“Mom, my friends read your blog”
I was surprised. “they do? how did they find out? I always refer to you as M in my entries”
“Mom, duh, you place photos of me and besides word spreads around in the local blogosphere. Your sex education entry made them laugh that I just had to read it myself.”
*oops*
(Hi M’s friends *waves* to M’s friends)
My daughter M is a very private person. Though she owns a blog, she keeps it in a private url for 5 close friends. Soon, she might start a public blog showcasing random photos or anything under the sun.
“Just make sure you write nothing negative about me” she continued on. Then added “and make sure I look good in any photo you post. My _____ happens to read your blog. ”
I assured her, “Ah I don’t and besides I am not about to wash my dirty linen for the whole internet to see”
It got me thinking , this blog belongs in the personal blog category. It revolves around my life, the travails of my grief journey and the road to recovery. My family is also my life and naturally I will mention them from time to time. When I started this blog, I felt squeamish about revealing the sordid details of my life . But how else will readers empathize ? I needed to write on a personal level.
If there are lessons to be learned in my 14 months of blogging and getting more exposure is that sooner or later , intrigues arise. Take for instance, a certain blogger might read entries about your spirituality and starts judging your character. Or someone criticizes your writing style. Do you think blogs are read because they convey journalistic or linguistic appeal to readers ? Blogs are not newspapers. If they don’t like how bloggers write, grab a newspaper or magazine, for crying out loud. Better yet, close the browser and blog about how crappy we are in their own blog.
Anyway, I digress.
A personal blog is personal. I go out of my way to relate relevant experiences and include the advice, lessons or gifts learned from it. If my readers didn’t care about my opinion , would they be reading my blog? If they didn’t care, they’d hop on to the next blog. Reading the human emotions associated with the blogger and the interactive discussions is what separates blogging from traditional media.
Aside from common-sense , avoidance of personal attacks and posting non-bloggable items, how personal should a personal blog be?
The couple that blogs together stays together. I’m just kidding of course. Aside from reading books, Butch and I surf the internet together, share sites of interest or we go blog-hopping before we call it a night. I think it’s really sweet that my ex-technophobe husband took an interest in my hobby turned business venture. Who would have thought he’d be blogging today? A few years ago, he snickered at the internet saying it was a waste of time. I’m beginning to think that people who scoff at it are just intimidated or clueless of technology. It took a lot of love and patience to teach him to turn on the computer, firing the browser, surfing the net and posting an entry. And today, we enjoy a common interest- blogging or reading blogs before we sleep. I know… how boring.
A few bloggers like 
All day yesterday, 
Taking snacks and desserts can be quite a challenge for diabetics like me. Our body screams ““sweetness”. We can only stare and drool at that mouth-watering chocolate cake or blueberry pie on the party table. It disappoints me that not many coffee shops carry sugar free desserts or low carb, low fat dishes. I often chastise high-end coffee shops to place these healthy dishes on their menu. After all, their market includes the health – conscious who watch their carbohydrate and sugar intake. So when Blooey invited me to try SugarNot!, I couldn’t help but say ““YES”.