What's in a bloggy name?

I'm a total sucker for memes of any kind, and over at a 1/4 of an inch the question has been asked "What's in a bloggy name?"

the answer for me is that Meridian Ariel is a combination of two names that I always wished for myself when I was a little girl. Anything was better than being named for a month of the year and getting teased with the incredibly lame "April showers brings may flowers" thing, it was in no way remotely funny when said by classmates or by teachers. and for goodness sakes its a Y not and I. bitter moi? Eventually I used the handle Meridian Ariel on the WBS chat forum in the X-Files room (when not being Vixen51 or 50 other random handles). When I decided to start blogging to get me writing again (after many years of avoiding it) I decided on Meridian Ariel, its been such a part of me for such a very long time, and Meridian was already taken.

I also have a small random writing blog called The Teapot Nebula, for random short stories, drabbles, and that pesky fairy tale that I still haven't finished writing. Why the Teapot Nebula? it was random really but I was thinking of the whole tempest in a teapot thing and thought why not a nebula, as the point of writing drabbles is to create a small world in 100 words. One hundred words, infinite worlds....I thought it was clever anyway.

what's in yor bloggy name?

Blogging Meme

1. Why did you start your blog?
I started my blog a little over a year ago, I started it as a way to get back into writing, I was never one for journals, or diaries, I'm much more of a random, notes, squiggles, lists, drawings and thoughts hastily scribbled down in one of the various notebooks I drag around with me. I thought that If I started a blog and tried to write in it that I would at least start to get back into writing, I love to create characters, and stories, but life always seems to get in the way of such things as time to sit down and crack my head open and have a poke around to see what in the depths of my fractured mind. It started out with my thoughts and bits of writing, some Drabbles and grew to include the recipes I create in the kitchen and my battles in the garden, and came back round to include arts and crafts, something that I had stepped away from for years and have now seemed to have thrown myself into up over my eyeballs. In rediscovering the world of arts and crafts I have rediscovered another piece of myself from before H came along. Now he will sit and help me with my beads or sit questioning why i am putting tea onto papers.

2. How did you come up with your blog name? Meridian Ariel is something I have had for a very long time, it used to be one of my Chat handles from back in the days of the X-Files Room on the WBS chatting forum something like 11 years ago. Yes I am that sad a geek, Ariel was the name I gave instead of my real name, Apryl, and I always though Meridian was a lovely name, you might have noticed I like names, if you look at the jewellery in my Etsy shop.

3. Do your friends and family know about your blog? What do they think of it? My dad reads my blog every week, he can see the crafts I make, the cakes I create, and whatever outings we have been on, especially when I forget to e-mail him. My friends visit my blog as well, Frizbe leaves comments, and Meg visits from time to time (especially if there is a meme involve) and a few other friends visit it from time to time but don't always leave a comment.

4. How do you write posts?

Haphazardly. Actually it just depends on what crafts or baking I have been doing that day. I have been known on rare occasions to write a couple of posts a day if I have been particularly busy crafting and the light is good enough to photograph my creations good or bad. Some of my posts like the craft challenges I write in word and think quite a bit about, the rest are normally straight out of my head, spell checked once and posted.

5. Have you ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

I have deleted a few junk comments but I have been lucky to have not had any nasty comments, most of the comments I receive are from like minded crafty people, and a few friends, and it really cheers me up to open my blog to find that someone has read it and been thoughtful enough to leave a comment.

6. Do you check your stats? Do you care how many people read your blog? If you do care, how do you increase traffic?
I do have a site meter but I only ever check it when I'm board, but then I do get a kick out of seeing where my visitors have come from. Its nice to get new people that visit my blog and to go visit their blogs and leave comments in return, it makes you see how big and how small the world is, That there are other people out there that appreciate your art or writing style, your crafts etc.

7. What kind of blogs/posts interest you? I read a lot of different blogs when I go blog hopping, mainly crafts related, I love to look at sewing blogs even though I can't sew, and I love jewellery blogs, humorous blogs, and cooking blogs too.

8. What do you like and dislike about blogging? I like writing the posts and sharing my recipes, thoughts, and crafts, blogging enables me to share what I'm up to with family and friends that are too far away to see in person more than once a year. What do I dislike? I can't really think of anything except when blogger kept going German on me and wouldn't upload images. I have found blogging a very positive thing for me so far, and I hope it continues to be.

9. Tag 5 other bloggers. I don't know who to tag for this, but I found this a really interesting meme so I invite everyone to do this Blogging Meme