An Old Dog with New Tricks: Blogging

Sunday, November 16th –  When I first began blogging last March, I knew next to nothing about what has been called the Blogosphere. I thought only teenagers and political fanatics and people who like to wallow in misery over the economic situation were drawn to this odd kind of journaling online.

I started this blog at the suggestion of Dr. David Klein, because I was so excited and exhilarated about my late-in-life discovery of chiropractic, and thrilled by the prospect of avoiding further joint replacements, thanks to chiropractic adjustments. As I went along, I found myself looking at other people’s blogs. It’s interesting to me to compare the approach different people take to blogging. For one thing, I was surprised there weren’t more blogs that dealt with chiropractic: the ones there are seem all to be written by chiropractors rather than patients. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; I’ve certainly learned a lot by reading some of these very instructive articles. It’s just something I noticed.

Then there are blogs by people who have turned blogging into their profession. One I like a lot — because it takes me back to the time when my three kids were kids — is Heather Armstrong’s blog on her daily life and motherhood of a four-year-old daughter (www.dooce.com).  Heather is hilariously funny, often; always outspoken in the extreme, and a whiz with a camera, so her blog is well embellished with snapshots.

My 15-year-old granddaughter (also a Heather) has had a blog for awhile now (http://web.mac.com/h.e.gordon)  She includes a few rants about things in her life she doesn’t like; but mostly, her blog has an oddly intellectual cast for a teenager. She posts word games and Six-Degrees-of-Separation challenges, she posts Poetry in a separate section, and she gives us a new word with definition and use in a sentence with each entry. I dutifully leave comments, and I sign them “Betsy” rather than “Grandma,” to avoid embarrassing Heather in the event that her friends visit the blog.

Recently, I noticed comments left by some mysterious personage named Sven Bjorksson (a.k.a. Svennybob). The comments were notable because they challenged Heather to be less instructive and more personal, to share more of her thoughts with her readers. I assumed this Sven to be a classmate, and I thought — gee, that’s pretty darn sensitive for a 15-year-old boy, to be interested in Thoughts! This is cool! I asked Heather’s dad, my son Danny, about this Sven person. He laughed, and informed me that Sven Bjorksson was a secret identity of Heather’s brother William, aged 13, who is apparently fascinated right now with all things Scandinavian, especially the names! Now, how cool is THAT: for a 13-year-old brother to be asking about thoughts?? (He’s right there with the Six Degrees challenges, too, and I can never figure those out!)

During our recent Presidential campaign, my e-mail friends sent me a lot of links to small videos on YouTube, mostly comedy takeoffs on various candidates for various offices (some were hilarious, and you probably saw them too). I was not familiar with YouTube before the campaigns, to tell you the truth. Now I check it daily to see what’s up. On the whole, though, I think I like reading blogs better than watching videos.

Whatever subject interests you, there’s bound to be a blogger out there sharing experiences and opinions. What a great way to meet your fellow inhabitants of this planet! You can go to Google Blogs and put in your search topic, and Bingo! You’ve got blogs!

So that’s another thing for which I am grateful to David Klein — introducing me to the world of blogging, as well as taking on the task of bringing my ancient body back from the Undead to the world of the active living. Thanks, DK — I owe ya!

Thanks for reading — Betsy