Be The Blog award

Recently I was given this award by Ian at Failure is the Key to Success. and I do thank you for that Ian. It’s a funny title for an award really, Be the Blog. Originally it came from the Me and My Drum blog, and Mark meant it to recognize successful bloggers, with his idea of successful being that they make a blog their own, stay with it, are interactive with their readers, and just plain have fun.

Now Ian, totally out of the blue, made a comment on my very first post back in February so he has seen this blog evolve from its simple beginnings to what you see today. Still relatively simple in many ways, the blog has the original simple classic template which I have never dared to change. Who knows if the whole thing might disappear? I can’t risk that.

At first there was only text. Then an image appeared, followed by a YouTube video as I learned new skills. Finally a blogroll and then the sidebar grew like Topsy. Over these months I cannot believe the technical skills I have learned but also the blog content seems to have changed.

What started out, in my mind at least, as a way to leave behind for my adult children some memories of things I’ve done and places I’ve been, this blog seems to have taken on a life of its own and often I write about notions which randomly pop into my mind. But they always have my stamp on them, so yes I have made the blog my own. I’m very curious about things so you always get snippets of information which I’ve learned regarding whatever topic I’m waffling on about. Lucky you.

So far I’ve stayed with it, although often I haven’t a clue what I am going to post about next and I get a bit anxious. I’m one of those people who are micro managers, the nice word for control freak, you might say. I do like to have one post in mind or, even better, as a draft, but often I don’t.

There’s an awful lot written about “finding your voice”. I don’t consider myself a writer by any means but I do think my voice does come through this blog in some way. I focus on things that mean something to me and I talk about them using my personal experiences or my perspective. Even when I’m acting as tour guide for some place I’ve been, I’m sure I let in little glimpses of myself. I probably have turns of phrase that I use often without realizing but maybe readers notice. Do you think you know who I am?

Thank heaven for computers, for I seem to change every word again and again before I hit publish. I imagine Jane Austen, writing in longhand in a book with pen and ink. All those words flowing out of her mind in one cohesive stream, paragraph after paragraph. I wonder if it is true or if she had things crossed out, with arrows going from one part of the page to another, everything all smudged.

Am I interactive with readers? Definitely. I never leave a comment unacknowledged. Before I ever had a blog I had an online presence as a medblog reader. What I learned from that was that I liked to have my comments answered and I’ve followed that rule in my own blog. In fact I think quite a lot of one’s personality comes through in one’s comments. Some people know me only as a commenter for they don’t ever read my blog, so that’s all they know of me. I think I know something of others from their comments, so the reverse must be true.

Lastly, am I having fun? Maybe fun is a bit strong, but am I enjoying this experience? That’s a yes and I think it’s a great challenge too. I like that especially about this blogging experience.

I would like to leave you with something I read early on in my blogging career at one of my medblogs. It’s the No 1 Dinosaur’s three cardinal rules of blogging.

  • Write well.
  • Say something.
  • Mix it up.

One could hardly do better than follow this simple but very effective advice.