Reflective Intro

Regardless of the theme I end up choosing for my portfolio, my reflective introduction will thoroughly explain the purpose, design, and outcomes of what I have chosen to present. Some points I will highlight and emphasize:

-Audience and its role in effectiveness

-Growth through stepping outside of comfort boundaries

-Purpose in writing and personality's role

I've always enjoyed writing introductions because I think they give writers a unique opportunity to really attract and intrigue their readers.

Potential Themes

1. Versatility Across Genres - I've noticed throughout my various writings for this course, my tone changes considerably. In this process blog, I'm using my basic recording style of writing. Really just taking the thoughts in my head and typing them. In my enthusiast blog, I am (gasp) enthusiastic, and emulate an English football commentator at times. In my wikitravel project, I was completely objective and professional. I think my versatility as a writer is a strength and it might make for a good theme for the portfolio.

2. Comfort with Web 2.0 - In my presentation, I explored the changes one must make when going from viewing the Web 1.0 world to participating in the Web 2.0 universe. For years I've used the internet, but have been hesitant to check out things like blogging and forums. Actually contributing to Wikitravel really broadened my perspectives on what one person is capable of doing online, and Ning was another step in that direction.

3. Writing and its purpose - Writing, in the first place, is meant to serve a purpose. It is to spread information, get points across, and express opinions. Personality is used to enhance this writing and make it more fun to read. Varying degrees of personality are appropriate in different types of writing. I have numerous examples of this in my writing this semester.

Projects for Revision

1. Enthusiast Blog

As was discussed in class, this project had the highest level of involvement out of any of them. I spent quite a bit of time thinking of topics for the blog, writing, and incorporating different types of media. Because of the fact that there's so much content already present in the blog, there is a great deal I will be able to do to revise and polish it. I will work on making all of the writing more concise and relevant. Also important will be adding design elements, as my blog could be viewed as somewhat plain as it is now.

2. WikiTravel

I feel like this project is the one with the most room for growth. The potential for WikiTravel entries compared to the amount of work that was required for the completion of the project is huge. I will add pictures to my Laconia, NH entry, clean up the writing a bit, and add a few more entries.

Kimball: Web Portfolios

From reading about Web Portfolios in this chapter, I have a very clear idea of what makes an effective web portfolio, why it is a good idea to have one, and how to go about creating one. A web portfolio makes your final work easily accessible to people everywhere. What this means is that unless you are truly apathetic towards how your work is viewed by others, you will want to do your absolute best in the revising and polishing stages so that your best is showcased. While a hard portfolio in folder or binder form can be passed around and viewed, the level of publicity is so much higher with a web portfolio.

I wasn't surprised to see that many of the correct strategies for creating or revising a web page are the same when you are creating a web portfolio. Aesthetics are important, as always, and ease of navigation cannot be ignored. Layout, subtlety, and consistency are all also very familiar concepts from our previous projects.

Ning.com Network Finished... Some Dissonance

Our finished Ning.com networks are due in less than two hours, and my group's is finished. We've managed to flesh out every aspect of the site, from photos and videos to events and the forum. I'm proud of what we've achieved, and like I said in my last post, it's hard to believe that this started with absolutely nothing on it. Oh, the power of collaboration.

There is one part of the group that I'm a bit uneasy about, but it is too late to fix it. All along, we've been creating and updating our network with the idea of a light-hearted, friendly tone in mind. Our angle the whole time was to differentiate ourselves as an animal rights group by straying away from the aggressive, shocking style of informing that so many animal rights groups employ.

Only two or three days ago, though, a few photos and a couple of videos were uploaded that feature disturbing images. On one hand, I feel like it adds something to the group. Our whole topic is animal abuse, but everything was happy and fun. Adding some examples of animal abuse may serve to remind the viewers of the network that yes, this is a serious matter. On the other hand, I also wonder if these images create some dissonance within the network. 75%ish of our content is of cute, happy animals, and then we have some shocking media showing abused animals. Like I said before, I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Additional Media for Ning Group

In the last couple of days, my group has focused on adding more ooo's and ahh's to our Ning network. Our textual content is actually quite considerable and focused, but we were lacking in the pictures and videos departments. I added 8 photos myself, and I must say that I was surprised and relieved when I saw that they put themselves into a slideshow. I expected the slideshow to take at least a few minutes to figure out. Thomas also added a few pictures and a video.

