Let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns….uh..I mean finals

Once last post before the final presentations: A finals themed reinterpretation of your favorite Disney Princess songs. You're welcome. You Must Finish This Paper As Swift As A Coursing River

In honor of our gif obsession...

A gif tumbler dedicated to our illustrious institution......http://testudoofthemall.tumblr.com

Wordpress Users...help?

So I need to create a group blog (really more of an online portfolio) for another class. We decided to go with Wordpress, but now I am completely stumped. I have the Suburbia theme, which is a magazine-ish one that is supposed to have images on top of little blurbs with the beginning of each post.

How do I add Featured Images? All that is showing up on the main blog page is the text of the post. When I click "Read more," it shows the image I put with the full post, but I want it to show up as a thumbnail on the main page too. I've looked it up and it seems like I have to do some kind of fancy coding stuff that I don't feel like doing. Is there an easier way?

How to Make an Animated GIF

Hello fellow bloggers/classmates! This post will be dedicated to creating your very own GIF(s). Hopefully this will become useful to you and it will help to decorate your blog!

Creating a GIF using an Editing Program.

This was the easiest method I found to creating a GIF and it's both Apple and Windows friendly.

Step 1: Create or Find your Video.

You can use a video you've downloaded or one you've created yourself, it doesn't matter. Be aware, however, that the longer the video is the longer it will take to be imported.

Step 2: Import the Video into your Editing Program.

Every laptop and computer (unless it's from 1997) should come with a free video editing program. Open the program up and import your footage.

Step 3: Editing.

Once your video is all ready to go start editing. You're going to want the video to be 2- 5 seconds long or else the file will be too large.

Step 4: Exporting.

When you have your video file edited down to 2-5 seconds export it. Windows users, you'll want the file to be an .AVI not a .WMV.

Step 5: Online Gif Generators.

This was the trickiest part for me. There are a lot of websites dedicated to helping users create GIFs, but not all of them will work. After days of searching and experimenting I finally found a site that worked, LunaPic. Feel free to search around but this was by far the best site I found.

It's really simple. Upload your video to the site and set it to the image size of your liking.

500x750 worked for me.

The website will then allow you to slow down or speed up your gif, adjust the image width, and even cut your footage down.

When you finish playing with that you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and either save the Gif to your computer or upload it to the websites that are hyperlinked there.

* If you have trouble uploading the GIF to your Tumblr or Blog try uploading it to a photo sharing & video hosting site like Tinypic.com.

Here are some other options which involve a little more time and money.

Mac users have the option of buying there own GIF editing program. Judging from the customer reviews GIFBrewery seems to be the best option.

It's basically a Gif editing program and it only costs about $5.00. It's easier than using Photoshop and from the reviews it seems that the quality of the GIF seems to be relatively decent.

Photoshop.

If you have access to a Photoshop program it's a really useful tool for blogging. If you want to buy the program prices can range from $66.00 to over $200.00.

Creating a GIF using Photoshop is a longer process but the quality is usually leagues better. If you have a basic understanding of the program it shouldn't be too hard. Below are two videos I thought were the most useful:

That's about it! If you have any questions feel free to send me a message. If you comment on this post maybe a fellow classmate will be able to help you out. Best of luck!

And the Linky is working!

Thanks to Hannah for coming up with the questions! I set up a free InLinkz account so that when you put in the URL of your post, it will automatically show up on the blogs of everyone else who participates. I put up Hannah's and Briana's already, and wrote up some instructions on how to do it that will also appear automatically on each linked post. Technical writing for the Division of IT can come in handy...

Voila! Ze Questions are finished!

The questions for our group blog endevour are finished. Thanks to Carla for getting me started! Do it soon so I can add you to my LIST OF AWESOME TERPS WHO HAVE DONE THIS QUESTIONNAIRE. Here it is!

The Next Blog Challenge

Hey Guys, My poor brain is so tired from writing papers. I'm blanking on any kind of umd related questions type thingies for the blog thingy we discussed. Help? Leave a prompt or question in the comments, and I'll try and assemble them with some of my own by monday. Thanks, Hannah

Why you should be making use of Pinterest

Hi everyone,

This is Michael Kahane and I'll be talking to you later today about Social Network Theory and Virality (with the focus of building a blog audience). I came across this article about how awesome Pinterest is for increasing traffic: Crafty bloggers use Pinterest to swap ideas, drive traffic. I'll be talking about Pinterest a little bit today, but this is a good read.

See you later!

What to blog about...

Well, logically I'd write about the Caps right now, being that they're in the middle of an epic seven game, first round series. Problem is I have this big problem where I don't want to jinx anything by saying a word about it, verbal or written. So I'll keep quiet, keep my thoughts to myself through Wednesday night, and try to do some sort of yoga or deep breathing exercises to help my health get back on track. I probably had higher blood pressure than 99.9% of people in the world today during that game. I can only imagine what game seven will do to me. Go Caps.

Re-New Blog

Hey Everyone,

I finally decided to purchase my domain, so before I delete my blog that appears on the class blog roll, the link to my new blog is here: www.seaofrhymes.com 

Thanks,

Yalabe

A Cyborg Manifesto

Yes, interpreting Donna Haraway's manifesto was a challenge even for the graduate student in the class. Even after reading it multiple times! So I wanted to share with you all a helpful resource that I used in dissecting "A Cyborg Manifesto." It's a website that was put together by an instructor trying to help her students understand Haraway's famous work. I've never used a Cliff note or Spark note or anything of the sort so I have nothing to compare it to, but I found her interpretations helpful as I reread. 

