Why do I blog?

by on April 6, 2007

in Personal,Weblog/blog

Vanessa Fox tagged me asking 5 reasons why I blog.

  1. So that I can write something once, and then I’ll have a place where I can point back to it. You try answering “I started/stopped buying AdWords and my rankings rose/dropped. Is Google boosting/penalizing me for buying ads?” for the 732nd time, and you’ll see the value in that. The answer is no, by the way. :)
  2. I wanted to see what it was like to be a webmaster so I’d have a better idea of how to help webmasters.
  3. So that I’d have a “guinea pig” site that the crawl/index/quality team could abuse, fold, mutilate, and spindle when they need to test something experimental, or to debug a problem.
  4. I wanted to be able to tap the most awesome power on the internet — the lazyweb. When I don’t know something, the readers here normally do. :)
  5. So everyone can enjoy getting to know my cats. You would not believe how many blog posts I do with Emmy sleeping on my chest. She’s napping on me right now as I write this. Here, I’ll take a picture with my cell phone:

    Happy Emmy

    That was Emmy and me just a few minutes ago. She loves when I blog, because the tap-tap-tapping of the keys puts her to sleep. Then again, pretty much everything puts her to sleep (sunlight, food, petting, breathing, …)

I think someone should start a “Cats of SEO” blog post. :)

{ 78 comments… read them below or add one }

Gary R. Hess April 6, 2007 at 4:52 pm

1) Your cat is super cute!
2) What cell phone do you have? That is one kick ass picture.

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Matt Cutts April 6, 2007 at 5:33 pm

She is quite cute, isn’t she? :) I’ve got an LG enV, and I like it a lot.

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Ryan April 6, 2007 at 5:37 pm

Matt, you’re lucky!

my cat likes to sit on the keyboard when I blog. She also cries constantly anytime I sit down and she wants to play. The problem is, she always want’s to play.

I’m thankful I don’t work at home, cuz I wouldn’t get any work done with her around.

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Joel Lesser April 6, 2007 at 5:45 pm

now THAT is a happy cat!

I am the owner (and obeyer) of two felines so I understand “tap-tap-tapping of the keys puts [them] to sleep”.. I have two that love to climb into my lap just as a client calls (and I am ready to walk around) … working from home does have its benefits!

in all seriousness and back on topic, blogging should be reserved for “immediate communiations”. save the rest for traditional publishing.

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Brian Mark April 6, 2007 at 6:50 pm

The tap-tap-tapping of keys puts me to sleep, too. :)

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Search EnginesWeb April 6, 2007 at 7:10 pm

AN IDEA….

Post that question to EACH of the Blog Owners / Founders
on the Technorati Top 100 Blog


http://technorati.com/pop/blogs/

The second question would be:

Do you remember that moment when your first found out that your blog had made it into the top 100?

:-0

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feedthebot.com April 6, 2007 at 7:26 pm

Cats of SEO? I can’t do that, but I can describe a “sneaky redirect” via cats and dogs.

My “Don’t employ cloaking or sneaky redirects” description is up now. It aint sexy, but it is a good intro for new webmasters to redirects (and it does use cats and dogs to explain what is sneaky)

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Bob Gladstein April 6, 2007 at 7:41 pm

“I think someone should start a “Cats of SEO” blog post.”

That’s a great idea. I’d be happy to publish pictures, although my blog isn’t strictly SEO.

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Hawaii SEO April 6, 2007 at 7:50 pm

Awwwwww! :) That’s a happy picture.
I seriously miss my old cat now….

BTW – Thanks for blogging!
Will you be doing another “Grab Bag” post any time soon?

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IncrediBILL April 6, 2007 at 7:56 pm

I see you’re, ahem ‘pussy’ whipped there with your 4 legged furball on top of you when you try to use the computer. Luckily for me, my furball climbs all over the wife more then he climbs on me.

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feedthebot.com April 6, 2007 at 7:58 pm

wow, i just realized that you might be entering cats into my subconscious, I also explain “link schemes” with cats too. funny.

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Robin April 6, 2007 at 8:23 pm

My entry for the caption contest is…

“I’m holding the Internet to ransom for one MEELION DOLLARS!”

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Christine April 6, 2007 at 9:13 pm

Oh man I think Emmy is cute!! Will have to get a pic of my Hercules (my puddy-tat) to show you what he does – he tries to lie ON the keyboard so that I will stop typing to play with him!

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Dockarl April 6, 2007 at 9:59 pm

How is it that the phrase ‘cat-nap’ became interpreted as a short sleep.

