Another blogging bit

When I look at the number of times I write about blogging and bloggers, even I am surprised -- but the subject does fascinate me and when one keeps a weblog, you stumble upon other blogs all the time -- either whilst looking for information or when Google alerts pop up. It is a voyage of discovery -- all those millions of blogs out there! And the occasional blog in another language that links up with mine poses a real challenge - to respond with the help of dictionaries can be much fun! But the interesting thing is of course what brought them to my blog in the first place?
My tracking system tells me where my readers live, what their referring URL was that brought them to my blog, what they looked at and how long they stayed. What the tracking system does not tell you is whether they liked what they saw -- unless they leave a comment or send me an email. Fortunately this does happen quite frequently --
I do not get many comments, but I do receive many emails -- and I love that, because it generates lively discussions, I learn so much about other people and other places, I share passions and interest with others who have the same--- and I make new friends!

Here are just a few blogs that I have discovered in recent times:

The Coffee House The Spectator newspaper's blog. Good commentary on what is happening in particular on the British political scene and a great way to stay current.


Taxi Stories . Bob ---
• Gender: Male
• Industry: Transportation
• Occupation: Taxi Driver
• Location: Barrow in Furness : Cumbria : United Kingdom
-- says : "I've been round the block a few times now, but still as sharp as mustard. A keen observer of the human condition I see what others often overlook."
This is a delightful and insightful blog, very well written - and yes, he is correct in saying he often sees what others overlook. I wanted to say that 'very original', but Bob is linked up to a whole range of taxi driver blogs, which is not really surprising -- how often have you yourself said -- "Ah! What they must see and hear! Taxi drivers should write books!" Well, here it is -- Bob is doing it. Do go have a look.
And while you are there, also click on his second blog, , a photographic versionof taking a look at what others often miss --- here he takes two steps back and looks at things from a different angle. He is not only a good writer, but an excellent photographer.

Blogflux's Top blogs - always of interest to see what is out there and what is rated as 'top' blogs. I am still not able to figure out what makes these blogs the 'top' blog -- whether it is by readership numbers or by any other criteria. -- Perhaps someone can tell me?


Boer in Ballingskap is a blog by a fellow South African who lives and works in Korea. As it is written in Afrikaans, it may not be understandable to all of you, and more is the pity. He writes well and has an easy style -- and more importantly, he is interesting, informative and -- unique! -- as he must be the only Afrikaans blogger in the ancient town of Gyeongju, 4 hours to the south of Seoul! He makes me smile and he makes me think and he makes me remember.... I like that.

Then there is one blog that I was wondering whether to mention, or not. Post Secrets is a blog where "You are invited to anonymously contribute your secrets to PostSecret. Each secret can be a hope, regret, funny experience, unseen kindness, fantasy, belief, fear, betrayal, erotic desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything - as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.". I hesitated as this is one of those places that can delight on one day and cause great discomfort the next. Whatever it does to you on the given day that you have a look at this blog (as the postcards change regularly and vary from one extreme to another), it will make you stop for a few moments...


And then -- the loveliest discovery of a long time! It was a little like digging a hole in the rich garden soil to plant a new rose bush, and suddenly finding something glinting in the sun. And when you retrieve it from the soil, you find it is a precious little something from your past that you had lost many years before.

Musings of a textile itinerant is a blog written by a woman who lives in Gellibrand, Victoria, Australia, Dijanne Cevaal. What caught my eye was a Google alert on "Dordogne" and her mentioning that she is considering coming to live here for a while. I then found her blog and this piece of fabric that she had dyed (is there some batik used as well?)and called "Summer Forest" and I just fell in love! This is so exactly like the forest I walk through almost every morning that I was sure Dijanne must have been there with me!
I am definitely hoping that someone here has a place for Dijanne to rent, because I would love nothing more than welcoming this gifted artist into our community -- and even having her present textile making classes here at Chateau Lalinde! I shall most certainly start working on making that happen!
And in the mean time, I shall continue to enjoy her beautiful blog!




Relevant Links on this blog:

The Power of Blogging
The Unedited voice of the people
The Blooker prize for Blogs
Chateau Lalinde Blog
About blogs
Blogging in France
10 Coolest blogs
Still blogging
Google's Zeitgeist and blogging

Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

Relocation Orientation in France

The power of blogging and the pleasures of googling

One of my favourite pastimes is googling. I love it! I love typing in a keyword and getting 7,943 of a possible 29,467 entries on the internet that will give me information about that subject!

