In 2005, I discovered the world of the blog.
This is an excerpt of my first blog post.... of course it wasn't in fancy wrapping like it is now.
I had been writing online for years prior, I was known as "Pam in the shed' but I was quite restricted in what I could share. I understand their are rules and regulations within online groups, but there was a huge grey area and I think the rules were often misdiagnosed.
One night I received an email from the School in Japan where I had been "Artist in Residence" for a week. I taught children aged 5 to 12 to quilt and we made 5 large joined quilts. It was an amazing experience.
I had no idea they were going to enter the quilts into the Japan Quilt Show... but they did and that email announced that they had won the school section and the prize was quite large, computers for the school I believe...
I was so excited, so I shared it online on the quilters list. It never went to air, I was told I was "self promoting" so I left the group with a deal of sadness, and blogging was the answer.
I used 'blogger' and wrote almost every day for 3 years until I changed to the more superior format of Typepad. Now I have gone back to 'blogger' for many of my satellite blogs.They have some wonderful features and are more functional than Typepad.
Blogging offered me more than just writing, I began to draw again, I designed more and I took my photography much more seriously.
Over 3500, posts. 1000's of photos and 3/4 million page views later, one could say it's become a life style.
I've shared my views... (sometimes with trepidation)
I've shared my work and creative expression .... but not everything...!!!!!
Since my first blog, we have the ipods, ipads, iphones and I've graduated to using Apple for everything. I can remember our computer guy almost sneering at my first Mac..... "you'll be sorry" he said. But I realized that he didn't know the first thing abut Macs so I forgave him.
Now, the five year olds have an Ipad, the 7 year olds have mac computers and even the 3 year olds know their way around the Iphone.
As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.
Think how blogging has changed our lives. I can look back on any day in the past 6 years and find out what was happening at that time.
I've met the most wonderful people and shared the lives of 1000's of people.
Last night I received information that Blurb will now convert the books you create so they can be read online and feature in your blog...!!!! goodness where will it all end.
But isn't it exciting.!!!
Blog on.