I added an event, and Thomas added a few as well. It's kinda cool because each individual aspect was relatively quick and easy to complete. Now that we've finished/almost finished, though, the site has a lot of information and a lot of media, as well. It reminds me of the way papers are supposed to be written and how tests are supposed to be studied for versus the way most students actually approach them. If every student at URI actually studied/worked for each of their classes for 30min-1hr per day, "bad" grades (this is subjective, of course) may be eliminated. It's the last minute cramming and grinding that has really harmed our education systems.

Ning.com Update

My group has decided to create a Ning Network dedicated to creating awareness of animal abuse. We are already well into the project and everything is going very well. Our forum has four topics. Our blog had three the last time I checked. Our welcome note, mission statement, and site design are all congruent.

Along with a general cause (animal abuse), our group has succeeded in choosing a specific tone for our network. There are many, many organizations that exist to oppose the mistreatment of animals. We discussed this as a group and came to the agreement that we are most used to seeing aggressive statements and communications from these organizations that do more to invoke fear and disturbance than awareness. In order to differentiate ourselves and get our message across in our own way, we have taken on a more lighthearted approach. The songs, videos, and design of our network are all focused on how much fun and joy pets can bring to us, rather than the hurt and pain that occurs when they are abused.

Discussion Forum Topics

1. What can I do to get involved?

2. Where can I find organizations dedicated to the cause?

3. Adoption success stories

Topics in Animal Abuse

1. Ethics of Animal Testing

2. Uses of Animals in Research

3. Limitations of the Animal Welfare Act

Ning.com

After messing around on Ning.com for a while, I must say that I'm surprised that this is my first time even hearing of the site. It appears to be extremely useful for both concentrated and extended social networking. What sets Ning apart from sites like Facebook and Myspace is the option for specific purposes. People can create any type of network on Ning and be reasonably assured that the people in their network care about the subject matter at hand. This is not especially true for Facebook groups, for example, where people will join anything and everything with little to no consideration.

I was intrigued by the option of free networks and paid networks. Obviously, free networks will have bare-minimum features, but they are probably all you really need. It would be interesting to see what kinds of things you can do in a paid network, though. It might be possible to create a true, active organization on Ning. I don't know enough to fully comment on this, though.

Boyd vs. Bennett

Both of these articles focused on the roles of people using Social Networking Sites and their activism (or lack thereof). Boyd and Bennett seemed to agree that the young people of recent generations are not being as active as those of older generations. Boyd attributes this to a lack of motivation while Bennett believes that it is due to a difference in motivation.

Bennett believes that while people used to participate in political activism due to a sense of duty, people are doing it nowadays in order to pursue self-actualization. This need for self-actualization mirrors the narcissism that Boyd spoke of. In Boyd's critique of SNSes, the common subject matter of online discussion is primarily self-indulgent rather than working towards any sort of social or political goal.

Where Boyd and Bennett differ is the idea that people are involved in serious matters at all. Boyd seems to content that there is little to no motivation whatsoever towards political subject matter, and I might agree. Bennett argues that people are involved, but in a more passive manner. They are doing it for themselves, rather than for a greater purpose. I also agree here. People are certainly becoming less active politically, this can easily be proven by voting rates. Whether or not they are bothering to be involved at all is another question.

Social Networking Sites

The article, "Social Networks: History, Definition, and Scholarship" served to accompany the knowledge I already had about SNSs and fill in a lot of the gaps I always wondered about. I had never even heard about Friendster, and it was interesting to read about its successes and failures. The info about Friendster also illustrated a very important aspect of SNSs, as well. The article discussed that the site experienced some technical difficulties. I believe that the success of sites like Myspace and Facebook are largely due to rock solid technical work and maintenance. Once in a while, Facebook will be down for an hour or so, and I'm sure it angers a LOT of people. If this were to happen more frequently, they could lose a lot of users.

The article discussed the uses of SNSs and stated that users are really supporting existing relationships rather than finding new ones. I agree and disagree. I think most refrain from "creeping" on randoms, but I also think small interactions that never would have lead to friendships (or whatever) have the possibility of turning into deep connections due to SNSs. For instance, I don't talk to too many people in most of my classes, but it is very common to become "friends" with someone on Facebook because they're in the same class as you. A couple of wall posts and ten minutes of chat later, a real friendship is made that exists in the offline world, also.

5 Issues

Five issues that concern me are:

1. Nuclear Weapons

2. Nutrition

3. Medical Ethics

4. Hate Crimes

5. Global Warming

Revised Site Finished

Our final site revisions and all that go along with them are due today at 2:00PM. I've just looked over our site, and I am very pleased with how it's turned out. John did fix the spacing on the home page, and I made the font for the 5 questions landing page more consistent with the font on the home page. Overall, the design flows better and looks much more professional.

