My Personal Blogosphere
Well, I've been at this (if rather unevenly) for roughly eight months now-- while I still don't post every day like some people do, I do try to make a good-faith effort to jot down something. Of late the blog has gotten increasingly political, compared with my earliest entries. I guess it reflects the frustration I'm feeling these days with what's happening in the world beyond my computer. Still, I view my blog as a place not only to share my worldview, my opinions, and my experiences, but also as a sieve of sorts for things I just need to get off my chest.
A lot of people seem to agree with that; there was a WaPo article the other day about how people use blogs as an escape valve: to document a serious illness, as a way to combat depression, or as mental therapy. Even the title demonstrates this: "Cyber-catharsis."
While I wouldn't say my blog is cathartic or necessarily therapeutic, I do admit it helps me to be able to share the things that I might not in general everyday conversation: my frustrations with Smirk, Scowl, & Co.; my job-seeking woes; and a sort of public diary of what I've done with my life thus far.
But my reasons for starting a blog didn't arise out of cancer, or depression, or anything quite as dramatic: it began with a gentle push from my spouse, and also from my own daily reading of a particular blog: Funny the World. It's part of my daily web routine, and although she's at retirement age, this bloggist (whose kids I went to school with) manages to write a newspaper-column length entry daily, as well as have time for other things. I figured if she can do it, so can I. Sometimes the topics are very personal, other times mundane. There are subjects she writes about that only locals "get" (and as someone who knows a lot of the locals, I have a unique insight into the town and populace that I grew up in, just by reading some of her comments!) .
As I started writing my blog, I was soon exposed to the blogs and journals of other deaf people online-- some are friends, others are friends of friends (or of my favorite walking companion), and one or two are people I've never met at all, have no connection to, but read their stuff anyway. Just Tiphanie is my walking buddy, and her ruminations while she tackles studying for the bar range from the intensely personal, navel-gazing type of stuff you see all the time in many blogs to discourses on current affairs, the law, politics, and other such grist. Needless to say, I'm a biased reader, but I'd still read it in any event.
DefBef's latest version of her blog, with a wonderfully titled URL *grin*, chronicles the life of a young deaf woman in NYC-- while her blog is probably the most personal of all those I read, her prose ranges from mellifluous to succinct, and following her new life in the Big Apple has been an interesting journey so far. Occasionally she throws in bits and pieces of her poetry, some of which is definitely publishable.
When I need gossip, I turn to Ridor. I know him mostly by reputation, but his blog is definitely one of the better-known Deaf blogs out there. There are days when the political rants mirror mine, or it reads like a sports page; sometimes it seems like a comic book geek's Nirvana. But the gossip is what keeps me returning (and tons of others, I suspect!). If you are reading this now, and you attended Gallaudet anytime after 1989, you'll find this blog somewhat familiar-- it has that flavor of the Whatsup conference on Gallaudet's VAX system that kept Gallaudetians glued to the computer instead of hanging out in the dorms or the Abbey or the Cafeteria. Ridor keeps a blogroll on the side where many other Deaf and deaf bloggists are listed, so you can explore those on your own as well.
A recent entry to my required reading list is Random Thoughts, the blog of a fellow Deaf Californian. It's too early to say whether this one has legs (i.e., will it still be around three months from now?), but since the author is a friend of mine, that clinches it for me. It also doesn't hurt that this bloggist writes well, and has an interesting perspective on a number of topics.
Adam is among a number of people I haven't met personally, but I'm a sucker for good writers, especially good Deaf writers. I'm not sure which of my many writer friends will eventually write The Great American Novel, but it's possible Adam could do it. He posts a bit more sporadically than say, Ridor, and with far more brevity than DefBef, but what he has to say runs the gamut from personal thoughts to food for thought, and can be quite thoughtful. That's a thought, isn't it?
I found Adam partially through my friend Tayler, who with his wife Debby, have chronicled their first days, weeks, and months of bliss in their private blog. Both Adam and Tayler also do double-duty as bloggists over at DeafDC.com, where the Blog Central has a slowly expanding list of Deaf bloggists; yes, it has a decidedly DC slant, but some subjects that come up in blog entries are rather universal, and it'll be interesting to see which among this talented group takes off. I have a somewhat biased interest here as well. *grin*
While I don't check it every day, I do drop in on Jerri Lyn, who is another blog product of DC, and works at my alma mater, good ol' Gollyurdeaf. She and I go way back when, and even though the last time we saw each other was Deaf Way II, I found her blog in a roundabout way, so I occasionally drop in to see what's new with her. This blog is purely personal, so it doesn't carry the broad interest some of the others that I read do; this is one example of where a personal blog has a somewhat limited readership. I suspect that's true for 90% of blog readerships everywhere.
