Blog Day & Sign Off

Today is Blog Day as I found out visiting my brother's blog the other day. You can click on the badge on the right side bar to find what is celebrated and how it should be celebrated. As announced in the first postings of this blog, I finally gave up and created this space to narrate or post my impressions on my summer trip to France and Belgium. I added some useful links (for my personal use) in the side bar and was able to create one post at the end of each part of my journey. Unexpected things occurred that lead me to take a trip to visit my family in Guatemala. Down there I made a couple of postings. And I had one of my first lessons in blogging: I created then deleted a posting. Probably nobody read it... I don't know. It was some ranting about the reaction of the people in Guatemala to the earthquake in Peru in comparison to what I thought it was the reaction in Canada. After a simple Google search and visiting a couple of local (read: Toronto) media websites I had the feeling I had underestimated the reaction of the community in Toronto to such a disaster. Thus, I deleted the post.

Blogging is not an easy thing when is done responsibly. One has to define to oneself (and sometimes as part of the blogging process) what is the purpose of having this window (or door) to one's life. In my blogroll I have a few blogs I visit regularly (read: almost daily) and in which I have made comments. They are blogs of some of my favourite people. I know them personally, and with one exception (which unfortunately I was not able to correct in my trip to Guatemala) I have physically met them. I believe they represent quite a nice sample of what I like about blogs. They let me keep up to date with what friends are doing and thinking. They provide me with ideas and comments about topics that interest me without being part of my profession or academic field. And finally they are visually appealing. With this last function in mind, I will start my list of blogs I recommend as part of Blog day with:
1. Daily dose of imagery <http://wvs.topleftpixel.com>
A photo blog that whenever I have time and a good connection (read: not the dial-up I have at home) I try to visit to check some awesome photos from the city I call home these days (and for the past four years).
2. La Antigua Guatemala Daily Photo <http://antiguadailyphoto.com>
Another photo blog, this one part of the daily photo family of blogs. Not only Rudy takes incredible pictures of the beautiful colonial city beloved to many but he has an inquisitive mind and a global perspective in a diverse array of topics. A real global citizen and graphic designer.

3. Casa de Espantos <http://www.blogs.delaermita.com/espantos>
This is a blog I have not read as consistently but find is an interesting concept. It is the "third" spinoff of the romerogt family with contributions mainly by my sister-in-law. I like that it is a blog with a very defined purpose.

4. HUNAHPU E IXBALANQUE <http://hunapu-e-ixbalanque.blogspot.com/>
I have not checked out this blog in AGES and it is a really "radical" opinion blog. I might not share all of the positions they take, but it is a quite profound and sharp look at "Guatemalan issues".

5. Blog de Ronald Flores<http://www.ronaldflores.com>
THE source for critical literary reviews, mainly, but not limited to, Guatemalan literature.

I have not added to the list the blogs of my great friends Ale (Congo Days and Desde Kinshasa) and LD (Hello from here), first because they are listed on my blogroll and second because I believe they are my only two commenters in this blog(and probably my only two readers). Therefore I thought of this list thinking about them and to give them a list of "places I visit", besides their blogs. Thank you to you two and for letting me be part of your lives.

SIGN OFF
The second part of this posting is my wrapping up this travel journal. I am back in Toronto, in the threshold of a new academic year. I am about to upload the pictures from my two summer trips to my flickr page and I am about to begin new adventures in the statistical world next week. I will keep this blog "open" and will check for comments but I won't be posting anything else on it. I have a couple of ideas for other "single use" (as opposed to disposable) blogs using either pictures I have taken or digital designs I have created. So, check my blogger profile once in a while to see if I finally created another blog. For now, I will leave the serious blogging to others and will return to my role of commenting and being the self-confessed "voyeur" of other people's blogs.
From Toronto, this has been Manolo Romero Escobar.