I've been reading "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer lately. Very slowly, mind you, so I can take it all in (aside from that I don't exactly have a lot of time to just sit and read :P ) And I do highly recommend the book. So far it's reeeaaally good. Anyway, I just started chapter 6 and thought the first paragraph was really good so I wanna share it with whoever wants to read it here:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. --John 1:1
An intelligent plain man, untaught in the truths of Christianity, coming upon this text, would likely conclude that John meant to teach that it is the nature of God to speak, to communicate His thoughts to others. And he would be right. A word is a medium by which thoughts are expressed, and the application of the term to the Eternal Son leads us to believe that self-expressoin is inherent in the Godhead, that God is forever seeking to speak Himself out to His creation. The whole Bible supports the idea. God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking. He is by nature continuously articulate. He fills the wordl with His speaking Voice."
Sorta reminds me of an illustration I heard once. Just as a radio station is always broadcasting, but we can't hear it unless we tune in, so it is with God: He is always speaking, but we aren't always hearing. And don't we find in the Bible that all creation is crying out His praise? Yet so many in the world close their ears to the chorus. So much of the time God is speaking to us through His written word and through people and events around us--even to our own hearts. We just need to be still and hear His voice.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
The Statuette
On my bookshelf in the corner stands a little statuette. Upon first glance the small white horse doesn't appear to be anything special. But just like untold numbers of things in life, when you look deeper there is a story to be told and a lesson to be learned.
May 2003. It was a cool spring day when I had my 15th birthday party. I had invited several friends, though I still didn't know a lot of people since we had just moved to Missouri a few months before. Among those in attendance was a girl just a few months older than myself. For a present she gave me a statuette of a white horse that she had painted up. Being quite the horse-lover, I was always happy to have something horse-related (this was before I went on my first minimalist rampage... :P). Little did I know what this statuette would come to symbolize for me. After all, who ever knows the future?
Three years and two months later I attended this same girl's funeral. She died in a car accident at 18. Funny how things like that make you catch your breath. That day so long ago now, nobody could have known, and I'm sure of all people she never guessed she only had 3 years left to live. Had she known, might she have lived differently? What if you or I knew we only had 3 years or 3 months left to live? Would we do things differently than we are doing now? We don't even know if we have 3 minutes left to live.
In the back of everyone's mind is the knowledge that we do not know how long we have to live. Every once in a while the reality hits us, such as when someone young and healthy dies unexpectedly. But we shake our heads sadly and push the notion to the back of our minds and go on assuming we have many many years left to live. If at some time or another one has reason (whether real or imagined) to believe that his days are coming to an end, often that person changes the way they do things--being more kind and generous or whatnot. But shouldn't we live ready to die? Now, I'm not suggesting we should live like paranoid schizophrenics and be worried about dying any minute. Rather, I am saying that we should be mindful of everything we say and do. How is it going to effect us and those around us? How is it going to effect our worlds after we are gone? You may not have a chance to fix things.
If you've ever seen the movie "The Young Victoria" you may have been struck by the scene where Victoria and Albert were having a spat... right before he got shot with the bullet intended for her. I surely was. What if he had died? Imagine the guilt she would have lived with. You just never know. That's why we are called to "walk circumspectly--not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil."
This is what the white horse statuette has come to symbolize for me. Whenever I look at it I am reminded of the uncertainties of life and the importance of every single moment, because I don't know how many moments I have left. Is what I am doing now important, good, and right? Am I ready for tomorrow or the lack thereof?
May 2003. It was a cool spring day when I had my 15th birthday party. I had invited several friends, though I still didn't know a lot of people since we had just moved to Missouri a few months before. Among those in attendance was a girl just a few months older than myself. For a present she gave me a statuette of a white horse that she had painted up. Being quite the horse-lover, I was always happy to have something horse-related (this was before I went on my first minimalist rampage... :P). Little did I know what this statuette would come to symbolize for me. After all, who ever knows the future?