Two blogs that I check from time to time are either short-circuited (i.e. not past the 3-month mark!) or are just beginning to crawl, and not in toddler stage. But both are by fantastic people. The first is Deaf Discourse, whose scribe is a budding writer-- Todos la Vie is giving a reading later this week, and I'm looking forward to attending. I wish Todos would post more often, but I suspect that as Todos grows as a writer, we'll be seeing lots more from this particular bloggist, beyond the realm of the internet.
The second is the all-too-brief Frarochvia. This blog seems to have died before it even had the chance to blossom, but I keep hoping that she will consider resurrecting this site. In the brief bits here, you can see flashes of humor and a style that is engaging.
Most of these writers have a grab bag of diverse entries, and can be counted on to write interesting things. But that doesn't stop me from also checking out more single-issue blogs, devoted solely to one area or purpose. The best of these is another friend, "Deaf Jake"-- Neil's a volunteer fireman whom you may have already heard of. His blog is fascinating, since not too many people want to talk about things they either do for a living or that seem less than prosaic. People tend to blog about art, music, literature, politics, and the like. This particular blog gave me the chance to see what it's like to train to be a volunteer fireman, and it's even more exciting considering Neil's deaf as well. His last entry, as of this date, was August, but there's quite a bit in the archive to while away a couple of hours or more, if you so choose.
I also read more general blogs, those of hearing people (like Bev at Funny the World), or blogs devoted solely to politics, such as Atrios over at Eschaton or Markos over at Daily Kos (a recent addition to my reading list is Jane Hamsher's examination of the Plame Scandal over at firedoglake). But beyond that, I have to draw a line somewhere-- otherwise I wouldn't have time to blog here!
If you've checked all of these blogs out, and you're *still* hungering for more, there's a blogroll of sorts at Deaf Blogs. This is a recent development, but has in just a few weeks developed quite list of links to Deaf and deaf bloggists throughout the Web. Happy reading!
A lot of people seem to agree with that; there was a WaPo article the other day about how people use blogs as an escape valve: to document a serious illness, as a way to combat depression, or as mental therapy. Even the title demonstrates this: "Cyber-catharsis."
While I wouldn't say my blog is cathartic or necessarily therapeutic, I do admit it helps me to be able to share the things that I might not in general everyday conversation: my frustrations with Smirk, Scowl, & Co.; my job-seeking woes; and a sort of public diary of what I've done with my life thus far.
But my reasons for starting a blog didn't arise out of cancer, or depression, or anything quite as dramatic: it began with a gentle push from my spouse, and also from my own daily reading of a particular blog: Funny the World. It's part of my daily web routine, and although she's at retirement age, this bloggist (whose kids I went to school with) manages to write a newspaper-column length entry daily, as well as have time for other things. I figured if she can do it, so can I. Sometimes the topics are very personal, other times mundane. There are subjects she writes about that only locals "get" (and as someone who knows a lot of the locals, I have a unique insight into the town and populace that I grew up in, just by reading some of her comments!) .
As I started writing my blog, I was soon exposed to the blogs and journals of other deaf people online-- some are friends, others are friends of friends (or of my favorite walking companion), and one or two are people I've never met at all, have no connection to, but read their stuff anyway. Just Tiphanie is my walking buddy, and her ruminations while she tackles studying for the bar range from the intensely personal, navel-gazing type of stuff you see all the time in many blogs to discourses on current affairs, the law, politics, and other such grist. Needless to say, I'm a biased reader, but I'd still read it in any event.
DefBef's latest version of her blog, with a wonderfully titled URL *grin*, chronicles the life of a young deaf woman in NYC-- while her blog is probably the most personal of all those I read, her prose ranges from mellifluous to succinct, and following her new life in the Big Apple has been an interesting journey so far. Occasionally she throws in bits and pieces of her poetry, some of which is definitely publishable.