As for tomorrow, take another look at the chart comparing "comfortable old hierarchical dominations to the scary new networks I have called the informatics of domination" on pages 161 & 162. It's been over 20 years since Haraway revised her manifesto and we'll be discussing this chart tomorrow. I have some powerful objections to some of the dichotomies on the chart and am wondering if any of you do as well?

Harry Potter!

Since I haven't read the Hunger Games yet I couldn't participate in the challenge this week. Instead I did a post on Pottermore! Have you guys been on the site yet? If not check out my post on it HERE

New Post! "Trayvon Martin: The Media's Dead Marionette"

Finally got around to my "response" post - it's on the whole Trayvon Martin fiasco.  I'm not really commenting on the ins and outs of the case, but more so how members of the media, corporations, and activists have seen his passing as an "opportunity," and have warped the case into a sordid opportunity.  Read it, if you've got a few minutes!

Laura's Video Challenge

Checking Blood Glucose

Helpful Blog Resource

The Daily Post/ is put out by wordpress to help you think of new posts etc.

Arguing Against Sunstein's Republic.com 2.0

In class tomorrow, Michael Venetti and I will be arguing against some of the points Sunstein makes in his Republic.com 2.0. We will be referencing this Ted Talk and this article to demonstrate why Sunstein's argument that technology's ability to "filter" what people want to experience is a hindrance to society and ultimately our democratic system.

Sunstein argues that this concept of "personalized news" (4) is affecting democracy. He believes the people have a right to be exposed to new information that they might not be predisposed to click on. We believe, however, that the development of technology should not make human beings lazy. Throughout history, those who have wanted to know something would seek it out. Scholars and neighborhood gossips alike had to work to get their daily dose, so why should that change now? People, as global citizens, have a responsibility to the world they have created to keep up with it's goings on. It is not the duty of private corporations to inform people, it is the duty of people to inform themselves.

Stay tuned for this lively debate tomorrow!

Challenge Accepted!

Follow Your Own Weirdness: A Tale of Ezra

I enjoyed Michael's foray into the personal narrative, so I broke from my "observations" and told a little story about my hair, Paris Hilton, Afros, Lord of the Rings, and horses.

Enjoy, and leave me comments pretty pumpkin please. Follow Your Own Weirdness: A Tale of Ezra

In Favor of Sunstein's Republic.com

After reading so many examples of why the Internet is a threat, it’s tempting to write off Cass Sunstein’s argument as overly alarmist. However, Republic.com is less of a persuasive argument than an investigative one exploring three main questions:

“How will the increasing power of private control affect democracy? How will the Internet and the explosion of communications options alter the capacity of citizens to govern themselves? What are the social preconditions for a well-functioning system of democratic deliberation, or for individual freedom itself?" (Sunstein 5)

Sunstein upholds a republican self-government--one that has no sovereign acting without accountability--as the ideal we should protect. In the United States, this type of government is dependent on a deliberative democracy, in which both citizens and their representatives debate and reflect upon varied arguments on the day’s issues. It places a great deal of responsibility on representatives and citizens to seek out different points of view in our diverse country. According to Brandeis, “the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people,” which brings us to Sunstein’s main fear--that the ability to personalize media can lead to what Nicholas Negroponte of MIT called The Daily Me--a collection of media so personalized to one’s own preferences that it leads to fragmentation from the rest of society and to cascades--moving quickly to a certain point of view without deliberation (4, 84).

An institution that must be protected to ensure democracy is the public forum, whether physical or virtual. Freedom of expression is central to democracy because it provides exposure to content that one would not seek out independently (such as newspaper editorials) and provides common experiences, which “provide a source of social glue” (Sunstein 5-6). The Supreme Court protects freedom of expression in public forums such as parks and sidewalks. These public forums offer three protections to democracy:

• Anyone can access them, which promotes shared experiences;
• It is easy to directly address an institution you object to (rallies, protests);
• They offer exposure to a wide variety of people and views, because it is difficult to wall yourself off from unwanted or unplanned experiences.

Virtual places for deliberation, can lead to “enclave deliberation” in which like-minded people speak only to each other. This can empower minorities, but it can also limit the pool of arguments and promote more extreme views, as shown by the 2005 study of conservatives and liberals who only became more convinced of their beliefs after speaking to like-minded people (61). Sunstein writes that “For a healthy democracy, shared public spaces, virtual or not, are a lot better than echo chambers,” because of the tendency to shield oneself from other points of view (95).

Sunstein lauds blogs as marketplaces of ideas and giant online public forums, then goes on to poke holes in both theories. Blogs are an imperfect marketplace of ideas because there is no economic incentive--even bloggers supported by ads are not as motivated to seek the truth as an author of a book would be because there is no financial price for spreading misinformation online. Their readers may not even want an unbiased truth; for example, many political blogs mostly link to other blogs that share their views, and only link to opposing views to discredit them, which limits the number of arguments and leads to polarization. Readers rely on blogs to filter, leaving the responsibility of fact-checking on their own shoulders. This is not to say that all blogs spread misinformation, or that readers are not savvy--but the infrastructure of blogs means that they are not “an incarnation of deliberative ideals" (146) .

