Letter to Next Semesters Classes

In A Blog of One’s Own we spent a maximum of forty minutes on each blog assignment. The main focus of the assignments is the reading aspects. You need to do them or else you won’t comprehend the in-class discussions as well as gaining a better understanding of the topics. It is crucial that you do the reading because you can then help answer questions in class as well as be able to continue on with the assignments. Often times, you might feel stressed because of the workload. For example, the number of books you have to read at once. This becomes difficult when trying to manage your time, and make sure that you complete the homework as well as worrying about homework for your other classes.
The instructor expected a lot from the class. We would start class right on time and we were never let out early. This was so that she could give us all the needed material as well as making sure we went over the reading. Her expectations were high but reasonable. This is a writing class. There is going to be a lot of reading and writing. However, she would go over each reading assignment, and answer any questions you might have. This is why participating in class was very important to her. She would often encourage the class to get involved and would praise group discussions. This class was very affective and useful. It teaches you a lot about your self worth and about pushing yourself to the limit.

Podcast 1

The delta pod had created an audacity product of our podcast assignment number one, but the LAME encoder did not work so we are going to show our professor in class our assignment!

HW 35: Letter to my readers

Hello readers,
This is and was my first blog. I'm proud of it! I like it, I have learned much about my writing skills, that I do have a voice, that this is me, that if I can write what I feel about books, I can write about anything. I have always had trouble understanding books, so with this blog I was able to write what I truly felt about it all. I am so proud of what I have read, and learned and grew to understand. If anyone out there is loyal to reading my blog, (which I doubt but hey, it could happen) then I hope you got to see what I mean, that this is me, I am writing what I feel, just like Riverbend. (That is the most recent book I have been reading and it made sense so I just I had to write that) I'm sorry to say though that in a couple of weeks, I will not be writing anymore about books, or much of anything, this was an experience that I have never had with the technological world. I'm happy I tried it out though, like I said, it was quite the experience. If I were to have a blog, I would write every-so-often, not religiously like I did on this one; and it would only really be about my life. So thank you for reading this blog that I had for a period of time. I hope you enjoyed reading it, as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Your writer.

HW 34: Responding to Riverbend

Gold plays a huge role in families in Iraq. “Gold is a part of our culture and the roll it plays in ‘family savings’ has increased since 1990 when the Iraqi Dinar began fluctuating crazily.” (Riverbend 100) Gold is an importance to the Iraqi people; they are converting their money into gold. By doing this they are eventually making items to sell, money rates can change, but gold will always be valuable. The Iraqi people are so hurt, continuing in the reading, there was a statement made about how some troops only money our of their homes because they didn’t even bother looking for gold because people like “that” didn’t own gold.


Riverbend talked about how in Iraq a garden is not complete without a palm tree in it. “From kilometers away, you can see the vivid green of proud date palms shimmering through the waves of heat and smoke reaching for a sky, rarely overcast.” (Riverbend, 103) It is evident that she is very right about there being an incomplete sense about a garden, or just any area around Iraq without a palm tree. It seems almost weird to me that there such a lavish amount of palm tree’s because when I think about palm trees I think of relaxing tropical Islands but when I think about Iraq, I only think of the war of terror. Maybe that is wrong of me, but that is how I feel I guess, and it is really good to read that from someone’s mouth.

HW 33: Responding to a Podcast

The title of this podcast is Iraqi Teens work to help their families, and it is part of the Alive in Baghdad podcast. This was released on the Internet on October 15, 2007, and I will provide anyone who wants to see this with a link (http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families/) This podcast covers the topic of how kids work to help support their familes, the first young boy is named Hussein Kamal and he showed us some of his carpentry skills, he said that he works with his dad during holidays and showed us his work. Also there is Mustafa Malek and he is fourteen years of age, he also works with his father in carpentry and said that there "was no security" and that "you have to protect yourself." The Iraqi background was as I have seen on TV from the war, dirt, houses made of clay and brick, there was no green grass, very dusty and muddy. This is a very interesting podcast, because it is all in the Iraqi language, it makes it more interesting to hear what they say, not understanding it of course but putting words together. I remember most when Hussein Kamal said "It takes me an hour to get to work, but it should only take a half hour, the route is not secure." I felt bad for him, that he had to walk out of his way to get around the dangers of his home.