Three years and two months later I attended this same girl's funeral. She died in a car accident at 18. Funny how things like that make you catch your breath. That day so long ago now, nobody could have known, and I'm sure of all people she never guessed she only had 3 years left to live. Had she known, might she have lived differently? What if you or I knew we only had 3 years or 3 months left to live? Would we do things differently than we are doing now? We don't even know if we have 3 minutes left to live.
In the back of everyone's mind is the knowledge that we do not know how long we have to live. Every once in a while the reality hits us, such as when someone young and healthy dies unexpectedly. But we shake our heads sadly and push the notion to the back of our minds and go on assuming we have many many years left to live. If at some time or another one has reason (whether real or imagined) to believe that his days are coming to an end, often that person changes the way they do things--being more kind and generous or whatnot. But shouldn't we live ready to die? Now, I'm not suggesting we should live like paranoid schizophrenics and be worried about dying any minute. Rather, I am saying that we should be mindful of everything we say and do. How is it going to effect us and those around us? How is it going to effect our worlds after we are gone? You may not have a chance to fix things.
If you've ever seen the movie "The Young Victoria" you may have been struck by the scene where Victoria and Albert were having a spat... right before he got shot with the bullet intended for her. I surely was. What if he had died? Imagine the guilt she would have lived with. You just never know. That's why we are called to "walk circumspectly--not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil."
This is what the white horse statuette has come to symbolize for me. Whenever I look at it I am reminded of the uncertainties of life and the importance of every single moment, because I don't know how many moments I have left. Is what I am doing now important, good, and right? Am I ready for tomorrow or the lack thereof?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Speak up, I can't hear you! (xpost)
Also posted at http://1extraordinarylifetime.blogspot.com/
“Preach the Gospel to every nation and if necessary, use words.” This has become a very commonly-heard quote in the Christian world today. It was a wise thing for St Francis of Assisi to say, but I wonder if he ever realized how detrimental it would become to Christianity. Rather than being a call to live out what you believe, it has become a sort of scapegoat for complacency. People take it as a reason to be silent about their faith. They say “oh, I’ll just preach by the way I live and people will come to know God.” But is that true? Where is that found in the Bible? I highly doubt you would ever see Jesus take on that sort of attitude. Or could you imagine Peter saying that? Oh how quickly the fire of the gospel would have gone out, had the early church leaders taken on that sort of attitude.
As I posted earlier, words are extremely important in communication. It would be very true to say that actions and body language are extremely important in communication as well¾the saying “actions speak louder than words” is very true. HOWEVER, that does not negate the power and importance of words. There are some people in the world who, from the outside, may appear to be very happy, wise, generous, loving, or a thousand other virtues… What’s to distinguish them from those who live such lives genuinely through Christ? Their words do! Those who are living a virtuous life because they are allowing CHRIST to live through them are going to be telling people the real reason for their joy etc. Human eyes are all-too-easily deceived. How are they to see the real Christ in you if they don’t know what the real Christ looks like? It is up to you to tell them!
How could anyone be silent after receiving so great a gift as salvation? As Jesus said, that’s like lightning a candle and putting it under a basket. Or nowadays he might say that’s like turning on your lamp and then putting it into a box where nobody can see it. What good is it to anybody? If we have a light fixture, we’re going to put it out where it sheds light for everybody so they can see where they’re going! In practical application that means you go out and teach people the truth¾you show them that on their own they are going to hell. You don’t be rude or condemning about it, you merely shine the light of truth on the facts that are present.
You know why more people don’t do that? It is out of fear. Nobody likes to be disliked and when you present truth, it hurts like a bright light being turned on after pitch darkness and unfortunately a lot of times that makes people dislike you. But why should fear of being disliked keep you from saving lives? Why should that fear steal the joy that a life in Christ gives you? Unfortunately it is true that some people will hate you. In fact, no matter what you do some people will hate you. Hello, Jesus promised people would hate you! So why should that stop you from doing what He told you to do? Let us not forget it is also true that some people will love you for taking the time to love them and show them the error of their ways and help them to be healed and turned toward the Son.