Sunstein does not assume that with the advent of the Internet and blogs that public forums or people’s inherent curiosity will disappear--only that the freedom to restrict ourselves to content we agree with is not true freedom, and that we must continue to protect our deliberative democracy (12).

What Walt Whitman would have thought of The Daily Me, from McSweeney’s.

Disappearing Blogrolls

I just had to carefully reconstruct my blogrolls from scratch as all of the blogs in them had mysteriously disappeared after happily residing there for over a month. I am using blogger and hope nobody else is having the same trouble.

Life and Baseball: Rebirth

More personal, less baseball, more life.  Plus a video of me dancing in Africa.  These are the changes that have been requested for the blog, and at the very least is a cool video of me dancing.

Presentation on Here Comes Everybody

This book packed a lot of information in, so it was hard to boil it down to a small, bite-sized amount. If you haven't gotten a chance to read the book or you don't want to read through this summary, I would recommend reading the italicized headings of each chapter because that will give you a good idea of his points. 

The underlying assumption/claim that is necessary for Shirky's whole argument is that humans are social. “Human beings are social creatures- not occasionally or by accident but always. Sociability is one of our core capabilities and it show up in almost every aspect of our lives as both cause and effect. Society in not just the product of its individual members; it is also the product of its constituent groups.” The other assumption is that group formation is a natural thing for humans.

Until recently, group formation has been limited by institutional contradiction: "in a way, every institution lives in a kind of contradiction: it exists to take advantage of group effort, but some of its resources are drained away by directing that effort." Now, new social tools like email, facebook, and flikr (among many many others) are drastically altering the way groups form and what they are capable of doing once they are collected. These new social tools allow for "simple sharint to anchor the creation of new groups." New tools reshape group complexity so that it is no longer a barrier. "The tools are simply a way of channeling existing motivation."

Tools don't change absolute difficulty, they change relative difficulty. Collaborative production (like Wikipedia) has always been harder than simple sharing, and it has been increasingly difficult as the number of people in the group grow (See diagram on pg 27). New technology doesn't create the desire to collaborate, but it makes it easy enough that is isn't hindered by the cost/ time it previously took.  Think in terms of a group of friends who wanted to go out on a Friday. Before email and facebook, they would have all had to call back and forth to each other to arrange an event. The more people involved, the more complex and time consuming the process would have been. Now, a group email or, even simpler, a facebook message or group can be created where everyone can collaborate simultaneously.

These collaborative actions further enables collective action as in the story of the lost SideKick (Chapter 1) or the Catholic Church scandal (Chapter 6). Not only do these new social tool enable more collective sharing, production, and action, they allow the speed of communication and action within groups to accelerate exponentially. Although Shirky wrote his book before they occurred, this is highly suggestive of the recent Arab Spring protests that were in many ways made possible (on an effective scale) by new internet tools for social interaction.

These new tool aggregate skills, interests, and talents in valuable groupings that are almost impossible to create in the old fashioned institutional way. Shirky gives the example in Chapter 9 of a conference that was created when "Tim O'Reilly, the publisher and coference organizer, founded the conference FOO Camp (Friends of O' Reilly). This conference starts from the invite list- gather a hundred interesting people- and lest them work out the schedule and content of the conference (on a wiki, of course)." This exemplifies how the new social tools allow groups to form by first aggregating interests and then forming boundaries and functions of the group, rather than the other way around.

As publishing becomes incredibly easy and inexpensive (often free), it is shifted into the hands of the average person, and is no longer filtered through professionals. The line between personal communication and publishing is blurred. However, this means there will be a great deal of mis-information and failure in the information system in addition to the increasing amounts of correct and successful information. 

Aha!

I finally found the link I originally tried to share with all of you a few weeks ago: Facebook Social Plugins.

Class, I will be focusing on this article.

http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/wartime-columns/digging-and-grousing/

Short, 2 minute read if you have the opportunity.

Best,

Mike Venetti

Matt's blog - again

I don't know what happened, but I just went through the list and realized I'm not on here anymore! So, here's the link to my page.

http://barsouthpuck.blogspot.com/

For you my beloved classmates

Hello my smart, beautiful/handsome/genderambigioustermforlooks, witty, clever, creative classmates,
I've written a splendid new post about epic battles and women stabbing Richard III look-alikes in the head with tent stakes. As always there's  a lovely little poll at the end. It's so nice. Why don't you look at it and comment, eh?
-Hannah (Ezra)

Nellie Bly

Good evening bloggers,


Carla and I will be sharing our presentation with all of you tomorrow on the fabulous Nellie Bly. Here are the excerpts that we've selected for discussion:

Ten Days in a Mad-House
- Chapter I : A Delicate Mission
- Chapter XV: Incidents of Asylum Life
- Chapter XVI : The Last Good-Bye
Around the World in Seventy-Two Days
- Chapter I: A Proposal to Girdle the Earth
- Chapter III: Southampton to Jules Verne's
- Chapter XVI: Across the Continent


Some of the chapters are a little lengthy but if you could read at least one from each book that would really help us out during discussion.


Here are two links to blogs which we thought could be Nelly Bly's modern blogging counterparts: 

Ms. Magazine.com

This blog is written by women and it discusses social justice and equal rights with a strong emphasis on changing people's attitudes and raising awareness of issues.

My Life's a Trip
Is a blog written by a mainstream journalist who uses a plain, direct, style of writing as well as multimedia to chronicle her travels. 




See you all in class tomorrow!

