Bob just posted about his new Blog. I know that z and arnie have had Blogs, and now I just read that Seanahan has a Blog. So I am wondering, how many here have their own Blogs? We should put them on our home page.

Question:
Do you have your own Blog?

Choices:
Yes!
No, but I'm in the process of starting one.
No, though I'm thinking about it.
No.
Absolutely, positively NO! I hate them!

 

One of those yes votes was me.
I would like to know who else here has a blog so that I can go and read them. The trouble is that blogs seem like a good idea when you start them but it's hard to maintain sufficient level of interest to spend the time making entries. As I said my new one is my second. The old one is still there having had three entries in three years.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

arnie, do you still have a blog? If you do what's the link for it?

I do, but it's been called a "slice of dry white bread" "Dull dull dull -- yet admittedly informative" so read at your own risk.

I've still got it, but it's pretty well moribund. It's at http://apalmer.typepad.com/alans_blog/

I doubt that there will be many posts of interest to Wordcrafters.

Well, I do, even though I posted that I don't. The reason? Because only our members can access it. And since our members have a hard time with computers generally, they surely don't read it. So my poor little Blog just sits there.

Elledee has a nursing Blog, she says. I haven't been there, but I'd like to see it. I hope she stops by this thread.

there's another possibility, not included in your survey:

O I did, as an experiment, but it failed dismally, in all senses of the word*.

*choose your word; experiment, failed, dismally

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Well, I do, even though I posted that I don't. The reason? Because only our members can access it. And since our members have a hard time with computers generally, they surely don't read it. So my poor little Blog just sits there.

It takes a grand total of about ten minutes to set one up - and that only if you include your profile - so if you wish to reach a wider audience (though given the millions of blogs out there, it's by no means certain that you will) it's a simple enough job.

Choosing the name takes longer than setting up the blog.

If you have a gmail account, setting up a blog doesn't even require making an account. Mine is The Spherical Influence. With BlogSpot (through google), you should be able to change the title as your leisure, and the URL is easy if you use your handle.

quote:

O I did, as an experiment, but it failed dismally, in all senses of the word*.

Did it fail in the sense that no one came? Or did you just not keep it up? I suspect I'd not keep it up if I didn't get comments.

I clicked "no, but I'm in the process of starting one." My intention, however, is to take advantage of some education-slanted blogware I happened across, as a place to gather links, articles, et al useful to students/ schools/ parents. I don't see myself pontificating in regular entries.

This low-techie found the first couple of steps so mind-boggling that it may be a while before it's functional. As a not-very-digital home-computer-user, I find the user-friendly instructions.. well, hostile. I had to keep a separate window at wiki open where I could look up every other word in a one-sentence instruction.

>GAD<

If you care, check out my abortive beginnings at budgie.edublogs.org.

Is a blog the thing I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to have removed?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:

quote:

O I did, as an experiment, but it failed dismally, in all senses of the word*.

Did it fail in the sense that no one came? Or did you just not keep it up? I suspect I'd not keep it up if I didn't get comments.

when I got switched (unceremoniously) to comcast, they offered me web space and blog space for each userid. I already had the wwftd site, which I just transfered. with my tsuwm id I set up a new site using their canned page builder (it was absolute junk) and a blog too (ditto).
/nonresponsive

I think that not even the search engines found the blog.

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
I clicked "no, but I'm in the process of starting one." My intention, however, is to take advantage of some education-slanted blogware I happened across, as a place to gather links, articles, et al useful to students/ schools/ parents. I don't see myself pontificating in regular entries.

This low-techie found the first couple of steps so mind-boggling that it may be a while before it's functional. As a not-very-digital home-computer-user, I find the user-friendly instructions.. well, hostile. I had to keep a separate window at wiki open where I could look up every other word in a one-sentence instruction.

>GAD<

If you care, check out my abortive beginnings at budgie.edublogs.org.

I've just looked. There's nothing wrong with that. All it needs now is some content.

I expect Internet old hands like zmj and tsuwm will be well aware of this, but I'll pass this on for the benefit of those possibly less expert.

Checking up on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of blogs to see if new posts have been made can be time-consuming at best. I use an RSS reader to subscribe to and check each site and display any new posts without needing to visit the site itself in my browser.

There are two main ways to do this. One is by a Web service, such as Google Reader or
NewsGator Online. The other is to use an RSS aggregator as a program installed on your machine. Modern browsers such as IE7, Firefox2, etc. can do this but I prefer a stand-alone program.

There are lots of them about but I like FeedDemon, provided free by NewsGator. Its equivalent for the Mac is NetNewsWire.

I've really liked Google Reader. It helps me keep up with a ton of blogs.

I have 2 that I've been more or less regular in maintaining. One is my personal blog with lots of knitting and family stuff, and the other, which started out as personal, has morphed into book reviews and library commentary.

This past week I was at a national professional conference, and was one of the official bloggers of the event, but also I contributed to a smaller blog of the event just for my library system.

