J-land @ 20

Eighteen years ago, I joined a group of people from the USA and the UK who were bloggers. We had a great time, interacting through comments on blogposts; We would share our lives on line, with photographs, images of all sorts. Joys, sorrows, births, deaths and marriages. I think at one time, I would write more than a dozen posts a day. My blogs were called Northern Trip (until October 2008), Atlantic Lines (until October 2018) and now A Cobbled Road. We were friends, are still friends of course. Some sixty bloggers have passed away over the past twenty years since AOL J-land was set up. To the best of my knowledge. 

Blogging has fallen by the wayside. I only see half a dozen blogs still posting regularly. Everybody else has gone to Facebook, myself included. I sometimes post here in order not to feel constrained by Facebook's setup. Nonetheless, J-land does live on, albeit in a different form. I hope for many more years to come.

National Blog Posting Month 2022 - #04

Today is the 4th anniversary of the death of one of my on-line friends, Donna Diggins. I first encountered her back in 2005, blogging under the AOL screenname of nightmaremom. She was all into (American ice) hockey, her family and producing so-called tags, little works of on-line art. Donna shared imagery of the savage weather that sometimes affects the Lakes, with ice-encrusted trees, cars and houses. 

Early in 2018, she confided in me regarding a recurrence of bladder cancer, and as the year progressed, her condition worsened. In the evening of November 4th, at about 10pm, word came that she had been released from suffering. I never met Donna in person, but she was as large as life, sassy and inclusive.

Donna lives on in the minds of those who knew her, whether in person or through this imperfect medium. 

Blogoversary - 17 years of blogging

This is an image of the village of Kyleakin in the Isle of Skye. Back in 2004, I was staying here in the local youth hostel, now closed down. It is the large white building in the photograph. It is here that I started to write a blog on a daily basis, on October 8th - I named it Northern Trip. The link takes you to the first entry I actually wrote; I have since added entries for the preceding two months. 

Northern Trip was succeeded by Atlantic Lines exactly four years later, when AOL kindly closed down the blogging service.  By that time, I had become deeply involved in the AOL J-land community, which survives today on Facebook. Three years ago, I changed blogs again, and am now here, on A Cobbled Road. Apart from these diary blogs, I have nearly 70 other blogs on Blogger, but those double mostly as websites. 

Do you still blog?