Good evenin', bloggers and blogettes - just put up a new post on how Ocean's 11 and Pokemon, and petty theft were able to come together for an exciting culmination of prepubescent debauchery known as The Charizard Heist, in my series, Awkward Tales of Childhood.  Enjoy my shame!

Satirical Blogs

Examples of satirical blogs from Yalabe and Laura's presentation about Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal."

Think Spin and the Magick Sandwich are two everyday blogs that have satirical undertones to the writing. As we'll discuss in our presentation today, satire is a very useful writing style for constructively criticizing social phenomena.

Hey friends! via MikeB's School of Hip Hop

Hey friends, writers, gangsters, sportsmen/women and chefs (did i miss anybody?)  take a look at my hip hop blog MikeB's School of Hip Hop and enjoy some great music (undeniably), great writing (debatable) and aesthetically pleasing website layout (sure?). but either way, follow me to support and spread my words and i will do the same for yours. peace and peace

How to put Facebook on your blog

This is if you've created a Page on FB for your blog (not a profile): http://www.facebook.com/badges/page.php

Use the RSS gadget to subscribe to Facebook: http://tech-wonders.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-add-facebook-status-updates.html

This is the one I used on my own blog. I just copied the code it gave me into the HTML side of a text box gadget: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/activity/

Jack's blog

Better late than never, here's the unveiling of But Doc, I'm a drumma!

A quick tip

I've been posting about various topics, including my blog, in the Chronicle of the Horse forum online and I have gotten a really good response. People have directed me to other threads and even other forums where they thought people might be interested in my blog. I would definitely suggest trying to figure out where the people with the same interest you're exploring in your blog like to hang out online. Become active there as a way of audience-building. But do be aware of any rules they have about advertising--I checked with a moderator before posting my own thread specifically about the blog.

Blogging's Antecedents

Blogging wasn't born yesterday. Literary history affords countless examples of writing that is lively, topical, opinionated, personality-driven. Parody, satire, and withering critique have been around since humans communicated by way of stone tablets. Ditto the powerful testimony of the eyewitness and the sage (or snarky) council of the advice-giver. Over the next couple of weeks, as we explore the roots of blogging in a broad range of texts and writers, we will be pursuing two important, related goals:

• to improve our blogging practice by studying well-written examples from the past;

• to deepen our understanding of our practice by putting it in historical context.

In the read-write world of the blogosphere, the more you read the better you will write, so let's get reading. (Other details on the Blog Roots assignment are here. Make sure you read that post.)

To simplify things, I have selected writers and texts that are accessible online, mostly by way of a collection of "Classic Essays" on About.com. In a few cases, I point you toward other sources, but they are all accessible without passwords. This list is by no means exhaustive. You are welcome to browse around the essay collection or elsewhere to find other writers and essays you'd like to study and present on. Touch base with me if you have other ideas.

By class time on Wednesday, 2/29, you should leave a comment on this post indicating what writer(s) you would like to work on. There are 21 students in the class. We will have 9 groups with 2 presenters and 1 group with 3 three presenters. That means not all the writers below will get covered.

Addison, Joseph (1672-1719). English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. Co-founder, with Richard Steele, of The Spectator, a topical magazine aimed at developing taste among the members of England's emerging middle class. "Defence and Happiness of Married Life." "False and True Humor." "Laughter." "The Musical Instruments of Conversation." [Adam & Hannah, Mon.]

Bly, Nellie (1864-1922). The list of External Links on Bly's Wikipedia entry will take you to online editions of some of the works of this pioneering American woman journalist. [Jessica & Carla, Wed.]

Douglass, Frederick (1818-95). An escaped slave who would become a leader of the movement to abolish slavery in the United States. "A Glorious Resurrection" is a chapter from his autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). See also W.E.B. Du Bois, "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others." (From The Souls of Black Folk [1903].) [Matt & Stephen, Wed.]

Fern, Fanny (1811-72). Fanny Fern is the pseudonym of Sara Willis Parton, a popular American columnist, humorist, novelist, and author of children's stories in the 1850s-1870s. In 1852, she became the first female writer with her own regular column; by 1855, she commanded $100 per week for her New York Ledger column and was the highest-paid newspaper writer in the United States. A selection of her writings, Fern Leaves from Fanny’s Port-Folio (1853), is accessible here. Let’s look at “Self-Conquest,” “A Practical Blue-Stocking,” “Kitty’s Resolve,” “A Chapter on Literary Women,” and “Children’s Rights.” [Marriam, Wed.]

Franklin, Benjamin (1706-90). Author, printer, inventor, diplomat, and a founding father of the United States. As a young man, Franklin published letters to his brother James's newspaper, The New England Courant, under the pseudonym of "Mrs. Silence Dogood." "Advice on the Choice of a Mistress." "The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams." "The Temple of Learning." "The Whistle." [David & JD, Mon.]

Mencken, H. L. (1880-1956). An acerbic critic/observer of American life and culture well known as a literary critic for The Smart Set and as a founding editor of The American Mercury. His political views were sometimes controversial, but his strong vernacular style has been influential and remains highly readable. "The Libido for the Ugly." "The Lower Depths." "The Hills of Zion." "The Penalty of Death." "Portrait of an Ideal World." [Heather & Marie, Wed.]

Parker, Dorothy (1893-1967). A wisecracker and satirist well known as one of the members of the Algonquin Round Table in New York in the 1920s. "Good Souls." "Mrs. Post Enlarges on Etiquette."

