My friends’ blogs that don’t exist

Some of my friends who read and comment on this blog have their own blogs. Like Meags.

But some of my friends don’t have blogs when they probably should.

For example:

Josh. He has a lot to say and, if you read the comments to my blog, you would know that his comments are usually better written, more thoughtful and much funnier than my original posts. Josh uses facebook notes to good effect, but I think his audience could be much wider.

David. The need for David to start his own blog has been discussed in the comments, but I think David is scared to unlock his shining blog potential. I think I’m reading a self help book about that right now! I think you need to find your North Star, realise your own soul limitations, stop using negative self-talk and wiggle your right toe.

Rowan. Ro will contribute to my next mega blogging project, but she should also be channeling her energy into a dog blog and, unlike the rest of us with our silly rambling blogs, she might even get an audience!

Beck. I’m pretty sure the material for a blog is already being written or at least concocted in Beck’s brain. This blog would probably cover everything from organisational management to work-life balance and, like Rowan’s dog blog, would probably also get an audience.

Readers who are exempt from this blog push:

Lara. One of the few people I know who is any good at keeping a regular journal. Unlike some people I know (ahem…Sarah) I don’t think Lara would be motivated by a desire to share every dull thought she’s ever had with the world (but you can prove me wrong if you like Lara).

Ben. Already has a blog. Doesn’t bloody post on it.

Where is Sarah when Sarah is at home?

Where is Sarah? began when I left Australia for Indonesia in September 2007 (I wrote my first post instead of packing my bags).

While I’m obviously quite fond on non-travel related tangents, for the most part the idea of the blog is to report home about my travels (and sometimes to report on Australia to everyone else).

But shortly I’ll be back in Australia in a more permanent sense for the first time since I began the blog, which kind of muddles the basic motivation behind it. So do I continue Where is Sarah? or let it die a natural death?

Well, don’t give it too much thought because I’ve made an executive decision. For the time being I’m going to continue writing on Where is Sarah? as though nothing has changed. I’ll be travelling and doing fun stuff for the first couple of months after getting home, so I’ll still have stories to share, and I’ll still have plenty of “the thing I don’t understand about this culture is…” moments, because Australians are essentially pretty weird.

I will be working on about 70 new side-projects, including 15,000 new blogs, so if Where is Sarah? loses steam I might redirect my Where is Sarah? energy into one of my other projects. So if I start blogging frequently about what was on TV last night just tap me on the shoulder and I’ll take the hint.

There are ten days left before Where is Sarah? goes domestic, and I’m hoping you’ll help me reach 10,000 hits before then (take a look in the bottom right hand corner of the blog to see the current stats).

Thanks for reading!

Where is Sarah? Find her at WordPress!

Thank you for following the link from my blog’s old home to its new home. Welcome.

In preparation for my planned blog overhaul I was checking out my old wordpress blog and realised wordpress had added a couple of new features since I’d been here last that I liked very much….Like importing every post from Blogger with the press of a button! So I pressed the button.

I’ve noticed that some of the posts aren’t complete and maybe the formatting is a little funky, but I reckon we can manage for now and things will smooth out eventually.

I hope you like it! (P.S. I noticed that this blog looks soooo much better when viewed with Safari….)

On blogging

As you might have noticed I’ve been messing my blog up a bit. Playing with the layout of my blog is one of those things that starts small and eats hours away without me realising. The slow internet connection doesn’t help either because I wait for a few minutes for every little change…and then decide I preferred it the old way. This got me thinking about another entry for:

THINGS I WANT TO DO WHEN I’M HOME. PLEASE HELP

No.2. Overhaul my blog.
I can’t let myself start this now because I will make a mess of it and neglect some fast approaching deadlines in the process.

I have to keep it simple (I already spend a bit too much time writing posts so I don’t want to spend too much time maintaining the layout), so if you have an inkling of inspiration for a simple blog design, or can help me make a design I choose a functioning reality (ahem…Benjamin) I would be eternally grateful for suggestions.