Don’t let complacency or fear get in the way of the furtherance of the Kingdom. Yes, do go and preach the gospel to every nation and use words when necessary. But never forget, words ARE necessary. Always.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Just Words?
Going through school growing up, the particular curriculum we used often went over the importance of words for communication (in case you ever thought to whine over your English assignments :P ). To me it made perfect sense. I mean, have you ever made the rash vow as a child "I'm not going to talk to you for the rest of the day!" And then have you tried to carry it out? It's not easy, grunting [in syllables of the words we want to say, no less] and gesturing like some sort of ape, trying to get our message across. Words are rather important to our everyday life!
Yet in spite of the importance of words, I think they have been grossly devalued in our society. Our vocabulary as a whole has declined and seems to be continuing to do so. To the point where when I talk to the average 8th grader I find myself having to define half the words I use which to me seem like everyday-usage words. (thank you homeschooling LOL) And I wasn't even word-nerdy enough to read the whole dictionary! (well maybe I was but I never got around to finishing it. :P)
I was pondering this issue this morning, trying to figure it out. I was thinking about a comedian I heard who was making a routine out of substituting the word "rose" for "fart". He was saying that it was silly when people got embarrassed over the latter word. "It's just a word!" he crowed. "Just a word"? What does that mean? Yeah, it is a word, but words happen to have this little thing called a meaning that make it more than just a random object. With words we can paint a picture or give instructions... or write blogs to share our opinions and insights. But even more than that, with words we can build up or tear down; we can kill or we can heal. Even with the absence of words we can have a great effect upon other peoples' lives.
Here's an illustration that forever engraved the power of words on my mind. My pastor called a random person from the audience up on the stage to help illustrate the point. He had the man put his arms straight out from his sides. Pastor then pushed down lightly on his arms to show the amount of pressure he was using--it was not enough to overpower the man's outstretched arms. He had the man put his arms down, then said, "repeat these six things after me," at which point he said six negative phrases in the first-person (i.e. I'm a loser, I'll never amount to much, I hate my job, etc). The man put his arms back out as before, and with no trouble the pastor was able to push them down using the same amount of pressure as previously. Then he said "repeat these six things after me," and said six positive phrases in the first person (i.e. I'm handsome, I'm a great husband/father, I love my job, etc) then had him put his arms back out. He again applied the same amount of pressure and the man was able to hold his arms up again.
Skeptical? Try it on some unsuspecting victim. He tried this on my brother when he came to the college my brother was attending. He said it was absolutely amazing, he could NOT hold his arms up after saying those negative things.
Think they're just words? Think again. Why do you think they have the old saying "The pen is mightier than the sword" ? Why do you think the Bible warns us so many times to be careful what we say? Even when you're just joking around, be careful what you say! (guilty :oops:) It doesn't matter if you really believe what you're saying, the words themselves are that powerful. They can even eventually change how you really believe. Sometimes even making a simple, small compliment will brighten someone's entire day. Don't just take my word for it, try it!
So next time you hear someone say words aren't important, give them a reality check! Erase that rhyme about sticks and stones from your arsenal. Remember to keep your words uplifting and positive. Use them for healing rather than hate. You'd be amazed at what a difference it will make! You might even save a life. :)
~ L.E. Neighbour
Yet in spite of the importance of words, I think they have been grossly devalued in our society. Our vocabulary as a whole has declined and seems to be continuing to do so. To the point where when I talk to the average 8th grader I find myself having to define half the words I use which to me seem like everyday-usage words. (thank you homeschooling LOL) And I wasn't even word-nerdy enough to read the whole dictionary! (well maybe I was but I never got around to finishing it. :P)
I was pondering this issue this morning, trying to figure it out. I was thinking about a comedian I heard who was making a routine out of substituting the word "rose" for "fart". He was saying that it was silly when people got embarrassed over the latter word. "It's just a word!" he crowed. "Just a word"? What does that mean? Yeah, it is a word, but words happen to have this little thing called a meaning that make it more than just a random object. With words we can paint a picture or give instructions... or write blogs to share our opinions and insights. But even more than that, with words we can build up or tear down; we can kill or we can heal. Even with the absence of words we can have a great effect upon other peoples' lives.