There are other search engines, but googling remains my favourite -- perhaps because I have just about mastered the art of, more often than not finding the right keywords for the specific subject I am looking for. Perhaps because I can "google" -- legitimately 'google' (a word now in the Oxford dictionary as a noun) -- and until such time as I can 'orange' or 'jeeves' or 'blackdog', 'hotbot', lycos', 'webwombat', 'qango'............. no! none of them slip off the tongue and flow 'from the finger tips quite as smoothly as 'googling' does......

On the Spectator's blog, Coffeehouse Matthew d'Ancona writes about his "audience with the King of Google", Eric Schmidt.
"Just back from Google Zeitgeist Europe 2007 in Hertfordshire, as dazzling an assembly of those shaping the destiny of the web as you could hope to behold. The cast list reads like a who’s who of the media-political class: Sir Martin Sorrell, James Murdoch, David Miliband, Mark Thompson, Peter Bazalgette, Chad Hurley, Sanjiv Ahuja, Matthias Döpfner and many others. The ripple of power and cerebration outclassed any party political conference I have attended.

At the centre of it all, the quiet presence of Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google’s executive committee and CEO: some people don’t need to show off, and Schmidt is one of them. Why bother when you’re at the helm of a search engine company, capitalized at $149billion, and so culturally powerful that its brand-name has already entered the Oxford English Dictionary as a verb?

Schmidt says that the next question Google users will be asking is: “What should I do tomorrow?” And to that future question some of the answers could already be generated: “What should you read? We are going to do a pretty good job on that…We could give you a reading list on the hour.”

Politely, he prefers to refer to newspapers and magazines as “traditional media” than as “old media”. He resists the hyperbole of less Olympian webheads. That said, the world he describes is inescapably one of fundamental change: a world of social networking and zero deference, in which the authority of a relatively small number of information providers has been replaced by a much noisier marketplace and the permanent testing of reliability: “Everyone has a camera-phone, everyone is a blogger, everyone is a reporter.” The challenge for established media organisations, he says, will be to identify the stars: “One hundred million bloggers, and there are a couple of people you should have hired. And you screwed up when you didn’t!”

There is, Schmidt concedes, a risk of cultural balkanisation, in which online tribes communicate only with their fellows. But the likelier outcome is a blossoming of “self-mobilising” initiatives in which online communities form, seize the initiative and act together. Born in 1955, he watches with amazement as the young colonise the web and turn it to their own creative and entrepreneurial ends.

Schmidt carefully insists that the established structures of political life will not be overturned by the onslaught of Web 2.0: one senses that he does not want his awesomely powerful company to seem too powerful. Yet – by his own admission - the unprecedented level of e-scrutiny and the permanence of all digital records is “going to drive politicians crazy.” One only has to imagine what life will be like for the David Camerons of the future, their every youthful indiscretion caught on mobile phones and posted on Facebook: how will they mark out a boundary between their early private lives and their subsequent political careers when all the facts of their past are a click of the mouse away?

Schmidt’s suggestion is that – to take the US context – every single person running for the presidency should, two years before entering the race, interview every single person from their past and disclose every conceivable embarrassment, past and present, in one spectacular clearing of the closet. This, he says, will make news and buy time: “The cleverer politicians will understand they should ‘self-out’ or ‘self-describe’.” But woe betide those who miss anything out. What Schmidt calls “the standard for self-disclosure” will be unprecedentedly high.

Anyone who has followed Barack Obama’s campaign cannot fail to be impressed by the role the web has played in creating and sustaining its momentum (www.BarackObama.com, and many other unofficial sites). What Howard Dean began online in 2004, Obama has continued with much more sophistication – more, for instance, than Hillary Clinton. Schmidt will not be drawn on personalities, but speaks of a “new generation” of politicians who understand what is at stake – including, one assumes, Mr Miliband, who gave the keynote address at this year’s event, Mr Cameron, who has put the web at the very heart of his campaign strategy, and Nicolas Sarkozy, who held a weekly conference with 200 key bloggers."

Heady stuff! Interesting ideas.......... Google could be spearheading something that could change the political world? mmmmm Worth some thinking about.....

So what will we all be doing tomorrow? One leaves Eric Schmidt’s presence with a hunch that he has a clearer idea than most of us, says d'Ancona. I can believe that!


Previous Related Articles on Blogging

Power of Blogging
Blogs: The unedited voice of the people
Blooker Prize: Literary prizes for blogs
Chateau Lalinde Blog
Blogs for Expats in France
Tourism in France
All-time favourite: The Ten Coolest Blogs 2007
Blogging - still, again and toujours!
Click on Link:

Chateau Lalinde : The perfect venue for your event

Relocation Orientation in France