Just returned from seeing the delightful Julie and Julia at the movies. I pounced on this book when it first emerged in 2005 when I wasn't even blogging myself. I loved it though - the story was very sweet and it had 'successful movie' written all over it! In 2002 Julie Powell began her food blog. She was using such simple vanilla blog software with no social media widgits - nothing really other than a calendar, a countdown box saying how many days she had to go to finish the project, how many recipes left to cook from Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking, a comments area and that was that. Friends at Julie's birthday 'lobster' dinner come up with the idea of putting a paypal button on the blog for donations to fund the ingredients for future meals but that for some reason did not seem to eventuate.
Ahh technology was so different back then. The scene where Julie is having lunch with her girlfriends is a reminder of how far we've travelled. One of them is entering info or checking her diary on a Palm PDA (one of my favourite early tech tools). All the mobile phones are chunky flip numbers. The television in Julie's flat is exactly like the one in my son's room - a real 'box'....
Interestingly enough Julie Powell has kept her current blog almost as simple as the original. It's written on blogger and there are no widgets. It is the ultimate plain unadorned blog containing a profile, a few links and archives to previous posts. Nothing else!! I have to say I find it rather refreshing considering what blogging widgets and gizmos we have available today.
So... if you are inspired to write a blog - don't worry about all the decoration - truly it is more about the message rather than how it looks ... ok?
If your heart says you should be a blogger don't get bogged down in the technology - Julie didn't and still does not!
PS I thoroughly enjoyed the movie - two love stories, two dreams and lots of gorgeous scenes from Paris - what more could you want?
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