When I need gossip, I turn to Ridor. I know him mostly by reputation, but his blog is definitely one of the better-known Deaf blogs out there. There are days when the political rants mirror mine, or it reads like a sports page; sometimes it seems like a comic book geek's Nirvana. But the gossip is what keeps me returning (and tons of others, I suspect!). If you are reading this now, and you attended Gallaudet anytime after 1989, you'll find this blog somewhat familiar-- it has that flavor of the Whatsup conference on Gallaudet's VAX system that kept Gallaudetians glued to the computer instead of hanging out in the dorms or the Abbey or the Cafeteria. Ridor keeps a blogroll on the side where many other Deaf and deaf bloggists are listed, so you can explore those on your own as well.
A recent entry to my required reading list is Random Thoughts, the blog of a fellow Deaf Californian. It's too early to say whether this one has legs (i.e., will it still be around three months from now?), but since the author is a friend of mine, that clinches it for me. It also doesn't hurt that this bloggist writes well, and has an interesting perspective on a number of topics.
Adam is among a number of people I haven't met personally, but I'm a sucker for good writers, especially good Deaf writers. I'm not sure which of my many writer friends will eventually write The Great American Novel, but it's possible Adam could do it. He posts a bit more sporadically than say, Ridor, and with far more brevity than DefBef, but what he has to say runs the gamut from personal thoughts to food for thought, and can be quite thoughtful. That's a thought, isn't it?
I found Adam partially through my friend Tayler, who with his wife Debby, have chronicled their first days, weeks, and months of bliss in their private blog. Both Adam and Tayler also do double-duty as bloggists over at DeafDC.com, where the Blog Central has a slowly expanding list of Deaf bloggists; yes, it has a decidedly DC slant, but some subjects that come up in blog entries are rather universal, and it'll be interesting to see which among this talented group takes off. I have a somewhat biased interest here as well. *grin*
While I don't check it every day, I do drop in on Jerri Lyn, who is another blog product of DC, and works at my alma mater, good ol' Gollyurdeaf. She and I go way back when, and even though the last time we saw each other was Deaf Way II, I found her blog in a roundabout way, so I occasionally drop in to see what's new with her. This blog is purely personal, so it doesn't carry the broad interest some of the others that I read do; this is one example of where a personal blog has a somewhat limited readership. I suspect that's true for 90% of blog readerships everywhere.
Two blogs that I check from time to time are either short-circuited (i.e. not past the 3-month mark!) or are just beginning to crawl, and not in toddler stage. But both are by fantastic people. The first is Deaf Discourse, whose scribe is a budding writer-- Todos la Vie is giving a reading later this week, and I'm looking forward to attending. I wish Todos would post more often, but I suspect that as Todos grows as a writer, we'll be seeing lots more from this particular bloggist, beyond the realm of the internet.
The second is the all-too-brief Frarochvia. This blog seems to have died before it even had the chance to blossom, but I keep hoping that she will consider resurrecting this site. In the brief bits here, you can see flashes of humor and a style that is engaging.
Most of these writers have a grab bag of diverse entries, and can be counted on to write interesting things. But that doesn't stop me from also checking out more single-issue blogs, devoted solely to one area or purpose. The best of these is another friend, "Deaf Jake"-- Neil's a volunteer fireman whom you may have already heard of. His blog is fascinating, since not too many people want to talk about things they either do for a living or that seem less than prosaic. People tend to blog about art, music, literature, politics, and the like. This particular blog gave me the chance to see what it's like to train to be a volunteer fireman, and it's even more exciting considering Neil's deaf as well. His last entry, as of this date, was August, but there's quite a bit in the archive to while away a couple of hours or more, if you so choose.
I also read more general blogs, those of hearing people (like Bev at Funny the World), or blogs devoted solely to politics, such as Atrios over at Eschaton or Markos over at Daily Kos (a recent addition to my reading list is Jane Hamsher's examination of the Plame Scandal over at firedoglake). But beyond that, I have to draw a line somewhere-- otherwise I wouldn't have time to blog here!
If you've checked all of these blogs out, and you're *still* hungering for more, there's a blogroll of sorts at Deaf Blogs. This is a recent development, but has in just a few weeks developed quite list of links to Deaf and deaf bloggists throughout the Web. Happy reading!
posted by Mr. Sandman | 6:23 PM
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