HW 32: Responding to riverbend

Aquila Al-Hashimi I found out through reading Riverbend's book, is a part of the Iraqui counsil. Riverbend talks about Aquila just after there was an attack on her. I read that she was walking somewhere with her not so helpful bodyguards (becasue women cannot leave their homes without them) which were her brothers, when a couple of trucks flew past her and hurt her. Apparently, right after that happened, she was taken away in an 'American Ambulance" and was operated on her stomach and had an injured her foot and an injured shoulder. This is terrible! I had no idea thinks of this sort was going on. Riverbend talks about how upsetting it is, she said that this shows how unsafe her world is, how unsafe every women actually is. People liked Akila Al-Hashimi, and that didn’t stop anyone from taking her away. She elledgely did not wear a hijab, which could have been a reason why she was targeted, that’s definitely not the only reason, because she was part of the governing council and that could have been a huge factor.
(Riverbend 75-76)

HW 31: Responding to Riverbend

I would really like to know more about “Depleted Uranium”. When I first read this, I had no idea what it meant, I still don’t really understand. But Riverbend described as a term that all Iraqi’s knew of and it was something to deal with the cancer rate rising. I guess, Depleted Uranium Poisoning could cause children to be born with no face, one leg, or even just one eye. (Riverbend 47) According to Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium is is uranium remaining after removal of the isotope uranium-235. It is a waste product of the uranium enrichment process. That’s a nice technical definition that they gave us, and I basically got out of it that it is a very dangerous material that can cause dangerous affects on everyone, especially children. Wikipedia says that because it is weakly radioactive, the “natural uranium” has never been able to be proven and this has been known to cause cancer.

HW 28: Letter to Riverbend

In the book Baghdad Burning, you talks about your views of the war in Iraq at this specific time. As I began to read the book, and read the blogs that you have written and I am just in awe of how you handle your composure and utter sanity. On page sixteen, I quote “Females can no longer leave their homes alone.” I had heard this through a discussion I had had with someone, that women were not aloud to leave their homes due to men snatching them and raping them I believe. I couldn’t believe it the first time, but to hear it from reading what you had said, it just makes it more real. Reading your blogs is weird, because I live in the United States, it’s my home that you are fighting, the war is between my country and yours. Being in the country where nothing affects my life is easy, yes, we are in a war, but I’m not banned from outside without an escort, and I am not having to deal with children every day getting killed, you have the hard part. “Today a child was killed in Anbar.” (Riverbend 8) that is ridiculous. It makes me so sad to see innocent children who honestly has no real idea what is going on, to get killed.

HW 30: What kind of democracy do we want?

Yesterday I attended a citizenship symposium at Keene State College, the main speaker of this event talked about Democracy, and what kind of democracy we wanted in the U.S today. The talk was basically about democracy. It started with her explaining herself, where she was from, which is Lexington, MA (the birthplace of American liberty). She then took us to even further back into history and started talking about Moses, I was actually confused as to why she brought up Moses, why? She basically said that 'Distrust' was what everything that had to do with democracy was based on.The only thing she said was "democracy is based on distrust." with no further explanation. I sat there and tried to understand what she meant by this, but got really confused as to what 'distrust' actually was, and what it had to do with democracy. She never really defined the word, and just expected everyone to understand how it had to deal with the topic of her speech. An interesting fact I learned through going to this was that who is really counting our votes when we go to the polls. That it's not the people voting that make a difference, it was the the people counting the votes. I also learned about Secret Vote Counting Software and that Nationally 80% of states do this, and in New Hampshire alone, 81% of people do this. It was interesting when she brought the audience into it and asked for a raise of hands who thought this software should be used and only one raised their hands.

