LOVE THOSE COMMENTS

      In my last post I left you with a question that brought many great comments. Since the question was on blogging , many people were very interested. People who  blog think about things. 

     Writers think about what topics they will deal with. Bloggers have a purpose. I started out just wanting to do a little writing to keep some skills. I've ended up with a hobby that is very interesting. 

     I was blown away with the quality of comments.   Thanks. 

    So I hope the person I had a discussion with is reading comments. So commenters say that we should be correct and after that you can write the way you want. You own the blog so you have the choices. Most blogs I follow have their own style of writing.

    The poor photo bloggers were left out in my post . However, photos tell a great story. 

     So the last blast from Smarty Pants was , "Anything worth doing, is worth doing well." I can live with that. 

MESSAGE FROM THE HAND

      Mr Pudding, from Yorkshire Pudding, makes some interesting comments. He can be humorous, witty, serious , and very much on topic. Sometimes he will pick up on one small detail and make his comment on a small part of your post. He doesn't care if he uses some imagination. If there's something he doesn't know or care about, he doesn't make a comment for the sake of making a comment.

     Mr Pudding made a comment on my last post that made me think of many more things about my post on my Dad.

     On the post I was trying to show my Dad and myself in two different phases of our lives.

   On the second photo Mr Pudding facetiously suggested that I had a fist behind my Dad and that I wanted money.

    My Dad was not a wealthy man. He donated much to Christian causes that he supported. He really didn't care if he had the money or not, he would make a donation. He was confident that he would be looked after.

    Dad was also generous in other ways. Dad had the idea that his farm would be somehow taxed if it was left in his estate. What did he do? He distributed his land equally to his sons before he turned 65. I said, "Dad , you will need income from the farm to survive. " He wouldn't listen. He had CPP (Canada pension plan) and Oas (old age security) and he would survive . He bought some property and was lucky that the time he had the property as it increased in value. He spent 15 winters in Phoenix. He rented the same old house for 15 years.

   Now he only had one financial goal. He wanted enough money to pay for his funeral. And he did have enough for a funeral and $1600.00 left over.

   Now for the fist behind my Dad? I think I had my thumb sticking in my pocket and Graham from Eagleton Notes agrees with me. Take a look at my photo in my post Father's Day

   So the comment from Mr Pudding made me think of much more on my Dad.

More Blogger Mumblings

     I recently did a post on blogging that got away on me. I was interested in two bloggers who were making some serious attempts to change their blogs. Sometimes we need to change to rejuvenate and get out of a rut.

    I have some things that I would like to change on my blog and named them and why I would change them. I also went out on the limb to ask people what they liked and what suggestions they would make about my blog. There were no great surprises and it's always nice to reaffirm what is going on. There were many suggestions. I now know how to live dangerously when I want to change my blog. I have to set up another blog and use it for experimenting.

   Now when you ask for opinions you risk hearing some things you might not want to hear and some things that are just plane wrong. All of your comments were great.

   I then reflected on being able to ask for judgements.

   As a teacher , I went through many evaluations. In the 50's and 60's we had one visit a year from the superintendent. It was a terrifying visit. We didn't know what he was looking for and I don't think he did either. I had one superintendent who was most helpful.

   As time went on teacher evaluation changes. Specific skills were looked for. We were trained to use these skills and when an evaluator came to your classroom you knew exactly what he was looking for.

   Evaluation expanded. Principals and vice principals visited the classroom so we had 4 or more visits per year. Not all of these visits were formal.

  I was a department head and I also did classroom visits.

   I also had many student teachers and had to evaluate them. This evaluation was a pain because of the way the evaluation form was set up. Having student teachers was always a good experience.

   So it wasn't hard for me to ask for opinions and I'm glad I asked as I learned some things and certainly had things reaffirmed.

 

Pleasant Blog Conversations

      Blogging intrigues me. I do a post once in a while on some aspect of blogging. I think the last  post I did on blogging was about bloggers who just disappear. Poof! They're gone. No goodbye! I've done a post on blog comments. Today is another post on comments.

      The blog post together with comments becomes a genuine conversation. We write a post which says something or shows something. The topic can be a standard for a particular blogger or like me, I post about anything that happens to be rolling around in my head.

      I like to make comments on other bloggers's posts. People write very interesting things which promotes a reaction. As in a conversation, we reply and add to a comment or question for more information or validation. I follow some very excellent photo blogs. They are the kinds of things that catch your eye. Some photo blogs cleverly mix photos with prose or poetry.

    On my blog I reply to comments that are made the first day after the post. My conversation can say thanks, add to my post, widen the scope of what I said or just plain kibitz. Kibitz comes from teaching days where I had to carry on several conversations at once.

    I really have to be happy about the type of comment I get. I feel that someone has read the post and can make an honest and respectful comment. Some people have a great sense of humor and it comes through in the comment. Some people will always expand my thoughts and I will say , "Why didn't I write that?" Sometimes I'm just plane wrong. I like someone to tell me when I'm wrong. I get about 10 to 20 comments per post. I couldn't respond to any more. I only have so much time for blogging.

    I'm not sure how many active blogs I follow, but there is a limit to how many blogs I can comment on per day. I get frustrated on days when I'm busy and can't take time to think about my comment.

