The Blog that dreamt of a Website

 

The Blog that dreamt of a Website

A Blog about a Blog?

You may wonder is this a blog on a blog? Yes, perhaps. And definitely a special one at that. The reason - it is a culmination of years of an aspiration, a dream to own a website, with one’s name in it. Every time I thought about it, I wondered what do I post in the website. I had no business to run it from, no commercial activity, no single focused subject which people would want to read in one place say travel or yoga or machines or anything, actually I did not even have enough written material to place in it. Then why a website. Maybe it is time to turn Time back - to start at the start.

The Diary Years

I had seen my father in law sit and write in his diary every day without fail. It could be at any time of the day but definitely once before he went to sleep at night. I once wondered and asked him what he was doing and he remarked “Oh! Whenever I have something which churns my mind, I scribble it down.” I had heard about journalling and had thought that it was something which one does regularly everyday like an exercise or even brushing your teeth and that it required - Discipline. So - I did not start it :-)

My First Attempt at Blogging (2009)

Then came a time, when people were going ga-ga over something called blogs. And like everyone else, I tried chase the fad and started a new blog called Srini’s Trails and the first and the only post published in December 2009 was called - yes  you guessed it right - My First Attempt at Blogging. Here is the link to that https://srinistrails.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-first-attempt-at-blogging.html

I wrote a few lines and did not even complete the post. I came across this, day before yesterday again when I opened Blogger.com with a wrong ID. But what it did was give me an impetus to write this blog.

But What’s a Blog Anyway?

Oh! By the way. How many of us actually know the Origin of the word BLOG itself? Yes, we take so many things for granted isn’t it? So for those who are interested here is a short version of it.

The word “blog” has quite a simple but interesting origin. It comes from “weblog”, a term coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger, an early internet writer who used it to describe his practice of “logging the web” — i.e., posting a running list of interesting links and commentary. In 1999, programmer Peter Merholz playfully broke the word weblog into the phrase “we blog” on his site’s sidebar. That little joke stuck, and soon people started shortening weblog to just blog. From there, the noun blog quickly became a verb as well: to blog meant writing or maintaining such a site. So, in short: Weblog → “we blog” → blog. So the simple blog which was meant to be a personal or thematic log of experiences/ideas has over the years adapted to new media formats and spawned quite a family of derivatives as online content expanded. Here are the main ones you’ll encounter today:

📖 Text-based

• Blog → the original form, short for weblog.

• Microblog → short-form posts (e.g., Twitter/X, Threads, Mastodon).

🎥 Video-based

• Vlog (video blog) → blog in video format (popular on YouTube).

• Live blog → real-time updates, sometimes combining text, images, and video during events.

🎙 Audio-based

• Audioblog → an early term for what became known as podcasts.

📸 Image-based

• Photoblog → blogs mainly sharing photos with minimal text.

• Tumblog → from Tumblr, mixing photos, quotes, text snippets.

💼 Professional/sector terms

• Moblog (mobile blog) → blogging from mobile devices (popular in early smartphone days).

• EduBlog → education-focused blogging.

• BizBlog / CorpBlog → business/corporate blogs.

• Food blog, travel blog, fashion blog, mommy blog → topical adaptations.

📱 Social media crossovers

• Micro-vlog → TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts (short-form vlogs).

• Instablog → informal term for people using Instagram posts/stories as a “blog substitute.”

TimeScriber is Born (2018)

Sorrrrrryyyy! I digressed as usual. Where was I? Yes, my first disastrous attempt at blogging 🙄. But you know what? One can’t stop one’s own Nature - the natural state one leans to. I have been writing my thoughts in the form of Poems since early 80’s in old diaries presented by my father’s friends on New Years Day as a Gift. An old diary given to me in 1986 became my first journalling - Journal. I carry it around even today.  It was my scrapbook, my scribbling pad and my journal rolled into one. I stuck interesting newspaper cuttings, doodled thoughts on Life and quotes and stories of wisdom collected from across the world through World Wide Web. I used to share it as weekly nuggets over emails with my colleagues during my corporate life as an HR professional. 

But putting it together in one place did not happen formally till August 2018, when I formally created my own blog and I posted my first blog on 20 November 2018. It was a dream post about a subject which had provided me enough material to write a complete series. The surprise lies within the content of that first post itself.  I wrote the actual content way back in August 2009 in my old diary!!! It took me 8 years just to convert it to a blogpost. I posted 6 posts on that subject by December 2018 but the series remained incomplete. It took me another 7 years after that to write the last 4 posts of that series. I will post those 4 in the next few days. 

The choice of the name for my blog was based on my crazy interest in the concept of time. Scribing was writing. So simple. Thus came to being - TimeScriber. 

A Daughter’s Challenge

One of the wonderful teachers in this journey of journalling has been my daughter (I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I am mentioning this). My interest to write and start my own website was known to her. This idea sprouted again like an allergic rash  when we were staying with her in Switzerland. I asked her to help me start my website and let me know the way to start one. She launched a set of simple questions. “Why do you want to do it? Who is your target audience? What do you want to post in your website? Is it about travel? If yes, do you want it to be a travel guide, a how to go about travelling to and around a place write-up, or is it for backpackers who are students with a low budget or people with young kids or retired people who have lots of money?” 

This put a stop to my idea.

She saw my long drawn face and said “Dad, go ahead and write your memories down. Just put them in a blog. People will read and take what they want from it. These kind of writing are unique and there will be no copies anywhere in the web. But keep writing. Don’t worry about a website for now.”

