When the phrase “Sabbath reading” comes to mind, I’m sure most people picture a little boy and his father diligently learning their favorite Bible stories, or a girl studying the passage of the week and eagerly scanning the page for a new and thrilling commentary on Abraham and Jacob. In my house, however, Friday nights are spent pouring over the National Enquirer, catching up on the latest celeb pregnancy (the Nash was the first to give us the dish on Jamie Lynn way back in July) or Kirstie Alley diet failure. So one can imagine my frustration when, a few weeks ago, my mother grabbed the magazine before I even got to read the cover story. “There are some magazines on the chair in my room; go get one of them” she told me, ignoring my complaints that the Brad and Angelina dish just could not wait. I argued with her, but, finally, realizing that she wasn’t going to give up without a fight, I grabbed “Wonder Time,” a parenting magazine, from her bedroom. Skimming the index, I came upon an article called “Mommy Bloggers” and, as I read the opening paragraph of the story, I suddenly had an epiphany: if middle-aged women could write about little Charlotte’s first time using the toilet and get people to care, couldn’t I, a sixteen-year-old with a bit too much spare time and an iMac just sitting in my room, begging to be blogged on, accomplish the same feat? And so my journey in the wonderful world of blogging began.

The first step was creating my blog. For someone so set on publishing an internet journal, I had little experience with the things. Sure, I read Neil Cicierega’s, the creator of “Potter Puppet Pals,” Livejournal like it’s the 11th commandment to do so, and one of my favorite author’s, Susan Juby, blog is practically my home page. But creating my own was an entirely different matter. At first I checked the infamous Livejournal.com, hoping that it would guide me in my quest to professional blog-dom; upon searching some of the blogs there, however, I came upon “Little slices of beauty for dreamers