Monday, November 5, 2007

Reasons to blog

Before I started blogging I thought it was just like keeping a diary but publicly. I was even wondering why anyone would like to do that. My experience was based on a journal of a girl my daughter knew. To be precise my daughter’s room mate was mentioned in the journal against her will. She had started dating a guy the writer knew. It was not nice to read about that personal flood of words even though any names were never mentioned. All the people involved and many others knew what it was all about.

To my surprise most blogs are not like that. There are blogs where you can learn about things you never knew about. There are blogs where you can laugh watching funny pictures or reading jokes. And I can even enjoy blogs written in languages not known to me just watching the beautiful photographs.
One of the most enjoyable things is making friends with people from all over the world.

My first friend was a Norwegian photographer Thomas Laupstad, whose blog is about photos from northern Norway; beautiful scenery, the beauty of which I have experienced myself. I even got engaged in Oslo. It is so enjoyable to get mail with a link to photos like this:

Another interesting discovery is Luís Alves with his blog Mökkikunta. The description of his blog is: Finnish Model in Analysis [Modelo Finlandês em Análise] Finland and Portugal: two distant territories, two decentralization forms.

The latest contact is Lawrence Cheok from Singapore and his blog A Long Long Road about personal development. I have been sitting in lectures of the same subject and never gotten anything out of them and now I find reading Lawrence's blog so very interesting and can relate to what he is writing about.

I left the best to the last: my source of inspiration, Gil Galanti, who blogs about anything. I just wonder when he starts to give advice about knitting :)

9 comments:

Gil said...

Thank you for your kind word Leena. I am close to be blushing here in my little holy land place.

Regarding knitting, I am surprised that you are saying that... I am already known to be very into that subject LOL :) I even have this friend Anna with this spectacular blog, check my review at http://individualathome.blogspot.com/2007/09/mochimochi-land-knitting-is-art.html

Leena Helttula said...

No need to blush. After I wrote this I found the knitting stuff in your StumbleUpon blog :)
You are a curious person!
Is there anything you would not blog about???

Anonymous said...

I am surprised, too. I really enjoy writing, and I've always wanted to publish my ideas. I just never knew such a place existed. So, you've all helped me, too. When I get enough content, I'm going to go to the publishers. (Gil knits? Fiber Artists Arise! So that's who made mochimochi... I like it.)

Anonymous said...

If you don't includeMY Livejournal experience from high school, when I first started a blog the first person I ran into was an seventy or eighty year old gentleman from Scotland who wrote poetry. I've been hooked ever since.

Anonymous said...

Hi Leena, thanks for the mention and your friendship.

I am constantly amazed at how people are pulled closer by the Internet.

Your post about reason to blog is so, so apt. I have befriended so many people like yourself and Gil. The interaction and insights are amazing.

Thanks for the friendship.

Meghna said...

Here you have pointed out very good reasons for blogging and given some great blogs as examples too. I loved the post and am sure to come back frequently!

Black_Mamba said...

Hey Leena, i love this post. i was really close to shutting my site down until i found my reason to continue, wrote about it just yesterday.........

thanks for sharing :)

Betsie said...

Hi Leena! I enjoyed reading your thoughts on blogging... I too resisted blogging at the beginning (read some of my early posts in my blog to see what I mean)... but soon I started enjoying sharing my hobbies with my handful of friends that I know visit my blog. It became a LOT more fun after I got an easy to use digital camera... I think photos are one of the things that really draws folks in and it has definitely made it more enjoyable for me too =)

Leena Helttula said...

Hi and welcome to visit :)
I hope you saw your blog in my blogroll!