Blogging With Gusto (2024 Onwards)

And that kick-started my writing spree. From January 2024, I started blogging with gusto. Travel was a lovely subject to write about. Sharing it with friends and family was a pleasure and their comments help recharge my writing battery like a dynamo of a car. Slowly, I started adding my reflections of daily life into my repertoire. And the blog grew. When I took off on a road trip with my wife Vijaya, it helped me start a new series which I called Motoring Memories. The solo road trip which followed northwards, added some more material. I was cruising - literally and rhetorically on the blog highway.

Why a Website, After All?

However, I was feeling a bit bored with the front face of my blog. I realised that a blog has a chronological flow — entries stacked by date. While it is great for ongoing storytelling, travel diaries and  reflections, readers usually get to dip only into the latest post or scroll back in time. A website (with a blog inside it) on the other hand  is like my personal home library, not just a running journal. You can have sections for all the different subjects you want to write about and it also lets you curate, categorize, and give readers a way to explore by theme, not just by date. Some of my older blogs had disappeared into an abyss, pushed down by the newer blogs. One had to check them out in archives. Even I had to search for many of those gems (even though I call them that myself 😂) I did not want them to be lost. So what do I do?

Enter ChatGPT: My Unlikely Website Mentor

That is when my go-to friend came into play - ChatGPT. Starting from how do I buy a website? What is a domain name? Where do I get a domain? How do I link what I have written in blogposts to a website? How do I make a website look like one and not just a bland page? I asked and ChatGPT helped me step by step. It started with a the simplest of prompts “Can we create our own website through Blogger.com?” Pop! Came the answer. “Yes! ✅ You can absolutely create your own website using Blogger.com — and it’s one of the easiest free ways to get started.”  And then it gave me options on free hosting, custom domain options, templates and themes, google integration and simple editing including adjusting layouts with small tweaks using HTML codes. It walked me through simple ways to build my website. And when in my moments of doubt I asked whether it was the right time for me to start one, it gave reasons of why it was important for legacy & preservation where instead of scattered blogs, my ideas would sit in one well-organized place that readers could revisit. It gave me new ideas for creative freedom of being able to add sections. The thing which tipped the scale was when one of the answers contained a sentence - “It will give you a sense of home where instead of feeling like you’re renting space on Blogger, you “own” a corner of the web with your name.”

Building My Digital Home

So, on 7th September 2025, just 4 days before my 63rd birthday, I visited GoDaddy.com and bought a gift for myself - my own website. Got a suitable domain name. But just buying yourself a domain name is like registering for a marathon. The work starts only after that. And I worked. And ChatGPT worked for me. Through themes, templates, home page designs, colours, fonts, layouts, widgets and gadgets (names which had not meant anything to me till then), structures, branding and even ways to monetise. Wow! That was lot. I got one of the best handholding that a newbie in this field would get. Doubts arose after spending money on the domain but were quickly laid to rest by crystal clear answers. I was helped with a theme I liked and slowly my website starting getting life. Whenever I found something I did not understand, a quick tweak in the HTML code, copy paste, the issues got rectified. Even technical stuff like DNS server and Domain Set up, seemed so easy. And after every step, I tested it making sure my original blogs did not disappear. Features Sections, Popular Posts, Sidebars and Footers started coming alive. Labels and Dropdowns sprouted. And finally came the time to redirect my blog to the website. 

What This Journey Taught Me

Why did I write this in so much of detail. Well, this whole totally new experience, while treading in a terrain unknown tome, has given me a new perspective about life in general and writing in particular. Without sounding preachy, I would want to share my learnings:

1. One should write.  It is a great outlet to your memories, experiences and thoughts (and at times even your frustrations). More than anything, it is a great de-stresser. 
2. Learning is never ending and no age is too old to do this. I have never learnt or been keen in creating software codes but during this activity I learnt what an HTML code was (it still looks gibberish to me). 
3. Great starts are great but finishing something you so lovingly started gives one an immense satisfaction. It demands resilience, persistence, continued and relentless work, perseverance and the obsession to see a thing through. I thought I lacked all these traits. Today I feel vindicated. Actually I feel triumphant, validated, affirmed and redeemed all in one go. I had been my ONLY obstacle to any kind of success.
4. There is no excuse to anything you dream to do. One’s Unruly mind has a way to drag us into not doing what one wants to but with intention, interest and inspiration one can pull oneself out and achieve what one desires.

My aim of writing this blog about a blog which deserved a website is a wonderful concoction of a Celebratory Post, a walk through of my blogging journey, a victory whoop of joy, a feeling of accomplishment and a great sense of closure of one of the dreams of my life.

Welcome to My World

Now to show off some tricks I learnt on the way. Wander around in my website. Try out the various links in this blog itself. Click on the words which are bold and underlined and larger than the others in the script. They will take you to various blogs related to those key words. Try using the Search the blog box on the side bar. Type any word of your choice and if it features anywhere in any blog, that blog will pop up for you to read. Go through the drop downs and the labels to look for different subjects. Go to the archives sections to read those old posts which had got lost. 

Do share your views in the Comments below and do Subscribe. I promise not to spam your mailbox. You will just get notified every time I write something new.

8 days from the start to finish - my website is ready. 

You are here now. 

You have found me at www.youfoundsrini.com

Welcome to my World!!!