Pyle, Ernie (1900-45). An early embedded journalist, Pyle wrote powerful first-hand accounts of life and work alongside ordinary soldiers in World War II. There is an excellent archive of some of his wartime columns here. [Michael Venetti, Wed.]

Roosevelt, Theodore (1858-1919). The twenty-sixth president of the United States was a larger-than-life character and a prolific writer who published 18 books and regularly contributed to magazines. [Jack & Mariah, Wed.]

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady (1815-1902). An organizer and leader of the movement for women's suffrage in the United States. She is the principal author of the "Declaration of Sentiments," a document signed at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. See also "On Women's Right to Vote" by Stanton's friend and collaborator, Susan B. Anthony.

Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745). Author of what is considered by many to be the finest satire written in English. "A Modest Proposal." [Laura Cathcart, Mon.]

Twain, Mark (1835-1910). You know this guy, right? "Advice to Youth." "Corn Pone Opinions." "On the Decay of the Art of Lying." [Amie, Courtney G., & Mike B., Mon.]

Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941). British novelist, essayist, publisher, and critic. "Writing for My Eye Only." (This is a diary entry.) "The Patron and the Crocus." "Street Haunting: A London Adventure." [Briana & Courtney W., Wed.]

Enculturating EMS Blog

I finally burst through my fear and published my blog. So here it is: Enculturating EMS!

Laura

Specific and successful

Here's an interesting example of a photo blog that has almost 7k friends on facebook. And it's almost unbelievable specific. Food On My Dog. It seems so pointless that no one would follow it for long, but somehow that doesn't seem to be the case.

Courtney's Blog!

Hey Everyone,

My Blog is up! Check out www.RoyalCourtt.wordpress.com!

Thanks!

-Courtney

Heather's Blog!

Hey everyone! My blog is up and ready for some readers! :)

A new post is coming soon!

http://unauthorizedbroadway.blogspot.com/

Blogging advice

"Blogs need to be as malleable as the assholes that pen them." -Will Danger, New Queer on the Block

Pomp & Protocol

Hey all!

My blog is up and running: http://pompandprotocol.wordpress.com/

I'm still playing around with getting the images just the right size so any feedback would be great!

-Marriam

Ezra Wont Shut Up

Heyyyyyo.
My blog is up, and the first post is up as well. I'm still playing around with layout and appearance. This theme depends on at least 3 posts being up to fill out the layout, so I left my two test posts up so you could see what it will look like. I welcome any aesthetic or content criticism that would make the whole shebang more appealing.

Ezra Won't Shut Up

First Post: Thank You for Your Magic Sex

Oh, and I sorta hid a link to one of your blogs, but you'll have to read mine to figure out who's already getting linked to.
-Hannah Hethmon

Sea of Rhymes

Hey Aspiring Bloggers,

My blog, Sea of Rhymes, is an artistic blog that documents my journey as an artist and a wide-span of intellectual topics. So far, only my birth post and a poem I wrote has been added to the blog. The About page and other content will be added sometime tonight.

If you like art (any form of it), this blog is for you. Hope you Enjoy.

Some Sugar to Make You Sweet

Hey guys,

My blog Some Sugar to Make You Sweet is a baking blog following my experiments in the kitchen.  I just have the blog birth post and the about page up right now, but later this week, I will have up my first recipe post.

-Marie

For anyone who wants some cooking advice, tips, and recipes...

Hi Class!

My blog The Broke Vegetarian is up and running. Nothing fancy has been posted just yet. Just a 'birth' post that explains what's to come and how the concept came to be. You can expect posts to be up on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays! Enjoy!

Jessica Esteves

The Run Down

Hi class!

My blog is now up and running. BrianasRunDown.blogspot.com

As we all know, it is about my adventures in beginning running. I hope you like it!

Briana

For anybody uninspired to run...

My blog, A Runner's Mixtape, is now up and running. It's just the birth announcement, but later this week I'm going to write a post about running outside in the cold. We all know it's hard, so check it out if you want some songs to help you fight the sometimes bitter winter weather.

The Most Depressing Valentine's Day-Related Post You'll Read This Week

Hey classmates,

I just posted my first proper post on my blog, Rambling Bastard, about the Valentine's Day shooting four years ago at North Illinois University - and how a particular tragedy from it is now being milked as marketably as The Notebook. Give it a read, if you've got a minute.

I Love the 90s!

We've all seen the Vh1 specials. You know, the ones with b-list comedians looking back on pop-culture through the years. Well, that's what I plan to do in my new blog Millennial Memories. I plan to take a look back at both my personal experience during my childhood along with the various things that shaped it. Think furbies, slap-bracelets, power rangers, and everything in between! 

Life and Baseball

Classmates,

"Life and Baseball" is the title of my blog.  My first entry draws a historical parallel between the 1960 world series champion Pirates and the Bucs of today.  Historical stops and hyperlinks in the entry include the de-segregation of American sports, a mention of Bill James and the sabermetrics that the movie "Moneyball" was based on, and a video clip of the greatest home run ever hit.

Thanks,

Mike Venetti

Wondering about Wandering: Blog Birth Annoucement

Hey guys!

I just got my blog up and running. It's definitely a work in progress though, still learning how to do this stuff...