I don’t really need a fancy looking blog because I suspect my readership of 20 will tune in anyway but it would bring such joy to this simple heart if I had a pretty blog.

All this blog talk has got me thinking about what keeping this blog for a year has meant for me. I started the blog as an alternative to sending group emails about what I’m up to, and as a way to keep thinking about what I was seeing and doing. I’m terrible at keeping a journal even though I see great value in it so this is a bit of an alternative. There are obviously things I can’t/won’t share on this blog for reasons of being work-sensitive/personal/boring, so it’s far from a complete replacement for a journal but it does seem to working as a recorder of my experiences even if there are giant gaps.

But I think the most surprising outcome of keeping this blog is that it helps me to feel connected to my life outside of Banda Aceh. I didn’t necessarily expect that because the communication is mostly one way (apart from comments received). And I write to a mixed audience so I don’t particularly tailor my content to one group. But I suppose that as I write a post I think of the people who might be reading, where they’re sitting when they read it, who will like a particular youtube clip, etc…and I feel connected.

By the way, ramping up the frequency of my posts has made all the difference. Seems like my “9 Things to do Before 2009” list, including the posting target I set for myself, is actually doing some good then.

It’s already Wednesday

Which means:

1. I’ve been back from Australia for three days and I still haven’t posted about it
2. I met the prime minister a week and a half ago and still haven’t posted about it
3. This week’s many deadlines are are fast becoming overdue so the last thing I should be doing is posting on this blog

1000 hits!

It took nine months to get there, which is probably tragically slow in blog world, but today my blog was read for the 1000th time!

Thanks for reading. I love you all lots.

Sarah

Wow! Every day counts!

Thank the almighty for Wireless internet, so I can sit in a meeting and post on my blog and look like I’m taking notes.

I think I’ve tried to keep specific details of who I work for out of this blog, so I think it’s only slightly unprofessional if I mention that I am sitting in the most head-buttingly stupid meeting of my life. And the best part is that it’s lasting for two days!

Oh my, oh my, it’s lucky I haven’t had a near death experience recently and am all “every day counts!” because this day is a complete write-off.

Oops, they’re talking about me now. Back to work.

A milestone and a medical anomaly all in one post!

I posted the long-awaited Bali photos, but because I started the post a week ago, you have to look below this and the previous post to find it.

All this messy half-posting and updating later allowed me to overlook a very special milestone.

My 100th POST!

My 100th post occurred almost exactly six months into the life of this blog (and my stay in Aceh obvs). I wonder if I will write another 100 posts over the next six months. Is this my standard posting rate? Only time will tell. But what it tells me now is that my current posting rate is very low. I have visions of updating daily but I’ve only squeezed out 100 posts in around 180 days. I will try to increase posting but we’re all going to have to make some sacrifices to realise this dream. Your sacrifice will be to lower your standards and except some very ordinary material. Thanks, I can really tell you guys are with me on this.

Now, to set the tone of the next six months of posting I will explore a fascinating subject: My pupils.

I woke up this morning and my eyes looked VERY dark. It was cool, but of course your eyes aren’t supposed to change colour (unless you’re one of those people whose eyes change colour). On close examination I realised my pupils were larger than usual and wondered if this was what is meant by ‘dilated pupils’. Is there a moment when large pupils cross over and become ‘dilated’?

To find out more I wikied ‘dilated pupils’ and this is the text and image it gave me (beware, it’s hideous):

Mydriasis is an excessive dilation of the pupil due to disease, trauma or drugs. Normally, the pupil dilates in the dark and constricts in the light. A mydriatic pupil will remain excessively large, even in a bright environment. Sometimes colloquially referred to as a “blown pupil.”

As my friend Jesse would say “that’s totally grodie”. I think he means gross, which is what I mean now. Clarification: this is NOT my eye.

So now that I’ve exhausted all scientific avenues (if it’s not in Wikipedia it doesn’t exist right?), maybe you guys can tell me what’s wrong with me. No, I am not taking drugs. Haha, funny.