In the beginning there was nothing
Like everyone who begins blogging, my screen was a blank slate. And like most people who begin blogging, I did it for a lark. It was something new, something fun and something that offered scope for discovering and developing a new skill. After all, when I first got my computer, my six year old niece who was already proficient with her own, asked me what I needed a computer for and what was I going to do with mine? Use it to write recipes? Use it to source recipes?
Well, I did use it to record recipes and source recipes but I also used it for a host of other things : like using it as a typewriter to help my husband in his business. Using it to source pharmaceuticals and other business related work like finding airline routes etc. So my trusty 486 which made all kinds of sounds at start up became my friend and life line. I used it to work as a travel agent, I used it to work as a research assistant , I used it as a communications system to keep in touch with family and friends.
Which then became a blog
Then when my daughter left the nest, I realised that not only was she abroad but there were several other family and friends to whom I wrote letters and kept abreast with the happenings in my life. After repeated attempts at copy pasting and forwarding, I realised that the simplest thing would be to make a BLOG. And that is how my blog came about. My very first blog on MSN.
Evolution
What began as a daily account of the happenings in my life which were largely rants & raves and soon developed into something more general – like book reviews, movie reviews and restaurant reviews. We used to eat out a lot those days and being much younger, I could read two books a day and see a movie a week. Over time, these activities did diminish to a large extent but I still managed to find something to critique: like products and customer service.
Travel & Tourism came next on my blogging journey as I was already used to keeping a diary while travelling and had accumulated several little notebooks with scraps of mementos like museum tickets etc while growing up. With the internet and its facilities, it seemed even easier to keep those memories alive and share them via my BLOG.
With more and more topics finding their way onto my blog, I realised that there were BLOGWORLDS like BLOGADDA and INDIBLOGGER which would connect me and my blog to what is known as the BLOGOSPHERE. After participating in memes like “Skywatch Friday” I ventured on to more adventurous interaction like attending live blogger meets, participating in online contests etc. I began to understand terminology like SEO, tagging, labels and the different blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress.
I started using my blogs as a creative platform and began pouring out my heart in poetry and prose, showcasing my photographs and also what I thought was giving vent to my creative muse. It became space through which I could connect and share. With a host of topics that interested me, I diversified into different blogs and set up several blogs under different accounts and actually had an identity crisis not remembering which blog was under which address!
Finally I met up with a young blogger who helped me out with the mess I found myself in – I should establish a unique internet identity by buying myself a custom domain and then directing my blog towards it.
So I bought the domain early this month and just about two days ago managed to transfer my blog to this address. But then, I lost my own individual chowmiaow which I had so dearly grown to love.
I am now in the process of cleaning up my internet debris and consolidating all my blogs, making my own website and hopefully establishing a more coherent blog in the already crowded blogosphere.
The end?
It has been a fun journey so far, like an adventure story and a roller-coaster rolled into one; a journey that I have enjoyed every moment of, despite finding it frustrating and non-productive at times. I have met up with several bloggers on line and off, interacted with strangers who strangely think like me, connected dots with random people in random countries and enjoyed the thrill of being identified as a self published author on the huge big universe of the blogosphere.
With technology changing every moment of the day and with program upgrades, there is no end to the journey in sight. And I am grateful for that – this never ending journey of discovery.
p.s. Now I have to figure out how to configure my website and why I can’t get any comments on my blog. Ideas anyone?
This post is written for the WriteTribe ProBlogger September Challenge
Twenty- five Seven 