I am a member of SwapBot, a place
for people who like to exchange things with other people to meet. Not being
"crafty," I'm not into sending knitted whozits, crocheted whatzits, or hand made
geegaws, but I do join swaps that are of postcards or pen pal letters. I recently
started keeping a 6 week journal (written in a student's Composition Notebook).
The other kinds of swaps I have done before is the chance to
publicize your own blog. You visit partners' blogs for a bit, then write about them
in your own blog, telling what you liked (or didn't) about the blogs and why.
This is about the third or fourth of these blog swaps I've joined but
as the time has passed since partners were assigned, I find I am on the horns of a
dilemma. I'm not sure why either of the women involved decided to participate.
The first blog, My
Wonderland Adventure, had no entries at all for the first two weeks after we were
assigned (September 2). I finally wrote to her on September 15 asking if she was
going to be writing some entries. She apologized and said that she would, and she
did post a couple of entries, photos of mail she had received or sent, an announcement of
a swap she was hosting, and a short review of another blog (ironically, the same blog I
was reviewing) but nothing for the past week or so. Every person has his or her own
idea of what their blog is to be, and I certainly have no problem with this kind of
approach to blogging, an entry every week or so, but it's not the kind of blog that is
likely to find a following, and there's not much to say about it.
The second blog is written by a woman in Romania. It's called beauty2go and seems more an advertisement
for beauty products. Her latest entry was September 10, before this swap began, and
is her home-made treatment for oily skin, including before and after pictures
Other entries are just lists of products she uses, along with photos
of the bottles or boxes. I also wrote to her on September 15 to ask if she was going
to update her blog, she said she was going to, but it's two weeks later and still nothing
new.
This may be a blog which appeals to people who use lots of
"product," but as someone who uses nothing (letting my natural beauty
shine through, dontcha know!), this is not a blog that I would have any interest in, even
if she does start adding entries to it. As with the other blog, each person decides
what their blog is going to be, but my reason for reading a blog is to learn something
about the person writing it, and I know nothing about either of these women.
Trying to find something blog-related to write about on this swap, I
decided to visit the blogs of the people who were supposed to review me.
The first one only wrote one entry since the partners were assigned, and it was her review
of her two blogs. "these two very interesting women each have a blog in which
they write about important things that happen in their lives. It is very interesting and I
loved reading about the different things people do and the photos that they take instead
of my own life." It lacks something as a "review," but was better
than nothing.
The second, Smadronia's
Adventures, is the only one of the four that was satisfying to read, her latest
entries a multi-part narrative about a vacation she has been taking. Written well,
with fun photos.
I'm disappointed about this round of blog-promotion swaps and wish
there had been more interesting blogs to read. The swap doesn't end for a week, so
maybe something will happen and my two partners will produce something worth writing
about.
It was a moderate day at Logos yesterday. A lot of people
wandering through the store, a moderate number of books purchased. One guy was
looking for books about Africa, since he is about to go on a vacation soon. He
picked up "Out of Africa." I suggested the "Ladies #1 Detective
Agency" series, which he knew about, but it is set in Botswana and he won't be
visiting that country.
He was wearing a Nuremberg shirt and I asked if he had visited the
city, which he had no (the shirt was a gift), but we talked about what I learned when
there about German teaching young people about Hitler and the Holocaust.
I had set soup to simmering all day while I was at work, just one of
those "toss everything in the crock pot and see what happens." I had a
"mystery bone" in the freezer to use and then lots of veggies, including my
first crack at cooking kale, which Jeri keeps telling me I should use more.
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