Judging from my observations of cats, if one of my co-workers said “I’m just going to have a cat-nap” I’d be expect it meant “I’m just going to lie comatose here for the next 15 hours and not move a single muscle unless someone opens the fridge”… :)

M

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Harini April 6, 2007 at 10:11 pm

Hi Matt,

A nice pic :)

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Harith April 6, 2007 at 10:31 pm

Matt

My good friend Emmy napping? while should be awake keeping an eye on what you are writing and keeping me informed about the new google algos and filters :)

Btw, you haven’t posted any pictures of Ozzie, only a very short video.

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Dr. David Klein April 6, 2007 at 11:05 pm

Meow Mew Mew Meowww, mew Google Meow, mew mew Meow, Spam Penalty for paid linking Hissssssssss…….. Meow, Mew Mew Meow, Mew Meow Meow, Penalty Removed, top 10 Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……., ZZZZzzzzz….. (Dream of Canned Crab) Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……

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Multi-Worded Adam April 7, 2007 at 12:15 am

I just find it kind of disturbing that the cat’s head looks kind of like an extension of Matt’s goatee.

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Katja April 7, 2007 at 1:57 am

Nice cat! :) It can´t be easy to type like that.

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Smidigt April 7, 2007 at 1:57 am

Very cute indeed! The cats around here also get sleepy around the computer. :)

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Gary Beal April 7, 2007 at 2:19 am

Good to know there’s another male cat lover out there that’s not ashamed to be one!

I used to have a tabby that was 23 lbs and couldn’t stay off my lap while I was online.

There are some great online videos that will entertain them while your on.

Thats how I handled mine.

GaryTheScubaGuy

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SearchTheWeb2 April 7, 2007 at 7:05 am

I started to wonder why people like to post their cats or dogs instead of their kids. Reasons?

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Matt Cutts April 7, 2007 at 9:51 am

Harith, Ozzie still moves at the speed of sound, so getting him to hold still long enough to take a picture is difficult. I’ll try though.

Well said, Dr. David Klein. Just like that Far Side: blah blah Ginger blah blah blah Ginger blah. :)

SearchTheWeb2, I have no kids, just cats. :)

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Aaron Pratt April 7, 2007 at 10:03 am

“SEO Cat Post” could be the title of a thread listing pictures of all our cats. I would expect some attention junky like shoemoney to be on this in under an hour. I got outside projects going on today…

Er Matt, does that cat need a diet? =P

Love cats, got a small clan of them here.

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Remo April 7, 2007 at 10:17 am

Luckily for me, my furball climbs all over the wife more then he climbs on me

thats why I divorced, sounds odd but nice pussy Matt

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Remo April 7, 2007 at 10:19 am

oops, just made myself sound like a shirt lifter (which is not the case)

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Loren Baker April 7, 2007 at 11:19 am

Matt, that’s an awesome pic for a cell phone. May I ask, which model do you use?

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Bill Hartzer April 7, 2007 at 2:49 pm

Very cute picture…I have to agree that the quality of the picture is very good, too. I’ll definitely be checking out that phone. ;)

That picture definitely wasn’t taken at the Googleplex, as I recall there’s some policy about a Cat restriction there? Only dogs allowed?

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Rick Trethewey April 7, 2007 at 2:58 pm

I always thought that cats are the best cure for insomnia. How could you look at a sleeping cat and not get drowsy? Being a nap partner is their best thing.

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George April 7, 2007 at 3:14 pm

Did your cat do this?

http://www.google.com/search?q=site:*.*.info+-www&hl=en&start=0&sa=N

Once again my site has disappeared for no apparent reason in the latest update. It’s like a jo-jo SERP and what I can see are spam sites that was registered 2-3 days ago in China(?) and they show up in your search results already?
Tons of the use a javascript that I have isolated and when clicking on the search result you are redirected to a blog site and she says she doesn’t know whats going on with her site.

Can you please have a look at it? If you need to, email me and I’ll give you more info about these new sites and/or my site.

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Damon Hart-Davis April 7, 2007 at 3:18 pm

Arrrrrrrrrrrrr!

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Flowers April 7, 2007 at 4:12 pm

Such a cute kitty, ours is a long hair with soft fur, and luvs me so much more then my wife, even though she is the one that tamed him by holding him hours on end. I’m the cat person, so they just gravitate towards me, which is great cause petting a cat is the one thing I missed the most being in the military. Little things that we take for granted eh?

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Sebastian April 7, 2007 at 4:55 pm

Cats are sooo cute and like you they don’t always play by the rules ;)
You’re supposed to tag 5-7 bloggers:
http://www.soloseo.com/why-blog-meme.html
Never mind.