Here's an illustration that forever engraved the power of words on my mind. My pastor called a random person from the audience up on the stage to help illustrate the point. He had the man put his arms straight out from his sides. Pastor then pushed down lightly on his arms to show the amount of pressure he was using--it was not enough to overpower the man's outstretched arms. He had the man put his arms down, then said, "repeat these six things after me," at which point he said six negative phrases in the first-person (i.e. I'm a loser, I'll never amount to much, I hate my job, etc). The man put his arms back out as before, and with no trouble the pastor was able to push them down using the same amount of pressure as previously. Then he said "repeat these six things after me," and said six positive phrases in the first person (i.e. I'm handsome, I'm a great husband/father, I love my job, etc) then had him put his arms back out. He again applied the same amount of pressure and the man was able to hold his arms up again.
Skeptical? Try it on some unsuspecting victim. He tried this on my brother when he came to the college my brother was attending. He said it was absolutely amazing, he could NOT hold his arms up after saying those negative things.
Think they're just words? Think again. Why do you think they have the old saying "The pen is mightier than the sword" ? Why do you think the Bible warns us so many times to be careful what we say? Even when you're just joking around, be careful what you say! (guilty :oops:) It doesn't matter if you really believe what you're saying, the words themselves are that powerful. They can even eventually change how you really believe. Sometimes even making a simple, small compliment will brighten someone's entire day. Don't just take my word for it, try it!
So next time you hear someone say words aren't important, give them a reality check! Erase that rhyme about sticks and stones from your arsenal. Remember to keep your words uplifting and positive. Use them for healing rather than hate. You'd be amazed at what a difference it will make! You might even save a life. :)
~ L.E. Neighbour
Friday, May 7, 2010
Peep peep! Life as I know it...
Yesterday morning we got a call from the post office--our baby chicks arrived! So I rushed down to pick them up, as well as some chick starter and wood shavings. Now the little peepers are happily peeping in a corner of our dining room, just as cute as can be! Ahhh I love chickens :)
Yesterday afternoon we went to the commencement ceremony for Central Bible College to watch my brother walk through the graduation line :cue applause: and after we got home we had a little celebration bonfire/wiener roast complete with cake and ice cream (which diminished our appetite for s'mores :P)
In other news, I am getting accustomed to my NEW LAPTOP (post coming on that soon ;) ) and learning the cool features of Windows 7.... Fun schtuff. Also today I am locking myself in my room (except to go get some water every once in a while cuz it's hot out lately!) and doing some serious drafting and editing (I know I promised me no more first-draft editing till the drafting is done but this is rather necessary I'm afraid... I'm not editing content so much as order ;) ) so hopefully I will still be able to meet my goal :D
And last item for the day which is really irrelevant to the majority of my readers, but I CAN'T keep it to myself! I'm getting uber excited about the TN get together starting May 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's just barely over 2 weeks away and I'm so excited I can hardly concentrate so that's gonna make life a little difficult I'm afraid :-/ But life ain't always easy so I just hafta deal with it. At least life is GOOD, right? And I have God to thank for that :D woohooo!
ok off to get my water (and I hafta start lunch soon :( ) then BACK TO WORK B-) Have a totally awesome day, peoples!
Yesterday afternoon we went to the commencement ceremony for Central Bible College to watch my brother walk through the graduation line :cue applause: and after we got home we had a little celebration bonfire/wiener roast complete with cake and ice cream (which diminished our appetite for s'mores :P)
In other news, I am getting accustomed to my NEW LAPTOP (post coming on that soon ;) ) and learning the cool features of Windows 7.... Fun schtuff. Also today I am locking myself in my room (except to go get some water every once in a while cuz it's hot out lately!) and doing some serious drafting and editing (I know I promised me no more first-draft editing till the drafting is done but this is rather necessary I'm afraid... I'm not editing content so much as order ;) ) so hopefully I will still be able to meet my goal :D
And last item for the day which is really irrelevant to the majority of my readers, but I CAN'T keep it to myself! I'm getting uber excited about the TN get together starting May 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it's just barely over 2 weeks away and I'm so excited I can hardly concentrate so that's gonna make life a little difficult I'm afraid :-/ But life ain't always easy so I just hafta deal with it. At least life is GOOD, right? And I have God to thank for that :D woohooo!
ok off to get my water (and I hafta start lunch soon :( ) then BACK TO WORK B-) Have a totally awesome day, peoples!