Joan finished the proposal memo and we're all very happy with it. Even her first draft proved that she was definitely the right person for the job. Kayla's site maps were also very effective, and she also ended up being very proficient with editing the site. She was able to figure out a few things (like image placement) that we were having trouble with.

In the end, this project was both easier and harder than I expected it to be. Google sites makes it very easy to get everything up and functional. It was a matter of minutes before we were able to transpose all of the information from the original site to ours. However, making everything exactly right and considering all of the elements of web design (proximity, repetition, etc) is very important and cannot be taken too lightly.

Peer Review (Web Site)

On Wednesday, we spent our class time getting into our groups and peer editing another group's work. We had a list of questions that we were to carefully consider and then answer about what the other group had done, effectively and ineffectively. One thing we were instructed to do was to rate the work out of 10 and be very, very honest, and sure not to inflate the scores, because in the end it would only make the group work less hard and end up with a lower grade. This makes a lot of sense to me and is something that I've noticed about peer reviewing in a lot of classes. People tend to not want to make each other feel bad and have a tendency to just say "Wow this is great as it is, good job," when they might actually have useful criticism.

We told the other group that their main problems were in their proposal memo. Their web site was awesome and actually fairly complete and polished as it was. The memo, though, needed some work. It read more like a list of creative devices than suggestions for change.

When we received our peer review comments, the criticisms were not very surprising. The design of our site could definitely use some tweaking, particularly in spacing (proximity) and font continuity (repetition). We're in a good position now because we know exactly what we need to do from here and how to do it.

Creation Museum Site

I've done a bit of work now for the improvement of The Creation Museum website. I must say that the group I am in is a very upbeat and efficient one. We did well in class on Wednesday to get a collaborative idea of what the site should end up looking like and how we're going to get there. The division of labor was painless, and everyone seems to know what is expected of them.

I threw together a template pretty quickly, and it's rough, but functional. I'm now working on making the landing page in google sites. The content is pretty much all there, but I'm not satisfied with the layout or organization yet.

Google Sites

After messing around with Google Sites a little bit, I feel reasonably comfortable with using it. The site editor is very user friendly and everything is somewhat self-explanatory. I didn't use it for too long, to be honest, so I'm sure there are many finer points that I'm not aware of. For the basic purposes of creating a simple site, though, I feel alright. It helps that we're exploring this in groups, as well.

I've had a decent amount of experience using forums and other mediums in electronic environments, and am good with computers to an extent. I still appear to be the only one who can't figure out how to space out sakai posts though!

Effective and Ineffective Web Sites

Good: www.fossil.com

The design is simple, effective, and aestethically pleasing. The graphics serve a purpose, and all of the information and data is well organized into well-defined categories.

Bad: http://thecreationmuseum.org/

The background and graphics serve only to distract and annoy the viewer. Information is strewn about, and barely organized, if at all. This web site is for a real life musuem. The purpose should be to attract and persuade visitors. However, searching for either a phone number to call for the musuem or hours of operation yields no results.

Palmquist Chapter 17

While reading Palmquist's chapter about websites, I couldn't help but compare and contrast the design of web sites with other forms of writing. Palmquist discusses how purpose, design, and audience all must be taken into account when desigining a website. This is also true for most writing. He also goes on to talk about organization, another important thing to keep in mind, no matter what you are creating.

Palmquist describes three methods of organization: hierarchal, inter-linked, and combined. I've run across countless websites which fit into these categories, but never took the time to realize the way that information is organized until now.

I was pleased to see that Palmquist is an advocate of simplicity in web design. I believe that too many people get too excited about graphic design and all sorts of different media, and in the end, their web site suffers. When appropriate, some flair can add a lot to a web page. Too much, though, will kill it.

3 Listings for Laconia, NH

‘’Patrick's Pub’’
*Ph. 603-293-0841
*Located at 18 Weirs Rd, Laconia, NH
Welcome to Patrick's Pub, Laconia's most happening Irish bar scene! Patrick's Pub boasts live entertainment several times a week, fantastic appetizers and entrees, and a formidable selection of beer and liquor. Whether you're looking to let loose and have a crazy night or just hang around and catch up with some friends, Patrick's is the place to do it. Visit Patrick's on the web at [[www.patrickspub.com]]!

