What blogging means to me

Happy birthday to my blog! I have been blogging at this domain for a whole year today! I've been thinking a lot lately about why I blog now verses why I started blogging during the summer of 2004, how my blogging has evolved, how blogging has gained a lot of traction in the last year, and what my particular blog is all about.

I started blogging over at another blogging site the summer after my freshman year at BYU because all my friends were doing it. Really. It was a way to keep up with them and write funny things about each other and our lives. I kept it up into the school year. I liked blogging with that particular domain because it included a "friends page" which posted any new entries that my friends had made with that particular blogging site. That is, I told the site who my friends were, and it pulled their blogs into one convenient page for me. But then, with time, many of my friends pretty much just stopped blogging altogether.

Around that time, Janssen started blogging here on blogspot, and I followed her shortly thereafter. For me, it was really not about keeping up with people. It wasn't about telling everyone about me. It was all about writing. An outlet for me to write about the things that amused me and occasionally the things that frustrated me.

Somewhere in the last year my blog became pretty generally known to my family- both my side and Eric's. Actually, to be clear, it happened on Eric's side when Brianne started blogging and I commented on some of her posts. For my side, I think it happened when I sent an email telling everyone to check out my new teeth because I had posted photos to my blog of the transition from crooked to beautiful.

Around the time that I started blogging on here, I also started using Google Reader. It is WONDERFUL! It compiles all the blogs that I read into one place. It is easy to use! It prevents me from checking blogs a gazillion times a day one at a time just to see if the blogger has posted. Not only is that more convenient for me, but it also doesn't screw up the statistics on the blog, if the blogger has a site meter or uses Google Analytics, like I do.

Google Reader also suggests to me other blogs I might like. It is great! Because, you see, reading blogs is not just about keeping up with people I know. It is also about reading things posted by strangers. I know. It's a little odd. Why do I care at all what strangers have to say? What they do all day? How cute their kids are? Frankly, I don't know! But it's not just about their lives, it's mostly about how they write. There are some really great writers out there, and I love getting a feel for different writing styles and different ways to tell stories. It has helped my writing quite a bit.

Plus, some people are just downright hilarious.

So, to summarize:

• I have about 50 blogs in my Reader. Yes. 50. And I add about 2-3 each week. I'm constantly looking for more. Mind you, many of these haven't been updated in more than a week. I only get about 15 posts a day, and half of those I barely skim because I get a lot of genealgy blogs, and that news can often be repetitive.
• Hate to break it to you, but blogging is not for you to keep tabs on me. It is for me. To write. Maybe one day I'll stop writing about my day-to-day life altogether. Probably not. But maybe.
• I was on the blogging bandwagon long before it was merely a way to share pictures with family members and friends. And I'm a little too proud of that fact. But I do love the sharing aspect of it!
• Never, ever, ever has Eric posted on this blog. Nor will he. It's not his. It's mine. He mostly shuns blogs, and he thinks my whole blogging obsession is a little silly. He doesn't read your blogs unless I tell him to do so. Sorry. Usually I just tell him what is going on with his friends and family. I am the information gatekeeper in this household. But really, it's not his blog, so if you wouldn't mind not calling it his, that would be great.
• I like to keep track of how many visitors I get. That means I like it when you link to me. I generally assume that other people like to be linked to as well, so if you don't want strangers visiting your blog, please let me know and I won't include hyperlinks when I refer to you. But, I ask that if you refer to me, you do link to me. Because I care. Too. Much.