HW 25: Bahgdad Burning

In the foreword of Baghdad Burning it presents us to the purpose of the book. It's about a young girl who writes a blog about the entire Iraq war. She writes and defends her culture and even describes how it is similar. Why anti-Americanism is basically not fair, and how much it angers people in her culture. It brings up how there is politics in this book and about the invasion itself on May 7th 2004. The book should pinpoint all the shame that the imperialists bent the minds of the Iraqis. This book makes for painful reading, it describes all of the harsh times that both Iraqi people have to deal with and even American soldiers. It shows insight to the pain and harships that the Iraq's have to go through.
In the introduction it basically goes into more detail about where she is from, how she got to make a blog and what she writes in those blog posts. Gives much more information about her life and background of why the war even started. I feel that this is a very good read, gives so much more insight on how they must feel, and how we take for granted how the war is not in our country. This will be able to tell us how she must have felt and how she dealt with the war, she writes about everyday occurances and it helps america understand.

HW 24: Room of my own?

Of course I have a room of my own; I feel everyone does. I'm not talking about a literal room either, a room with four walls, a bed and your clothes. My room is my own personal voice; My writing voice. In 11Th grade of high school, the entire English class was devoted to finding your own voice in your writing. I felt that throughout the course of that class, I found my voice, it was easier to write papers, I could write what I felt, and I even found myself writing on my own about my life and my feelings. Everything that I write for myself lets out everything inside me to something, it doesn't have to be a person , but I write it as if someone is going to read it in the future.
" I thought, addressing Mary Carmichael is if she were there, would be to talk of something else, looking steadily out the window, and thus note, not with a pencil in a notebook, but in the shorthand, in words that are hardly syllabled yet..."(Virginia, 85)
This exerpt from the book A room of ones own hit me when I read it. That's exactly how I feel when I write, I'm writing to not only myself and my notebook paper, but I'm writing to the person that will eventually read this, the person that will find this however long from now, and know who I am at this time in my life.

HW 23: Virginia vs Jezebel

I read a blog post on Jezebel, it was about Anne Hathaway breaking up with her long time boyfriend Rafaello Follieri. They used the adjective 'shady' to describe him, if I were Virginia Woolf, I would be shocked! Shocked that they would be talking about a man in that way, no matter if he were shady or not. They never would talk about a man that way, only women got talked about in writing. The entire blog post is about how he is shady, and cheated on her, and they actually used the word "doucheyness" to describe him. How rude! I mean, even if he was these adjectives, they are writing about a man in that way! They aren’t poking fun of the women in the situation getting cheated on; they are actually making fun of the man! How crazy is that. I’m actually almost enjoying this though, making fun of a MAN. Finally.

HW 22: Patriarchy

In chapter two of Virginia Woolf's book A room of one's own there happens to be a lot of patriarchy. The first bit of patriarchy I picked out from page 27, "Women do not write books about men- a fact that I could not help welcoming with relief , for if i had first to read all that men have written about women, then all that women have written about men, that aloe that flowers once in a hundred years would flower twice before I could not set pen to paper." This shows the patriarchy that men have in how they write about women and sex, but women never and would never write about sex and men ever. Why are women so limited in what they can write about or say or do. Just testing the limits and having women be at a loss in patriarchy. I looked back onto page 26 to see a statement reading "Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?" Why women! Why always women? For all that I know, women have had disadvantages to being women, and that's rough. But to be the most written about 'animal' in the world? That's crazy, Not only are men writing all of this, they have such power or 'patriarchy' over women. Reading the New York Times I happened to fall upon an article specifically talking about patriarchy, entitled "WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN SELDOM MAKE HISTORY" it's basically fighting the rights of women and speaking out in writing and how it is possible now and how if there is a slight bit of patriarchy that they will fight it to it's death.