‘’Funspot’’
*Ph. 603-366-4377
*Located on 579 Endicott St N. Laconia, NH
If you're looking for some good, clean fun, then Funspot is where you need to be. Funspot is New Hampshire's biggest and most complete place for classic family entertainment. Funspot offers a full mini-golf course, duck-pin bowling, bingo (for those 18 and older), and the best arcade around. It's entirely possible to spend an entire day at Funspot and still have things left to do. To learn more, go to [[www.funspotnh.com]].

‘’Sawyer's’’
*Ph. 603-293-4422
*Located at 1933 Lakeshore Road, Gilford, NH
In the mood for seafood? Head over to Laconia's best kept secret, Sawyer's. If you try to stay away from fried foods, it's advisable that you stay far, far away from Sawyer's, because if you try just one item from the menu, you're likely to be hooked. With the best scallops, clams, and shrimp around, Sawyer's is affordable, convenient, and absolutely delicious.

WikiTravel Manual of Style, etc.

After reading through the WikiTravel Manual of Style, three tips WikiTravel writers might be able to use would be:

1. Do not use HTML. I may be generalizing, but I believe many people who are accustomed to designing things on the web are used to using HTML. It's important to understand that when dealing with WikiTravel, WikiMarkup is used, not HTML.

2. Internal links. Much like in blogging, one of WikiTravel's central themes is linking to other articles to elaborate on things. Presenting links to other relevant information is extremely important, and it's a necessary skill to have for WikiTravel writing.

3. Section headers. From my limited experience with WikiTravel, I would say that the organization of information is a very important point. Section headers help to put each individual piece of content exactly where it belongs and is appropriate.

Three Potential Places

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Laconia, New Hampshire
3. Atlantic City, New Jersey

I feel that I would be capable of writing about these three places because of my experiences in all three. First of all, I love Las Vegas. I consider it my town. I've only been there twice, but I feel like I know the ins and outs of the city like only the locals do. Some of my best life stories come from Las Vegas. I could add insight to getting the most out of your money and where to have maximum fun.

Laconia, New Hampshire is where my dad currently lives. He's only lived there four years, but it's been a family location for as long as I've been alive. We used to go to the lake there every summer, and I now visit my dad many times a year. Because of my extensive background in Laconia, I know pretty much everything there is to do there.

Atlantic City is a lot like Vegas for me, just to a lesser extent. I've visited AC a couple of times and again, I believe I know a lot about the city. Whenever I go on trips (to LV, AC, anywhere) I travel with the same two guys. When we're together, we know how to have fun and we know how to do it for the minimum amount of output. This leads to some ridiculous times and some (financially) smart travelling.

WikiTravel

After doing a little bit of research on WikiTravel, I must say that the concept is one of those "I wish I came up with that first," type of things. It makes perfect sense. For years, it's been entirely possible to find out about any travel destination in the world and plan an entire trip from start to finish using only the Internet, but it's never been as easy as it could be. To me, WikiTravel will serve to combine all of the separate anecdotal information about places in the world and present them simply and easily in one spot.

I also like the element of neutrality that WikiTravel is using, like Wikipedia. As is written on the goals and non-goals page, the purpose is to get accurate and relevant information about a given place, not opinions and promotion. This will solve perhaps the biggest problem that exists when trying to research travel destinations online. If you go to any one person's website and read their information about a place, then it will obviously be clouded by their biases, whatever they may be. WikiTravel will be a collaboration of many travelers' opinions, so these biases will be smoothed out to a large extent.

Peer Review

Yesterday, we broke up into groups of three to review and edit the blogs of our classmates. I ended up being with two guys: Steve and Liam. We decided to take the first part of our time to check out each others' blogs and read them to ourselves before commenting.

Liam's blog is about his quest to quit smoking, and discusses some common methods to aide the quitting process as well as his own struggles. I was actually very impressed by Liam's blog. The whole thing was interesting, relevant, and aesthetically pleasing. His About Me, especially was very well crafted.

Steve's blog is a lot like mine. His is all about the Miami Dolphins. Like me, he used his team's colors as his layout scheme. I think his looks a lot better than mine, though. His posts are well-written and interesting but general enough that most readers would be able to understand everything.

Steve and Liam both commented that my blog's description was colored pretty poorly. I actually had intended to change this but never actually gotten around to it. Their advice spurred me to fix it right then, it made a huge difference. They also both addressed the conflict I wrote about earlier, about being too general vs. being too specific. Their feelings somewhat echoed mine... they agreed that casual viewers would be confused, but that my actual, serious (potential) readers would prefer it the way it is.

