As with all users of the blogger.com facility I get a regular list of stats upon how many visitors the blog has had, which countries they come from (for those interested the highest numbers currently come from 1. USA, 2. Germany, 3. Sweden), which sites they use to get here usw.
I am always interested in my readership, who they are, where they are usw, and if they have their own blog, you will often find me visiting at least once - using Google's often awful translator when necessary (for Russian for example).
One of the sites that has turned up frequently is www.blog-zug.com which is an interesting German site whích bloggers frequent, leave their blogs for anyone who wants to read them, and meet in the forums usw. Seems very friendly and a great idea. Not sure who placed my blog on there, but thanks / danke!
To remember before accessing a site is that you have to weed out the potential rubbish, the maybe poisoned links (those attached to viruses usw). Normally simply copy the website name and go and check it on google. There is also an Australian site that I found - www.avg.com.au/resources/web-page-scanner/ where you see if the site is a known virus distributor (but it misses "parking sites" like pregolom.com).
blog-zug passed all the tests. "Zug" is the German word for "train" and there all sorts of plays on words on rail services. Press "Reisende Passagiere" (travelling passengers) and you get the list of all the blogs on the site. 248 pages worth of blogs (not sure how many per page). The latest page from the blog only of course, but still a taster.
What impressed me was the artwork, the graphics, the photography, the sheer creativity that was so abundantly present. The level of the design skills and the imagination that has gone into it, and that was merely a first impression. I had no time to examine the text, but that will come another day.
Look at the personal photographs and you realise that these are mainly young adults. Here as elsewhere in the developed world this is a group that has an uncertain future, fewer job opportunities than we need to move the world forward, and limited prospects for getting the openings and recognition that is needed.
All that talent going to waste? Come on, we must have an answer! I hope that these blogs provide it, or lead to a road that will take them where they want to go.
And does that mean that I shall be moving to a more graphically oriented style of presentation? No. I am Zola not Cézanne. In the words of the old Bee Gees song "words are all I have to take your heart away", or rather to appeal to your brain and make you think. My strengths are logic and the use of words, and all the facts that I carry in my head (including why life-long friends Zola and Cézanne fell out with each other!).
Graphical concepts I can admire enormously though, particularly as I do not possess them in the abundance that many of these young people obviously have. They deserve the chance to use them professionally.
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