musings | art social on becoming a blogger

erin cassidy from art social is taking over the musings feature today. she has put together an amazing piece with an even more amazing metaphor about becoming a real blogger.

photo by kate donaldson photography for artsocial

a couple weeks ago i went to a mixed taste lecture at the mca denver. the topic? archigram & artificial flavoring. obvious pairing for a lecture at an art museum, right? the mca denver likes to be different, it's kinda their thing. their mixed taste series consists of two speakers who lecture on completely different topics and then there's a q & a on both topics at the same time.

anyhoo, i didn't exactly have high expectations for a lecture on flavoring. i mean, it's about flavoring. but, holywow guys, it was probably one of the most interesting presentations ever. a few quick facts about artificial flavoring: 1) there are 500 flavorists in the world whose identities are totally top secret. 2) artificial strawberry flavoring can come from parts of a beaver you'd never want to knowingly eat. only the brave should google this. 3) whether artificial or natural flavoring, it all breaks down to chemicals. whether man-made or nature-made, it's all (basically) the same thing. clearly i didn't study chemistry in school since i thought this was super cool.

the part of this lecture that stuck with me the most was a concept called 'chasing zero.' this is a term used by flavorists when they're trying to make artificial flavors taste the most like natural flavors as possible. in other words, they're trying to get their artificial vanilla to taste like real, natural vanilla as best they can. the closer they are to closing that flavor gap, the closer they are to zero. this term makes the whole process sound so adventurous and meaningful and romantic.

for some reason this made me feel super philosophical, like maybe we're all in some way or another chasing zero in our lives. we're all trying to close the gap between trying to achieve something and achieving it, arriving at the destination after periods of trial and error. i've noticed on my blog, i've talked about wanting to be a blogger instead of saying i am a blogger. i think when you start something completely new - whether it's blogging or creating an artificial orange flavor - you start by emulating what you think the real thing looks like. then over time - through testing, reevaluating, and sometimes throwing the whole batch out and starting over - you end up with something real and more authentic than where you started. i think i'm still chasing zero when it comes to being a "real" professional blogger, but i'm gettin' real close to closing that gap. guest posting on an awesome blog sure helps :)

but i guess that all depends on what you think a "real" blogger is. is a real blogger someone who posts everyday, week, month? someone who's actively interacting with other bloggers? someone who makes money blogging? someone who simply includes the word "blogger" in their twitter bio? i think there's a big difference between being a blogger and simply having a blog. srsly a lot of people have blogs, but i think only a small percentage would consider themselves bloggers... what do you think?