I loved being able to type up my notes as I went through the week (and then throw the written things away). I also like the ability to see what others were learning, make comments, etc, but since not everyone contributed it wasn't as dynamic as it had the potential to be.

Hi everyone,
Yes, I have a blog. It is hosted by a professional nursing website, so has parameters (i.e., my pieces are edited before posting). I really enjoy writing it and especially love generating comments. I must admit that it can be challenging to keep posts current, since I work fulltime as a floor nurse and have very odd hours. I hope you can stop by and see it - and me - even if you are not into healthcare. http://www.nurseconnect.com/Community/BlogPosts.aspx?BlogId=568&uid=22200

Well, I hate to say it, elledee, but you look like a nurse! When I saw your picture, I was sure I'd met you before. Maybe we have met at a conference, who knows.

I will post on your Blog sometime, Elledee (and Bob and z and bethree and Sean and arnie), though I've spent way too much time tonight starting my own Blog. Yep...I did it, even though I posted "No" on the poll. I just had to see what it was like. Here 'tis.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Here 'tis.

I managed to leave a comment that made sense after like 3 tries... suddenly I'm like the worst typist ever.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,

Thanks, and it was an interesting one at that. I suppose you are correct that linguistics is a science.

Cool blog, Kalleh! I am glad you got a chance to take a look at mine. Perhaps we have met before. That would be an amazing coincidence. I, too, love Chicago, although I have only been there twice. I just got home from work so will post more when my mind is less frazzled

I left you a comment.

quote:

Originally posted by goofy:
I do, but it's been called a "slice of dry white bread" "Dull dull dull -- yet admittedly informative" so read at your own risk.

But it's also been called "a plate of home-made penne all'arrabbiata with the sauce made from the best tomatoes on this planet, basil whose smell fills the entire kitchen and won't go away for days and with just the right amount of chili to accentuate the taste of tomatoes and leave that spicy aftertaste somewhere on the back of your tongue." My blog seems to remind people of food...

My blog seems to remind people of food...

Language and food are both pleasing to the tongue.

Oh, I don't find it dull, though maybe a bit what I refer to as, z-esque. But that's a good thing!

Too many Blogs, and too little time...

Tell me, what is the goal of Blogs? Is it to get lots of comments? Or just get something off your chest? Or to connect to others, and if so, how is that done? This is a rather new field for me, and it's hard to tell. I sense I'll never get another comment on mine (because how will anyone even know about it?), and that's no fun, is it?

It's a way to get things off my chest, or to put into writing what I'm thinking, and hopefully get some feedback from friends or just random people off the street. Or, if I read a funny article or see a funny video, to share it with the world, even if it isn't very many people. Obviously it would be nice to have lots of readers.

I think that it's one of the reasons that blogs come and go, dying almost as quickly as they are born. People start them and then after a few entries think "what's the point, there is nobody reading this".

Coming at it from another viewpoint, every would-be author asks himself the same question. I write poems and stories and travel essays - have done for years - but few of them have ever been read by anyone but me. Even the ones that have been posted here and elsewhere on the web have probably, and I'm being optimistic here, been read by no more than a couple of dozen people. So why do I do it?

It's a question without an answer. I don't know why I write beyond knowing that it's what I do. Maybe there will be some posthumous fame and it would be wonderful if I ever managed to get something properly published and widely read while I'm still around to appreciate it, but I have no illusions about the likelihood of that.

A blog is the same kind of thing for me. However it's different things to different people.I have more to say on the subject but I think I'll blog about it later.

The promised blog entry is there now. Not sure if it answers your question very well though (although it does give a brief insight into how my mind worked when I was a teenager).

Cat commented on my blog that she uses hers as a way to keep track of things.

Having poked around several dozen blogs at random yesterday I was astonished at how many people are willing to put up here on the internet the most personal and intimate details of their lives. Why would someone want to detail for the world to see their break-up with their boyfriend, or their suicidal feelings, or their unrequited lust for their boss?

The vast majority of the blogs I saw just using the "next blog" feature were either trivial in the extreme (Today I got up. I had eggs for breakfast. It was Tuesday and the weather is sunny.) or unbelievably indiscreet. I didn't find one but I'll bet there are blogs out there by people detailing how they caught, and how they are being treated for, syphilis.

In among them there are a few that are interesting and detailed on specific topics but they are very thinly scattered.

My question is this, why would anyone put such incredibly intimate details along with their name and address details in a forum where every single person in the world can pop in and read them. This desire for public self-humiliation seems inexplicably perverse to me.

quote:

This desire for public self-humiliation seems inexplicably perverse to me.

Not only perverse but hugely annoying. I dislike intensely the various TV programmes that are now so popular where people allow themselves to be humiliated by bullies such as Sir Alan Sugar and pompous and incredibly self-important judges such as those who appear on the likes of "Come Dancing".

