Kristen Goetz has a personal blog that she describes as a nothing blog, but that’s because she writes about everything. At age twenty five, Kristen hopes for a professional career as a writer, and so she posts insights on summer fun, bars, fast cars and the best cell phone deals in Canada. She’s looking for a suitable corporate master to repaint her profile with a purpose. Because right now, her seemingly pointless content shimmers like a reflection of herself in a fast flowing stream of events that is her life in Toronto.
Shambled Ramblings started because Kristen was offered a job as a corporate blogger on the condition that she initiate a personal blogspot domain where she could cross promote the sponsor company. The enterprise launched Kristen’s blogging career. She wrote diligently for months, building credibility and refining her prose. She wrote about her recent break-up of a three-year relationship, and the possibilities of a new one. She wrote about snowstorms, grass cutting and her friend’s problems, and greasy food, and traffic tickets and the music of Kermit The Frog - it took awhile before she found her voice.
Sadly, by the time Kristen finally got up to speed and truly personalized her domain, and before she ever made a dime, the initial job offer fell through, and the company that seduced her into the blogosphere was no longer in business. Other companies and media buyers contacted her but unfortunately they wanted to compromise truth, and censor her language. Since her readership had begun to grow, Kristen declined. “There was no way that I was going to endorse products I’d never used, or tone down the sarcasm. I didn’t want my personal blog to sound like anyone else.” She relates. Yet in many ways, Shambled Ramblings has a lot to do with Kristen searching for, and finding different identities.
Since many of her posts are about her recent move from St. Catharines to Toronto, Kristen punctuates her text with Canadian keywords, people, places, and Queen St W Toronto events. A common theme is her quest to sample as many different Ontario micro brews in her local Parkdale bars and pubs, before declaring a favourite.
Kristen is a cool chick that likes to party on occasion. It’s a fact she knows the lyrics to hundreds of obscure early 1980’s heavy metal songs. She likes live music, and plays a mean game of pool. Her posts are personal and range from self-deprecating and questioning to sarcastic and in-your-face. Sometimes there’s a bit of self-improvement. It’s for that reason – the randomness of her subjects – that she concludes she has a nothing blog.
But Kristen’s blog is actually something pretty special. It’s a look into the mind and everyday life of a female twenty-something, new to the city and still searching for a career. Whether she’s ranting about an annoyance, re-capping her busy weekend, or making relevant observations about our society, Shambled Ramblings is an honest peek at a young woman learning more about herself, and what’s she’s capable of achieving in Toronto.
Muskoka Outdoors
Bill embraces blogging because it gives him the ability to recount his stories. Though he humbly insists he’s not a good writer, his writing is fine, and 
Samantha is a 27 year old married mother-of-two that works in the construction industry. During the day she (sometimes) wears a hard hat, coveralls and steel toed boots on downtown Toronto construction sites. But at home, in the evenings, she gently constructs beautiful social nets – she blogs and builds pretty web buttons that bind together a potent roster of rookie moms.
Sam is ahead of the curve in social networking, and her techniques are worth studying - her Tempting Mama Twitter account now has 380 followers, due in part to the brilliant avatar. One thing I noticed right away is how her blog incorporates lots of popular social networking buttons. Her Stumble Page is focused on motherhood, but assembled from lots of diverse source material.
Okay now the real reason why I love Samantha – she puts it on the line. She is genuine and open and writes from the heart. I remember reading the post she wrote back in January under her blog’s Marriage tag where she opened up about her own marital problems. I marveled at the honesty and the bravery of her self documentation – she had the courage to step out from behind the façade and face reality in confessional writing that becomes the ultimate public self exploration. The next day she started dismantling the facade and her readership helped.
Micaela just entered teachers college at the University of Windsor.
While Terri Potratz is the founder and editor-in-chief of the site, her 
Terri’s clothing line, 
Michael Cayley is a web entrepreneur that studies culture and communication and prognosticates on the future of social networks. Those of us who read the scraps of wisdom he leaves lying around in his posts hope to profit by actualizing his ideas.
Michael Cayley met Rob Campbell (that’s me) on Sept 4th 2008 at Timothys coffee shop in the Carrot Common on Danforth Avenue in Toronto. We spoke for two hours. After the meeting I walked away with a profound new understanding of social media, and a bold new vision of the charitable future of Canada Blog Friends.
Michael announced the publication of his SCVA work in a quirky piece of writing entitled 
Ted understands that he’s playing a role as 
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