Blogger Stories

Blogger Story: Kalyn Denny

When Kalyn Denny, Kalyn's Kitchen, blogs she is incorporating not 1 not 2 but 3 of passions: writing, recipes and photography! In fact, Kalyn is having such a great time blogging that she's exploring ways to turn blogs into a second career when she retires.

Blogger Story Teller: Kalyn Denny, Kalyn's Kitchen

Writing a food blog is the job I've been training for all my life.  For as long as I can remember I've been passionate about food, writing, and photography.  I've indulged those passions in various ways through the years but none has connected the dots as well as the food blog does.

I got started writing a blog in a way that wouldn't give a hint of what a creative outlet it turned out to be for me.  In the summer of 2004 I was happily living my life when a man I had dated 23 years earlier came to a meeting in Utah and stopped by my house for a visit.  I had put on some weight in the years since I knew him, and had slowly grown used to being heavier, but I had been thinking  about losing weight. 

It wasn't until he walked into my house that I realized how much I hated being fat.  (For the record he had gained 50 pounds himself, so that wasn't it.)

BLogger Stories: Katie Delahaye Paine

Katie Delahaye Paine, authors two very different blogs. One that brings her smart point of view about the PR industry. The other offers her very personal story about not only surviving life but how to take a giant bite out of life and laugh at your demons.

Katie's email includes the following quote that is the essence of so many stories.

I can think of nothing more gallant, even though again and again we fail, than attempting to get at the facts; attempting to tell things as they really are. For at least reality, though never fully attained, can be defined. Reality is that which, when you don't believe in it, doesn't go away. - Peter Viereck

Blogger Story Teller: Katie Delahaye Paine, KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog; truesurvior

I was asked to present  a paper at the International Public Relations Research conference in Miami in March of 2005 on How to Measure Blogs and realized that I better have some personal experience with a blog before I started writing. So I set one up and blogged the conference and then kind of forgot about it.

But then Shel Holtz scolded me about not keeping it updated, and I started paying more attention. I started getting comments from all kinds of people and having really interesting conversations with people who had very different perspectives on PR measurement and then I was hooked.

And then of course I read Naked Conversations and ran into Shel Israel in Palo Alto and got even more inspired. I've always been a journalist of sorts and I find blogging to be the perfect medium. In fact I now have two blogs, one for business, KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog and a personal one truesurvior that came out of my breast cancer experience and the need to process emotions and grief. Actually, I'm so enjoying this process my staff is thinking of enrolling me in Blogaholics Anonymous.

Technorati Tags: Blogger_Stories, Cancer_Blog, Business_Blog, PR_Blog, KDPaine

Blogger Stories: Gil C. Schmidt

In between moving and organizing his 4,789 books Gil Schmidt tool time off to tell a couple of his favorite Blogger Stories. The first is a public one, still ongoing, while the second is now being made public. Gil's story are wonderful examples of the ying and the yang of blogs: bloggers making a difference in other people's lives and other people touching bloggers' lives. And the greater good that so often comes from those relationships.

Blogger Story Teller: Gil C. Schmidt, Gil The Jenius

While researching blogs in Puerto Rico, I came across a post in a local blog titled The Information Soldier. The author, Aníbal Freytes, was a government employee at the time and was very disenchanted with what he was experiencing on the job.

I quoted his post and wrote to him, offering my help in any way. He wrote back to me, linked to my blog and we agreed to have lunch. Over pasta, we talked about dozens of topics, most of them related to working in and for the government and options for finding a better job.

Less than a month later, Aníbal resigned from his dead-end government job for one in a fascinating tech company. He was kind enough to credit me for helping me make the transition. A few months later, Aníbal stopped posting for a few days: he suffered a heart attack. Although in his early 30s, his weight and health habits were obviously negative factors.  Through our blogs, e-mails and phone calls, we stayed in touch, and though we haven’t met again in person, we have kept our new friendship growing through contacts and blog references.

Blogger Stories: Rita Arens

Blogs do more than just connect people-to-people. Rita Arens' story is about the blogoshere as a village with people from all over the world who help her feel a little less alone. A little less lonely. While at the same time providing a creative outlet for her talented and heartwarming writing.

Blogger Story Teller: Rita Arens, Surrender, Dorothy

When the little angel was two months old, I started blogging.  I have never been a mother before. I am the kind of person who always researches everything.  I was valedictorian of my graduating class in high school.  I graduated from the University of Iowa in three and a half years.  I couldn't wait to get out  there and prove to the world that I knew what I was doing.

