Jun
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June 7, 2007
I’m feeling this intense desire to read blog comments instead of paying attention to my current writing task at hand, which involves using the annoying terms personal productivity system and, worse, actionable (SHOOT. ME. NOW), so riddle me this, Bat-Reader, how did you get introduced to blogs, or blogging?
My story: in the last part of 2001 JB and I visited southern China; during that trip there was one night when I was hanging around our hotel room waiting for JB, and tooling around on his laptop to pass the time. I can’t explain what happened next, except to say that I was probably feeling a little lonesome for Americana at its finest . . . at any rate, I found myself googling Jean Teasdale, which inexplicably led me to Wendy’s site. I read through all of her archives until it came time for us to head to dinner (where a waiter repeated what I thought was “Chicken hot! Chicken hot!” to me, and I nodded in understanding—hey, I can handle a little spice, my good man—and promptly bit into what turned out to be a chicken heart. Which wasn’t half bad), and from Poundy I eventually discovered many more excellent blogs (well, online journals, as they were called at the time). A few months later, I decided to try my hand at writing on the web, and I’ve been duly blathering away—and reading—ever since.
How about you? When did you start reading blogs, or writing a blog? If you are really feeling generous, you could also tell me how you stumbled upon my blog, because I’d love to know.
PS: if you haven’t seen this video yet, prepare for your day to get about fifty thousand times more awesome. “NOT FUNNY!” Oh, but it is. (Via MightyGirl.)
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Sorry that was WAY TOO LONG!
I don’t write, I only read. My life is far to boring to write about and my gramar sucks.
I started reading about a year and a half ago when I went back to work after the girl was born. ClubMom sent me an email with links to mommy blogs and i found you, Beth, Kristin, and Amalah. I really enjoyed those blogs because most of you (except Kristin) had little ones the same age as the girl and it was nice to know I wasn’t alone. From there I found each of your other blogs (So the Fish Said, Sundry, Amalah, and so one) which I think I enjoy much more (maybe because you all cuss on your non mommy blogs) and from there I found Swistle & Rude Cactus. Those are all the ones I try to check out each day while I am supposed to be working ;o). There are a couple of others I look at from time to time that I have found either linked from my daily blogs or by clicking links in the blog roles of my favorites.
Being a Java Programmer and reading http://www.theserverside.com I started reading blogs of Cameron Purdy (www.jroller.com/page/cpurdy). He had a list of blogs he reads, one of which was Pippy Longsuffering (www.pippasaid.com). Who like you was a mother with a sense of humor. One of her blogs refered to your blog and here we are.
I found Amalah first, and then I think I found you in her blogroll. That was back in 2005 right after you had Riley before I had Jojo. So I followed your son’s progress and development to help keep my first-time mom worries in check.
Entertainment Weekly reviewed Mimi Smartypants’ book. I googled her, discovered Diaryland, read her archives, and clicked on her link to you. So Sundrymourning is 2nd degree for me, although I am a relative newbie to the blogworld.
Hmm, good question. Let’s see. I first linked to an online journal through a writer at MSN (Dave White). But it wasn’t until I read an article about Petite Anglaise being “dooced” that the whole blogging world opened up for me.
I’m not sure how I got hooked up to your site, but I’m sure glad I did.
I found you via http://www.plain-jane.com several years ago. I think I first discovered blogs after reading an article in some publication (maybe Wall Stree Journal?) in 2001. Fairly early on something led me to Robyn’s http://www.bitchypoo.com site which led me to Jane and then to you!
Also, in random news, just saw Laurie Notaro do a reading last night. I know you said you’d enjoyed her other books, Sundry. SHE IS SO FUNNY! If anyone has the chance to catch her in person, do it! Her new book “There’s A (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going To Hell” is her first fiction book and I’m loving it so far.
A friend in one of my forums C&P’ed something from Dooce a few times and WHAM! I was hooked. From there, I started adding to my favorites list with people from her comments. I started my own blog when I found that I had a lot to say about my son’s special needs. I couldn’t find any other parents who were blogging about a kiddo with ACM1, so I decided it was time to start myself.
