This week in the Blogerati Files, Pony .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
Observations, articulations, dedications and celebrations.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
My blog's birthday is March 29, 2001.

While researching online communities at the tailend of the dot com era, I came across happyrobot.net. I started a really fun email exchange with the webmaster, Rich*. Eventually he built a little web-based submitter to post my ramblings. I hadn't ever heard the term blog before, but I was tickled that a handful of folks were reading my stories.

(*Rich hates the word blog, so this article will totally make him cringe.)

I have kept writing this for six years because unlike keeping a notebook, you have an audience, and something about posting it online gives it weight and makes it content.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
On and off since 1986.

This week in the Blogerati Files, Dave on a Cruise .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
One man's adventures aboard a cruise ship for 8 months.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
I started blogging November 5, 2006, when I first boarded the Norwegian Jewel. I wanted to document the specific adventures, concerns and problems that a cruise ship performer from Toronto would have spending most of a year aboard a big floating mall.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
Since August, 1985.

What's the funniest/strangest thing that has happened to you in Toronto? Did you blog about it?
My improv troupe was scheduled to headline the Toronto Improv Fest, and were profiled on the cover of NOW Magazine. I had the flu, and was so sick I was considering skipping the show, but fortunately the big blackout of 2003 happened that day, so I was off the hook. I'd like to thank the merchants of Toronto who blast their air conditioning and leave their doors open for that one. You saved my butt.

I would have blogged about it, but my computer didn't work for a couple days...some kind of power issue. Oh, and I didn't blog then.

This week in the Blogerati Files, Michael Cho's Sketchbook .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
A sketchblog featuring my drawings, paintings and cartoons.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
I started blogging 'cause my good friend and fellow cartoonist J. Bone encouraged me. It seemed a nice way to share my drawings and paintings with an interesting audience, rather than letting them sit in my filing drawer gathering dust. My blog's first entry was on January 5th, 2006 -- so I've been doing this for a little over a year.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
I moved to Toronto to attend art college so I've been here for over 15 years...jeez -- what a long time!

This week in the Blogerati Files, the tear that hangs inside my soul forever .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
Dorky Librarian-in-training documenting her love of books & music

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
I love the internet and have had an "online presence" on communities and building my own websites since 1996. To be honest, blogging first started as a place for me to vent out my teenage angst in high school and also to tell people what records they really should be buying. I used to think I could be a poet and run away with some reincarnation of Ezra Pound. Boy was I wrong! I've been blogging on the internet since early 2001 through different domains, but my current site has only been online since 2004. These days I blog about totally different things that amuse and tickle my fancy but music is still a huge part of it.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
Pretty much all my life...since I was about 2 years old.

This week in the Blogerati Files, easternblot.net .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
It's (not) all about science.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
I used to have a manually updated journal for friends when I spent four months doing research in Quebec city. That was way back in 2000, when I was still studying in Amsterdam. After that I had a personal blog from May 2001 to May 2006. I shut it down on its fifth birthday, because I wanted to focus more on my current blog, and because I felt that people were really considering everything I wrote as the main thing going on in my life (see Sims under question 11) which it never was. That's one reason why I stopped talking about myself, and switched to science.

I started the science blog as a blog in February 2005, but I originally registered the domain easternblot.net as early as 2002 for the purpose of creating a science-related site. (See final question for etymology)

I started easternblot because I got frustrated with people thinking of science as something alien and difficult, while it's actually so common. Food, sports, social interactions, and movies all have some science behind them that we just don't tend to think of as "science". I wanted to give the science of daily life some attention, especially for people who claim they don't like or understand science. At the same time, a lot of art is science-inspired, and I also write about that.

This week in the Blogerati Files, richardcleaver.com .

Describe your blog in 10 words or less.
Technology, recording, music, photography, business, science, family, faith, and leadership.

Why did you start blogging? What's your blog's birthday?
I started the blog April 4th, 2004 as a way to stay in touch with friends and family. Since then, the blog has received over 100,000 visitors with about 5,000 or so regular visitors dropping by each month.

How long have you lived in Toronto?
I have lived in the Toronto area for 9 years.