Congrats, Blog!

     Some might think it’s foolish or frivolous to celebrate a blog’s anniversary and, in that case, it’s because they’ve never been bloggers. This blog, which I created precisely on 04/28/2011, has been a very special project in my personal and professional life, and now, to my great pride, it celebrates its third anniversary!

     I’m not able to dedicate myself to Aprendizes de Escritores/Writers’ Apprentices full time, but I’m here whenever I can, specially when inspiration comes through. It’s true what writers say about inspiration for a text emerging suddenly, out of the blue. In that instant, you must put your thoughts on “paper”. This chance I have on the blog of, as I use to say, “play a little as a writer”, is priceless.

     It’s here that, in counterpart to my serious and compenetrated work as a translator, I let all my creativity and irreverence come through, writing what I think and decorating the blog on my own way. Besides the slideshow above (which I’ve just updated) with a selection of a bit of everything I enjoy _ such as books, landscapes, animals, flowers _, I also like to add to my texts and phrases images of internet public domain that have something to do with them. I’ve decided to divide the blog into several pages for practical reasons, but also because “the more space to write and put the composites and collages I love to create, the better!” Be free, of course, to copy the public domain images you wish. (There’s also incredible gifs on the “Visitor’s and Follower’s Corner”.)

     Even though this is a non-profit blog, I use to divulge it occasionally with homemade adds on facebook and Twitter (and I have 2 pages there which are also an extension of it, among other blogs). I divulge it because I like to share my opinions with other people, to comment about my work and to give tips that I hope will be useful to them. I also like to entertain people with my daily life stories, to make them laugh with the funny side of things, or to think with the most serious side of some texts.

      Talking about sense of humor, I enjoy writing texts with a funny streak and letting my comic side come through whenever I have the chance. Just for fun, I create what I call “Comic Cards” and post them on an additional page of the blog. I also comment about my translations on one of the pages and give translation tips on another one, hoping they will be useful to those who are interested in the area. The blog is not about religion, but it also contains a page dedicated to spirituality, an essential part of life. There’s another page full of several thinkers’ quotes.

     My blog doesn’t fit exactly on a specific category, such as only writing, translation, or books. It’s eclectic, as I always say. Books are indeed the base of everything in it, but as books themselves have the capacity to embrace the world, there’s not limit of subjects in here. For those who still don’t have a blog, I recommend it. (I’ve got 6!) It’s an excellent place to write and to let creativity flow out. It’s possible to have up to 20 additional pages on a blog and, this way, to divide them according to one’s interests, as I did here.

     Since I created the blog, it has been through a total change and it’s on a constant evolution, thought the initial contents remain the same. In the beginning, the main page was about translations and I used to write my texts on some of the additional pages. Then, it occurred to me that the blog would be more interesting if I posted the articles and chronicles on the main page instead. This way, I changed everything from one place to another, putting the comments about the books I translated on an additional page and gave the blog the name Aprendizes de Escritores. I also call it Writers’ Apprentices because I’m turning it into a bilingual blog with time. Besides being an extension of the blog called Aprendizes de Escritores, the Writers’ Apprentices also exists as an individual blog of only one page, in English. (Its link is in the waterfall above, on the right side of the blog layout).

     Despite the name, Aprendizes de Escritores/Writers’ Apprentices is not a blog with writing techniques only, as the conventional blogs of the kind, though it does have an additional page with writing tips. It’s a blog where I myself learn to write. I’m the writers’ apprentice here, and I hope to transmit something thought my texts to other writers aspirants, even if it’s at least encouragement.

     As I mention on the presentation page, the blog is also destined to visitors in general who simply want to entertain themselves with its contents.

    I’m proud, therefore, to celebrate Aprendizes de Escritores/Writers’ Apprentices’ third anniversary.

    I’d like to offer my thanks from the heart to the blog’s followers and visitors, who make me very happy when they stop by. tj*¬