HW 21: A room of one's own

Dear Erin,

I know how you would be confused it is a confusing chapter! But I'll try and help you out. The intro could quite possibly be considered off the wall. In the first couple of pages 'Mary' had a less then welcoming experience on campus and this sent her "little fish" or I would connect that to her inspiration "into hiding". She then had no idea what what she would write about. At the famous library that was said was cursed, she had yet another experience that was unreal.
You must still be confused as of this point, but I'm trying. I just tried to clear up some of the parts that confused me that I had to work out. Continuing in the book, there is a part that brings up the Manx cat, which is a recurring part to this chapter, the Manx cat has no tail, which helps to express the emotions. Reading on, there is a song that Tennyson was singing and it's basically him saying that world is different after the war. On pages 20-21 Mary is saying that if women had money, what would have been different, especially since women worked so hard, yet still lived in poverty. If women had money, they could and would study fascinating subjects, they were thriving to learn. But in the end, men will always write better fiction because they possess the "amenities".
You're English teacher is smart to let you read this book! Due to that it is about women and writing. It will teach both the boys and girls in your class the importance of money in fiction, and how that was what was important, not the actually quality of the writing. Virginia Woolf is writing an important piece to how fiction became what it is. Money for women was almost impossible to earn, which prevented them from writing fiction. I like this book, and I'm glad you are reading it Erin! Enjoy and I hope I helped.

Always, Kristen.

HW 19: web of influence

On page 129 and 130 of Blog!, there is a question that states "What about weblogs themselves? How do you think they will change over the coming years?" and Scobles response clearly states that this is the start of weblogs, that hey are going to be more integrated and more technologically connected to the Internet. In other words he's stating that it's going to be really easy to connect with other blogs, by being able to tag, and use key words to find what you're looking for. For example you will be about to find a blog about Sherwin-Williams by clicking the tagged word 'paint' and it is basically going to be a lot more convenient for a lot of people. Even more importantly he exclaims that it's not just going to be a blog world anymore, it's going to be an intense share of video, audio, drawings, pictures, maps, where you are from your cellphone. Basically, everyone is going to know everything about you from your blog? Is that necessarily an advance in the weblogs though? That is almost scary to think that if you have such an in depth blog, that someone can look at it, and know and figure everything there is to know about you.

HW 18: Least favorite blog post

While looking at jezebel, I have never really looked for blog posts that I disliked, until today when I was supposed to. I saw a picture of Uma Thurman, and the caption was "Windswept & Slouchy." http://jezebel.com/gossip/snap-judgment/uma-thurman-windswept--slouchy-308379.php Seriously? How can anyone pass judgment that quickly because of a paprazi's photograph? I hate that people do that, there are so many celebrities that are shot down and demoralized because of a bad picture. God for bid someone has a bad picture, let’s talk bad about them, lets make them lower than us, just because in reality, they are higher than us. They are successful and wealthy because of their work, let’s make fun of them. No, lets not. yes, she is slouching in this photograph, but there is no need to talk about that in a negative way, she could be bending down to get something, or sneezing, if i was being followed unknowingly I would probably have terrible pictures as well, I'm sure we all would.

HW 17b: Cox vs. Zuniga

If I was seriously basing my presidential election on either Ana Marie Cox's blog, or Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's blog, I would most definitely say that Zuniga's blog would influence my choice much more than Cox. Zuniga gave so much more depth and information after each question, he fully thought out his answers to the interview and never once asked the interviewer a question. In my opinion, Cox, is very immature and juvenile with her answers, at one point, the interviewer asked her what she thought about her future plans, and instead of just answering the question, Cox asked "my future plans?" Clearly, that is what she meant, there is nothing more broad that that could have possibly meant. With that said, i would not listen to her opinions due to the fact that i feel that she is very young and does not know what exactly she is talking about, or who she is yet. Zuniga on the other hand answers the questions fully, cites his information and cites himself, i would say that he is much more credible to tell me what to think and possible persuade me into using his information and thoughts to change or influence my decision for this upcoming election.

