I know a number of bloggers who regularly write about their family, or have gotten family members into blogging. That’s neat by me, but largely, in my case, its been pretty much a case of avoiding Where Worlds Collide, not for any really good reason; they just seem pretty separate spheres of my own life. Maybe deep down in the CogDogSoul, I know this “blogging stuff” is all fluff.
So tangentially, it reminds my of my colleague Klaus from graduate school, who would relay that his working class Dad would occasionally ask him when he was going to “get some honest work.” What could be more honest than Klaus, a grad student, chasing adventures on Mexican volcanoes?
But this is a positive story about my “little” sister, Harriet. That is in quotes because she is 6 years older than me, but she is shorter, yet has enough goods on me from growing up. But over the last year it has been fun as she had started reading my blog in October to follow my travels in Australia, but then in our conversation and email she was reading all the posts. Then, she got hooked on flickr, created an account, and started commenting on my photos.
That is kind of cool, like maybe she even takes what I do seriously 😉
So we are talking this weekend, Harriet from her sailboat on the Chesapeake, me at Home Depot in Payson, AZ, and she’s talking about being influenced by my rant on presentations. She has a rather high level government job, and works in computer systems, but she said she attends these meetings full of deadly dull Powerpoint, the typical monotone reading of 8pt text slides. So for her recent presentation, she researched a bunch of the presentation related sites I referenced, and made hers nearly all visual… and she relayed that it caught everyone’s attention and garnered a pile of positive feedback.
So my silly blogging influenced my sister’s work, thats pretty cool by me. Now maybe she will be twittering soon, blogging, popping those snazzy presentations on Slideshare….
And being Mothers Day, I should note my mom asked me on my last visit to see “that blog thing.” So I went to her computer, and made sure it was favorited in her Internet Explorer (I do rue the day my sister got her a PC before I could get her a mac). I was actually already there… and boy did it load slowly on her dial up internet! Mom pretty much only does email, and says she “never goes on that web” and forgot how to get to my blog — which is all ironic as she reads her email (NetZero) in a web browser. But no sense being picky.
But who knows, one day, Mom may find her way here and leave a comment.
So does your Mom read your blog?
I think sometimes until I hooked up with the CyberSalonAZ, my mum was the only who read it. (I am talking about my family blog at http://www.nooccar.com)… about the same time, I realized my work blog http://www.dcamd.com was really friggin’ boring and Web Zero.Zero, so I revamped with it the help of friends. I now keep work blog and family blogging separate.
But today for Mother’s Day, I told my mother that if she wants to know what I am doing, she needs to start following my Twitter. So I got her a twitter account. When I post, I always have to remember to copy it to her SMS, but no more!
My siblings are perpetual luddites though.
My blog is about teaching, learning and web 2.0 (in Norwegian), and my mother reads every single letter in it. She’s a teacher herself, but the main reason for her to read my blog is that she feels like I’m sharing more of my life with her. Which is true, I guess. I also have a younger brother who reads it from time to time. I like that, it is nice that they show interest in what I do. All my family members are into computers and internet, but my husband shows no interest at all, because he finds the whole computer business boring.
Nice blog you have here, by the way – I’ve got lots of ideas from reading it 🙂
Nope and could just imagine if mum did she might tell me off about my spelling, grammar etc (or leave a reminder about someone’s birthday since she knows I hate phone calls). And there’s no way she or other family members are joining me in Twitter 🙂 (could just imagine hubby and my kids tweets e.g. What’s for dinner? When is dinner? My brother is hitting me).
My husband occasionally Googles my name at lunch time to see what I’m getting up to on my sites (NOTE to self – remember to be careful what I say on twitter near lunch time).
Saying all that I think its really cool that reading your blog has helped your sister with her work.
My mother reads my blog, and also follows my Flickr account (she commented on a recent photo-of-the-day by email). Several of my brothers and other relatives also read my blog.
Does it change what I post? No.
It was fun to read about our conversation in your blog! I enjoy reading it and seeing your pictures because you’re so far away and it gives me a chance to see what you’re up to. I can also learn some neat stuff!
BTW, Mom bought the new PC against my advice–I told her to keep the old one and had spent a lot of time cleaning it up to improve performance. Yet another instance where she asks me for advice but doesn’t follow it. That’s Mom!!!