Justine Toms’ blog

If you are Bulgarian and have a blog – you must be interesting person! But my friend Rayna Tzvetkova is one of the very interesting people I know. She is beautiful, creative, smiling, likes to travel, to read and to share. From time to time we have coffee together and she always offers me lovely ideas. Actually her English language blog, with short impressions and links inspired me to start my English language blog (this one, beside of the one I have in Bulgarian)

You can find her at – Rayn@’s Spot at – http://tzvetkova.wordpress.com

Here we go with an interview with Rayna about blogging and Internet:

When you were a child, what were your dreams to become as an adult?
I have been studying English since second grade at school and my English teacher was my favourite. I wanted to become like her when I grow up. When she went away on maternity leave, I missed her so much that I would often ask my mother to call and enquire when she was coming back. She was an incredible person. Unfortunately she is no longer among us, but is among the people I value a great deal and will always treasure her memory. To Mrs. Ljubov Petrova-Madrova, teacher and translator – with love!

How did you become a blogger?
It started ‘impromptu’ and even now I do not take myself seriously as a blogger. Keeping a blog for me is rather a hobby. One nice July evening last year Velian Staykov (blogger since many years) and I were having dinner in the garden of a restaurant in the very heart of Sofia (Your Place). We both had our laptops with us and talking and joking, in ten minutes with his help I already had a blog registered at Wordpress. I have been fascinated by the idea of having a blog and have been thinking of staring one. So I gladly accepted the help Velian offered.

You have been keeping a blog for quite some months now. What inspires you?
I get inspired by people the way they are, by their successes and achievements, by the things that make them happy. When I travel I keep thinking what and how to include in my blog. After watching a movie or a play that I enjoy, I can’t wait to share my impressions. I try to keep my postings short, as some friends say: ‘your postings are like a teaser’ – they make one curious to know more, they are not boring and are playfully written. One of the comments on my blog made me smile with content, as it was making an interesting analogy between books as windows to the world and blogs, comparing surfing through my blog to travelling in a train: ‘I like to look through Rayn@’s window. It is like travelling in a train, before you feel the sense of a place or an idea, the train leads you to the next…’ (Elena Ganeva)

Which are the main topics that you write about in your blog?
I write mainly of people that inspire me, of books that impress me or of places I travel to. I write of things I observe directly. Every event that attracts my attention can find a bit of space in my blog (can find its spot in my Spot). For example, if I am searching for something in Google and if Google’s logo looks different (sometimes it does when commemorating a date or an event) this may trigger my imagination and I spontaneously drop a short line. Anything that interests me or intrigues me can motivate me to write and share about it.

Why are you writing in English?
I am writing in English, as some of my friends, acquaintances or colleagues are foreigners who do not know Bulgarian. My Bulgarian friends and colleagues are pretty good in English. When I am travelling outside Bulgaria, sometimes I write from local Internet Clubs or Cafes, where computers do not have Cyrillic.

What in your view is the biggest challenge of blogging?
The blogging challenges, in my view, depend on the objectives set by the blogger – to be popular, to have many people reading you, to sell and/or promote a product or an idea, or just to have fun. For me the biggest challenge is to write short, not to bore people who deliberately or accidentally came across my blog, to make it fun for readers and – if while searching for something else (provided I have a short text on the same issue) they accidentally came to my blog – to take them to the source for more information (for example if am travelling to Rila Monastery, the text in my blog is short but I search for exhaustive sources and link to them).

Can everyone (every woman) become a blogger?
This question reminds me of the funny response attributed to Arthur Rubinstein when approached in the street near Carnegie Hall, and asked, “Pardon me sir, but how do I get to Carnegie Hall?” He replied, “Practice, practice, practice.” In my view desire and objectives are the two major ingredients in keeping a personal blog.

How much time daily or weekly do you spend on your blog?
Writing itself takes much less of my time (some 10 or 15 minutes a day) than the time I spend choosing from everything that impresses me what I’d like to write about, how to word it and visualize it.

Most bloggers are men. How would you explain that?
I think the same is true about poets and philosophers. I am not interested in the reasons why. I read those bloggers who are of interest to me and who voice their own thoughts.
Is it heroism to be a woman in today’s world?
I have no idea how it was to be a woman in other times and weather our grandmothers weren’t more of heroines than we are, as they did not have even a tiny little fraction of everything we have today. I like the Eastern philosophy which emphasises that the present is the only time we have. Somewhere it was nicely worded that the past is a history, while the future is a mystery, so the more time we spend enjoying the present moment – the better, at least this is the case with me.

