Shortly after posting this I will activate the site's first 'for real' blog. It can be accessed from the left hand menu - Blogs - then 'Kevin' in the sub menu. There will be a more prominent link on the main page in due course. I'm making this announcement in two parts again, this part being about the blog subject and why I am doing it. The second will cover the technical aspects of how blogging has been set up on this site.
Basically my blog is about hearing loss, wearing hearing aids and my next step along this path, now imminent, I readily acknowledge that I'm not the only person associated with this site who has such problems, I'm possibly not the worst case, or even the longest affected. I also wouldn't mind betting that there is more than one ex Greenhill student who has received special training in some aspect of this subject. If not audiology itself, perhaps specialist teaching for the deaf, lip-reading or signing etc.
So I don't claim to be anything special, other than someone who always been up front about his situation and never been embarrassed to talk about it. That brings me to the real main reason for this blog. Because of past experience I know it is very probable that there will be several visitors who are starting to get concerned either about their own hearing or that of someone close to them. They will be far too worried or embarrassed to talk to anyone about it, and will be quite needlessly making themselves very miserable. This blog might help a bit, if only by letting people know that it's not just themselves. Hopefully it will give them the courage to do something about it.
Many of you probably know more about blogs than myself. They are a sort of web site that slots in between fixed page sites, like the photo site, with pages that rarely change once they are posted -- and discussion sites which change all the time, with threads that eventually just drop out of view as new material is posted. I suppose a blog site could be considered as a specialist, very well organised, single author bulletin board which allows others to comment and express opinions. Journalists, politicians and activists of all kinds love them. They're a bit like a soap box but from the comfort of your own computer keyboard.
I don't intend this blog to run for ever, I will probably stop posting once this little adventure is completed. It really depends on everyone else. The blog allows input from visitors. The comments don't go public automatically, in fact they are held in quarantine until I decide what to do with them. I will obviously respect peoples wishes as to whether a comment is for posting or not. If people want to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer those, as well as follow the mini-series I have planned at the moment.
Like a lot of things on the web, where it ends up really depends as much on the visitors as the authors.
Kevin