Next Blog: Adventures in Blog Crawling....

At the top of the blogspot window there are several options, two of which are "Follow blog" and "Next Blog". Follow blog is a newer option. If there are blogs you read often, you can select "Follow blog" while you have the screen up and then it puts a little clip of the blog on your blogger dashboard. This is great for blogs that you like to read, but don't necessarily want to show up as a link on your own blog.

The "Next Blog" option navigates you to another random blog. Last night I was waiting on Sam to get home from work and started hitting next blog and looking at what other people were doing. It was fascinating!

There are a lot of people like me, who post pictures and stories of their family and their daily lives... a public extension of keeping a diary or scrapbook.

There are a lot of people who blog about their jobs instead of using a website... "I build custom motorcycles" "I'm an artist" "I do wedding photography" "I'm a personal shopper" "I eliminate invasive plant life"

There are a lot of people like my mom who use a blog to talk about their hobbies "I collect dolls", "I ride my bicycle" "I collect comic books" "I illegally download DVDs to my computer and post the scenes" "I listen to heavy metal music" "I clip coupons"

There are a lot of blogs that are not written in English. These may be the most fun to look at because you have to use pictures alone to determine what they are about. Are they a business selling party favors? Are they a stay at home mom who makes candy in the shape of small children? Are they poking fun at a silly a product they saw at a craft fair or are they proudly displaying their own handiwork? It makes me look at my blog differently: If you didn't understand any of the words, would my blog still clearly tell my story?

I found a few blogs that I think I'm going to follow. I am amazed at the stay-at-home Texas mom whose monthly goal is to spend $100 or less on food and toiletries using coupons and clever shopping. I am intrigued by the bicyclist who rides and photographs his travels in New England. And I am tickled and impressed by the woman who takes goodwill purchases and reworks them to fit her needs like re purposing a size 5T Henley shirt into a pair of pants for her toddler.

It is amazing how many people are blogging. If you don't blog, maybe you should try it out. It is really easy to do and can be very therapeutic... like writing in a diary (that everyone can read).

Ack... Robbie is stirring... awake from his nap. Goodbye blogger, hello baby.