What can I say, I am honoured to have been nominated for the Illuminating Blogger Award, and the fact that the nomination came from the person that I consider to be Australia’s No. 1 Geneablogger, Jill of the Geniaus blog fame just adds to the honour.

I was one of six nominations that she gave, and in her nomination Jill says: LoneTester HQ – Alona, is a young, enthusiastic blogger from South Australia who brought a youthful freshness to blogging. She deserves this nomination the effort she has put into setting up and curating the Family History through the Alphabet Challenge.

I admit that I was initially stumped for ideas when thinking about my ‘I’ post for the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge, but then it hit me …

I is for … INTERNET

How did I not think of it before? I know why … it’s because the internet is now something that we take for granted. We get up, turn the computer on (that is if we actually bothered to turn it off), and log on. Then check emails, Facebook,  Twitter, blog posts and maybe a few websites while we’re at it … well, that’s me anyway.

But seriously, can any of us imagine what life would be like without the internet? I’m sure having difficulty doing so.

Technically this post has nothing to do with genealogy, as it’s all about Wordle, but I’ve managed to connect the two (of course). So let me tell you about the fun I’ve been having with Wordle.

I had heard of Wordle before, but really didn’t know what it was, so I after seeing another reference to it on Twitter, decided it was time to check it out. Wordle is a website which created ‘word clouds’ for you as you’ll see below. It looks way cool, is super simple, and if fun too …

My name is Alona … and I have always been the ‘girl with the odd/different/strange/unusual name’ (insert whichever works for you). And while I know that there are a few other Alona’s out there, I have never ever had the pleasure of speaking or meeing anyone with the same name (and by same name, I mean the same spelling – not any of the many variants) … until NOW!!

The last day last week’s Queensland Expo 2012 started our as expected – with a cold, and busy day of manning the Gould Genealogy & History stand. And yes it was cold thanks to unusally cold weather in winter for Brisbane), and busy, it also but also a super-exciting day as I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of meeting someone else the with same name … ALONA.