cogdogblog

Note: CogDogBlog has a new WordPress powered home at http://cogdogblog.com/. All entries from this version have been moved there, so as a guide dog service try finding this article in its new home by title search.

Only on the Web... NZ Webguide's 2004 Best Personal Blog: Bizgirl is a He

Stranger than real life, or maybe not. The day after my third Weblog workshop here in New Zealand, broke a stranger than life story.

The just announced winner of the 2004 Best Personal Blog award at the Netguide Web Awards was the bizgirl blog, advertised with an aluring photo of the "librarian of international mystery". The awards read:

Blogs are all about allowing the mindset and personality of the writer come through.

Bizgirl does this, and more. I enjoyed reading her entries because they are witty and fun and full of personality. It seems a little like a New Zealand version of the Bridget Jones's Diary. The layout and organisation are crisp and easy on the eyes. When you get to the blog, you immediately know why you're there and where to look.

Clever, different, funny. She gets the gold here.

The only hitch is that "Natalie Biz" the author is.... a married man who lives somewhere south of Auckland ( some sort of variation on the JAFFA expression?).

Yes, in the New Zealand Herald story Gorgeous, but this blogger's fiction, we learn:

"I was stoked, completely stoked, to be nominated," he said before hearing of his win.

"It's taken a while, I created Natalie Biz about seven years ago, but she's got a life of her own now.

"I've borrowed a few phrases, like 'woohoo', from women I know, but I still just write as myself." ....

While "Natalie" has outed himself to a few friends, he would prefer to keep his identity quiet to avoid awkward conversations with people who have featured in his storylines - in contrast to most blogs, Bizgirl's antics are almost total fiction.

So what do we get in Natalie's blog? From A Day in the Sun

Josh and I met for a coffee on Saturday morning, having called a truce to some pretty petty mind games that had been going on over the course of the week. He commented favourably on my new World blouse: a white cotton number with short-sleeves, a high neck and festooned with the most fantastic little-yellow-duck print. His praise of my garment choice melted any resentments I may yet have been holding against him. When he asked whether I'd like to head out to Island Bay to check out the primary school fair, my plan A - which had been to go home and write up the rest of my Friday afternoon meeting with Artemis - went out the door.

...

I did, and was then whisked away by Josh. I'm a big one for judging a person's character by their parents, and I was now intrigued enough to wonder what Josh Sr. might be like. I mentioned this to Josh. He laughed, predicted I would love his father, and told me a story about him (sworn to secrecy again, unfortunately - it appears some people are becoming aware of how the blog thing works) that made me suspect his prediction might be right. It has to be remembered that male librarians like Josh are still pretty rare - a bit like male nurses - and that it takes a particular sort of man to want to dedicate himself to a profession the is traditionally seen as feminine one. What makes them tick? Is it in the genes? I am intent on finding out. Josh is my test subject.

Nothing is what it seems out there folks!