Redmond blogs?

Yes, Redmond has bloggers and they blog - quite a bit, in fact. Here's a sampling.

Julieloves2knit.blogspot.com

Most bloggers begin with something to say, and typically it focuses on a central topic.
For Julie O'Neal that topic was knitting.
“I didn't know other knitters existed when I started,” says the 59-year-old executive assistant. “I found blogs by other knitters and they wrote about the projects they were working on, patterns and what they learned and I thought 'How cool is this? I can do that.'”
A self-describes 'computer geek' O'Neal took a lot of trial and error to learn how she wanted her blog to look and function.
“Julieloves2knit” began in 2005 and was knitting-dominated in the beginning.
“You can tell reading the early posts that I had a really boring life; I had a lot of posts!” she says. Now she may only post weekly, sometimes less. O'Neal has also discovered her blog has readers all over the U.S. and abroad and has made Internet friends with several.
“In the beginning you read more blogs than you write and eventually you feel like you're getting to know the person (who writes the blog). Then you start getting regular readers on your blog and they feel they know you. Many of them are my age and we have a lot in common; it's just like having a regular friend, just not as intimate (as face-to-face conversation).”
Like many bloggers, eventually O'Neal found herself writing about more diverse subjects than she originally intended. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer just over a year ago, she never hesitated discussing it online – and therefore with the world.
“I thought that if someone else, anyone, were going through the same things and read what I wrote, then they would be comforted by the knowledge they're not alone,” says O'Neal.
Nowadays her personal life pops up frequently on her blog, and her grown children have taken to chiding her if she fails to update readers to the latest goings on in their lives. Her son, who according to his mother doesn't call home nearly often enough, nonetheless reads the blog regularly and recently scolded his mother for his having to find out important news about her life from her blog.
Her reply? Call home more often.

Amandacowell.typepad.com

For Amanda Cowell, 27, blogging has been a surprising gift that has helped make her comfortable with herself and less self-conscious.
“I've really gotten nothing but positive connections from the blog and met a lot of great people,” says the 27-year-old florist, crafter and mother.
Violaceous began a nearly two years ago, after Cowell began entering the online world by placing her crafting creations on Web sites for sale. But she wanted to talk more about the creative process, treasures she'd find, herself and her family.
“It's evolved a ton, I can't believe how much its changed since the beginning,” says Cowell. “In the beginning the photos were bad and it was very wordy.” Eventually, she got more practiced with a camera – and got a new camera– and worked to make the blog fun and interesting to readers, who in the beginning were mostly family, friends and fellow crafters.
“I read a lot of other blogs and comment, then they often visit my blog and comment and you can generate a lot traffic that way,” she says. “In the beginning I spent more time tracking to see where visitors came from but not so much now.”
Finding the time to post is one of the hardest thing for Cowell, with a preschooler, husband and job competing for time. She recently tried to begin a '30 Days of Happiness' series of posts, after a particularly rough patch in her life, to help her look for what gave her joy. She had to amend it to '30 Posts of Happiness' – not because it was hard to find things that made her very happy, but because it was hard to find the time to post about it.
“Instead of living in the moment I felt pressured to write about it,” she says, “but I like to wait until I have something to say.”
One of the things she enjoys the most about blogging is how it brings her together with people she wouldn't meet, especially living in a small town.
“And it's been great for memories. I take lots of photos but they're not organized. Looking at the blogs I can relive the memories as they happened.”

Generationv.blogspot.com

Nikki Jefford and her husband Sebastien don't have television. They also have a tight budget – Nikki's been looking for full-time work since moving to Redmond nearly a year ago.
So, to fill the time and keep her writing skills strong, Nikki blogs. “Generation V” was actually begun before the move but has taken a front seat since the relocation. The 32-year-old Alaskan is a passionate vegan and her blog title refers to the vegan lifestyle and its followers.
“I wanted to come out of the cupboard, so to speak, to my family and friends,” says Jefford. Taking the time to inform, enlighten and generally share her feelings about veganism was her primary reason for beginning the blog, although it's grown into something bigger over time. She writes about getting used to a new community as well as her search for a job and her constant quest to find the best vegan dishes to cook.
“Generation V” has followers all over the world, something that tickles Jefford, even though she insists she'd blog even if no one was reading it.
“It's a great creative tool for writers, it helps keep your skills up,” she says, adding that she's always kept a journal – only now it's online for everyone to see.
However, having a more visible and widely-read blog means hearing from more readers and not all of them have nice things to say, Jefford says, but that's OK by her.
“If you're going to put yourself out there you need to be prepared for criticism,” she says. “I've never had a problem with that.”