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Aaron Pratt April 7, 2007 at 7:21 pm

Sebastian – You should know by now that all SEO contests end with Matt Cutts, literally. ;)

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Dave (Original) April 7, 2007 at 8:16 pm

Matt, no dog(s)? I find dogs sooooooooooo much more rewarding.

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Joe Hunkins | Joe Duck April 7, 2007 at 8:52 pm

Matt, I know Chico the Wonder Dog would like to meet Emmy, but I would not recommend they get together.
http://joeduck.wordpress.com/2006/12/01/chico-the-wonder-dog/

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Matt Cutts April 7, 2007 at 9:52 pm

Aaron Pratt, the camera adds 10 pounds. ;)

Loren Baker, it’s an LG enV. I like it a lot.

Bill Hartzer, this picture was taken at home.

Sebastian, I tag… *you* ! Five time! :)

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Angela McCormick April 7, 2007 at 9:56 pm

Glad I found your blog, it’s an immediate bookmark.

Yes, I have alot of cool photos of my cats on my desk, my black one is sprawled out behind one of my monitors now, I should put a cat bed back there. Back when I had large CRT monitors, they used to perch on top of my monitor, in the dark with only glowing green eyes looking at me… :)

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Angela McCormick April 7, 2007 at 10:12 pm

Ok, found a photo that I had submitted like 3 years ago of my Russian Blue: http://www.mycathatesyou.com/cats/search

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Tanja April 8, 2007 at 2:14 am

My cat resents the mac for all the attention it gets from me, she has resorted to desperate measures @Flickr

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Maurice April 8, 2007 at 4:54 am

Cats

Dave well cats are suposely more in tune with the hacker mindset (in its real sense) – though i can see some of the more outdoors geeks prefering proper working dogs.

Matt Check out The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane for some nice Cat related sf

http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/sf/books/d/duane.htm#8505

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Multi-Worded Adam April 8, 2007 at 9:02 am

I’m with Dave. I’m a dog man myself…especially sporting dogs. I find it’s easier to form a bond with a dog than it is with a cat.

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Andrew Calvo April 8, 2007 at 9:09 am

wow. nice cell phone picture.. looks as good as my digital camera.

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Multi-Worded Adam April 8, 2007 at 10:25 am

You still got 4-6 more to tag, Matt. :)

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Sebastian April 8, 2007 at 10:34 am
Harry April 8, 2007 at 11:25 am

Good reasons to blog. One more reason would be just because people come here to read :d. Nice post, super pic & a super cat.

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Okinawa April 8, 2007 at 1:15 pm

Your cat looks so happy. :)

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Xu April 9, 2007 at 1:52 am
William Donelson April 9, 2007 at 2:27 am

Matt, we have a cat (sweet, beautiful, but stoopid) who is now 16 years old. The major difference in all those years is: instead of sleeping 21 hours per day, she now sleeps 22 hours per day.
http://www.armchair-travel.com/donelson/malfie-01.jpg

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William Donelson April 9, 2007 at 2:28 am

BTW – Her name is Malfie; short for “Malfunction” ;-)

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dockarl April 9, 2007 at 3:30 am

I had a Cat called arfa.. because he was arf-alive when we found him as a stray… :)

M

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Caraie April 9, 2007 at 7:30 am

hey Matt, your cat is trainned like this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vja83KLQXZs

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Gurtie April 9, 2007 at 9:43 am

damn, I wanted to help my cats launch GrayCatNews a few weeks ago, with guest bloggers Emmy and JackJack, but Chris wouldn’t let me and claimed no one would read it.

Although in fairness it would be a rare day they could rouse themself from a sunny windowsill for long enough to write an entire post.

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Terry Reeves April 9, 2007 at 10:15 am

No pets on my chest… but frequently I have to type around a 4 year old.

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Gregg Opper April 9, 2007 at 12:21 pm

Hah! Proof that cats own us! I have a mother cat (Oreo) and her two sons (Carter and Blossom) who were named by my daughter. Carter is the curious cat that uses me as his favorite pillow. Blossom is the scared cat that runs away from people and Oreo… well is that cat that I am totally allergic to!

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Jeff April 9, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Matt, are you sure its you blogging and not really the cat?

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Douglas Boldt April 9, 2007 at 2:36 pm

I have a couple cute cuddly kittens which like to sleep together. Two girls from the same litter.

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Seo Practices April 9, 2007 at 3:13 pm

I blog as a chance to practice seo and the English language, also it lets me build a profile online and connect with people interested in the subject I’m into. I also helps my resume.