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Bloggosphere: I Love Customized Backgrounds :D
Hey check it out! I overhauled this blog too now. Emily Ann Benedict of Blog Cargo and I have been working on it for a while now. Well I say we but I mean she. I was just the ruthless taskmaster, she was the mastermind/slave/artist ;) haa ha :P So d'ya like it? Hmmm? I do B-) I just can't see the whole thing on this screen because I'm still using this tiny secondary screen rather than my normal laptop screen :'( *sadness in a box* BTW, Emily's also my campaign manager for my "buy me a real computer of my own" fund cuz she's cool like that B-) So anyway if you like it, stand up and cheer. If you don't, sit and whine... either way, it's here to stay for a while. I hope... (And Emily probably does too :P )
Now all I gotta do is get the buttons to put on my website and hopefully I can quit playing geek for a while :-B
G'day!
Now all I gotta do is get the buttons to put on my website and hopefully I can quit playing geek for a while :-B
G'day!
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Bloggosphere: Clutter and Cleanliness
In case I hadn't mentioned it before, I am OCD. Not severely like Monk or anything, but I like to have things very orderly and clean, organized and easy-to-find, etc. (and yes, symmetrical is always a bonus xD ) Blogs are no exception. I like to see a good, clean-looking blog. But this can be a frustrating point because sometimes I want to put a lot of info in sidebars and such... It's just hard to do without looking like a circus. Fortunately on these my two public blogs I don't have a whole lot of info at this time that I want posted in my sidebars so I haven't had to fight with it. Anyway I don't have time to fight with it because I'd rather focus on either posting a good blog or just writing some more in my book. However, this preference of mine does make a difference in the blogs I read, and I'm sure I'm not the only one (am I?).
If I go to a blog and it's all cluttery and hard to find what I'm looking for, I don't waste my time looking for it. Even if the article is really interesting, it just bugs my subconscious that there is all this stuff in the sidebar. Most of it, I understand why it's there, but it still messes with my mind. Unless the blogger has managed to find a way to make it look neat and orderly. Oh how much I appreciate that. And you know, I can't even really explain the difference, but I do notice it. One thing I do know that makes a difference is only having the sidebar content on one side. Of course, when one has a lot of sidebar content, this makes it hard to get to the bottom of the page... which wouldn't be such a big deal except that sometimes people put things I want to find like follower/tag lists or playlists at the bottom. Which brings me to my next point: Playlists
Let me start by saying I'm all for having a playlist of cool music on your blog. I have one on several of my blogs. It's cool because you can tell a lot about people by their playlist (BTW the one on here doesn't seem to be working properly which totally stinks). HOWEVER my HUGE PET PEEVE with playlists is auto-playing playlists. Like, I'm a huge multitasker and I pretty much always listen to music on WMP or grooveshark while I'm working... it helps drown out background noise and such. But so many times I will open a blog and all of a sudden my ears are insulted by something that totally clashes with the music I'm listening to. And what's the absolute worst is when I don't know WHERE the bloomin' music is coming from!!!!! ARGH ok sorry it just bugs me LOL one day I spent like 10 minutes trying to find the stupid playlist and turn it off b/c I didn't like the song and it was ruining the awesome song I was listening to which I couldn't pause since it was on an entirely different browser and I was too busy looking for that wretched song. (BTW it took me so long b/c I had like 20 tabs up, each with a different blog I was reading. Yes, as I said, I am a multitasker :P).