Anyway, my blog is called Wondering About Wandering, and it combines my two biggest passions: travel and fitness. It's a project blog to track my preparation and progress for 4K for Cancer, an organization centered on young adults who bike across the country to raise money for cancer research. I've applied to participate in Summer 2013, so it's still a little early to post solely about the bike ride. In the meantime, I'm going to write mostly about fitness and training for the ride, along with cool travel stuff I'm into.

Thanks for reading!
-Amie

Monday, Monday

Blogs go live, with at least a birth announcement post, by class on Monday, so your primary focus over the next few days should be getting ready for your debut.

In class on Monday, we will have one more Blog Tracking presentation. We'll also talk about the upcoming Blog Roots assignment. We’ll do some show and tell and partner work on blogs.

Part of our discussion will be focused on what we might call The Anatomy of a Good Blog Post. (Google that phrase, by the way, and you'll get some helpful results if you are interested in advice from professional bloggers.) Below are links to five posts on five very different blogs. They are all high quality, effective posts. Read them closely and try to figure out what makes them good. (If you don't think they are good, well, we can have a conversation about how subjective taste is and how writers in the blogosphere have to keep that in mind.) Take some notes on each post. Try to get at what is working and why. What tips about style, technique, argument, or storytelling might you be able to use in your own blogging?

• Allie Brosh on Hyperbole and a Half: “Adventures in Depression”

•  Amelia on Bon Appétempt: “Serious Food: In the Kitchen with Grandma”

•  Mark Sample on Play the Past: “What Comes Before the Platform: The Refuse of Video Games”

•  Shane Ryan on Grantland’s The Triangle Blog: “About Last Night: Linsanity”

•  Will Danger on New Queer on the Block: “Birthdays and Death-days: An Absence/Presence Story”

Have a great weekend of blog-building and blog-reading. See you on Monday, Monday.

Collegial Equestrian birth announcement

Just wanted to share my first blog post with you all for Monday. I have had it up for a while now because I wanted to ride the coattails of the rescue I volunteer at being featured on the Snarky Rider blog and hopefully get a few click-throughs from commenting over there, and I've been posting since then to keep up the momentum.

First Foray of the Collegial Equestrian blog: Even though I found out I admire the "jump right in" style, I set up more of a formal-ish introduction and a call for ideas. 

Courtney and Yalabe Blog Tracking Assignment

Aspiring Bloggers & Bloggettes,

For our blog tracking assignment Courtney and I tracked entertainment blogs. We both share a general interest of the entertainment industry and what it has to offer. Basically we wanted to explore how these blogs convey news about celebrities for their intended audiences. We looked at three blogs each catering to a different scale of the population. The blogs we examined were:

Karen Civil

The YBF

Media Takeout

Since we both have similar interest in these types of blogs, exploring them were kind of fun. It actually gave me some insight on how smaller entertainment blogs function versus those that work on a larger scale. Welcome to the Crazy World of Entertainment.

Jessica and Michael's Blog Tracking Assignment

Hello future bloggers/classmates,

For our blog tracking assignment Michael and I tracked soldier blogs. Michael is involved with the military and already had an initial interest with blogs that involved war. We first attempted to track civilian's blogs during the war but too many of them were outdated and lengthy. But in our search for something else we stumbled onto our actual focus. Funny how those things happen. Michael and I looked into three, very different, soldier blogs:

The Ponderings of a Crash Medic

Acute Politics

Afghanistan through my Lens

Since I've never had a particular interest in the Military this whole experience was completely new and eye-opening. Hopefully our presentation will give all of you a fresh understanding and perspective on the life of a soldier.

See you in class!

Mariah & Marriam's TV Blog Tracking

For our assignment, we decided to track TV blogs. We both are avid television watchers so we wanted to explore the different ways that the blogging world explores this medium. Each blog is unique. The first one is called Too Much TV. It has a relaxed feel and probably resembles what a lot of our own blogs are going to look like.

The next blog is called The TV Obsessed. We looked at this blog as an example of what not to do with an entertainment themed blog, but we'll let the class be the judge of that!

Finally, there is TVgasm which has a life of it's own the minute the link opens.

All three of the blogs have a very different feel and style, which we will talk about in class tomorrow. We will also see how their differing styles impact the blogging community and the readers.

Stay tuned for our presentation, coming after a message from our sponsors (that's a little TV humor for you)!

Carla & Laura's Presentation on Humor Doodle Blogs

We chose to track Humor Doodle Blogs because of the unique style in which their authors express their personalities through a narrative blend of artwork and writing. Our hope was to help everyone reflect on the value of expressing yourself honestly through blogging. The three blogs we chose are the major representatives of this genre.


Hyperbole and a Half is a hilarious personal blog about the life stories of a self-conscious, wildly imaginative young woman who grew up in rural Iowa. Allie Brosh tells her stories through a combination of childlike pictures drawn in Paintbrush and hyperbolic narrative.

A famous post from the Hyperbole and a Half blog is about the ALOT, an imaginary creature that helps Allie cope with her pet peeve grammatical error.


Books of Adam is another humorous personal blog about the daily life of a young single man, Adam Ellis. He draws all of his artwork by hand and weaves together his stories in a similar style as Allie, the author of Hyperbole and a Half,  albeit with a slightly more sane tone.

While most of the posts in Books of Adam are about his adult life, Wilderness Survival for Kids is a post about his childhood and the drawings exemplify the hyperbolic nature of his Drawings of Facebook Friends.


