Back in June angetearz started a blogparade called „Du und dein Blog“ (You and your Blog) where Bloggers were asked to talk a bit about themselves and their blogs(, duh). I discovered this a while back on Twitter and it sounded interesting enough to answer the given questions for myself – and maybe draw some more attention to this place. 😉
Anyway, let’s begin…
The Questions*
1. Who are you? Introduce yourself!
I’m PoiSonPaiNter, or Anne in real life, I’m a Reader, Writer, Nerd, Blogger, Metalhead and Traveller, but most of all Teller of Stories and an advocate for puns and alliterations. 😀
Oh, and I’m horrible at introducing myself, as you might have noticed, so I’ll just quietly nod towards my about page. 😉
2. Since when are you blogging? And how did it all start?
Officially I started this Blog back in February 2012, but I barely used it (one post per month was the average). The initial reason was that I wanted a place to collect my stories, improve my English and use it for some obscure other project I can’t remember any more. I had been thinking about a Homepage or Blog for a while back then, but when I came up with the name „Random Poison“ I just started it, without much of a plan – though, it’s not like I have one now, but well.
This changed around the end of 2013 and it really took a turn for the better starting 2014. (Curiously, August 2012 is the only month I didn’t post anything at all). Since then the average got up at least a little. 😉
3. Does your environment know you’re blogging? If so, what are they saying? If not, why not?
Yes and no. It’s not that I’m keeping it a secret, it just doesn’t come up that often – or the other party is just not interested in details more than „I wrote about that on my Blog“. 😉
The most sceptic about it though is my Dad, who thinks I blurt out all my secrets, but he’s wary of anything technological, so…
4. Are you using Social Media? And how can one follow you?
I am indeed. You could follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter where I’m most active. But I also have a few others you can find in the menu „Other Pages of Mine“ below.
5. Is there something that bothers you about the blogging world? And what would you wish for? (Dare to be honest)
Apart from the fact that I rarely get any reactions – a like now and again, but comments? They are scarce – is it hard as German Blogger to blog in English. So regardless of how many (German) Blog Parades I participate in, there is barely any feedback from other people than the creators. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the German readers don’t feel like reading something in English, sometimes because they lack the language knowledge, and push the site away without a second glance, without noticing that there indeed are bilingual posts here (like the Märchensommer/Fairy Tale Summer or my Advent Calendars) and even German Short Stories or that they can comment in German and always ask for help if they struggle with a translation…
Well, it’s not like my English reader are any better at this, they are probably scared when the title is German and the post starts in German, regardless of the „Read in English“ Link to the translation…
A part of me is thinking about changing my Blog language to German, the other part enjoys writing in English far too much and doesn’t want to change it – both parts know I’d be too lazy to constantly have bilingual posts…
Other than that: Even if I make a comment somewhere, which is rare as I prefer to actually say something with my comments, it’s not always that I get a reply, though I’m not sure if my comments are just not interesting enough or formulated in a way that no further, decent, comment is possible…but I don’t know, as no one tells me. 😉
What is most frustrating though is that Blogger and WordPress don’t share a comment-notification system…it’s so annoying to check back with Blogger-blogs to see if anyone replied – not to mention the double bot-check… can’t they just do something about that? XD So my wish would be something that properly connects those two, without you having to make two accounts for it…
6. And what do you like about the blogging world?
The uniqueness of each Blogger. It’s amazing how two (and many more) people can write about the same topic, but from a completely different point of view. Take the Guest posts for the Fairy Tale Summer for example: At their core they all talked about Fairy Tales, but they all found a different aspect to it. Or all these Blogs dealing with writing itself. They always find something else to write about and even if they write about the same thing there is no guarantee that they come to the same conclusion. Sure it can be annoying at times when one person tells you one thing and another the complete opposite, but isn’t that the beauty of free speech? That all these opinions can exist and be read and you yourself can put together your own world view?
I also like the interactions over the Social Media and to discover things that I probably wouldn’t even have thought about. 🙂
7. Are you reading outside of your „Blog area“ or are you, as e.g. book blogger, only reading book blogs?
8. Networking is important. Do you have favourite Blogs? Show them!
There are indeed a few
German Blogs
I enjoy reading.
It seems like Joseph of What’s best in Life? and I are on a similar wavelength regarding different nerdy movies/series and it’s always interesting to read his reviews. Afterwards I don’t feel like writing my own, because he already said everything I’d want to say. 😉
Then there is the Weltenschmiede (World Smithy) which always has interesting articles about world building by fruehstuecksflocke and Evanesca – who’s Blogs in turn are also quite interesting, especially today as Evanesca is celebrating the release of „Zarin Saltan“ (Tzaritza Saltan) as part of the Märchenspinnerei, her adaptation of the Russian Fairy Tale „Tzar Saltan“.
As for writing stuff I like the posts by the Schreibmeer (literally Writing Ocean, though it’s probably a pun on Write More – as more and ocean are only a letter apart in German: mehr/Meer), they usually give you something to mull over. Same goes for Frau Schreibseele (Ms Writingsoul) and some of the other Blogs I discovered through the Nornennetz (Nornnetwork).
But as I’m writing in English, I also read some
English Blogs
though apparently most of the ones I enjoy(ed) reading went on indefinite hiatus…
I love(d) the tales Ed told his readers about his ruin huntings in Ireland on Ed Mooney Photography, all accompanied by his amazing photographs.
I enjoy(ed) the different essays about books, readers and reading the girls of BiblioSmile’s wrote – and yes I still haven’t finished their reading challenge from 2014…
The one who is still, albeit randomly, updating is Eve Estelle with her collection of self written poetry and fiction.
And some others still in my Blog Roll „Where I enjoy reading“ the bottom…
But, I guess that’s enough for some exploring. 😉
Those were the questions!
Hope you had fun reading them. 🙂
Hey, I appreciate the little shout out there, thank you! 😀 I wish I wasn’t so random (and sparse) in my posting… but I would get burned out so fast were I to keep any kind of actual schedule. I commend you for managing it (aside from vacations and things). 😉
I also wish I commented more often. It’s hard to keep up with everyone. But I hope my typically lengthy comments at least make up for the gaps between each one. XD
These were great questions. I agree wholeheartedly with your answers — the blogging world is, honestly, a pretty amazing place with all of its content and content creators and their wide, wide range of perspectives. You can find some really interesting people, and read opinions, ideas, life stories that, like you said, may cover common topics but that always bring something new to the table. When it comes to all these unique views, it’s like putting together pieces of a puzzle that never quite ends lol.
Of course as an English speaker my vote must go towards English for your blog language, but at the same time, the blogosphere could certainly use more good German blogs. I would totally miss the ability to read your posts (clearly, anyway; there is Google Translate) if you switched, but I understand the work that comes with translating each post. So I don’t know what the best option would be, and I support both, but I’m thinking you might have a little more reach with English.
Awww, you’re lengthy comments are always welcome and enjoyed!
I’m really not that good with a schedule myself, there was supposed to be an update for the Neubrandenwolf today(?), but I didn’t manage to finish it on time. 😉
Don’t worry about the language for now, I’m still leaning more towards staying with English. 😉
I enjoyed getting to know you from your post. You’re absolutely right, comments are so scarce. 😭
Thank you.
I’ll have a look around your blog, maybe I’ll find something to comment too. 😉