Blogiversary

On New Year’s Day 2008, I started The View from Amy’s World Blog. Originally people called it a “web log,” a term that swiftly morphed into “blog.” In the beginning I think the main idea was that a web log would serve as public documentation of one’s life. On the occasion of my five-year anniversary of becoming a blogger, I went back to read my very first blog, which I’m sharing with you this week. Here it is from the archives.

January 1, 2008

Why start a blog? Why now? Why me?

Back in the early 1980s I wondered why on earth anyone needed a home computer. If you wanted to do math that badly then you could balance your checkbook or ask a friend to set you some problems to figure out. Then I landed a writing job and I had to provide material on disk. So I learned how to use a wordprocessing program on my friend Jim’s old Kaypro (remember those old DOS operating systems?) and it changed my life. I had been struck by lightning. I needed a computer.

Some time later, I wondered why anyone needed an internet connection at home. If I needed to know the weather I could look outside. If I needed to figure out where I was going I could look at a map. If I needed to communicate with people I could pick up the phone. I had an encyclopedia and a cookbook and a dictionary. But Ron, my husband (you’ll be hearing a lot about him on this blog), decided to put a satellite dish on my roof and hook me up to the universe. Suddenly my world expanded to the infinite power. Email. Google. Mapquest. Amazon. I can engineer my life from my desk using someone else’s satellite in outer space and never take off my fuzzy socks. I need the internet.

Fast forward. Not long ago I wondered why anyone would have a blog. How conceited. How self-centered. Who wants to know what Bingo Gillespie thinks about his neighbor’s new dishwasher? Who wants to see Abby’s new shoes? Why would anyone read a blog? They have their own life. Then I started reading blogs. They are fun, interesting, informative, and I don’t care what those luddites say, blogs are a way to communicate. In fact, blogs, email, and social marketing are beginning to bring back the art of writing letters. The art of writing, period. Sure, a lot of people write a new txt msg language with no vowels. But a lot of other people write real stuff. Stuff I like to read. I had to put myself on a blogging diet. There are way too many interesting folks out there with delightful things to say. And I want to be one of them. I need a blog.

I heard Bill Moyers on the radio talking about how the internet, and blogging in particular, has turned us into a nation of storytellers. He said:  “The moment when freedom begins is when we realize that someone else is writing the story and when we pick up the pen and start writing the story ourselves.” I have read so many stories by others, some magnificent, some useless, and I have asked myself “when is it my turn?” You know what? Now is my turn.

Blogging brings us together. I invite you to meet me on my blog. I have so much to share with you. And please do join in the conversation. Be part of the story. I’ll post whenever I have something to say and can make the time to write, hopefully several times a week. Check back whenever, see if I’ve been here and left you a message, a story, a laugh, a word, an insight. Welcome to my new blog!

At first I wrote on the blog whenever the mood struck me, but less than a year into my blogging adventure I began to write on my blog on Sunday every week. I think of it as my Sunday Column and consider it good discipline as a writer to post a piece every week. Crazy that I actually have something to say weekly, huh? Some things more interesting or humorous or insightful than others, but I usually have a worthwhile story or idea to share with you. I have never “promoted” my blog so I don’t have very many readers. I mean I don’t run all over the internet linking back to the blog. And I certainly don’t advertise on it, since I worship in the Temple of Stop Shopping. You would be surprised at how many solicitations I receive trying to get me to advertise on my blog. But I’m not in it for the money, I’m in it for the storytelling. The only thing I do to solicit readers is to post a link to the Sunday Blog on my Facebook page.

I honestly have no idea how many people regularly read my blog so I’m running a test this week to celebrate my five-year Blogiversary. Please leave a comment, email me, or send me a message on Facebook if you read this blog entry (unless you are my father, my husband, or my brother, because I know you guys are reading). I’m curious to see how many readers I have. And thanks so much for listening. Have a terrific 2013!

[P.S. If you like to cook, check out my gluten-free persimmon bread recipe on Amy's Recipe Project (click here). I made up this recipe last week using persimmons from Betty Springer's orchard in Kenwood. Knock your socks off delicious.]