My first blog post was about a beauty pageant 20 years ago this summer. Describing the backstage primping and preening, and the attention to hair and nails, the post was a sarcastic post about a cattle show at the Kentucky State Fair. I was guest blogging for a friend while he was offline for a couple of weeks. While filling in for him, I started posting to my own blog. Blog is short for a weblog, a website that allows simple, quick and easy-to-edit postings of content. I blog as a hobby, for the most part I avoid talking about work or the issues I worked on. Creating posts and reading the blogs of a growing circle of friends fills an hour or so each day.
For the first ten years, I posted periodically to the Adventures of Travel Penguin, some years I posted almost nothing. Other years I posted a couple of times a week. Ten years ago, in an effort to improve my writing, I made a commitment to myself to post at least once each day. I have missed one day since 2015. I have written over 4,500 posts, with nearly 1.5 million views and over 42,000 comments.
My blog is about my travels, my life, and my thoughts. I start nearly every post with a photo I have taken; one of the reasons I blog is to share my favorite photographs. Most of my posts are written ahead of time and scheduled. At the start of each year, I decide on theme days, such as five questions on Sunday and travel photos on Tuesday, etc. The themes make it easier for me to think of something to write each day.
Just as I was introduced to blogging by a friend, I have made some dear friends through blogging. I have met a dozen bloggers in person. I had lunch with two blogging friends in Phoenix during the 2025 ABA Mid-Year meeting. Posting, reading, and commenting on one another’s blogs, we have formed a community, with the hobby of blogging in common.
How is blogging different from social media? Only I can post on my blog. To see what my friends have posted, I have to go to their blogs. There is no common feed or stream of content from other content creators; there is no algorithm selecting what I see and don’t see.
There are a couple of commonly used blogging platforms, and many website platforms offer a blog option. Blogger is a Google product (blogger.com), and WordPress (WordPress.com) are the two most commonly used by non-business bloggers, with Substack growing in popularity. Many of the platforms offer free basic hosting. My blogs have grown to the point that I pay for cloud storage. Many bloggers use one of many available stock templates (I do). Some bloggers create custom layouts. You can buy a domain or use the host domain.
Why might you want to blog? Angus, the author of one of the blogs I read daily, describes it perfectly, “A record of those unimportant little things that are too important to be forgotten.” Blogging is a great way to speak your mind, show your art, make and stay in contact with friends or family, and create an online record of your life.
