This week is intro week for Blaugust 2023! When we had writing in high school, we were taught about the 5 W’s. Who, What, When, Where, Why. Sometimes How tags along for the ride. And since blogging is a form of journalism, I think those same questions apply when meeting your audience. So first up…as The Who once asked, Who am I?

Who?

I’m a nearly 50 year old, but NOT YET wife, Mom, and Grandmother. I’ve been married to Mr. Jess for thirty years now, my oldest daughter will be 30 this month, and my youngest just turned 28, her daughter is now SIX! I was born and raised in a small town back east.  I was the square peg in a round hole all through school, and I never did well, so I dropped out as soon as I was old enough to sign the papers. I eventually graduated through a correspondence school, which was much better for me.

In 2001 my husband went to the store to get a couple things, and came back 2 hours later armed with all the info he needed to enlist in the Army, and convince me it was a good move for us. I begrudgingly will admit he was right, we had no money, no insurance, something had to give. And that is how I have lived in Alaska, Washington State, Georgia, South Carolina, and back to Alaska! It hasn’t been an easy life, but it’s been interesting, and an adventure and I don’t think I’d change it given the chance.

At 40something I decided to go to college. It took me much longer to finish than it should have but I’m bad at being a student. Good at learning, just bad at the student part. I graduated with an Associates of Art in Letters, Arts, and Sciences, and then reenrolled to get my BA in Law and Society with a minor in Sociology. I graduated last year from Penn State, one of my most satisfying achievements.

If asked about my political affiliations, my answer is Chaotic Good.

And that’s pretty much WHO. What will have to wait until Friday!

When I say that I miss blogging I mean so many things. And most of them return for a time when Blaugust comes around.

Back when I first started blogging, I was using free open diary. I loved the community based journaling I found there, at a time when I really needed it. That was in 2001 when my husband had suddenly enlisted in the Army and I had a LOT of adjusting and learning, and whining and venting to do.  People with like interests seemed to just find each other and from those connections more connections were made with friends of friends. Eventually I outgrew those sites and they staarted losing members to new ones, and I found myself at Live Journal, loving the same things there. But with my decorative control.

That decorative control led me to start poking around with geocities and I eventually had my own website, then my own domain, a passing ability to manipulate html, and still people managed to find each other and make connections, and a whole community. This first happened with web rings, and then yahoo groups made it even easier. My sites grew and changed, and topics came and went, but I always had a home in blogging. Especially when WoW blogging was huge. That’s how I got to know Beghast over at The Aggronaut in fact, and many others who I still stay connected to on social networks.

But one day, it felt like the Blogosphere just…stopped turning. The updates stopped, the comments stopped. Where I used to find my gaming info from a friendly blogger, I was presented with ad riddled SEO filled magazines, wikis, or reddits, or videos. And I still miss it. Because without other blogs, it’s like shouting into the void.  So here I am, doing Blaugust 2023 with the hopes that I find that village again, because I really miss emptying my chatty brain into my blog!