"Filler" Posts?

Although I originally intended to write about anything and everything Manchester United, I must admit that the only time I feel compelled to make a post is after United plays a match. After United plays, they're at the forefront of my mind. I have so many reactions to the match including thoughts about how individual players performed and the strategies we used. Because of this, I feel like my post-match posts are effective and fun to read.

Unfortunately, though, United have only played two real matches since the beginning of my blog. Due to this and the requirements of having 4 posts, I have had to come up with two other things to write about. The most recent was the opposite of a post-match discussion... a pre-match discussion. I did manage come up with relevant things to write about, and felt like the post went ok. The other ended up being about my favorite player.

Now, I'm not saying that either post was completely forced, and perhaps the title of this post is a bit mis-worded, but I do wonder how readers will respond to the flow of my subject matter. In order I have a post-match discussion, random thoughts about my favorite player, a post-match discussion, and a pre-match discussion. Again, I may be thinking too much about a relatively unimportant issue, but I just hope the blog doesn't seem too inconsistent.

All-Inclusive or True Enthusiast?

While writing the posts for my blog about Manchester United, I've been conflicted about how to effectively cater to my audience. This problem originates from not knowing exactly what my audience consists of. Is my audience other Manchester United fans? Is it other football fans? Is it anyone who might just happen to be reading my blog? I've been writing under the assumption that my readers know a reasonable amount about English football and the bigger name players on the bigger teams.

Although I've decided to write while assuming a relatively high degree of knowledge (for now), I'm still left feeling that it might not be correct. My current feeling is that if I were to explain everything and introduce every player so that everyone could understand, there would be a lot of superfluous information for my more serious fans and the blog would be watered down. But if I keep my blog as is, and don't explain everything, I'm making it nearly impossible for those who don't follow football to become interested.

I'll probably keep my blog as it is. When it really comes down to it, I suppose it's important to ask the question, "Are people who don't watch much Premiership football actually going to read my blog seriously?" The answer: probably not. In fact, this conflict probably wouldn't have even come up if I were creating this blog on my own, outside of class. But for the purpose of a writing class which requires peer review and more general participation, I may have chosen a topic a bit too narrow in scope.

Rantings of a Red

Manchester United is an extremely popular team. It has supporters from all around the world. Consequently, there is no shortage of information about them on the Internet. So... why will people interested in Manchester United choose my blog? What will differentiate my writing from the rest of the discussion that is available?

As I came to realize from reading articles and blog posts about blogs themselves, people do not visit blogs for information and facts. They visit them for the writing behind the information. The humor, personality, and style that accompanies the subject matter is the real draw.

My blog will offer this. I will post relevant information regarding the team, matches played, and strategies, and I will do my best to make this information fun to read.

Enthusiast Blog

I have decided to make my enthusiast blog about football. As I stated in my previous post, I watch football from all over the world, namely England, Spain, and Italy, but scope must be considered. To make my blog as interesting and focused as possible, I will single out Manchester United, my favorite club, as my true topic. I am a diehard United fan, so I will be able to write more passionately when focused on the one team than if I were to write about all football in general.

Manchester United plays at least once a week, and there are always stories in the news about various things related to the game. I have no excuse to run out of things to discuss.

I would imagine that my audience will be other Manchester United fans. It is a gigantic club, one of the top 5 most popular sports teams in the world, so there are no shortage of supporters. I will be writing mainly about United, but I will also discuss the English Premiership and the Champions League, so my audience may extend to general football fans as well. The best way to speculate about what they would want to read is to think, "What would I want to read?" Discussions of match performances, certain players, strategies, and reflections about how the team is doing seem relevant and important, so these will be my focus.

I plan to get my real feelings and thoughts out of my head and into this blog, so my writing style will be informal to a certain extent. I have strong opinions regarding my team and its rivals, so there may be some strong language. Also, whenever I discuss football, English slang and tendencies appear in my writing and speech. My goal is to post meaningful and provocative material relating to Manchester United in an honest and stylish way.

Potential titles:

Rantings of a Red (I think I'm already set on this)
Glory, Glory, Man United!
A Yank Who's a Manc

Post ideas:

Whenever Manchester United plays:

Match analysis
Player ratings
Criticisms and compliments

Potential Ideas for Enthusiast Blog

1. Football (soccer) - I have had a huge passion for football ever since I began watching and playing it a few short years ago. My favorite club is a team in England called Manchester United. I watch tons of football that takes place all over Europe and might be interested in sharing my thoughts, criticisms, and suggestions for the modern game.