And yes, I have watched an example of each of these and have made my mind up on the basis of what I have seen - not on what the media has seen fit to say.

But you see it's one man's meat and another man's poison.
I too dislike programs of the "Come Dancing" variety but I regularly watch the Apprentice because most of the contestants there aren't trying to humiliate themselves they genuinely and sincerely believe that they are the most wonderful human beings in the world and watching them cock up task after task with their incessant self-absorbedness is more like justice than humiliation.

Take the guy ejected first from the current series. He was a stuck-up, arrogant piece of work. When defending himself in the boardroom he suggested that the reason the task had failed was that there was a class divide where he was intellectual, educated and cultured and liked opera and fine arts (all his words, not mine) and that the other contestants were uneducated and uncultured. Given that the guy in charge is a self-made man from the East End who started out as a barrow boy and still has the style of one, he might as well have been waving a flag with FIRE ME printed on it.

The ways they find to cock-up the tasks are hilarious. I watch in fascination as these supposed entrepreneurs mess things up that any ten-year-old child around here could do better.

As I say. It's one man's meat and the cat pictures that started the discussion annoy me only because cuteness almost always does. I do however find the captioning to be mildly amusing.

Z, do you have a blog?

I have added everyone to my watch list from Google Reader. Now I have to figure out how to add your Blog links to my Blog.

Z, do you have a blog?

Yes, K.: link. And I've even been posting with some semi-regularity.

FWIW here's mine ..... link ! It has been neglected, he said passively.

I've added both of yours to my Google Reader, which, as of yet, I don't quite know what it means. But I will figure it out! In figuring out how to add Blogs, I accidentally added Kalle's Blog to my list, but, hey...maybe it's a good one!

One question, Bloggers. I made a mistake in my comment on Bob's blog and couldn't figure out how to edit it. It showed how to delete it, but I didn't see the editing function. Is there one?

I still haven't figured out how to put a link on my Blog, but I am trying.

No, you can't edit comments on blogspot.

You can delete and re-enter though.

I forgot to mention, I have another blog at Is It Irony?. It started as a perscriptivist joke about the exact meaning of irony, and has since expanded to philosophical musings about why we really use irony.

I'm having trouble getting inspirations about what to post about. I suppose that's normal.

Just post abour anything. DOn't think that you need to restrict it to the title subject.

trouble getting inspirations about what to post about

Post about your writer's block.

When you have nothing to say, the best thing to say is nothing.

quote:

Post about your writer's block.

Not sure I'd call it writers block.

I think it's more than not having anything to say. I've decided that I like forums where there's interaction and interesting exchanges. Blogs seem to me (and perhaps I don't read enough of them to be sure) are much more one-way communication, much like a book or article. That is always nice, but I find interaction more stimulating. It's just a preference, I suppose.

Kalleh,
Thank you for commenting on my blog! You shared some excellent points. I have responded to your comment. I had been busy painting my living room and hadn't checked my blog for awhile.
Sometimes, I, too, struggle to come up with things to blog about. I try to regularly jot down ideas as they come to me. Then I revisit my list of ideas when I need inspiration. Some of them are more inspiring than others...

I think I like to exchange ideas more than I like to just write about something. When I start a topic here, I can be fairly sure that someone will answer. Not so on my Blog. I'll try it for awhile, but probably not for too long.

Do nurses reply on your Blog, elledee? I would hope so. It's an excellent Blog, and I hope nurses are reading what you have to say. Perhaps if I Blogged on nursing, I'd stimulate more discussion than I do now. However, I work 60+ hours a week in nursing so I don't want to Blog about it, too. I am glad you are, though, elledee.

Thank you, Kalleh. I hope that I am reaching nurses on a meaningful level. Blogging helps me organize my thoughts and sort through my nursing experiences. Nurses sometimes comment - especially when I hit a hot button.

I usually feel like I am carrying on a private conversation with myself - in the midst of crowds of unknown people who listen but rarely reply. I can understand how you'd need to think about something besides nursing after emerging from 60 hour weeks!

But if you want some fun reading...there are some great nursing blogs out there. Here is a link to Change of Shift: http://www.emergiblog.com/2007/05/change-of-shift-volume-1-no-25.html "Mother Jones" has commented on my blog. She has several links in her blog to other interesting nursing blog sites (including mine) . I have also received comments from as far away as a nurse in South Africa.

An especially fun site is Nurse Rached's at http://nurse-ratcheds.blogspot.com/

I have some hilarious doctor and medical student blog links, too, if you are interested. It keeps me entertained.

I like this poem on Nurse Rached's Place.

The real Nurse Rached's place (the Oregon State Hospital) is being torn down, but attempts are being made to retain the buildings used in the movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I hear they are also considering removing the patients before the demolition begins, but, being a state-run operation, one never knows.

quote:

But if you want some fun reading...there are some great nursing blogs out there.

Note to self...You'd better not get into all these Blogs or you'll never get anything else done.

Too true...but fun for quick diversions.