CORRECTION: I started the Moveable Type blog in 2004 or 2005. Not 2007 as stated in the video (I will have a serious talk with the writing staff. Jack, I’m looking at you!)

The Post

It's a BLOG!

Before I begin, let me apologize for the lag in time since the intro and now. We are in production of a music video for Agnes Obel. She is an amazing Danish artist living in Berlin. More on the results later, but suffice it to say, it’s keeping this Good Hard Working People person very busy.

Having recently moved to Berlin from Brooklyn, I’ve felt more of a need to communicate. I’m sure it has a lot to do with the fact that my German language skills leave a bit to be desired. Lucky for me, most socializing can be done in English with both parties being able to understand one another quite well. It’s when I try to switch to German however, the conversation comes to a screeching halt.

When I first started blogging, it was 2004 or 5. Two or three years before Twitter launched and Facebook opened itself to the world. I admit, I was a late adopter of both, but I’ve been using both of them for years now. I also used Tumblr for the past few years as a place to throw up longer posts, photos and/or videos I found around the web. But recently I’ve become tired of all of the micro-blogging. Having character limits on what I want to say and how many different types of media I can include in a post has become more than frustrating. Sometimes I like to see something stick to the wall as opposed to just throwing it up there and walking away. So here I am, five or six years later, back to blogging; this time trying my hand at Word Press. With American Cookies, I am going to try to write about one single topic each time and leave the stuff I want to throw on the wall and walk away from on Facebook and Twitter; where they belong.

American Cookies Recommends

My favorite and most read blog is the Good hard Working People blog (big surprise). Okay, so I’m biased, but Luci Westphal’s blog is both prolific and dynamic. She posts about music every Monday,  a weekly 1-minute video titled German New Yorker in Berlin (the true inspiration of American Cookies), book reviews and lots and lots more. She has been doing it on Blogger since 2006!

So many of my favorite news and entertainment sites are built in Word Press: Mashable, Huffington Post, NewTeeVee, TubeFilter and TechCrunch are just a few.

Please leave your recommendations in the comments for me.

The Links

Mashable’s A Brief History of 9 Popular Blogging Platforms

TopTen Reviews: Side by Side Comparison of blogging platforms (Spoiler: Word Press wins!)

Read Write Web: Traditional Blogging Platforms Still Reign Supreme

The Poll

American Cookies is part web show, part blog and part poll. With each post, there will be an animated short video to introduce the topic, some text to read, links to click and a poll where you can leave your opinion.

Subscribe to get email updates. The button is right there on the right-hand side. And leave me comments below – I’ll reply.

The Introductory Video: “To Be or Not To Be?”

Why American Cookies? Why now?

I’ve recently transplanted to Berlin from Brooklyn and when I saw these cookies in the store, I had to try them. I didn’t see French cookies or British cookies; but somehow Americans got their own. And they’re chocolate chip. I posted this photo on Facebook back in July with the caption “…I think I found the name for my next web show.”

I love the internet and I love sharing thoughts, photos, links and news with all my friends. But as much as I love all the social communities, each one of them frustrates me to some degree: Twitter limits me to 140 characters and as soon as you follow too many people you need 3rd party software like TweetDeck to help you sort your feed, Facebook will only allow you to post text and either a link, photo or video (but not all 4), the same is true of tumblr (don’t get me started on tumblr). Actually, I think I’ll save the rest of my opinions on blogging for the official first post on American Cookies: its relevancy, my favorites, what’s out there and anything else I can think of.

For now, what I need is one place where I can post video, photos, text, music, ask a question and have a conversation on the web in all in one post and all in one place. And for me that’s means starting this blog. I hope to post interesting ideas and to stay on point. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again.

-Scott Solary

Links

Make your own text to movie videos at xtranormal. It’s easy, fast, free and fun.

Poll