotta love that), book, music and movie reviews, photography, creative writing and theological thoughts. Not really what you'd expect from a "journalist," right?
Maybe. I think what BitterSweetLife proves, however, is that the skills we learn in journalism merely serve as a platform for whatever we end up doing in life. Arie's writing skills were honed through journalism training, and now he uses his blog as a way to market himself as a freelance copywriter.
He also proves that if you can convince enough people of your genius, you can create a following for your blog. Although most of what I knew about blogging until 694 was from reading BitterSweetLife, somehow I never managed to feed the beast enough to form my own fan base. BitterSweetLife, however, is usually updated at least a couple of times a day. I like the often-snarky yet never rude style of writing Arie employs, and I've tried to emulate it. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
He isn't flashy and he isn't famous, but this non-traditional journalist continues to be one of my favorite bloggers.
Hey Amelia, thanks for the very kind words! Made my day--which was well timed, since it's finals week.