Of the Improbable Mysteries of Tumblr

Agh, I'm having a brain-mush moment over the spelling of "mysteries" in the title. No matter how many times I type it, it continues to look strange.

You may blame Tumblr for my confusion. And for much else besides.

This may stun you all, but until very recently, I had very little idea what Tumblr was. I knew it was another blogging platform, because several of my friends used it, but as it has been oh-so-conveniently blocked off as forums.personals by the almighty body of knowledge that is Lightspeed Systems Content Filtering, I'd never had a chance to have a proper look at any of the famous Tumblr blogs.

But then came this extended half term holiday and, with help from my lovely co-writer Miriam, I was introduced to one of the strangest and most wonderful corners of the internet I have ever seen.

How does one describe Tumblr? Well, from my perspective it appears to be nothing short of something that might occur if the Doctor was left in charge of Gandalf's staff, while in the company of a bored Sherlock Holmes. In the middle of a potions shop. With Loki in the next-door room. Attempting to open up a wormhole with nothing but his Glow Stick of Destiny and a jelly baby.

In short: chaos. Glorious chaos.

Since then, I have spent much of my free time perusing Tumblr, and I have discovered something that makes such a strange cacophony of madness even more attractive. Tumblr isn't just a blogging base ... it's a community. A community of mad people all posting and re-blogging and circulating and making each other laugh and cry and create to their hearts' content.

And that goes without mentioning the fantastic treasures that can be found there. Everything from beautiful original artwork, hilarious parody and roleplaying communities, photographs, heart-tugging messages, and links to places that make you wonder how many wormholes someone must have fallen through to find them. It's amazing.

However, due to the unfortunate internet blocks at place at school, I will not yet be crafting myself a Tumblr account. As much as I love the idea of jumping head-first into the madness and creating a corner of the internet for my more personal and less writing-oriented outbursts, crazes and interests (which would be exceedingly convenient), leaving it alone and dormant for so much of the year just seems daft.

Luckily for me, I leave school next summer. Then, well ... then, we shall see.

What about all of you? Do we have any Tumblr denizens among us? What do you make of it? What sort of things do you put on your blog? What sort of advice would you give to a would-be Tumblrite?

And, most important of all ... give us links!

~ Charley R