6.30.2003
Questions to ask yourself about blogging:
Am I being truly ME through my writing/ my blogging? Am I putting on a different persona? Do I write a certain way to attract readers (be funny versus the reality that your day stunk or that you are not funny in offline life)? Do you edit words to sound more like YOU or more unlike YOU to attract readers or to make yourself feel better?
What parts of your life do you leave out?
Are you a better communicator online than offline? If your friends and family read your blog, would they automatically know it was truly you? Would they be surprised? Why?
What would really really be interesting to me is to have all my friends.. boyfriend especially.. keeping a weblog. THEN I could see from their perspectives. THEN maybe I could understand them.. him.. better. Ugh.
I was talking with the boyfriend long ago, and he brought up the movie idea of having a couple.. just one of them or both keep journals (paper ones) and when one of them dies, the other reads the journal ONLY to find out that the person was extremely unhappy in the marriage (or relationship) or with her/his life in general when the other thought he/she was happy, etc. It was a gloomy idea, I thought (being the optimist I am most days), but it is probably really realistic. After talking to Tamara at Betsy's the other night, I thought "Yea, how do we know the people on these blogs ARE REAL. .. or ARE TELLING THE TRUTH..??" Do they have a persona they are acting out?
Then comes the biggie: AM I BEING TRULY ME ON MY BLOG? Or do I sugar coat it because I want my readers to "read" me as someone else? How do I know I am being me? Because I don't edit, I just throw words on there as they come to me? Or since I am a word geek, maybe the real ME would change words?
I think I am onto something. Either that, or I am going slightly insane. [Could be this job.]
I was talking with the boyfriend long ago, and he brought up the movie idea of having a couple.. just one of them or both keep journals (paper ones) and when one of them dies, the other reads the journal ONLY to find out that the person was extremely unhappy in the marriage (or relationship) or with her/his life in general when the other thought he/she was happy, etc. It was a gloomy idea, I thought (being the optimist I am most days), but it is probably really realistic. After talking to Tamara at Betsy's the other night, I thought "Yea, how do we know the people on these blogs ARE REAL. .. or ARE TELLING THE TRUTH..??" Do they have a persona they are acting out?
Then comes the biggie: AM I BEING TRULY ME ON MY BLOG? Or do I sugar coat it because I want my readers to "read" me as someone else? How do I know I am being me? Because I don't edit, I just throw words on there as they come to me? Or since I am a word geek, maybe the real ME would change words?
I think I am onto something. Either that, or I am going slightly insane. [Could be this job.]
6.23.2003
Got the following below from this blog... and I kind of agree with her (must be because she's Canadian):
"I've always felt that being up on your news was important, but I stopped really watching the "news" on CNN and other American outlets some time ago. I think the whole embedded journalism (and I do use the latter term loosely) approach was the final straw. A tidied up war and far too much "rah rah we're #1" coming from reporters. You expect that from citizens, certainly from brave men and women fighting in a war ... but you expect reporters to, well, report. Instead, they acted primarily as mouthpieces. Nothing subversive or contraversial, just towing the party line."
"I continue to read my news, mind you. I seek it out. I get a weekend paper, but more informative are the international web sites that offer at least a semi balanced opinion about what is happening in the world. Most interesting of all are the stories that my husband sends me. The man has a true knack for finding the news that doesn't make the papers." [<-- sounds like my boyfriend]
[this part really connected to me -->] "So I read and I absorb. And the more I do, I'm almost physically sickened by America's mainstream media outlets. The hypocrisy, lies, greed and abject military failures of America's current political administration? Not reported, by and large. Now, sure, they're sniffing around because maybe, just maybe, there really weren't any big bad WMD's in Iraq. No, really? Oh, there's a shocker. But let's be extra super duper careful not to actually suggest that the Bush Administration did anything, you know, wrong. Lots of caveats and disclaimers to that point."
"I'm finally starting to appreciate why so many people stop watching and reading the news. They stop talking about politics and turn their attention elsewhere. For my part, I couldn't turn it off, even if I tried. I've always been fascinated with history and current events throughout the world. But I'm at least starting to appreciate some of the reasons why so many have done just that ... tuned out."
Maybe this is why I am a blogger. Blogs have no one paying them to keep things HUSH HUSH. Bloggers are pretty much "tell it like it is" people.
"I've always felt that being up on your news was important, but I stopped really watching the "news" on CNN and other American outlets some time ago. I think the whole embedded journalism (and I do use the latter term loosely) approach was the final straw. A tidied up war and far too much "rah rah we're #1" coming from reporters. You expect that from citizens, certainly from brave men and women fighting in a war ... but you expect reporters to, well, report. Instead, they acted primarily as mouthpieces. Nothing subversive or contraversial, just towing the party line."
"I continue to read my news, mind you. I seek it out. I get a weekend paper, but more informative are the international web sites that offer at least a semi balanced opinion about what is happening in the world. Most interesting of all are the stories that my husband sends me. The man has a true knack for finding the news that doesn't make the papers." [<-- sounds like my boyfriend]
[this part really connected to me -->] "So I read and I absorb. And the more I do, I'm almost physically sickened by America's mainstream media outlets. The hypocrisy, lies, greed and abject military failures of America's current political administration? Not reported, by and large. Now, sure, they're sniffing around because maybe, just maybe, there really weren't any big bad WMD's in Iraq. No, really? Oh, there's a shocker. But let's be extra super duper careful not to actually suggest that the Bush Administration did anything, you know, wrong. Lots of caveats and disclaimers to that point."