So no offense to anybody who has their blog set up like this, but I'm just sayin' it bugs me. You can just ignore me if you want and I'll keep living with it, but now you can't say you don't know, right? Right ;)
Anyway all that to say, Congrats to those of you who have been able to maximize sidebar content AND make it look good. You deserve an award and I wish you could teach me how to do it. ;) As for me, I'm keeping my sidebar content to a minimum b/c I really am a minimalist at heart, no matter how much pack-ratting I do (we won't go there today) and I love things to be neat and orderly.
Who's with me? :D
If I go to a blog and it's all cluttery and hard to find what I'm looking for, I don't waste my time looking for it. Even if the article is really interesting, it just bugs my subconscious that there is all this stuff in the sidebar. Most of it, I understand why it's there, but it still messes with my mind. Unless the blogger has managed to find a way to make it look neat and orderly. Oh how much I appreciate that. And you know, I can't even really explain the difference, but I do notice it. One thing I do know that makes a difference is only having the sidebar content on one side. Of course, when one has a lot of sidebar content, this makes it hard to get to the bottom of the page... which wouldn't be such a big deal except that sometimes people put things I want to find like follower/tag lists or playlists at the bottom. Which brings me to my next point: Playlists
Let me start by saying I'm all for having a playlist of cool music on your blog. I have one on several of my blogs. It's cool because you can tell a lot about people by their playlist (BTW the one on here doesn't seem to be working properly which totally stinks). HOWEVER my HUGE PET PEEVE with playlists is auto-playing playlists. Like, I'm a huge multitasker and I pretty much always listen to music on WMP or grooveshark while I'm working... it helps drown out background noise and such. But so many times I will open a blog and all of a sudden my ears are insulted by something that totally clashes with the music I'm listening to. And what's the absolute worst is when I don't know WHERE the bloomin' music is coming from!!!!! ARGH ok sorry it just bugs me LOL one day I spent like 10 minutes trying to find the stupid playlist and turn it off b/c I didn't like the song and it was ruining the awesome song I was listening to which I couldn't pause since it was on an entirely different browser and I was too busy looking for that wretched song. (BTW it took me so long b/c I had like 20 tabs up, each with a different blog I was reading. Yes, as I said, I am a multitasker :P).
So no offense to anybody who has their blog set up like this, but I'm just sayin' it bugs me. You can just ignore me if you want and I'll keep living with it, but now you can't say you don't know, right? Right ;)
Anyway all that to say, Congrats to those of you who have been able to maximize sidebar content AND make it look good. You deserve an award and I wish you could teach me how to do it. ;) As for me, I'm keeping my sidebar content to a minimum b/c I really am a minimalist at heart, no matter how much pack-ratting I do (we won't go there today) and I love things to be neat and orderly.
Who's with me? :D
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The Bloggosphere: Jumping in with Both Feet
A lot of people in my family are all-or-nothing kind of people. You ask them to roll down the window, and it's gotta go ALL the way down. You ask them to turn up the radio and they craaaaaaank it up. It's a sort of family tradition or something. I guess I've sort of inherited it, but I can do things in moderation too. It usually just takes a little more conscious effort. Unless it falls on the "nothing" side of the scale, of course ;) I find this impulse to be one of those things can be good sometimes (as you may remember from this post) and other times less convenient, such as in the case of the radio or the window.
When it comes to blogging, I find that it's one of those things where you've gotta give it more effort if you want it to work. Basically it's like any other kind of online social networking: you get out of what you put into it. As I said in the last post, I didn't get a whole lot of comments on my first blogs. In fact, I still don't get that many comments. But that's ok, as long as people are reading. But I've found that in order to get comments you have to comment. In order to get readers you have to read. If all you do is blog casually, you'll pretty much get casual readers (like friends and family).
Recently I've been trying to get a little more "into" blogging b/c I feel like it can be a useful tool. I found that the more I participate with other people's blogs, the more they participate with mine. Makes sense, right? I mean, if nobody knows you exist, they're not gonna read your blog. Sometimes you have to give a lot to get a little, and sometimes you have to give a little and get a lot. But you've always gotta give to get. It's like the bloggosphere sharin'-da-love-theory of relative input... Or something to that effect. Ha I just made that up ^_^
So in other words, I'm trying to jump into blogging with both feet... Or at least step in with both feet. It's not as much fun standing on the shore with your toes in the water :) To me, blogging is much more fun when you get feedback and followers. Don't you agree?