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cicogal April 10, 2007 at 6:39 am

Hey,
It would be nice if you can point a flash games about cats , i love cats but never found a game which has cats involved. Need few cats games to host on the http://www.cicogames.com

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Stevo April 10, 2007 at 7:17 am

errr is there such a thing as Black Cat SEO?

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rimian April 10, 2007 at 7:28 am

I run a web/seo forum and my cat sleeps (on her back) next to me in a beanbag while I post. She’s kind of ginger/tabby like yours. However, I never thought I would post about my cat.

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ECWseo April 10, 2007 at 8:48 am

Matt: I have a good candidate for you to run the Cats of SEO blog:

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/res/298286053.html

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David Dalka April 10, 2007 at 8:49 am

So who did you tag?

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Mark Nunney April 10, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Sorry to deviate from the cat love-in theme but I’d like to try and get you back to your first reason for blogging. A new client has tough situation:

Client has two sites that pretty much cover the same subject – widgets – although one might have more emphasis on outdoor widgets.

First question: two sites on the same subject I assume carries a risk of a penalty.

Second question is more interesting: penalty or not, two sites is twice the work so can site one have its pages 301ed to site two and take all their inbound link power with them?

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Dave April 11, 2007 at 8:50 am

Well I love cats but their fur makes me sneeze so I suffer with and without them. : (

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Jonathan April 11, 2007 at 3:01 pm

Matt! Your cat looks EXACTLY like mine! Except mine is … 15 years old and weights about 40lbs lol

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BlackMax April 12, 2007 at 1:27 am

You are so right! There is something about cats and laptops and it’s not just the warmth. Meet Biggles, I think in her world she believes I shouldn’t work, that’s why she’s always attempting to stop me using one arm… http://www.blackmaxmedia.com.au/images/biggles.JPG

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Soul April 12, 2007 at 9:10 am

Heh, i understand you about cats.
My cat is rolling eyes and touching my hand by his paw :-) It’s so cute.

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Harith April 13, 2007 at 7:28 am

I have visted Vanessa Fox Nude blog and could see that she too has cats, but no nude cat pictures where there ;-)

Most interesting that she, I mean Vanessa Fox, is in competition with DaveN whos site is ranking for Vanessa Fox higher than Vanessa Fox Nude blog? can you imagine?

Maybe we should start a SEO competion on Matt’s blog to bring it at the top for search: Vanessa Fox or Vanessa Fox Nude :)

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Sitescene Web Design and Development Melbourne April 27, 2007 at 8:16 am

lol, you guys are funny :)

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Andrew April 30, 2007 at 4:00 pm

Is Emmy in a healthy weight range? Oz looks lean and mean.

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Seo Красавчег May 16, 2007 at 2:19 pm

Your cats are webmasters now :)

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Jana July 9, 2007 at 1:02 pm

Matt can you please help me… almost all my pages have been placed into google supplemental. I dont know why this has happen because my site has been around since 1988 and I have strong links coming to my site. My business has tremendously gone down since this has happen and I am desperate to get some help. My whole family depends on the business that is coming from my site. Its is a very serious problem for me that this has occurred. I’m losing night sleep and I’m going through sooo much stress trying to figure out why this has happen. Please could you help me.

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el July 14, 2007 at 12:52 pm

I think this is a very nice photo of your cat napping on you! I too blog and surf with my cat napping on me. It’s a wonderful feeling.

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webfly July 29, 2007 at 4:38 am

Hey
photo is nice..
I don’t like cats :P but i have dog – man’s best friend :)

greetings, webfly

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SEO Cats August 1, 2007 at 2:07 am

Hi Mat…
actually i never came across this blog post until today…
and i never knew this whole “SEO & Cats” thing, but this march/april we started a whole new blog called “SEO Cats” – that’s a nice coincidence, i’d rather think, eh?

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Claudette December 27, 2007 at 1:07 pm

Hi Matt, Emmy is very beautiful and I am not biased just because she happens to look almost exactly like my cat Abby – they could be twins except for one minor difference, Abby has one tear-drop eye. She loves to assist at the computer – just getting between me and work or the paper or a book or TV is generally her goal. Abby can’t chat right now because she’s… well, asleep on the chair beside me. Happy New Year from Canada!!

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bluemontoya November 19, 2009 at 7:07 pm

I started toblog about 2 months ago, now I’m addicted to blogging. I love putting out new contents every single day. I am obsessed with blogging, I don’t know what it is? There’s something about it.

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