FIRST BLOG ANNIVERSARY!

UPDATE

Estou atualizando este post para poder participar da blogagem proposta pelo amigo Eduardo, do blog Post in Progress com o tema Por que blogo? Por uma feliz coincidência este assunto veio a calhar, pois estou comemorando três anos do Leaves of Grass e o tema não poderia ser mais oportuno. Aqui estão as minhas repostas. Se houver necessidade de tradução, favor clicar no final da página, no Babel Fish.

Today is my First Blog Anniversary. Yes it’s been a whole year since I started blogging!

I was tagged by my friend Susie, from Susie’s Space, about blogging and I planned to answer this meme on my First Blog Anniversary. So, the meme is below.
When did you start blogging?
I started blogging in September, 29, 2005. Before this I've been reading several blogs for about one year. When I started reading some blogs, I was definitely hooked! I leave comments on many blogs and I enjoyed so much those visiting. If I remember well, was my friend Jude, from Long-Toothed Hinterland Dweller who for the first time said to me: “Why don’t you try to create your own blog”? So I had the daring to begin a blog in English! Then my blog “Leaves of Grass” was born. You can see my first post here. In this first post I only showed one photo of my house, with the title: Home sweet home!
Then my “ship” was launched in this amazing “ocean” of blogs! I’ve been blogging now for one year! I wrote 58 post and till today I had 17,958 visitors (since October 8, 2005) from all around the world! It’s really amazing and awesome!


Why do I have a blog?
When I first began my own blog, I did it for many reasons. I wanted to express myself, to make friends from many parts of the world, to share my photos and my husband’s photos, to improve my English, to see if I could express my thoughts in a foreign language, to show my country and so on. And I love so much the feedback that I get from blogging. I readed on Antonella Pavese's blog that a blog is “something you create and take care of, like a garden, and other people from all over the world can visit and enjoy. A blog is a work in progress”. I truly agree with her beautiful words!
Certainly have a blog have been a delightful, educational and pleasant experience. Blogs may be the most complex pen-pal system ever created! When I was a teenager I have a pen-pal, from China. It was wonderful and I never forget this amazing experience!
It is pretty amazing to check my sitemeter and see the Map of the World with many people on it who visited my blog! It’s truly wonderful more than I can say!
Blogging is a great and amazing communication medium! As I am a journalist, I love and enjoy sharing my knowledge with others and learning from the knowledge of my friends! Blogging connects me with others interesting peoples all around the world! I have already met countless lovely people from blogging and I learn great and amazing things everyday.
What don't you talk about?
I prefer don’t talk about Politics and inner personal issues. I would like writing about a diversity of issues, but unfortunately my English don’t permit all this! But I do my best and I hope someday I could do this! As we say in Portuguese, “Um dia eu chego lá”.
Are you and your blogging persona the same person?
Yes, on my blog I am really just like I am in my real life.
How do you use blogging to build friendships?
I truly can say that I found many nice and lovely friends on blogosphere. I like so much the possibility of share thoughts, feeling, information, entertainment and principally friendships. And I am enchanted with this delightful community of blog’s friends!
How would you describe your writing style?
As I write in a foreign language, I have many difficulties with the idiom, so I choose don’t write so much. I prefer to show more photos and also make searching to help my writing.
Last but not least, I must to say that through blogging I've met a lot of nice, kind, talented, wise, witty, funny and intelligent people and it has been a great experience to me! I also improve my English and really I am having a great fun!
I would like to thank all my blog's friends who helped me in many troubles I had with my templates, layout and son on!
THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who have been reading, commenting and giving your lovely feedback on my ideas and photos.

This photo of my house was taken in the beggining of 2006.

The place where I spend my time blogging and having a great fun!

Photos by Sonia de Amorim Mascaro

Click on photos for an enlarged version