This post is all about your blog...yes, yours

Whenever I look at your blog...yes, yours...oh, yes, and also yours...and of course yours, lots of questions come into my head. Mostly, I want to know how you can be so imaginative, insightful, and sometimes, just so plain cool. But that's not all I want to know. In fact I am very curious about every aspect of your amazing blog. So I have decided to share my curiosity with you, and ask all of the specific things that I wonder about, in hopes of finding out what makes your blog work the way it does. You can think of it, if you want, as a blog meme about your blog. To get it all started, I'll answer the questions for my blog as I ask them about yours.

1) Why and how did you start your blog? I had the thought of starting a blog for several months before I actually started it. What got me to finally do it was when my friend James started his, and I could then see how easy it was to start a blog on blogger, and how interesting his posts were. I'm not sure why I wanted to do it at first. Perhaps just to see if I could keep it going.

2) If you have a special 'nom de blog', how did you choose it? A long time ago, I made a lesson plan for examining the use of 'will' for predictions, based on fortune-telling. The build-up involved a bit of fake hype about how I put myself through college by foretelling the future, where I was known as Kimananda. Swami Kimananda. I would then produce my original business sign, to be used as material for one of the lesson activities. 'Swami Kimananda's House of Fortunes'; catchy slogan, 'The Swami is in'. I then used the sign to work under when giving tarot readings at the odd party or two. And, when it came time to get my first web-based e-mail address, all my original ideas for names being taken, I ended up choosing Kimananda. So, basically, something originally quite inconsequential has defined my internet identity, probably for life. I don't mind.

3) How did you come up with the name for your blog? Same as above, basically, except for the 's' at the end. The emphasis behind my blog 'house' is more on 'fortune' in the larger sense of good luck and blessings, rather than on individual 'fortunes' or fortunetelling. And of course I'm not really a Swami, so that had to go, also.

4) What things do you tend to blog about the most, and why? Like many, I suppose, I blog mostly about myself. Where I am, where I travel to, any events which happen. Occasionally, I'll do a meme or, less often, a quiz. My ideal is to find things in my life that will have some applicability to others. Sometimes I achieve that; other times, it's just me, me, me.

5) Are there subjects you'd like to blog about, but don't, and if so, what is stopping you? I'd like to have more visuals in my blog, but don't take the time to take more pictures, or to work on the quality of them. I'd like to look more at the outside world, but at this point in my life, I'm simply more inspired to write about the personal things.

6) How do you organize your blogroll/links? I used to have blog links in the order in which I found them. Then, I decided to play around with them, and put people who hadn't posted in a long time at the bottom. I was very unhappy with the result of this. But, I was equally unhappy with the idea of alphabetical order, or reverse alphabetical order, as both seemed somehow not balanced. My compromise solution, which I have now, and which is very workable, is my brother comes first (as of course he should), and then everyone else I link to in alphabetical order by blog name.

7) How do you feel about the design of your blog? Are there any changes you'd like to make to it? I've been quite dissatisfied with my blog layout for a long time. It's far too messy, and generally aesthetically unappealing. I'm working my way up to getting my own domain name, and will then probably re-design the whole thing with a different software package. However, I've been saying this for several months now, so don't hold your breath, or you will turn blue and then faint, and that's not healthy. I'll make it very clear and public when/if the move occurs.

8) How often do you post new entries on your blog? Would you like to post more (or less) often? I aim to post every other day or so, but that doesn't happen too often. Maybe once or twice a week is closer to the truth. So, I suppose I would like to post a bit more often.

9) How often do you read and/or comment on other blogs? How do you find new blogs to read? Anyone on my blog roll who uses a stat program knows my answer to this one already. I visit everyone I read compulsively whenever I'm in my blog, which is to say whenever I'm online, which can sometimes be a lot. I try to comment on anything I find interesting, and/or anything where I feel I have something to say. I like looking at blogs which are linked on blogs which I read already, but I find the 'next blog' button to be a procrastinator's best friend, and I've found some amazing stuff that way, too. Then too, I will often comment, but as a rule I don't comment just for the sake of it.

10) Have you done anything special to get others to read and/or comment on your blog? I don't think so. However, I of course am thrilled when someone I visit pays me a return visit, especially someone I've just found for the first time.

So, if this can be considered a meme, then if you're reading this, then consider yourself tagged! Please let me know if you take this one up. I am really, genuinely interested in hearing all about you and your blog!