"I'm finally starting to appreciate why so many people stop watching and reading the news. They stop talking about politics and turn their attention elsewhere. For my part, I couldn't turn it off, even if I tried. I've always been fascinated with history and current events throughout the world. But I'm at least starting to appreciate some of the reasons why so many have done just that ... tuned out."
Maybe this is why I am a blogger. Blogs have no one paying them to keep things HUSH HUSH. Bloggers are pretty much "tell it like it is" people.
6.20.2003
An interesting-interesting read on a course in whiteness studies that seeks to change how white people think: "Hue and Cry on 'Whiteness Studies'" through WashingtonPost online. Here's a snippet::
"Advocates of whiteness studies -- most of whom are white liberals who hope to dismantle notions of race -- believe that white Americans are so accustomed to being part of a privileged majority they do not see themselves as part of a race.
'Historically, it has been common to see whites as a people who don't have a race, to see racial identity as something others have,' said Howard Winant, a white professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a strong proponent of whiteness studies. 'It's a great advance to start looking at whiteness as a group.'"
I've heard people say that we, at NDSU, don't have multi-cultural classrooms because so many of the students are white that attend here.. but I think that that isn't quite true. Our multi-cultural-ness is deeper then... for instance, how many in the classroom come from rural areas vs. cities? the various religions that could inhabit a classroom? divorced parents vs. non-divorced? A person's culture is more than their skin color. My culture, to me, is made up of my heritage (German, Bohemian, Polish, Belgian) AND the environment I grew up in: parents together (amazingly), oldest girl (equals- tomboy), medium-sized town (10,000), close knit siblings, an academic loner in school, didn't date until the age of 16, tennis player, teacher, leader (being the oldest)... so many things need to be taken into account for a person's culture-identity-personality-soul...
"Advocates of whiteness studies -- most of whom are white liberals who hope to dismantle notions of race -- believe that white Americans are so accustomed to being part of a privileged majority they do not see themselves as part of a race.
'Historically, it has been common to see whites as a people who don't have a race, to see racial identity as something others have,' said Howard Winant, a white professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a strong proponent of whiteness studies. 'It's a great advance to start looking at whiteness as a group.'"
I've heard people say that we, at NDSU, don't have multi-cultural classrooms because so many of the students are white that attend here.. but I think that that isn't quite true. Our multi-cultural-ness is deeper then... for instance, how many in the classroom come from rural areas vs. cities? the various religions that could inhabit a classroom? divorced parents vs. non-divorced? A person's culture is more than their skin color. My culture, to me, is made up of my heritage (German, Bohemian, Polish, Belgian) AND the environment I grew up in: parents together (amazingly), oldest girl (equals- tomboy), medium-sized town (10,000), close knit siblings, an academic loner in school, didn't date until the age of 16, tennis player, teacher, leader (being the oldest)... so many things need to be taken into account for a person's culture-identity-personality-soul...
6.19.2003
Whoa- check this out: (from the blogumentary link --> .. a dude named Chuck Olsen blogs there. His sidebar of links are rad too!)
"I ran into this corner street preacher and turned my camera on him. He started preaching louder into the camera about how God is going to pull the plug on America in 2005 if we don't return to the bible, something about 66 years from the start of WWII. I let him go on for a looooong time about this, then when he started repeating himself I said, "Can I ask you a question? Do you know what a blog is?" I tried to explain blogs to him, and how he could use one to deliver his (completely insane) message. You know, preaching my own sermon about the Good Blog. He says, "Unfortunately, your program comes into conflict with God's laws." Holy crap - blogs are breaking God's laws? Apparently blogs, not to mention all communication technology and reflective surfaces, are breaking the 2nd Commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. But, but... "If you see yourself reflected in my eyes, does that make me evil? Does it make you evil?" Yes, I'm afraid so. Also, God is going to destroy the world. So dear friends, I must retire this blog and go live in the desert where there is no water to see my reflection. I am now Syphlidius, the Naked Nomad of Tomorrow. Join me, won't you? Just don't look into my eyes."
"I ran into this corner street preacher and turned my camera on him. He started preaching louder into the camera about how God is going to pull the plug on America in 2005 if we don't return to the bible, something about 66 years from the start of WWII. I let him go on for a looooong time about this, then when he started repeating himself I said, "Can I ask you a question? Do you know what a blog is?" I tried to explain blogs to him, and how he could use one to deliver his (completely insane) message. You know, preaching my own sermon about the Good Blog. He says, "Unfortunately, your program comes into conflict with God's laws." Holy crap - blogs are breaking God's laws? Apparently blogs, not to mention all communication technology and reflective surfaces, are breaking the 2nd Commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. But, but... "If you see yourself reflected in my eyes, does that make me evil? Does it make you evil?" Yes, I'm afraid so. Also, God is going to destroy the world. So dear friends, I must retire this blog and go live in the desert where there is no water to see my reflection. I am now Syphlidius, the Naked Nomad of Tomorrow. Join me, won't you? Just don't look into my eyes."
Goals for the rest of summer: Create links (over there---->) of online readings, etc, Link to my teaching blog (as far as theories, reasons I teach?, explain social expressivism, etc), Reread Flowers for Algernon, Tweak syllabus again and again, Prepare/Work on Master's Thesis Prospectus, and... have some fun too.
6.18.2003
Second attempt: Other blog I created before this freaked out on me. Seizures and everything. So sad.