I found you in the comments of someone else’s site, and for the life of me, I can’t remember who! You said something about being from Washington state I think, so I decided to show some support for a fellow rain-soaked blogger. From the first day I read here, I had a bloggy girl crush. :-) I love your style.
I don’t remember how I stumbled across you, but it wasn’t long after you started blogging… I was hooked. I already had a website, but it wasn’t long before it was a “diary”. :) I can’t believe I’ve been reading you for so many years!
Like so many others I came to blogs generally through TWoP. I found yours, however, many years ago when a co-worker insisted I check it out – one read and I was hooked. Now I mostly read general blogs like gofugyourself, but I can’t stop being a voyeur in your personal blog because it’s just so damned funny. I will never blog for myself because I’m just not funny enough to meet my own standards of readability. I’m sure my diary would bore the crap out of anyone but me (hell half the time it bores me too ;-)
I wanted to take my husband out for indian for his birthday but wanted something new and exciting so I did a web search for best indian in DC. DCfoodies.com popped up and one of Jason’s reviews linked to his wife Amy (Amalah). From there I found most of what I now read. Still don’t have a blog myself, it seems like it would take up too much time.
Man, I don’t think that video’s funny at all. That poor little boy! He thinks his sister’s bleeding and no one will clear it up for him… they just laugh at him! Gah. Maybe I’m in a maudlin mood.
I found you through Plain Jane, whom I found through Uncle Bob, whom I found through Damn Hell Ass Kings, which I found through Tomato Nation, which I don’t remember how I found her. :)
I don’t know how I got exposed to blogging; I guess I heard about them long before I actually read one. To be honest, I don’t even remember the first web log I read. I hate the word “blog”. When I type “blog” in Word, I have it Auto-Correct to “web log”.
Anyway. I started *journaling online* when I got iWeb with my new Mac. It’s so easy! My first one was a waiting-to-try-to-conceive log, which morphed into my current trying-to-conceive log. I also have prepped the baby’s web log, and I keep a construction log about our remodel for the ‘rents and anyone else who cares. I am…how do you say…and emotional exhibitionist, I guess. I could talk about myself all. day. long. So web logging is my cup of tea. But I don’t log my daily life online; I do it in the journal I’ve been keeping since 1984. I don’t know why I’m not “out there” except that I vent big-time in my offline journal, and it would not be good for my friends or family to stumble on that.
I found Sundry Mourning via a link on a bulletin board I was visiting when I was planning my wedding. I sent the link to everyone I knew because the first entry I read (about the personal lubricant in your bathroom) was so hysterically funny, and so were your readers’ comments, I had to share.
I was in email, friendly contact with a woman who worked at one of my clients in the US (I’m British) who sent me her blog address and said please, please, pretty please would I start one too. We both had to shut down those blogs because one of her coworkers found hers, passed the address to her boss and really, I didn’t potentially want one of my clients reading mine.
I came across yours via jillymel.blogspot.com who I came across having done a search to see who also blogged in my geographical area. Jilly and I are now good friends.
I also met up with a couple of other people via blogging (a mother and daughter) who introduced me, via Flickr, to a male friend of theirs. He and I are now an item, me having left my partner not for my new man but because of him.
I googled Queer as Folk, which landed me on TWoP, which was then Might Mighty Big TV. In the forums, I discovered timbrat, who led me to Weetabix. Somehow, in the way that these things happen, you and me and Chauffi and Weetabix ended up going out together in Austin, and having a delightful time. I followed you from dland, and my entire staff at work is now in love with Riley.
Back in 2002 I had a really boring job, so I needed the internet to entertain me. I would go to cool site of the day everyonce in a while to see if there was any interesting websites. That is how I came across “all about jen” which is now http://www.jennsylvania.com, she was linked to http://www.thekaetlancaresnot.blogspot.com, who is linked to you. That is how I discovered the big world of blogs and I couldn’t believe how many there were. Unfortunately I can’t write at all, so I don’t have my own blog. But I love to read and hate it when a book ends, so I look at all the blogs I read as books that never end.