     Each blog and blogger is different. Each blog you open has something new and different.

    So with all the back and forth of posts and comments a very pleasant conversation takes place. Non bloggers don't know what they're missing.

Bumbling Along on the Blog

      A fellow I finished high school with had a look at my blog the other day. He made a couple of comments and a compliment. Since school days take me back to the mid fifties I got thinking about the origin of  my blog.

      Now comments and compliments send me to greater wildness. This set off reflections on how I started blogging. 

      The only thing I knew is that I wanted to write. I thought I had some weighty and serious things to say. Many of you will laugh because my blog is not that serious. I was completely naive. I did not have the Internet at my house. I had an email account and had searched the web. I had also used the word processor. 

    So I set up Hiawatha House. I thought anything I wrote would be hung out there on the net and everybody would see it. People would open their computers and there I would be! I would have the world reading my blog. This would so cool! I made 2 posts in the first 4 months. Click here to see my first post. Slowly I began to realize that nobody was reading my blog.

    So fast forward to Blogging for Dummies. A few things made sense to me in this book that was written in very simple terms. I really got hung up on URLs. I couldn't figure out what they were but they were important. One time I bumbled into what a URL was. This brought about many changes and developments but still no readers. 

     I began looking at other blogs. To this point I had not read any other blogs. I bumbled into comments and related it back the Blogging for Dummies. I read comments for a while and finally learned how to make a comment.

    I discovered stat counters. This showed that my readership was between none and very few. Finally I was very surprised to see a comment. I didn't know what it was. To say the least I was very excited.

    Another hurdle was that I did not know how to cut and paste. A friend accidentally asked me to cut and paste something and I though ah ha this is how it's done. I had done cut and paste on the word processor but it had not transferred to the blog. Cut and paste helped me advance by leaps and bounds.

    The learning curve was steep and very slow. I still spent a lot of time with Blogging for Dummies. 

     When I look back I can not understand why I persisted. I just bumbled along and made discoveries. 

     Little did I realize that I would still be blogging in 2014! Little did I realize that I would some day have written over 800 posts. Little did I realize that I would meet many other bloggers and things would develop into a  very interesting and supportive community.

    My blog has become an interesting and time consuming hobby. I can not see giving up blogging.

     Thanks to all the bloggers who have been a part of supporting Hiawatha House.

      Thanks to my high school friend for causing me to go back and reflect on what Hiawatha House has become.

Confession

      My post yesterday was an apology. I might as well get on a roll and make a confession today. My confession is that I don' read very many comments that are made on other bloggers's posts. From time to time I will look at some comments. Mostly I make my comment and run.

      Now I know that when some one takes the time and effort to make a comment, it would be nice if more people read it and appreciated   it. Comments take a blog to a higher level.   More people reading and  commenting on comments would add even more to a blog.

   I see some blogs where there is some back and forth between commenters. I have responded to comments on others blogs. Why don't I do more? I just don't have time. I follow many blogs. I have to limit how much time I can give to my blog. Don't get me wrong. I like blogging and could spend all day at it. 

    One thing that I have found interesting is to receive oral comments. A number of people who I know and see quite often read my blog. They throw oral comments back and forth. I also tell them to read the comments people make on my posts. Bud reads most of my posts. He makes some very neat comments. His comments are distant so you have to be thinking or it goes over your head and he goes away with a big twinkle in his eye and says to himself, "Aha , the old guy didn't get it." Today at skating, when I was taking my skates off, he went by and said, "I'll see you next Tuesday if you can keep your time straight." He was referring to my mix up on my Beatles post. However, he skillfully slid it by me as I was busy and he almost got out of the room without being caught. I enjoy Bud's comments as well as others who give oral comments.

    So I will try to look at more comments on other blogger's posts as I think there is much value there.

Comments!

     First let me say that I appreciate comments. People take time to read the post, think about it and then go to the effort to write a response. How good can it get? 

     Responses come in all shapes and sizes. Some responses are incredibly witty. Others offer a different view. Some are complimentary. While others share your view. And then some readers tell about a similar experience. Some express support. So thanks to my readers. You make my day.

    Now I have some confessions to make. Sometimes I get busy and get behind in commenting. I just get overwhelmed and have to omit comments. My apologies. Sometimes I misread things and you wonder what I'm talking about. Sometimes my comments are just plain boring. Some of my comments are just plain vacant. So my apologies. 

     I do try to say more than just, "good job." I do try to vary my comments so that it's not just the same old same old from Red. I hope I'm positive and I hope I'm never rude or offensive. Now if you don't like something tell me about it. I'd rather get the chance to correct something than lose a perfectly good follower.

    I do try to answer comments on my blog. That is fun. I like to follow people who respond to my comments. You have to work hard to find out who responds to my comments. 

   One thing in comments did bother me recently. I had been following a good blog. We commented on each others blogs and it was interesting and positive. After a while I noticed the other blogger hadn't been replying. That's okay. It's okay if you get tired of my blog and drop me. What bothered me on this one is that my comments weren't published. But I'm a big boy and life goes on. I hope other bloggers don't experience the same situation. Now don't worry . It's none of you. This blogger doesn't read me any more.

   So thanks again for comments. It just adds another level of pleasure in blogging.