Why Am I Blogging!!!???

What the heck am I doing here!!?? Me in a blog!! What's going on!?

Well, let me tell you. I'm getting ready to go to England for 6 weeks between May 11th and June 22nd.  Whenever I've travelled, particularly overseas, I've kept a daily diary of what we did, where we went, what we saw, and who we met in one of those daily diary books that the managers always carry with them whenever they went to meetings. I always had a problem with writing in these kind of diary books.  I was very faithful in keeping my diary up to date for the first couple of weeks.  But for the last couple of weeks, I wouldn't write a thing. It was always a mad scramble when I got home to update the diary, although the ticket stubs and brochures of the places we visited helped to jog my memory - if I ever did update my diary when I got home.

Then in the last two weeks of our 2008 summer visit to England, I got in the habit of doing an e-mail almost every day, or at least every second day, to family and friends.  When I got back home, all I had to do was copy and paste these e-mails into a document, do a bit of editing, and, voila, I had my diary. I was better at typing e-mails (my typing speed is about 40 wpm) than I was at writing longhand in a book (I always lose my train of thought when I write - which is why I prefer to type).

So, why not continue with the e-mails?  Firstly, I discovered blogs last fall with the Ottawa Blogspot.  I bookmarked the blog and it is now part of my regular daily news reading. You can upload photos, videos, edit what you are saying, keep track of what you previously said, and allow people to comment on your news - which you can't do with e-mail. Once you hit the "Send" button, it's gone - no turning back.  There's also the bit of "show-off" to a certain extent where I'm trying to stay on top of this computer technology.  For me, the computer, the Internet, websites, and the whole ball of wax has opened up a new dimension in communication. (So much for this rant, eh.)

And besides, this will be my own on-line daily diary of what I will be doing during my stay in England. Words, videos, photos, and all.

Bob M.