So how about you? Do you get out about as much as you put into blogging or do you feel like you're always giving and never getting? Or do you end up getting lots of followers/comments with little effort (like skating by on your popularity? ;) )? If someone follows you/comments first, do you always try to reciprocate?
When it comes to blogging, I find that it's one of those things where you've gotta give it more effort if you want it to work. Basically it's like any other kind of online social networking: you get out of what you put into it. As I said in the last post, I didn't get a whole lot of comments on my first blogs. In fact, I still don't get that many comments. But that's ok, as long as people are reading. But I've found that in order to get comments you have to comment. In order to get readers you have to read. If all you do is blog casually, you'll pretty much get casual readers (like friends and family).
Recently I've been trying to get a little more "into" blogging b/c I feel like it can be a useful tool. I found that the more I participate with other people's blogs, the more they participate with mine. Makes sense, right? I mean, if nobody knows you exist, they're not gonna read your blog. Sometimes you have to give a lot to get a little, and sometimes you have to give a little and get a lot. But you've always gotta give to get. It's like the bloggosphere sharin'-da-love-theory of relative input... Or something to that effect. Ha I just made that up ^_^
So in other words, I'm trying to jump into blogging with both feet... Or at least step in with both feet. It's not as much fun standing on the shore with your toes in the water :) To me, blogging is much more fun when you get feedback and followers. Don't you agree?
So how about you? Do you get out about as much as you put into blogging or do you feel like you're always giving and never getting? Or do you end up getting lots of followers/comments with little effort (like skating by on your popularity? ;) )? If someone follows you/comments first, do you always try to reciprocate?
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Bloggosphere: How I Got Here... Wherever "Here" Is.
So in effort to inspire myself to blog a little more regularly, I'm going to try to do a little mini-series on the bloggosphere. Let's see how interesting I can be. Are you ready for this? To start with, I'll tell you all the touching tale of how I got "here". That is (in normal American English): here's my blogging background in a walnut shell.
I've been a casual blogger for quite some time now. It all started when I joined HomeschoolALUMNI.org where each of the members has their own blog. At first, blogging was a sort of scary thought. I mean, posting your thoughts out where anybody could read them? Eek! Well it took a while to get used to. I mostly posted the kind of junk people post on Facebook statuses nowadays. Y'know... like "today I went to Walmart and filled up an entire grocery cart... shopping is so depressing." Yeah, it was pretty lame stuff and I never got comments on my blog unless something devastating happened like my horse almost died or I fell off a hay truck. Eventually I started posting a little more interesting stuff, like the importance of humility or things I had learned about faith or whatnot. It got to be kind of fun to be able to just talk to cyber space and have no idea who if anybody was reading what I wrote. Then I got introduced to blogger.
A friend of mine sent me a link to his "personal" blog (as opposed to a public blog) which was hosted on blogger so I signed up on blogger in order to be able to comment and such. But it got me to thinking at how fun it would be to try to keep up a regular blog besides my HSA blog (since, afterall, there were things I might want to share with friends but not with *everybody*, or maybe I wanted to share things with non-HSAers). Well I actually ended up starting several blogs at that time. One was just a goofy blog to post my random thoughts, one was a photo blog, one was a horse-training blog, and I think that's all I had then. Mind you, this is before I felt the call to write.
