My New Blog

It was less than a year ago that I had no idea what a blog was. The word was out there somewhere but what I thought a blog was ( an individual journalistic venture only) turned out to be something quite different. At the end of January 2005 I sat down at my computer to see what I could find out about the cartoon contraversy in Denmark. I clicked onto what I thought was an article but it turned out to be a blog, an UBER-Conservative right winged blog called Wizbang. As I looked at what was in front of me, there were many subjects. Since I had logged on to learn about the cartoon contraversy that is the subject I clicked. At the top was the subject and then there were all these "comments". Don't laugh, I thought, "Who are these people and how do they get their opinions on here" I saw the comment box and thought, "Can I write something too?" So I wrote and put in the required information about myself and clicked "post" and VOILA, my words were there on this "new-fandangled thing" called a blog. I was AMAZED! How did that happen? I was just sitting at my computer in my kitchen looking at the screen and wondering, NOW WHAT? Well, it didn't take long before someone responded to me and it also did not take long before posting on Wizbang gave me a blogging ulcer. All I was doing was arguing with bigots and no matter what information I gave them to read they were stuck on stupid. It was in a nutshell, going nowhere.

But don't laugh again, I didn't know there were so many other blogs out there. So I went back to google search and decided to try again. That time I came up with Sabbah's blog where the postings were much more in my own comfort zone. Since I lived in the Middle East and am amicably divorced from a Muslim whom I share my oldest daughter with, my own interests lie in accurate knowledge of the facts coming from the source of the issues itself. One simply cannot understand Middle East issues as presented to them by our own media here in America. The information provided to us here in the States is not only unbalanced, it does NOT listen to what the Middle East is saying themselves, simply, that their problems are THEIR problems and cannot be solved by one-sided ill-informed attempts at diplomacy.

Then it was quite a while before I realized that the names of the posters on Sabbah's blog which were in orange, belonged to people who had their own blogs. What a surprise I thought, this is WONDERFUL. You click on the "orange names" and get to see what they are saying. And THEN, they have sidebar links where you can link to even more. This was UTTERLY amazing to me, so many people talking to each other and sharing information. So many people who got to know each other by blogging. The possibilities are simply endless.

In the meantime, I have been blessed with making friends from around the world that I could have never made without the tool of blogging. I would like to thank these friends for encouraging me during this time to continue posting and ultimately to create my own blog.

My first thank you goes to Haitham Sabbah, who not only taught me how to properly email people (don't laugh again, one year ago, my computer was NOT my friend) but who opened up a world to me which I never knew existed. His inspiration as a blogger himself and the links from his blog have blessed me with many friends. I would like to thank Abed Hamdan, who might not be aware, that it was the links from his blog which have blessed me with two near and dear friends, Karin and Chet. In fact, Karin is here, sitting just a few feet away from me at my kitchen table!! Isn't this a wonderful world, blogging? Thank you Chet for doing all the technical stuff I would have NO clue how to do to create this blog and thank you Karin for being you and helping me to make this first post.

So as of today, December 16, 2006, I enter the world of blogging, not just as a commentor, but as a blogger myself. Stay tuned, there is much more to come, and welcome all to Under the Holly Tree.