I actually only found this blog the other day, because it was linked from Swistle’s blog, but I only ever found Swistle’s blog because I read your other blog, and you mentioned Swistle in one of your posts. The way I found your other blog was through a series of links… I don’t remember the exact process, but I did write a post on my own blog about finding your blog. You can see it here: http://duwaxloolu.blogspot.com/2007/04/on-motherhood.html
In terms of my own blog, I started writing it at the beginning of this year because I liked the more adult feel than the more angsty LiveJournal blogs that I was used to from college. And I like having an outlet to write about whatever I’m thinking about.
When Riley and my son were starting to teeth, I was complaining to a friend, she had just read your first post about Riley’s teething, so she gave me your link. I have been reading religiously here, club mom, swistle, etc since.
Parenting blogs now keep me sane!
I found you when I was pregnant. My sister sent me a link and I was hooked right away. Read back in your archives to catch up…that was in the spring of 2005. I’m a faithful reader and love that you are so real and honest. You and my favorite guilty pleasure Trent from Pink is the New Blog are the only blogs I get into. Tried a blog of my own but honestly the blank page looked best. :)
my brother in law asked me why i didn’t have a blog, because it was free publishing. and i was all, “yeah…why don’t i have one?” so…after that, my site was born.
My first blog that I read and laughed my ass off was dusty from porktornado with his 10 worst album cover ever. I read all of his archives over the weekend (2003?maybe 2004)I was utterly mesmerized by the fact that I don’t know this person personally but yet have this feeling like I knew him since kindergarden. He was on diaryland…so maybe i just stumbled upon your blog there? Did mimi smartypants link to you? I don’t know.
Through your blog I found amalah and then it just exploded on me. How messy. Yet wonderful.
I was reading Gentry de Paris a few years ago, and she mentioned that you sent her a home-made Christmas card. I followed your link and was hooked. I only check in with Gentry sporatically, but check in with you every day. I’ve really enjoyed “watching” your life evolve these last several years, and I love your excellent writing and frankness.
I heard about your blog through MRW — who contrary to her assertions otherwise, is very funny and should indeed host her own blog (plus she has the whole Zombie issue thing going on….sigh). This is coming from the woman who did start her own blog that is not, er…funny. Hey, its to keep the parents from out of state in tune with the bebe, I am a lawyer – not paid to be funny. See my non-funniness at http://www.ittlelively.blogspot.com. Ahem, anyhow, MRW told me how funny your blog was — and I started reading it right after I got pregnant and I loved LOVED following your tales of pregnancy (I was 5 mos. behind you). Now I am a devoted fan who has pushed your blog onto others. You must write a book, seriously.
Gosh, I don’t really remember. I always hesitate to add comments here because….well….you get so many. I fear my paltry addition will just be lost in the crowd. My sister started a blog a million years ago. And I started reading Gwen Zepeda’s original blog (1997?). Then, I had my second child in 2004 and realized that there was never going to be another baby book (it’s still pretty empty) and I wanted a record of my girls’ childhood and the angst of being a parent and a separate person all at once. And so I started mine when Juliette was about 7 weeks old. I recently moved it to freshhell.wordpress.com. And there you have it. I don’t remember how I started reading yours – probably my sister linked to it originally. Long before Riley.
Came back to read all the comments and remembered that I *DID* used to read other journals when I had that library deskjob. You linked to 12% Beer and DHAK which got me reading LadeeLeroy (SO funny, it’s almost like she had to stop writing or the world would implode from the funny) and also Disco the Kid, and biensoul and Weetabix…are any of them still writing now?
Your blog was the first blog I began reading. A friend told me I would be interested in reading it and it would make me laugh and sent me a link. It only took one link. *grin*
I don’t really do much in the way of my own blog. I have considered it and, someday when I have the time, I probably will.