Over the following year or so I added and dropped blogs and neglected blogs. Yes, on my personal blogger account (as opposed to this, my "public" blogger account) I have a few blogs that haven't been updated for about a year or more. I'm considering feeling guilty, but considering none of them are really followed, I figure I'm not the only one who doesn't care enough to keep up with them. When I'm ready to resurrect them, it'll be good :D
Anyway, aside from my dead, private, and public blogs, I also contribute to a few other blogs and help maintain my family's ministry blog (teenharvest.blogspot.com). I hope to eventually have a traveling blog, too, but I kinda have to start traveling before I can really warrant having one (life is rough, yes?) and I'm working on eventually opening another blog that is currently *top secret* so I can't tell you about it right now ;) Nor will I tell you precisely how many blogs I "author" according to blogger because I don't need to be reminded that after all this time I have, in fact, become a bloggomaniac :cue dramatic music:
So tell me about you. How long have you been blogging? Are you a bloggomaniac or a casual blogger? And if you want, you can tell me how many blogs you keep.
G'day!
I've been a casual blogger for quite some time now. It all started when I joined HomeschoolALUMNI.org where each of the members has their own blog. At first, blogging was a sort of scary thought. I mean, posting your thoughts out where anybody could read them? Eek! Well it took a while to get used to. I mostly posted the kind of junk people post on Facebook statuses nowadays. Y'know... like "today I went to Walmart and filled up an entire grocery cart... shopping is so depressing." Yeah, it was pretty lame stuff and I never got comments on my blog unless something devastating happened like my horse almost died or I fell off a hay truck. Eventually I started posting a little more interesting stuff, like the importance of humility or things I had learned about faith or whatnot. It got to be kind of fun to be able to just talk to cyber space and have no idea who if anybody was reading what I wrote. Then I got introduced to blogger.
A friend of mine sent me a link to his "personal" blog (as opposed to a public blog) which was hosted on blogger so I signed up on blogger in order to be able to comment and such. But it got me to thinking at how fun it would be to try to keep up a regular blog besides my HSA blog (since, afterall, there were things I might want to share with friends but not with *everybody*, or maybe I wanted to share things with non-HSAers). Well I actually ended up starting several blogs at that time. One was just a goofy blog to post my random thoughts, one was a photo blog, one was a horse-training blog, and I think that's all I had then. Mind you, this is before I felt the call to write.
Over the following year or so I added and dropped blogs and neglected blogs. Yes, on my personal blogger account (as opposed to this, my "public" blogger account) I have a few blogs that haven't been updated for about a year or more. I'm considering feeling guilty, but considering none of them are really followed, I figure I'm not the only one who doesn't care enough to keep up with them. When I'm ready to resurrect them, it'll be good :D
Anyway, aside from my dead, private, and public blogs, I also contribute to a few other blogs and help maintain my family's ministry blog (teenharvest.blogspot.com). I hope to eventually have a traveling blog, too, but I kinda have to start traveling before I can really warrant having one (life is rough, yes?) and I'm working on eventually opening another blog that is currently *top secret* so I can't tell you about it right now ;) Nor will I tell you precisely how many blogs I "author" according to blogger because I don't need to be reminded that after all this time I have, in fact, become a bloggomaniac :cue dramatic music:
So tell me about you. How long have you been blogging? Are you a bloggomaniac or a casual blogger? And if you want, you can tell me how many blogs you keep.
G'day!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Oh Dear.
I was going to write a profound blog today. Really I was. But since I didn't get to sleep till about midnight last night, my brain is not functioning properly... so bye bye profound blogging thought. I could rant about all the reasons it seems that lately I never get to bed or to sleep when I want but that would hardly help things. Sometimes you just have to get over it and get on with life. The good thing is that part of the reason it took me so long to get to sleep is because I was writing [hopefully a keeper] but the bad thing is that I was halfway to sleep when my brain started buzzing. Normally I just tell myself to remember it in the morning but I've learned that doesn't work cuz I'll forget it. So this time I decided to actually try to write it down. Unfortunately once I started writing it sounded completely different than it did in my head, but hopefully it'll still be useful. Although I have to say, I don't trust my mind too much at that hour of the night because about 9 o'clock (or more like 8 on Sundays) my brain generally checks out. Come to think of it, when I've been up late the night before, my brain isn't all that great all day long. Consequently I think I'm starting to ramble a little bit...
So anyway all this to say, I forgot what I was going to say. Ever have this problem? :-/
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