Thirteen things about Norma's blogging

Photo from http://www.messiahinternationalministries.org/
1) This week is my fourth blogiversary. I started blogging on October 2, 2003, and then that just didn’t look tidy, so I "back-filled" October 1 and use that date to collect certain themes as I went along, family stories, poetry, etc. I have 11 blogs using blogger.com and one on another server.

2) Collecting My Thoughts. This is the primary blog (you’re reading it) and it can include just about anything. One time I wrote a TT on 13 topics at this blog. There are probably more. This is also where a year ago I wrote 13 things I was going to do to lose my blogging weight gain.

3) My second blog was about church activities. I've actually changed its URL and title, Church of the Acronym. A former minister decided we should be known by our acronym, UALC, because denominational names like Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, had fallen out of favor in manuals for mega-churches, now I think mega-churches are falling out of favor, so we're Lutherans again. This blog gets neglected. I link to a number of Christian and religious blogs. Some are just awesome. Mine isn't very spiritual; no gentle meditations.

4) My third blog was the log I write in at a library collective. The owner used to be a librarian at OSU. This wouldn't be of interest to anyone, probably not even a librarian because the young folks sure don't want to hear from a retiree, but it does help me keep up on the new, techie toys that enchant librarians. Also, I think it is difficult to navigate. I have a huge number of links to librarian blogs over on the left (no pun), but that just scratches the surface. Librarians are crazy about blogging.

5) I'm thinking the next one was for my hobby. I had great plans for this--tracking my premiere issue collection. I enjoy rereading it, but not updating it because it. . . is like work. In the Beginning sounds religious, but it is about first issues of magazines and what causes people to go into this business (most fail). Although I'm dreadfully behind in updating, I just can't resist buying a new title. It's especially fun when I know the person on the cover!

6) I go out for coffee every morning about 6 a.m., visiting a variety of local stores during the week, so I decided to write about what I see and overhear there, calling it Coffee Spills. I learn so much at the coffee shop, talk to a lot of people, and see some odd things; I really could update this every day, but I don't.


7) I write a lot on health, and one of the big health issues right now is obesity and how it relates to general well being. I tend to be pretty practical--eat less move more, or ELMM is my plan. If you've ever heard the news or stepped on a scale, you know that information is always flip-flopping on this, so that was sort of my theme when I started, i.e., the craziness. But it has evolved to general information. Most of good health is about lifestyle.

8) One day I came across a drawer of sewing patterns and thought it might be fun to match them with photos and family stories. I wasn't much of a seamstress, so I limited myself to one month of blogging. Because I mention aprons (I think), this blog still gets about 30 look-sees a week, even though I haven't updated it in 2 years. It's called Memory Patterns, has 75 entries and was terrific fun to write.


9) Somewhere along the way I was invited to join a walking group--I think it was the Easter season of 2006. We just kept walking after Easter. Cathy organized it, as I recall, and she was one of my Christian lady links. Now it is called Exercising through the Church Year.

10) I love the great American success story--like the Russian immigrant who founded Google, and believe it is our country's strongest value. Millions want to come here--no one tries to immigrate to Communist countries, unless they just accidentally step over the border. So I am outraged at Mexican leaders and La Raza's behavior--and our own President's lackadaisical attitude about the terrorist possibilities of millions streaming in, so I created another blog, Illegals Today. It really swims against the torrent of multicultural and diversity propaganda we get everyday from our media, politicians, educators and clergy.

11) My high school class was having its 50th reunion, so I decided to create a blog to capture some memories, hoping others would help. That wasn't my most successful writing adventure--I think only four people helped. But I do get nice e-mails from classmates I wouldn't have otherwise heard from.

12) Then it seemed time to create something about maturity and retirement, so Growth Industry came out of that idea. I'm pretty far behind in updating that one too. The last time was August. Sometimes I forget it is there.

13) The most recent one was On my bookshelves. I looked at those library control software things, but they had no appeal. I didn't really care to see if 1,000 other people had the same book. I really wanted it for my own use--some titles I don't keep very long, others I've had forever. Some are friends, others relatives, some drop-ins.


Thursday Thirteen