I found http://www.shelleyness.com sometime around 1997, from there I followed the link to Kymm, then Pamie (squishy), then Dave Van (some guy in Canada with 2 horrible kids that he constantly defended and then showed you where they kicked a hole in the wall, I think they were 3 year old twins), then Xeney, and then, and then, and then. I started writing at least 2 of them but found that I wasn’t happy about seeing my privates up there on the screen (someday I will get past that). So I have wast….I mean spent 10 years reading about the lives of others. So this year is my “journal-readingversary”. Happy me.
Hi again. Ever since I left that comment this morning I have been racking my brain to remember who that girl was…the TWINKIE girl…..on Diaryland. Very popular. Very funny. It is driving me insane. You know, with the Twinkies! If you happen to remember, would you let me know so I can think and process other information again? Thanks.
You don’t mean the popular, funny girl with a TINKERBELL image on her journal do you? That would be Weetabix, but Twinkies . . . I’m drawing a blank.
I hadn’t really jumped on the whole internet bandwagon until about a year ago. I had always refused to join Myspace. I didn’t play any multi player people online games. (uh, still don’t) I didn’t use wikipedia or photobucket or urbandictionary any of the many many rescources I have since come to rely on. What happened to spark my new found love for all things e- was one of my friends showed me a sight called askaninja.com. It was hilarious, and I went to check for new podcasts every week. One week there a shiny new link to another project these same people were doing about this rediculous little emo girl. I linked over and found my eyes adjusting to the bright warm light that shines down from heaven in that e-topia you know as YouTube. I was immediately hooked. Then I spent a few months camped in front of the computer absorbing everything I could find on the internet. It turns out there is all sorts of stuff online that doesn’t involve porn. Anyway, after I started making my own YouTube videos, I got into vlogs. I found them to be an interesting but voyeuristic window into other peoples lives. People I enjoyed, but never would have met in the real world. Well it was only a matter of time before I started reading blogs and forums and all sorts of web geek stuff. One of my lady friends showed me your blog once. I believe it was the post with ceiling cat. I thought you were hilarious, and have been following your textual tirades ever since.
I know I’m not your typical reader. Mainly because I’m not a woman and this is a very feminine (some times) blog. But even though you post on topics such as shopping and new clothes and trying to lose weight, topics I am not particularly drawn to, you do it in such a humorous way that I still get my e-tertainment. Plus you like zombies and you cuss and you’ve got a tattoo, so you’re cool. Keep on rocking the Cashbah, and I’ll keep showing up to watch.
I was introduced to the internet and online journals in 1998. I’ve been blogging in one form or another ever since.
I’m sure I found yours through the normal link route. Though I can’t remember who, exactly, started the chain. I know I really started reading when you were pregnant with Riley.
I think it was about 5 yrs ago. I was on Ivillage looking at weight loss journals and I found Bitchypoo which led me to you and Darn Tootin and Bitterhag. I’m still reading all of them plus Aunt Linda who is amazingly funny.
I started a Diaryland page in 2000 or 2001 (cuz all the cool kids were doing it, ya know), and some time later discovered your journal via Diaryland banner. It caught my attention because it was a pair of giant red lips, and hey, who wouldn’t be intrigued? I immediately thought you were one of the wittiest writers I’d ever encountered, and spent the next however many hours catching up on your previous entries. Since then, I’ve been a faithful lurker, as has my hubby. I haven’t mastered the blog thing myself yet, but I am totally addicted to Myspace.
Ah — I love this question and have left the post open on my computer all day, meaning to get to it. Although one does hesitate when you’ve already received so many comments — do you really read them all?
