Monday 19 July 2010

Anniversary!

Photobucket

It was six years ago today that I started to keep a journal, I started to blog.

How different it all was back then, AOL actually promoted journals and seemed to be proud of them. New people were starting up all the time. I soon found myself part of a great, friendly and caring community. We all got to know each other through our writings, we supported each other when times were hard, we laughed together and cried together. Quite a few people contacted me and asked me for help in setting up their own journals or asking how to add graphics and I was happy to help in return for those that had helped me with any problems I had when setting out.

Then AOL decided that we did not make them any money and announced they were dispensing with us. What a shock that was. Quite a few people left there and then. Many more decided to come over to Blogger. Some found it too complicated and too much to handle and disappeared. I think each and every one of us missed journal alerts and the easiness of the way things had been. To turn on your computer and see your mailbox full of posting alerts was uplifting and also a better system of knowing who had posted. Some stuck at it and seemed to be doing well but even they began disappearing.

Now, I do not even know if there is anyone left reading me who was there at the very beginning when I started out, someone who read my very first entry. I know some have stayed with me for quite a few of those years.

I also feel sad that social networking sites like Facebook and others have taken so many away. I tried Facebook for a couple of months but it was definitely not for me. I do not want total strangers asking to be my friend, I do not want to send flowers and eggs and assorted items to people because they have sent to me. The recent episode with murderer Raoul Moat being glorified as a hero and a legend on Facebook sickens and disgusts me. Thousands left messages there, what does that say about our society? This man blasted his girlfriend in the stomach, killed her new boyfriend, blinded a police officer and went on the run for a week before killing himself. That Facebook would even allow such postings makes me very glad that I left it.


So, it is quicker to use Facebook - but must everything in life be so hurried, must we always be in such a rush? Blogs are personal, you put your heart and soul into them, that is really sharing. That is how you get to know people and they get to know you. So you can keep your social networking sites as far as I am concerned.


How many things have happened to me personally in those six years, my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, Daniel's illness and operation, Becky's operation and Mike's. The deaths of several dear journal friends and also friends who were nothing to do with journals including my sister-in-law. The world recession, the loss of so many of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the election of a new U.S. president and the new coalition government we have over here. Floods, earthquakes,forest fires, the London bombings and so many more world events. The birth of my second Grandson (Nathan was only a couple of weeks old when I started blogging). Watching them grow from babies into schoolchildren and all the developments along the way.

We have all got older (and, we hope, wiser) we have all experienced the good and the bad, the happy and the sad.

I am just grateful that people are still reading what I have to say, that I still have regular followers. I am happy that quite a few people have stayed and are keeping our little community going as best they can. I am sad that so many have fallen by the wayside and no longer keep or read journals, they are a loss to what is left of a once vibrant community. I do know that if ever I decide to close my journal, I would let people know, say goodbye to them and thank them for their friendship, not just disappear into cyberspace leaving everyone wondering what happened.

So today, I wish my blog Happy Sixth Anniversary. I know that I do not post as often as I used to but then when you have my lifestyle there is not a great deal to write about.

Our porch is now finished and I shall be posting pictures of that in my next entry. My back is a little better but far from completely pain free and I am still having trouble with my right knee. Part of the joys of getting old I suppose. Please keep those prayers going for me.

So, thank you, dear friends and readers, for sticking by me for these six years, those of you that have, thank you to the new people who have come along and decided to follow me. To those who disappeared without trace, I often think of you and hope life is being kind to you. I just wish we had never had to change but that is the nature of life, nothing stays the same forever.

Thanks again for your friendship, your support and your love. God bless you all.

Photobucket


My thanks to Missie for making the opening Anniversary Blog tag for me. Big hugs Missie. Here is her site http://www.missies-tag-blog.net/

29 comments:

  1. CONGRATULATIONS JEANNETTE.its been a pleasure reading your journal,and knowing you. take care,love mort xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Anniversary!! I miss the old days too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. happy 6th, Jeannette

    enjoy your day

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy 6th anniversary Jeannette ~ How I miss the old days I can never understand why AOL pulled the plug on us ~
    Thankyou for all the help you gave me when I first started a Blog ~ Ally x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Where does the time go? and yes I asked for your help in 2005 on AOL Journals. mine is still going....just.
    A lot has happened to us both in those years

    Aileen...X

    ReplyDelete
  6. Many congratulations Jeannette on six years, wow thats alot of words and pictures ,yes I have read all of your entrys through the years ,but now it isnt the same is it ? We send out our own alerts ,but people dont read the blog even then do they ? they just dont seem to have the same enthusiasm ,it is so time consuming now to do an entry on blogger ,I keep putting it off even though I have quite abit to say and a folder full of pictures ,never mind lets keep plodding hee hee blogging I mean !...love Jan xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. PS, I do aqree about face book ,It doesnt work for me either ..love Jan xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations on reaching your 6th Anniversary of blogging! They do say nothing lasts forever, so I guess it is only to be expected that bloggers like everything else will come and go, but a shame when they just vanish without explanation. However, it's always nice to remember the good 'ole days from time to time. Love B x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Congratulation on your sixth Anniversary of blogging Jeannette. I have had mine this past April was five years. I very seldom make an entry now. Since Ken and I don't get out much anymore I don't have any interesting things to tell or show.
    I got to know you and your family well in my fist few years of journaling and enjoyed every minute of it. So many people were friends back them. I can't communicate very well on facebook myself.Most of it just doesn't interest me.
    You have a great week. I am still sending up prayers for your health.
    Hugs, Helen

