update on blogging

I don't know if anyone is still reading this blog, considering that I haven't written in it since the middle of June and I have instead been writing at my Mexico blog.

I keep thinking about this blog, though, and about the nature of blog communication, and the pictures in my head when I think about my two blogs.

I like this blog, quite a bit. It has been my first one, and it's kind of special. I have really enjoyed thinking about how to tell my stories in a coherent and entertaining or thought-provoking way. I have also enjoyed the correspondence back and forth with people who comment (usually my friends or family but once someone I had never met).

This brings me to my second thought, the nature of this type of communication. Many of my friends who are in different parts of the world (as I am) use blogs as places to update their friends and families about their journeys. But instead of sending the update directly to their email (or, are we in the dark ages, their actual mail box) they post it in a impersonal, public space. It now is the responsibility of the friend or family member to check the blog. There are a couple of advantages - the writer can update however frequently he or she chooses, and if someone doesn't want to hear how things are going, they just don't go to the url. Or, if someone else, who didn't originally hear about the blog, finds the link on facebook (*ahem) or some other place, they can jump right in, reading all the way to the beginning if they so choose.

Finally, despite the fact that this is an incredibly public space, it's also hidden. I didn't tell many people about this particular blog, and unless someone finds a link through a search or browsing blogs, only my specific friends know about it. Conversely, my other blog, is much more publicized. I really have no clue how many people read it, but the address is on about 750 bookmarks (along with my face) that I sent out into the world and it goes on a lot of my update emails (I do sometimes send those out as well). This blog was named "The resting rock" and when I think of it, I see a rock or a cave behind a waterfall - the kind that is occasionally splashed on but in general is calm, a place to sit, semi-protected from everything else around it. My Mexico blog, on the other hand, is sun-bleached, and dusty. There's a lot of action and it's visible to a lot of people.