THE BLOG MEME

Barbara at Stray Thoughts tagged me for this early last week.

1. Do you like the look and content of your blog?
   
   I really like the look of it. I love to change things around and redecorate but Susie did such a great job with the whole look, I know I'll probably never change it. I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's definitely mine.
   
   I'm finally OK with the content, too. I got off to an awkward start but it was like talking to people I didn't know yet. Now that I'm more comfortable with it all, I think my real personality comes out.
   
   I didn't start this blog because I wanted to journal my day to day life. I didn't start it because I aspire to be a great writer (I tend to make up the rules of writing as I go). So I think it's kind of all over the place. Sometimes serious. Most times, not. Occasionally I do go back and delete a post when I've had time to calm down and get over my whiny self.
   
   Actually, I just spent two days deleting posts. It felt overwhelming, 325 posts in eight months. I thought to myself, no one in the world including me is ever going to go back and read all this stuff so I deleted like crazy (200 posts!) and it feels like I cleaned the house from top to bottom.



2. Does your family know about your blog?
   
   Since half of my family blogs, too, I'd say yes. Seriously, my whole family knows I have a blog. My father will never see it because he has no use at all for computers. I suspect that my three brothers read it although none of them have ever commented. It could be that they're afraid to enter the world of the sisterhood! :-)



3. Can you tell your friends about your blog?
   
   Yes. Of course.



4. Do you just read the blogs of those who comment on your blog?
   
   This is the question I thought was a little awkward. I do read a few people who never comment on my blog. Honestly, I have no idea if they even read my blog because I did away with site meter ages ago.
   
   I leave comments on almost all the blogs I follow. There are a few I read but don't comment on. It's awkward for me because when I first started reading them, I did leave comments. They never responded. So those are the blogs I have in my "watch" category in bloglines. I check in occasionally to see what's going on because I think they're interesting. But I don't comment because it's embarrassing to keep leaving comments that go unacknowledged.
   
   Let me also say this. I've probably been guilty of this myself but never intentionally. It's hard to stay on top of it when your life is hectic and a little out of control. But when a new visitor comments, I go find them and thank them. I feel bad right now because there were some new visitors during the whole delurking thing last week and I deleted the post they commented on in my house cleaning frenzy. The minute I deleted it I realized what I'd done. Now I don't know how to find them. (Y'all come back - I promise not to delete you again. :-)
   
   To put it all in the proper perspective, I follow 130 blogs. Four of those are in my "watch" category. I do comment on the other 126.



5. Does your blog positively affect your mind?
   
   Yes, because I enjoy it. But the blogs I follow have a more positive affect on me.



6. What does the number of visitors to your blog mean?
   
   The visitors themselves, each one of them, mean a lot to me. The number of visitors doesn't mean anything at all. I don't care about numbers.



7. Do you imagine what other bloggers look like?
   
   Yes, I do. But I never get it right. For the longest time I pictured Jules as a very tall, waifish, platinum blond. She's not all that tall and she's very brunette. And of course I thought Susanne was a goofy looking girl with a very large head. Wrong again. Her head size is perfectly normal. And I thought Big Mama was, well, you know, large. And she's not. I never get it right. I will say that I picture Boo Mama laying in the yard with her legs up in the air and the wind knocked out of her (based on her profile photo and all). And in this case, I may be right. :-)



8. Do you think blogging has any real benefit?
   
   Absolutely. Bloggers are real people who care about each other. We support and encourage each other, we're a force to be reckoned with when we join together in prayer for a sister or her loved one. There's no limit to what we can do. We all saw it in action this week when we came out in huge numbers to help our friend, Kelli.



9. Do you think that the blogosphere is a stand alone community separated from the real world?
   
   I think it might be for some people. But it's not for me. I talk to blogging friends on the phone, we exchange things in the mail, we know we'll eventually meet each other in real life. We email each other encouragement and advice and even recipes behind the blogging scene. The blogging world is just an extension of my real world, an enhancement to it.



10. Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them?
    
    Political blogs (or posts) don't scare me at all but yes, I do avoid them. I'm not out here to argue with anyone. And I'm really not interested in discussing politics in this forum.



11. Do you think criticizing your blog is useful?
    
    I think that criticizing anyone's blog is rude. As far as I know, no one's criticized my blog. But if someone did it would be exactly the same thing as walking into my home and telling me they hate my whole decorating scheme, my dinner smells awful, my dog needs a bath and they don't particularly like me either.
    
    I'm not saying I don't think it's OK to disagree with someone but I think there's a nice way to do that without being downright critical or hurtful. Why would anyone do that? It's mean. If you don't like someone's blog, who on earth is making you visit it!
    
    I just don't understand why anyone would leave a criticism or worse, a downright nasty remark, in anyone's comments.



12. Have you ever thought what would happen to your blog if you died?
    
    Being a little OCD, of course I have. Rob has my username and password. My sister has it, too (in case Rob and I croak together). I've suggested they post my death notice, give everyone plenty of time to run back and print the recipes they want and then kiss it all goodbye. Hit "delete."
    
    My blog is not a journal. So I don't know that there would be any reason to leave it out here.



13. Which blogger has had the greatest impression on you?
    
    There is no way I could ever choose one blogger who's made a great impression on me. There are just way too many. That's why I simply cannot pare my blogline feeds down to something a little more sane. Heck. I can't seem to stop adding new people to my feeds because I'm addicted to nice people.



14. Which blogger do you think is the most similar to you?
    
    There isn't one. I have a uniqueness all my own. :-) Is that a huge sigh of relief I hear out there? What. You don't want to be exactly like me?



15. Name a song you want to listen to.
    
    Truly this question baffles me because I cannot for the life of me figure out what it has to do with blogging. So to answer this in a way that sort of connects it to blogging, I'd say it's You Are Loved by Josh Groban. You know. The song you're hearing right now.



Instead of tagging anyone, I'll open this up to anyone who'd like to do it. There are several of you whose answers I'd really be interested in reading. But I don't want to put pressure on someone who might prefer not to answer some of these questions. I'm a real wimp that way. No guts. No guts at all. :-)