Ancientartist.typepad.com

Sue Smith may be an artist but she also has a head for business.
The 61-year-old artist didn't take up her avocation professionally until after she turned 50 and sometimes she felt quite removed from all the young people entering the art world.
A class on the business side of art convinced her to start a Web site and eventually that grew into two separate blogs.
“I only had some very basic computer skills when I started but the templates offered for Web sites and blogs makes it very easy,” says Smith. “They're user friendly and very intuitive. It's intimidating for people like myself who didn't learn computers when they were young. ”
Ancientartist was Smith's first blog. “I thought about it a long time; I knew it would not be just about me but wanted it to be something where I was writing about my own experience and my audience was over 50 individuals getting into art. There's not a lot of support for older artist, most of it is youth-oriented.” She wrote about her work processes, her thoughts on art and getting older.
“I'd hear from artists who were really helped by what I wrote and that's what I wanted.”
The blog turned out to be more successful than she had dreamed, gathering readers from all over the world. “I just wrote and the longer I did it, the more it spread. It was picked up by blog aggregators (Web sites dedicated to listing the location and topics of blogs) and went from there.”
Blogs can be a great support system, says Smith, a good way of connecting with others who are working towards a common goal or share your passion.
With two Web sites and two blogs and several years of experience Smith has advice for beginners.
“Read a lot of blogs out there and pay attention to what you like and don't like about them. Explore the different sites that offer blogs, some are free and some have fees – pay sites have more flexibility but sometimes need more technical skills to run.”
Smith also recommends writing blogs in a casual, approachable manner, which encourages readers to follow blogs regular and participate by commenting.
“If you're proclaiming 'The World According to Me' people aren't as likely to read and comment. Tone is really important on blogs, you want to keep it open to conversation.”
However, bloggers should never lost sight of the fact that they are communicating in a public forum and anyone can read it.
“Pay attention to basic journalistic rules, it's not a free-for-all. Once you hit 'publish' you're cooked if someone takes exception to what you've said. Touch more on issues, not individuals or entities. Write once, think twice.”

Cinemusing.blogspot.com

For a guy who subtitled one of his blogs “Because I'm That Central to Your Existence,” Brian Johnson doesn't much care if people log in to see what he has to say. He wouldn't mind it, he might even get a kick out of it, but it's not worth it to him to work hard at attracting visitors to his sites.
“It's just a hobby, more for myself than anything,” says Johnson, a 35-year-old videographer, filmmaker and drama teacher, currently unemployed and juggling a family – including a wife, preschooler and new baby – and a large online presence.
“I may have bitten off more than I can chew,” with four separate blogs, Johnson admits, fully aware that when his videography business picks up again with the economy he may not be able to keep them all up.
The first blog came about five years ago, when Johnson, who majored in film in college, decided to start a movie review blog. Then came “Cinemusing,” a blog revolving around his various film production experiences and insight. After that Johnson, a devout Christian, added a faith-based blog and eventually a catch-all “All About Brian” blog for topics that didn't fit anywhere else.
“I'm a bit OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder),” he says with a wry grin. Humor is big in Johnson's blogs. An actor and theatrical director on top of everything else, his blogs reflect his dry wit (one blog has a spot for 'snide remarks' where most blogs ask for comments).
“Cinemusing” has links to some of his video projects on YouTube and other cinema-related Web sites and mention Hollywood as often as Redmond. It's probably the most widely read blog Johnson guesses, but without a traffic counter on his site, he really doesn't know and while he doesn't spend much time thinking about who will see what he writes, he never loses sight of the fact that they are posted in a public format.
“There's a pseudo-anonymity about being online that deceives people; if all they're doing is facing a computer screen they forget others can see what they write.”

-- story by Leslie Pugmire Hole