My Milk Toof is about two milk teeth known as ickle and Lardee, who are childlike in nature. The blog tells the story of ickle and Lardee's funny, but innocent adventures. Inhae Renee Lee, the author of the blog creates all of the props out of polymer clay and takes digital photographs of the scenes. She uses writing to narrate the story the photographs depict.

The post Home Security, is about how ickle and Lardee are left home alone by their human owner and told to be safe. So they take the task literally and go on an adventure throughout their house making sure it is safe through their childlike eyes!

Blog Birth Announcements

Blogs may be "always in process, never completed," as Steve Himmer claims, but they all have to begin somewhere, with a first post that announces the existence of a brand new bouncing baby blog. It's an important step, one that might feel a bit daunting and monumental. How do you want to present yourself to the world? What tone, stance, or style do you want to use? How detailed will you be about what your blog will do? How will you address the audience you hope to have? What kind of images will you use to convey your message visually as well as verbally? There's a lot to think about, but bear in mind that your first post is just one post. You'll have plenty of opportunities to adjust, shift, recalibrate, and even repudiate anything you say in your birth announcement, even if there's some truth in the old saying that you only get one chance to make a first impression.

To help you prepare for your big debut, we will gather here some examples of blog birth announcements. Send me links (by e-mail) to first posts that you come across as you work on your Blog Tracking presentations, and I will add them to this list. Click back here over the next several days so you can check out the examples. We'll discuss them in class next week as time permits. Remember that your blogs need to be up and running by Monday, February 20.

I selected one example just to get the ball rolling. "(Yet Another) Academic Blog" is the first post from Tenured Radical, a well-known academic blog written by historian Claire Potter. The inaugural post is from October 2006. It's short, pithy, and just a bit snarky. Even in this first post, you can see both the style and the substance that help to explain this blog's popularity and influence among educators.

"well, good morning!" is the first post from A Lovely Morning, a design, craft, and food blog followed by Amie Brown. Amie commented that she liked this post because the blogger "seems slightly overwhelmed (as I think most first-time bloggers are), and because someone commented immediately in encouragement."

"Hello, Pittsburgh" is the first post from Tom Singer's Change for a Nickel, a a Pittsburgh Pirates blog in the MLBlogs network. Baseball fan Michael Venetti submitted this one, impressed by the efforts of a new author to take over an existing blog and quickly establish rapport with the audience.

"An Open Letter to My Neighbors (My Neighbor Saga Part 1" is the debut post of Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh's sly, hilarious doodle blog. Carla Lake likes this one because of the way the writer "just dives in," displaying the humor and engaging storytelling that would become the blog's trademarks, even though this first post doesn't have any illustrations. You might also want to check out the blog's FAQ page, which has some good advice for new bloggers. For example: "There really aren't any special secrets to being successful with blogging. Be nice. Try hard. If someone offers you a million dollars, say yes. Aside from that, the best advice I can give you is to just focus on what you can give to your readers."

"A Slight Introduction. . ." is the introductory post from Joey Pinkney as he joins a group blog called Hip Hop Blogs. Mike Barnes, who is designing his own hip hop blog, submitted this one. The post is a straightforward mix of introducing the blogger and explaining his approach to the subject, which he describes as "a little off centered."

"Save the Red Line"  is the first post on Japers' Rink, a Washington Capitals blog. Matt Mitchell picked it because it stands out as a first post that doesn't talk at all about being a first post. It jumps right in, taking a position on a proposed rule change in hockey.

"Welcome to 'The Girl That Runs'" is the first post of a runner's blog by that name. Adam Kerlin selected it because he has similar interests and liked the way the writer/runner introduced herself.

"Welcome to Everyday EMS Tips" takes a short, strictly business approach to the genre of the first post. Laura Cathcart selected this one because the blog is an important resource for EMS providers and managers.

"Angry Ravens Fly West" is another first post that plunges right in without explanation or introduction. Baltimore Beat Down is a Ravens blog. Stephen Pimpo likes the just-get-started style, but thought this post had a certain random quality to it that wasn't entirely appealing.

"Welcome to College Fashion. net" takes a little more time to introduce the blog and the blogger and to invite readers to become involved by sending in tips and ideas. Marriam Shah submitted this one and thought it did a good job of establishing the tone and direction of the blog.

Keiko Lynn's first post on her style and fashion blog is called simply "Introduction." Mariah Cooper selected this one because she found its personal glimpses, through photographs, into the blogger's world (dog, cats, boyfriend) and her sensibility to be effective at establishing a connection with the blogger and a clear sense of what her blog will be about.

"Motivation" is the first post on A Running Girl's Blog. Its first sentence might resonate with those of you who are wrestling with the uncertainty of the first-time blogger: "Getting started with this blogging thing is hard." Briana Kichaven selected it.

"My First Blog Entry Ever" is the first post on a Sparkpage blog that launched yesterday. Courtney Whitaker stumbled across it and submitted it because the writer talks about having a tendency to start things and then not finish them.

Yalabe Dukuly submitted an example from a friend's blog that has become quite successful. To his surprise, though, her first post is "horrible," in his judgment, because it doesn't introduce her or her blog, Good Hair Blog, at all. The moral of the story may be that bloggers, like piano players, get better with practice.

Heather McWilliams selected "Have a Merry. . .and Preppy. . .Christmas" as her example of a blog birth announcement. It's from a blog called College Prep, authored by a college senior who "love[s] anything preppy." This is another example of someone who just jumps into blogging without much fanfare.