What are you dreaming for?
For more harmony – within me and around me. For warmer weather. For the summer and the sea…and sometimes for … a Breakfast at Tiffany’s…

What message would you pass over to Bulgarian women?
To be braver in our dreams, to be more persistent in the pursuit of dreams and to have more positive thoughts.

Favourite colour? Song? Taste? Place?
My favourite colours are the pastel ones. At home most things are in peach colour…and papaya …and…
My favourite song is from the ‘Ghost” movie…and I enjoy the music of Paco de Lucía…. and …Sade … and…
My favourite taste is of a freshly baked bread…and chocolate…and coffee…
And my favourite place: I love different places; however I feel happiest in the summer by the sea… and … (online) – in the blogosphere

back in time, about 10 years ago I was studying philosophy and I remember very well most of my professors. now I recall very vively one of them – Prof. Ivan Stefanov.

Ivan Stefanov was one of those, typical professors, typical philosophy professors, old, white hair, black jacket, a bit stooped, calm, relaxed, slow, he was teaching History of Philosophy and Kant was the one and the only.

Ivan Stefanov was talking below his breath, very slowly and gently, he was talking about philosophy as he was telling fairytails.

the Univercity’s auditorium was full of students but noone did dare to talk, move or do any noice as Stefanov was talking! we ware trying to catch every single word of the great teacher. every single word.

* * *

surely I am not Ivan Stefanov and talking about such unpopular thing as online media to PR students has nothing to do with the story above, also time did change, everything is different.
however, I have to admit, although I love teaching, sometimes teaching is not so much fun.

“Personal blogs aren’t going anywhere, though. There’s a difference between a blog about YOU (I call this a cat blog) and a blog about the reader. Guy Kawasaki’s blog, and my blog for that matter, are not about us, about what we ate yesterday or how great we are. They are about you, the reader.”

hm, most probably Seth is right, just, to be honest, here in Bulgaria we are a bit behind, so let us first enjoy the blogs as they are, ah

the whole article about death of personal blogs is here

BG Site is the Bulgarian Web Awards contest. The idea came up in 1999, I did share it with my web guru Allan (I’ll write more about him and that time soon) and he gave me big support and encouraged me so here we are now 2008 and we do now the 9th edition of the contest.

The story is long and I’ll share it later. Now just to let you know that on www.bgsite.org is the submition of applications and it’s up to 10th of October. The voting will go from 15 to 30th October and the Big Ceremony of BG Site 2008 will take place at Sheraton hotel Sofia on November 3rd.

All good websites are welcome to participate! Main requirement – even a few lines in Bulgarian.

The last 3 years we (people all over the world, Bulgaria incl) celebrate One Web Day – it was Suzan Crawford who did take the iniciative on and the world now celebrate the web on 22th of September (the “opozite” date of the 22th of Aprile, Earth day).

This year Gorry and me ware thinking how and what to make and we have found out that in Bulgaria most of the poeple already use (more or less) computers and Internet, in the last few years almost all kids do use computers and there is one small part of the population, actually not that small, who stay beside, on the other side of the digital barrier – the old people, those 60+. So, we thought – hm, it would be nice if we could do something for them. And here we go – together with the web site dedicated on the old people LudiMladi.bg – we have invided everyone with an old, useless, but still working computer to donate it to some club of pensioners.Up to now abour 4-5 people want to donate. Nice. Thanks!

TIME!

“Show up on time. It doesn’t cost anything to keep your promises when it comes to time. Show up for the meeting when the meeting starts. Have the dry cleaning ready when you promise. Ship on time. Return that phone call. Finish the renovation ahead of schedule.

Boy that’s simple. Apparently, it’s incredibly difficult.

Cherish my time. The second part is closely related. It has to do with respect. You respect my time when you don’t waste it. When you don’t spam me. When you worry about the 100 cars backed up on the road and figure out how to get us moving more quickly. You respect me when you value my time more highly than your own.”

oh Seth, how right are you. please all, read and have in mind Seth #1 most overlooked secret of marketing (I would say of business as all)

read all on Seth’s blog

Totally Erected is a fashion studio in Sofia and this evening they presented their new collection London is burning. A link to more pictures – soon.

Here I go with one of the 4 voguers – special guest to the event. Sweet, ha?