After reading several of Jennifer Weiner’s books I went to her website. This was probably early 2005, after my daughter was born, and I’d just read Little Earthquakes. Jennifer has a blog which is part of her site. So that was my first. Way at the bottom on the right hand side she had links to about four other blogs: Dooce, Finslippy, When In Doubt Use Parsley, and one called Bad Momma (I think) which is no longer around. I started visiting the others right away. While I like all of them very much, I think Dooce might have saved me. At that point Harper was about 3 months old. I was having a very difficult time with the isolation of not working any more, not knowing any other moms of very young children, and the fact that I wasn’t finding unicorns and rainbows of joy in the everyday tasks motherhood required. I had encountered only the group of mothers that say, “Aren’t we blessed? Isn’t everything wonderful? I didn’t know what life was before I had this bundle of joy to take care of every waking moment!” And while children are wonderful and a joy and a blessing, they are also a lot of smelly, sometimes boring, sometimes infuriating, not always life-afirming, work! I think Dooce was the first person who made me feel like it was okay to say that outloud and I’m sure that recognition saved me in some way. I LOVE the sense of community I have found through blogging. I can’t imagine what I would do without it.
Occasionally I would add another blog to my reading based on one of the blogrolls on those first few. I came to yours through either finslippy or dooce, can’t remember which. I have probably only been reading since right before Riley turned one.
I toyed with the idea of blogging myself from the beginning of reading them, but didn’t do it until October ’05 because I wasn’t sure I’d have anything to say. My blog is really stories about my kiddo and I think that mostly friends and family of ours read it. I’m very flattered when someone who doesn’t know us comes to visit the blog and then returns for more. I don’t ever anticipate a mass audience though.
While there are lots of interesting blogs out there, I only read about 20 on a daily basis, I just don’t have time for more than that. Yours is one I do check daily, and I love it. I also read the ClubMom blog, which I followed from here.
Thanks for asking! (Sorry so long.)
A friend introduced me to LiveJournal back in 1999 and I started my own blog. A few years later I got divorced, so I started a different LiveJournal blog. Then a few years after THAT, I decided to start my own site because I was sick of LiveJournal’s skimpy design templates.
Right after I left LiveJournal, they came out with a thousmillion new templates. Of course.
Anyway, one of my first LiveJournal friends recommended your site to me, back when you were on Diaryland, so I’ve been reading you for awhile.
I followed a link from Pippa’s blog to the following post. She used your story of the hair appointment to quiz her husband on “what 3 things did JB do wrong.” Hilarious – both your story and her use of it as an educational tool!
https://www.sundrymourning.com/110705.htm
I don’t have time to do a blog… I barely have time to read any. I probably only read about 5 blogs regularly, including BackNine and Jonniker, both who I found through you. Thanks!
i had googled “robin smith” & came across a different robin smith who had a blog that was great. she was nominated for some award-diaryland maybe? and when i went to the list of nominees/winners i looked at all of them & yours was on the list. that was like…. 3 years ago maybe? after i’d been reading other people’s for a year i started my own.
I fisrst found blogs waaaayyy back before anyone really blogged, back in 1996. I was going through the now defunct Centre For the Easily Amused, where I found Terrance’s “The Loser Living Upstairs”, which was rather funny. That led me to his then current blog. He mentioned a “competitor”s diary, which I read, and that led me to actively searching for blogs. I found willa.com, which I have finally stopped reading, and then gradually there were more and more blogs. Sundry, I can’t remember exactly how I found but she was at Diaryland back then. Oh crap, and how could I have forgetten Walter Miller???!!
I don’t really read blogs, I don’t do blogs… hell…I only found out what b…l…o…g means/ less than a year ago. I found you through your AL whom has become a very good friend over the years. When she started her blog, of course, I followed it and consequently found yours. I’ve heard great things about you so I feel like I know you a little and enjoy reading about your life. Your writing is very good and you have a good eye for photography and that makes it interesting to check in and see what you and your family are up to. Also, the sense of humor helps. As Josh says, it gets a little “girly” once in a while, (like the childbirth video, but I watched it, didn’t I – OUCH!} Why a woman ever does that a second time is beyond my comprehension. Keep up the good work.