I kept a pregnancy journal, fastidiously.  I recorded every pound I gained, every pretzel I threw up, every drink I denied myself.  I have always journaled.  I wrote down every emotion I had, every man who broke my heart, every morsel of food I didn't eat when I was anorexic from 1992 to 1994.

I keep lists.
I have a mission statement for myself.
I have goals.
I was going to be the perfect mother.

Blogger Stories: Millie

Every once in a while, as you travel in the blogosphere, you find a blogger who touches your heart. Millie, the 80 year young blogger of My Moms Blog, not only touched my heart but delighted my soul.

Blogger Story Teller - Millie, My Mom's Blog

When Toby asked me to write about "How the blogoshere has touched my life and opened new doors and created new opportunities for me" , I thought it was going to be a 1, 2, 3 piece. How to start?

Then one day a light went on and before I even attempt to write about what the blogoshere has done for me I want to write about something that ties in with blogging.

It had to be sometime in the 50's when I had the opportunity to experience a showing of photographs, "The Family Of Man" by Edward Steichen. The prologue written by Carl Sandberg explains what the contents will reveal: "photographs made in all parts of the world, of the gamut of life from birth to death with emphasis on daily relationships, joys, trials and tribulations."

Since I started blogging it has offered me the opportunity to get to know people from all over the world. What I have discovered is no matter where in the world you live, we all share the same life experiences, we belong to "The Family of Man."

Technorati Tags: Blogger_Stories, My_Moms_Blog

Blogger Stories: Robert Bruce

Robert Bruce is an innovative American Poet who is using social media .. blogs & podcats .. to "throw poems around the world." If you haven't read a poem since your college days The Thoroughly Modern Man at the end of the Robert's story might be a pleasant surprise. 

Blogger Story Teller: Robert Bruce, Knife Gun Pen

I found myself frustrated with the obscenely long turn-around time on publication in poetry journals and with the incestuous nature of the publishing business in general. Seems if you didn't attend the right school or have a buddy or your grandmother working as an editor of the mag, you had no real shot.... I suppose this is how business is conducted in all industries.

I figured there had to be a way to take the stuff straight to the audience. Of course, the internet is the general answer. So, I started messing around with a static site around March 2005.  Played with the thing for a couple months and wasn't too happy with it. Wasn't too happy with relying on someone else (unpaid, no less) to update it. The thing bored me.

Then I discovered blogs. I fired one up (now defunct) back in June, went through four domains and three platforms (use WP now, would never change) before I landed at KGP. Taught myself everything through trial and error, when I began I didn't even know what HTML was.

Glad I did it. Not looking back.

If you've got something good to get out, don't wait. Do it. Do it well. The days of your life are few.

The Thoroughly Modern Man

They tell me that
I can have thousands
of naked women
at my beck and call
slipping unnoticed
through a tiny wire
in my wall

They tell me that
I can own the treasures
of China and Europe
by driving my car
a mere five miles
to their
weekend only
parking lot super-sale

They tell me that
for $59.95
plus shipping and handling
I can quickly learn to master
my emotions
my work
my wife
my life

And they tell me all of this
with a straight face
assuring me that
if I cannot
pay now
I can pay later

In January
Or something

I am applauded
even rewarded
for being a flat-broke
perverted pack rat
with a bad marriage
and no
self-control

It is an old place,
the Vanity Fair
but its merchants
now wield ivy-league MBA's

And its hours of operation
are no longer confined
by space and time

But only by
the imagination
and affections
of
The
Thoroughly
Modern
Man

Technorati Tags: Blogger_Stories, Robert_Bruce, American_Poet

Blogger Stories: "Average" Jane

Average Jane is a wonderful, creative personal/idenity blog. It was a thrill for me to meet the the anything but "average" Jane last year at BlogHer.

Blogger Story Teller: Jane, Average Jane

I was first attracted to blogging because it's a great way to keep a journal of what I'm doing and thinking over time.

My very favorite thing about blogging isn't what I write - it's what my readers write and the blogs they like to read.  I'm fascinated by the glimpses I get into so many other people's lives.  Bloggers in my extended network have definitely influenced me to add books and movies to my Amazon wishlist, try products I'd never have considered, and even cook new foods.  It's like having a huge new group of friends, most of whom I'll never meet in person.

I find that some of the most interesting blogs are those dealing with the writers' jobs.  I read a lot of professional writers' blogs (naturally), but also blogs written by a waiter, a nightclub bouncer, and a cab driver.  That doesn't even count all of the stay-at-home-mom blogs I enjoy, even though I work and don't have any kids.

I was thrilled to be able to attend BlogHer last year and I'll be going again this year.  I can't wait to meet another big group of bloggers whose writing I enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Blogger_Stories, Average_Jane,