Guest Editor's Picks 14 December 2007

(above
image courtesy www.blackwell-compass.com)

Hello,
 

My name is Guido, and I write the journal Northern Trip.

I have agreed to start off this first batch of editor's
picks.

I started the blog in 2004, as an on-line
diary to my trip round Northern Scotland. After I settled down in the
small town of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, the emphasis shifted to
involvement
with J-land through the VIVI awards (to give them their due) and more
permanently following the death of Pamela Hilger (his1desire), who
passed away
on Easter Sunday 2006.  


At the moment, my blog is subtitled “A view of the
world
from a small island; a view of the island for the world”. I live in the
Isle of
Lewis, off northwestern Scotland,
and I portray its wild weather and stunning scenery, as well as the
small-town politics
you get in a community of 20,000. Anything occurring on the Scottish
mainland
(40 miles or 3 hours away by ferry) will also feature. This varies
between
Donald Trump and his ridiculous golf resort on the coast of
Aberdeenshire
to emergencies at sea.  


Enough about me – on to my picks.


I found it extremely
difficult, but I’ve selected one blog out of a handful of categories,
with the
purpose of highlighting both individual blog and the category. I’ve
tried to
stick to six, as that was the original number of Guest Editor’s
Picks.   


Family Life

Footprints
in the Sand
Linda writes an interesting journal, on
which I admittedly
rarely comment. It is a good example of the ups and downs of family
life, and
the events around her home. She has three sons, succinctly referred to
as Son1,
Son2 and Son3 in decreasing order of age. The oldest is starting out in
adult
life, whilst the youngest is in primary school. There are quite a few
blogs
like that on AOL. As I am based in Europe, and I have
not visited the USA,
it gives me an interesting insight into family life in
America.   


Tagging

This
and that and hockey
To my mind, Donna is among the
best taggers in J-land. A tag
is a graphic with someone’s name on it. A snag ispurely a graphic,
that can be
‘snagged’ using the right-click-save-as feature. Yes, others do equally
creditable work as well. However, I never cease to be amazed at the
intricacies
of these small works of art. When I try anything on Photoshop, I
usually end up
climbing the walls in despair. I suppose I don’t have the patience, or
perhaps
the artistic inclination. Donna was recently commissioned to design a
company
Christmas card, acclaim richly deserved. Apart from tagging, Donna
blogs about
the fortunes or otherwise of her favourite icehockey team.  


Health

I
shaved my legs for this?
Kim was diagnosed with
breast cancer more than a year ago, a
diagnosis which turned her life upside down. She tackled the challenge
with
typical and commendable spirit, although the treatment was less than
successful. Weeks after completing the initial course, the cancer was
back – in
other places. Cancer treatment is physically and mentally exhausting,
but I
never ceased to be amazed at Kim’s gusto in confronting the
difficulties she
found herself facing. At present, she has not put in an entry for
several
weeks, leaving me (and many with me) concerned over the state of
affairs. I highlight Kim’s blog to serve as an example to the
unfortunate many who are in a similar plight, not just cancer but also
chronic
ill health. Although good spirits do not demonstrably improve chances
of
surviving cancer or ameliorating your condition, it does make it easier
to bear
that particular burden. The tags in my sidebar refer to several others,
battling cancer and ill health.

Poetry and
writing

Life
in the Lakes
Jeanie came to my attention a year
ago, with stories of her
life in the Lake District of northern England.
She is an engaging writer, who deserves a broader platform,
particularly after
an entry earlier this week. I have to say that there is generally a
high
standard of writing across J-land, which has made the task of choosing
specific
journals doubly difficult. I also select Jeanie for the simple reason
that
she’s a Scot, who can empathise with what goes on in my neck of the
woods, some
300 miles to the north of her Lakeland
home.

Coping with
life

Raven’s
Lament
Indigo, a lady of nativeAmerican stock,
started journaling
exactly a year ago, and she has a story to tell. She went deaf three
years ago,
after combating decreasing hearing for many years. Apart from that, she
suffered horrendous abuse throughout her years, as a child and as an
adult.
Only now, partially through her writings, is she coming to terms with
that.
Indigo has a daughter, who, as a young adult, is wrenching loose from
her
mother. Some of Indigo’s writing make for difficult reading, but such
is life –
a rosebush, pretty to behold, but with hidden thorns. Many more deserve
mentioning
here for coping with similar problems.  


Animals

Life
on a Bison Farm
Again, a difficult choice in this
category.  Lisa started blogging back in March, and has
shared with us the ups and downs of a household full of pets and
household
animals. As the title of her blog says, she has bison on her farm,
which I find
most intriguing. Apart from that, I recently chatted to Lisa in the
Journals
Chatroom, while her webcam was on. A whirlwind of dogs, cats and other
creatures continually distracted her attention. She has shown genuine
compassion for her animals, and one of her Christmas presents consisted
of a
bulkload of catlitter.  


Overall category
Sugar
(sugarsweet056)

Sugar is a very all-round blogger, who fits in
virtually all
categories that I have highlighted above. She too is devoted to her
‘furrs’,
although her family tend to leave her to her own devices. Not very
good, as
Sugar has her own disabilities to cope with. Since her car gave up the
ghost,
she has been virtually housebound. Nonetheless, she has many a tale to
tell, as
shown in her list of blogs.