    ReplyDelete
  10. Congratulations on 6 years. I still miss the old journals also, this isn't the same but I do get alerts when you post.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I wish you a HAPPY JOURNAL ANNIVERSARY! I'm so glad that I've been able to meet people like you and become a part of the caring community we have. I have very few of the original AOL friends left but I'm thankful for the ones that have stuck it out and blog now. Thank you for all the wonderful posts you have written over the years. Sorry to hear you are still in pain and I will continue to pray for you. I'll be looking forward to seeing pictures of your new front porch.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well Done and congratulations on six years blogging ,Its our son and daughter in laws second wedding anniversary today as well ....love Jeanxx

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think I've been with you since the beginning. Happy anniversary! I do mis the AOL journaling community. I just started posting in my jounal again after 18 months of leaving it be. ~~Kath~~

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy sixth Anniversary. It is so sad we have lost so many of our journaling friends and you do wonder what has happened to them. Where does the time go it is five years for me come the weekend I can hardly believe it is all that time. So here's to another year to you dear friend and hope you stay here on Blogger. Love Joan

    ReplyDelete
  15. Happy Anniversary!!! so happy you're still journaling. I prefer the blog over Facebook too. much more personal and all that we share. I agree with all that you've said here. here's to more journaling!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I came on the scene in April of 2005, so I don't suppose I ever read your very first entry. It is a shame we could not recreate J-Land here, but I do still love to post/blog/journal. And still enjoy reading you and other friends every chance I get.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hello Jeannette, well done for reaching your sixth anniversary blogging. I know I`m one of those who fell by the wayside but the new system really didn`t suit me. I have the same opinion as you as far as Facebook is concerned, I just don`t `get it` at all I`m afraid. Do keep on with your entries when you can. Take care. :o)

    Love Sandra xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  18. Happy Anniversary to you and your journal/blog. I think it could have leveled out and been near the same if people had stayed. Seems the younger people love Facebook but to me it just isn't the same as writing in a journal or blog.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Congratulations Jeannette..xxx it is a shame about our little comunity in fact your the first person i asked for help and you sent readers my way..4 years ago i should get back to blogging but can't quite summon up the enuthusiasm.

    Take care
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  20. Happy Sixth Anniversary to your journal!!!
    I'll have six years come Jan 1st... I remember you were one of my fist comments... and you had the entry for all to post baby pictures of ourselves.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hi Jeanette,, well all these comments add up to a whole lot of love for you and all you have done for us over the years. I well remember the tizz I got into these first days on AOL when I would have stopped blogging before I had really begun if it hadn't been you keeping me on the straight and narrow. It was so so sad when AOL left us high and dry and I was one who gave up for a while just not being able to take to blogger...but I missed "meeting up" with my old friends and so I have persevered again on blogger...it will never be quite the same but life goes on...
    Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself with us...
    Love Sybil xx

    ReplyDelete
  22. Congratulations on a job well done! Six years & counting. No, Bloggerville is not the same as our AOL Journals that's for sure. But they do continue to make improvements so that's a good sign. Happy to hear your back is getting better...there's nothing like a sore back to get you down (literally). Keep up the good work.....Linda in Washington

    ReplyDelete
  23. Happy Anniversary to your blog Jeannette! I so love reading your entries and seeing how your grandchildren are growing up. I have just got back from holiday (20th), so I am playing catch up at the moment. Look forward to seeing the pictures of your new porch when it is completed. Take care. Eileen xx

    ReplyDelete
  24. Happy Blogaversary, Jeannette! I do miss the old J-Land community, but am so glad to still have most of my J-land buddies here on Blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  25. wow! 6 years! I looked and I started mine 6/30/04 so I had my 6 year anniversary last month. I do miss the old days, seemed like such a tight group back then. I am on fb everyday, but for privacy I come to blogs, no one I know in my 'real' life reads so they never know what I say! :) So I can let loose. I like looking back at my old entries and realize that I can make it through anything! xo

    ReplyDelete
  26. Happy six years! I know you and I go back a LONG way. I may have read your first entry, not sure. You may have read mine in There is a Season. I still think facebook is easier for those who are still upset about what AOL did. I am still mad as a hornet. I liken what they did to burning down a community with no regret, no apology. We were scattered. I am still down by it. I had a routine and a "place to go" and people to see for a few years and then "poof" we were gone. Yes, we were real to one another. I saw donations pour in for John when he had his bone marrow transplant. They came to my home. I wept with each donation, each card. We prayed for others to get well and they did. We wept for those who died. Oh, I will be quiet now. I am just on your side. I am only on facebook to stay connected with a large family and old friends.

    I love you and appreciate you, Jeannette... Val xox

    ReplyDelete
  27. Well done on your 6 years of blogging, Jeannette. I'll be right behind you, with my 6th anniversary in October. Time has flown, and many things have changed. Here's to many more years on-line in good health to you.

    Guido

    ReplyDelete
  28. Happy 6 years! I remember AOL Journals. I do miss the relationships we all built with another. Some of those relationships have continued here on Blogger, but it's not the same.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Happy Anniversary Darling ! and Get Well soon!
    You are so sage and so sweet! I agree that speed will not usually get us anywhere! come and see me soon I miss you and I missed you all summer..lots of family illnesses and travel.
    love,natalie
    Lurkynat

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for leaving a comment, it means a lot.