Well, I have to blame my blog habit on the Army. I was a fan of TWoP starting around 2001, maybe? and I was vaguely aware that online journals existed, but I was a very very busy resident and oblivious of many things. Then in 2005 I was deployed on a “humanitarian” mission that was really mostly a photo op, and I was stuck in a tent with NOTHING TO DO for several weeks (not that I am still bitter or anything), and the one saving grace was the wireless internet (I would have kissed the invisible floating electrons if I could have).
I can’t remember which blog I found first, but I starting reading you, Amalah, Mimi Smartypants and The Underwear Drawer (very funny, btw) at about the same time. Blogrolls have introduced many more. Oh, and I found Emily’s blog through a link on yours, which was very appropriate as she was having an even more awesome military adventure at that time (to which location I followed her the next year).
Maybe one day I will get off my ass and try this myself, but for now I really enjoy reading a variety of blogs.
My best friend sent me a link to your blog just over two years ago, as it was an entry of hilariously-captioned photos of your cat and dog in the kitchen. I’m too lazy to look but I believe just a few days later is when you announced you were pregnant with Riley to blogland! I’ve been with you ever since. Yours, Dooce’s, and Pioneer Woman’s are the first blogs I check in the morning.
I think the first online diary I ever started reading wasn’t exactly a proper blog–it was Save Karyn. Anyone remember that site? Karyn was the first internet begger but I got hooked on her daily updates on how she was saving money. Dooce was the first proper blog for me.
I started my blog only a year and a half ago, when I was unemployed and needed an outlet to whinge about being unemployed and document my cooking attempts.
My best friend used to write short stories that I loved to read. That decreased, so when she started blogging I happily read her posts. I figured my life was too boring to share. A friend goaded me into starting my own so we could save on long-distance phone calls.
You were linked to my best friend’s blog and I randomly checked you out. It has become one of my favorites.
Last summer, I wanted to find out what a cicada looks like because we hear them all summer at our lake cabin. I googled cicada and found Cicadamology. I tried some of the links she had on her site and loved My Beloved Monster and darn tootin’ so I tried a few more. I may have found you through Pippa Said.
Are you even going to make it this far? Anyway, we were also in another country when I first read a blog. It was the summer of 2003 while visiting friends in Taiwan that my friend showed me KDunk/More Than Donuts and Dooce (whom she’d been reading since Heather began blogging). I can’t believe it’s been four years nor can I remember how I found your site, though. Perhaps a link on someone else’s site.
Twinkie Girl on diaryland = chubbychic
haha, told you I was old school! And I have a memory like an elephant.
Apparently, my poor comment back at number 33 is still languishing, awaiting moderation…
I read alllllll the comments! I don’t, however, get notified when something goes into the moderation abyss, because 98% of the time it’s spam — Philos, I just approved your comment (why it was moderated, I do not know) and a few others.
I found your blog from Amalah’s after doing searches for random miscarriage/infertility information about three years ago. I had just lost my second baby and was in a funk and looking for distractions/help/people that could relate, etc. It was Amalah and Zoot to you and now I have a list I read every day.
Also must reads: miss doxie, dooce, TWoP, tomato nation, nothing but bonfires, the list goes on and on….
How I got into blogging:
I used to work on an overnight music TV show (m2) and we had a chatroom that ran for the duration of the show. We were encouraged to interact with viewers and a little community was born. After the demise of m2, my friend suggested I start my own online journal for two reasons
1) It would give all the m2 chat room regulars somewhere to go to help retain that community
2) He needed a design project
And thus Picnic By The Motorway sprung to life in a bluster of orange and green. That was about five years ago.
How I found your site:
Jemma was one of the regulars in the m2 chatroom and also a member of Picnic By The Motorway. She has a blog of her own and would occasionally reference yours to the point where I found myself clicking through one day. I started reading and never stopped. Yay for that.
My friend Amanda (kickyboots) first told me what the heck a blog even was. I started reading Leah (a girl and a boy) and Kristin…and had heard of you now and then…but only started reading you recently. So many blogs, so little time… :)