The Wonderful World of Blogging

I've had a few false starts with blogging. Trying it when it first appeared on the net. Never felt inspired to keep them going. They were mostly private blogs tracking records, sort of what I thought this cello blog would be.

I've kept personal journals for years, mostly when travelling. I started posting travel logs for friends and family on my personal website when an eBay friend took my husband and me on a tour of Bulgaria. I received a lot of positive feedback from that so continued the tradition with other trips.

I had been emailing some friends and family personal updates on and off and after visiting an acquaintance from Africa's weblog, I got inspired to create a personal blog on my website.

Its actually more fun to blog than keep a personal journal. It forces me to write in a different style. Also, adding photos really makes a difference. Photos are so easy to add using server side technology than uploading via ftp.

Googling, I came across gottagopractice's blog and decided to re-establish a blog with blogger.com. Blogger.com has gone through so many changes over the years. Looks pretty good now.

Anyway, appears that this blog is evolving into a more introspective one than my other one.
On a whim, I had posted my cello blog link on the "cello by night" forum and was amazed at the response. I've been attacked by the cello bloggers! What a nice concept! When one isn't in a class setting there's an isolation to learning an instrument as an adult. I felt that separateness when I was studying the violin in my twenties. There's no one to share your woes or little triumphs or even to compare yourself with.

I've just started reading Guanaco's cello blog which starts in November of 2005 when he decided to learn the cello at age 55. It's an exotic setting as he lives in Alaska where the nearest cello teacher's 60 miles away. He starts out practicing over an hour a day. Wow, that's stamina. I'm lucky to do ten minutes and then I take a break and come back later.

Also of interest was Guanaco's lifestyle similarity. He also retired early, and lost quite a bit of weight during the past few years. I had been scolded by my GP that my blood sugar was too high and if I didn't start exercising and losing weight, he'd make me take pills. So I started the South Beach Diet, Labor Day 2004, and lost 30 pounds. I put my husband on SB also but he only lost 10 pounds. I was more conscientious about exercising 20 minutes a day.

Anyway, its time to put the computer and groceries away and take out the cello. Got a compliment on my playing today from my husband. That's really great. Compliments don't come often from him.