Sunday 7 September 2008

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF "BLOGLAND"

Over the last few weeks my eyes have been opened to a wonderful world out there in “blogland”. I’m indebted to my good friend, John Woodman of “Thoughts from the North” for introducing me to the concept of blogging. His earlier blog, charting his attempts to roll back the yellow peril in Northumberland, inspired me to start up my own blog. However my real joy has been in meandering from blog to blog and discovering a whole new world out there.

In the space of a few weeks I’ve learnt about :-

- Falling off ladders and wind farms
- Kissograms, Morris dancing and handbag contents
- Blackberry jamming and the challenge of writing photo captions
- Spirits visiting a Northumberland farmhouse
- Learning Latin at home
- Mothers’ thoughts about children returning to school
- Front doors and heroic levels of volunteering
- A love letter from a secret French admirer
- Elliot Cowan being divine (from a female perspective)
- States of Emergencies in Thailand
- Home selling adventures in France
- Demolishing cooling towers
- Sandcastles on the Yorkshire moors

Hopefully you’ll recognise yourselves somewhere among that list. I think I've got most of your links shown on my sidebar. Thanks for being out there, and for being both entertaining and educational. And thanks to everyone who has dropped by here and left comments – it is nice to know some people are out there and finding my musings are of interest. I hope you’ll keep returning.

One thing that has struck me – just an observation not a scientific study – is that the ratio of female bloggers to male bloggers out there in “blogland” seems to be about 7 : 1. I’m wondering why that is? Mrs Troy, who works part-time, reckons it is because so many women are at home all day and have time on their hands!! She even sent me an e-mail from her office last Thursday - quote “You don't fancy doing some ironing instead of pissing around with blogs all day!!!!!” What do you ladies (and gentlemen) think about Mrs Troy’s point of view?

7 comments:

Elaine Denning said...

I think it's common knowlege that women are the talkers in a relationship, while men do most of the listening. Women have this need to explain things, discuss things - which is why we have extremely lengthy conversations with our friends.I think a lot of women feel unfulfilled and have a desire to make connections with people which in turn takes care of our emotional health.

Just my take on it!

Anonymous said...

I think Mrs Troy has a valid point!! I am trying to write a book but often find myself wandering around blogland before putting pen to paper, so to speak.

As for ghosts in a Northumbrian farmhouse, try ghosts in a French villa..

CJ xx

Trixie said...

Hey Troy, I just had to pop over after reading your hilarious captions on DJ's blog.

You got me thinking about the boy girl ratio and just counted up my blogroll. 33 women and 13 men, so that's 3 to 1. That actually suprised me, cause I thought there were more men on it!

Tim Atkinson said...

Me, too! Loved the captionsif they're not winners, I'm a dutchman. Interesting theories about blogging, and you're right about the imbalance of the sexes. (We can't call it an imbalance of the genders after my friend Can Bass's diatribe!) Another observation might be that male posts are generally shorter than female (possibly). Clearly more research is needed. Keep posting!

Troy said...

A warm welcome to newcomers Trixie and The Dotterel - thanks for calling by. And hello again to Elaine and Crystal.

Pleased you liked my captions - having won last week I was hoping I wouldn't be flummoxed by this week's photo(s)! Where does she get them from?

It's interesting that breakdown of the 4 comments - 3 female and 1 male - fits in with Trixie's analysis. That's spooky (like Crystal's french villa).

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Haven't you learnt a lot?

I certainly recognize myself on that list too and would like to say it had something to do with being clever and learning Latin, however, that wasn't me.

DJ Kirkby said...

I think that men ironing is an excellenct concept that blends well into our household. Our son was outraged recntly when someone mistakenly referred to the iron as 'Mommy's'. He has never seen me iron in his life.