HW 17: Favorite Blog post

On the blog page Jezebel, which was updated today, there is a blog about a Fashion Show, nothing important really happens, it's just about the new fashion for this year. I've always enjoyed reading about fashion and this blog doesn't really explain all of the fashion but it has a very good photo gallery and I liked to look at the photos. http://jezebel.com/gossip/fashion-show/-307023.php. The fashion was very different and nothing anyone would really wear, spicing it up with gladiator boots and fun accessories of that sort. The interesting features and clothes really got my attention, and that's the first reason I looked at the blog post. Jezebel is definitely my favorite blog site, it has all the information on what i like to hear about. I like to hear about celebrity gossip and sex, and clothes, and fashion. Everything feminine, i like to hear about and listen to.

HW 16a: MANIFESTO

In reading Scoble's manifesto, I found one point that the blog Jezebel does follow through with. Point number 2, "Post fast on good news or bad." Jezebel does a good job with keeping us up to date, I was looking at their weblog and it is completely daily that they comment on and update their blog. Scoble says that the trick to earning trust, is to show up. If Jezebel for example was to not answer someones important question, Jezebel will then lose that viewers trust and respect, and loyalty to the weblog. Maybe I just don't understand how to use this blog very well, but I have never seen Jezebel actually edit, or say that they were wrong. Maybe they are never wrong, and they are just lucky, but I never once have seen them come back to someone's comment. Which, in Scoble's 20 points, links to number 8, "If you screw up, acknowledge it fast". I believe that this blog is most certainly applicable to these manifesto's standards, it's about celebrity's and their lives, so if they screw up, tell us!! And all of the manifesto's points go with this blog, and apply to this blogs rules.

HW 14: Ito/Dento Transitionrama

In Nick Denton's interview, they ask him a question "Why do you prefer to hire unknown writers for your blog site rather than writers with track records?" (Kline 152) He responds with something that makes complete sense. For example, Denton would rather have unknown writers because professional writers don’t necessarily know how to write in blog format. Actually, Blogs are more down to earth and not as strict as professional writing. As a result of this interview, I agree with everything he said about blogging. After all, Denton said that weblogs are the number one source of internet as of today. Naturally, he would want the best writers for the job, the best ‘blog’ writers that is. Accordingly, Denton states that his blogs are growing every month about 20 percent, which is why he is so into his job. Furthermore he goes on to describe how everyone is talking about blogs, everyone is obsessed with this new form of information and they are calling it a phenomenon.

HW 13: Blogs will change your buisness

"Companies over the past few centuries have gotten used to shaping their message. Now they're losing control of it." (Green, 224) In recent years, according to Heather Green, most Companies, or businesses have been 'losing control' of the blogs about their business. The quote above states that in previous years businesses have had no problem getting their ideas out there in a form of blogging that people agree with. But, now blogs are more politically harsh and controversial, which makes it hard for the businesses to ever get their blogs back to normal. I feel that the influence of blogging and communication is more important than that of the influence of blogging and business. I feel this way because, for one, blogging is a form of communication through the internet, and two because blogging yes, puts out information about businesses but, that should not be their way of promoting their product.

HW 11: Making global voices heard

I chose to look at Iaasc Mao's blog at Isaacmao.com/meta. The blog, is in English from what i can see, yet there is some Chinese. Which is what Mackinnon said in the interview, that he is the only blogger that blogs in both English and Chinese. The blogs are mostly about Internet related problems, it says "trouble logging in" or "Gmail accounts" as the titles. But there are also political related blogs and information about china, almost as if they want Americans to look at it and read it, due to that it is in English. Mackinnon states that Chinese blogosphere is very interesting, but very censored. Going off of what mackinnon says about the Chinese blogosphere, I believe that what she says is true, that the Chinese have to be careful about what they say due to the tight security floating in the Internet, many people have gone to jail for their opinions in china. Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion that the Chinese have it rough trying to speak their mind, but it's true, they do not have the freedom of speech that we have here in America.