David Clifford Turner offered "Worst Campaign Idea Ever," the debut post of men's fashion blog Magnificent Bastard, which he describes as "a cocksure entry into the blogosphere" because of its bold and confident self-presentation. The post, from July 2007, is short and snarky. In my judgment, its snide remarks about Hillary Clinton's appearance are also ageist and misogynistic, but it's got the kind of edge that often gets noticed in online writing. To each his -- or her -- own.

(Image Credit: Via.)

Hannah & David's Blog Tracking: Street Art

Hello beloved classmates,
We looked through many street art blogs. We decided to select three that, in our highly educated opinion,   represented different "levels" of art blogging. WebUrbanist is formatted like an entertainment blog, with multiple categories, one being a sub-blog in street art. Colossal is subject-specific blog centered on street art. The last blog is the personal blog of Phlegm, a street artist from England, and is essentially a personal showcase of his work.

After becoming indisputably enlightened street-art-blog scholars, we picked three posts (one from each) to highlight. We'll explain why in class, but if you guess the reason before then we'll stop talking bad about you behind your back.

1) The Ultimate Guide to Banksy from Web Urbanist
2) Article about a small gallery instillation from Colossal
3) Phlegm's first blog post

Here are some questions to think about while formulating the thought provoking comments you'll be making during our Q & A portion.

• Do you regularly read any art blogs?  If so, how do they compare to these?
• How did the layout of these blogs seem different or similar to the blogs you've been following personally or for the class?
• What are "bad things" about these blogs, or what, from our studies, are they doing poorly?

Amie & Courtney's Blog Tracking Presentation

While navigating the Internet world of baking blogs, we found the best blogs of this type include large pictures of the baked goods/desserts (preferably step-by-step graphics) and descriptive language of the food’s characteristics: taste, smell, etc. After all, these are the only way readers can decide if a recipe is worth trying--much like the food on the Food Network or the Cooking Channel, the reader relies solely on the baker or chef to make a food sound worthwhile.  However, in the online world we don’t get to see these bakers in action. Yet, through the personal connections established while blogging, readers can still connect with the writers. 

What characteristics do you see at work in these blogs?

Which blog do you prefer? Why? 

My Baking Addiction

Love From the Oven

Willow Bird Baking

We’ve decided to look at three blogs that feature Super Bowl themed recipes. If you'd like to go ahead and look at each blog's Super Bowl Post:

My Baking Addiction Super Bowl Post

Love From the Oven Super Bowl Post

Willow Bird Baking Super Bowl Post

Blogs We Read

Here are links to some of the blogs mentioned in comments on the previous post. I figured they'd be easier for us to find and discuss this way.

By the way, it is possible to embed hyperlinks in blog comments so that readers don't have to cut and paste the URL to which you refer [which few of them will likely do]. It's a simple matter of using some basic HTML coding.

Here is how it's done:

You want to write, “One of my favorite blogs is Historiann,” and you want to link to Historiann (a terrific feminist history blog I read regularly).

Write this:

One of my favorite blogs is <a href=”http://www.historiann.com/”> Historiann</a>.

 When you publish your comment, there will be a hyperlink on the word "Historiann," and readers will be much more likely to check out the blog.

Anyway, back to the blogs some of you mentioned as favorites:

Hyperbole and a Half
Fugly Horse of the Day
Etiquette Hell
Design Milk
Man Made DIY
THXTHXTHX
The Sartorialist
Rogue Medic
The Happy Medic
Statter911
Demon Baby, "Exploring the Creation Museum"
Books of Adam
Shutdown Corner
Pastepunk
Drum Burn

(Image Credit: Via)

Tracking, Shifting, Framing

On Monday, our exploration of blogs and the culture surrounding them will begin in earnest. To introduce the cultural piece, we'll discuss a 30-minute video presentation by Richard E. Miller and Paul Hammond, scholars of writing and composition who have collaborated in trying to "imagine what composing will look like once the destination ceases to be paper and becomes the screen." Their concept of "learning in public" is a useful way to think about the work we will be doing throughout the semester. Jay Rosen's "The People Formerly Known as the Audience" is a blog post from 2006 that succinctly but cogently articulates some of the power shifts that have accompanied media shift in the age of the Web and the laptop. Rosen is a journalism professor at NYU. He describes blogs as "little First Amendment machines." Think about that phrase and its rich implications as you begin to imagine what your blog will be and what you will aim to do with it.

Also, in preparation for our discussion, do some wandering around the blogosphere. Leave links in comments to blogs you especially enjoy. Check out some of The Bygone Bureau's "Best New Blogs of 2011." Or Time magazine's "Best Blogs of 2011." Or Saveur magazine's "2011 Best Food Blog Awards." There's even a list of "Top 200 Church Blogs." Whatever type of blog you are interested in, if you Google the phrase "best ___ blog," you will get results.

As you explore, take note of the distinctive features of blogs and how different blogs incorporate them. You will be doing a lot of skimming, but pause and do some close reading, too, so that you can begin to get a sense of what kind of writing works in the blogosphere. Our judgments here will be very subjective, but the point is to try to get a handle on the style and rhetoric of blogs.

It's a great big Internet. Go forth and explore it!

(Photo Credit: Kathy Mackey, Los Angeles, California, known as auntie k on her photo website http://flickr.com/photos/auntikhaki/ [via].)