2. Social conditioning and human interactions - Very recently I've found that human interactions and the way society's expectations can change them is huuugely interesting to me. If I blogged about this topic, I could discuss anything from daily interactions I take part in and/or observe, my ideas about what's right and wrong with society, relevant things I read, and potentially more.

3. Poker - This idea is much less relevant than it may have been for me even just one year ago, but it still is a possibility. I started studying and playing the game 3-4 years ago, and even though I haven't played seriously in months, the game fascinates me. Most people still consider poker to be "gambling," but with statistics, probability, game theory, human behavior, and countless other factors all influencing the game at the same time, it is much, much deeper than something like pulling on a slot machine or rolling dice.

4. Running - This topic suffers in a way similar to poker. I have not been running recently, but in the last eight years, it has been a major part of my life. I ran indoor track, outdoor track, and cross-country for three years in high school and have run recreationally on and off ever since. This summer it was probably the most important thing to me in my life. Somehow, though, the motivation and drive has a way of disappearing and reappearing cyclically...

5. Education - Although I have virtually no real knowledge relating to the way students should be taught, I always have something to say about the way students are being taught. I could probably find countless examples of methods and attitudes I like and dislike during a single day of class at URI.

Reflections on Stefanac

Stefanac's piece about blogging served to really reinforce what I already thought I knew about blogs. It provides very relevant and useful tips for creating and maintaining a blog as well as it warns about potential pitfalls. One such pitfall had an interesting connection to my own life.

Last summer, a couple of my friends and I were on a long drive home from New Hampshire and ended up on the topic of trying to get rich. After an hour or so of throwing ideas around and knocking them down, one of my friends mentioned blogging. He told us about how successful blogs can end up making decent amounts of money through advertising and other methods. My response was that you have to start a blog because you have something to say, not to make money. I may show my friend Stefanac's piece for an "I told you so," type of moment.

Another thing I noticed was that Stefanac's number one piece of advice tied in nicely with some of Rebecca Blood's ideas. Stefanac writes that the best blogs are the best because of the author's personality shining through. If a person wanted the most factual, informative information, they wouldn't go to a blog for it... unless they had never heard of Google, I suppose. People frequent blogs to read about things they love, and read them in a style and tone that entertains them. Blood wrote about the process of finding your own real opinions and having the confidence to express them the way you want to. Surely, if you're capable of doing this, your blog will end up with a personality.

Blogs - My Experience, Thoughts

I've known about blogs for several years, but have held very little regard for them until somewhat recently. I became aware of them right about the time that EVERYBODY became aware of them, during the explosion that Rebecca Blood wrote about. I never considered the fact that if I actually searched for blogs that focused on things I was interested in, that I might like to read them. Instead, I thought to myself, "Why do I care what someone else, who is NOT an expert, thinks about anything?"

That viewpoint holds little weight anymore. Even though I still haven't really searched for blogs to read, and I still don't frequent any blogs, I admit that I might like to. With the amount of attention blogging receives these days, the really interesting and relevant ones are readily available. And to discredit my earlier thought, many of the popular bloggers actually are experts in what they're writing about.

Weblogs

Before reading Rebecca Blood's post about Weblogs, I quickly scrolled down, noted the length of it, and asked myself what it might be about. Would it be detailing the history of blogs? The merits of blogging? How blogging actually works?

After finishing the post and realizing that it was about all three, I realized the irony in my original attempt to guess the subject matter. This is not a persuasive essay, it's not a term paper, and it's not an article. It's a person, just like you or me, writing their thoughts and opinions about something and providing some backround information. Rebecca Blood's post serves not only as a source for people who may not know about blogs, but also as a perfect example of what blogging is about. It's personal, informal, and unpredictable. A person's true personality is really capable of coming out in a blog.

Rebecca's remarks about the evolution of an individual blogger who begins with weak opinions, formulated mostly by the thoughts of others and ends up really being able to express themself really fit into some things I've been thinking about lately. She described, essentially, a journey of self-actualization and discovering one's true feelings. I had never once considered that a person could potentially learn to value their own thoughts more through blogging, but Blood writes convincingly. I can't help but wonder if there are many examples of timid, overly cautious people becoming far open and extroverted as a result of blogging.

What is writing?

Writing is the recording of thoughts, ideas, and statements. When something is written, it has been committed to record until it is actively deleted or discarded.

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