HW 9: A weblog saved my life last night

After reading Waldman's piece A weblog saved my life last night I both agreed and disagreed with many points he made throughout the interview. By focusing on the fact that women can 'outsmart' the men by going to blogs that men would not normally go to, Waldman overlooks the deeper problem which is that men can now outsmart the women by going to those blogs anyways. I feel as though men can most definitely go to these blogs that are more aimed towards women, and interact with the women, without them knowing it is in fact a male. This is also why the Internet is so dangerous and misleading. Although I do disagree with this point he makes here, I do agree with his overall thought that 'overwriting' or better known as writing everything, in depth and making every single word count and sound intelligent, it sometimes erases what you really wanted your real point to be. His overall points in this interview all made sense, even though there were times I did disagree with some of them.

HW 7: My so-called blog

In my opinion, being as I was a middle-school child not so long ago, I feel as though kids should be able to write online without a parent monitoring everything that they write. As long as the kids are appropriate and don't get themselves into trouble online, then definitely they should be allowed to express themselves just as equally as adults are able to. According to Emily Nussbaum, she describes a teenage boy who apparently blogs an online journal:

"Then he returns to his own journal to compose his entries: sometimes confessional, more often dry private jokes or koanlike observations on life." (Kline and Burstein 350)

Guardians, or parents, shouldn't have to read what their children are writing in a blog, they can and have access to read them, because it's a blog and it's posted online, but they don't have to. Parents are allowed to write their own online blogs and their children don't necessarily have to read them either, it goes both ways in my personal opinion of this matter. Especially since the children aren't doing anything inappropriate or harmful to themselves by blogging their journals it's not necessary for their parents to observe everything they are writing. This quote shows that this specific example child, is not writing terrible things, or talking to someone that he shouldnt be speaking with.

HW 6: Interest Statement

When looking at my options for my semester long project, for the ways to communicate online I found myself to be interested in Instant messaging, Podcasting, and Socail Networking, in otherwords, facebook. If I were to chose which marginalized groups I was interested in, I would have to say that i would like to learn more about ocercoming sexism because, sexism is mostly directed towards women and the equality they have or dont have, also I would be interested in Overcoming rasism because due to the same reasons, that it has to do with the equality of african american's in contrast to whites, in education, and the civil rights movement. And overcoming homophobia, I personally dont understand why someone could be homophobic, and would like to learn more about why, and how that could happen. And for where in the world i would concentrate these aspects, I chose the United States, and the Europe. Europe to show the differences of united states policies to their policies.

HW 5b: I blog therefore I am

In the reading "I blog therefore I am" Kline makes a point to tell the reader that blogging is the most important form of media today. He then writes that blogs are simply a continuation of a phenomenon (Kline, 246). I would argue that blogging is not, the biggest form of media today. I insist that television, the news and even the radio, are all far more important forms of media in today's society. Blogging on the Internet is indeed a huge part of the media, and a way of getting information out to the world, yet, I quote "Though for the most part not professional writers.." (Kline, 249), this makes me disagree with the fact that 'blogging' is the best way, or the most wide spread form of communication and controversial areas. I question the way that information is portrayed in blogs, due to the fact that the writers, are not necessarily professional.

HW 4: Special K

I went back to my room, and looked for a brand name that would somehow hold a promise, or a guarantee even. With the example of fritos in class, I went straight to looking at food, I found a box of special K in my room and looked at it. Special K is designed for women to lose weight, it's healthy and promises that you will lose weight in 2 weeks. I went to the website which happens to be http://www.specialk.com/ and looked for any quotes that would promote the promise that it holds when i look at the box itself. Quotes like "Dropping a jean size, just got easier" and "Find the perfect jeans to fit the new you" were all over the site. This definitely tells women thats they can lose weight in a short amount of time, and fit into their skinny jeans once again. Every female wants to hear that by eating this food, they can lose weight. It's promoting weight loss is also very misleading in a way, they dont tell you how the special K diet works exactly unless you search deep enough to find the information needed. The promise that it holds indeed does work, and in my experience works well, but the way that it shows the promise, is commonly mistaken and sometimes misleading.

HW 3: Toward a more Participatory Democracy

As I was reading, in the first pages of David Klines chapter on politics and blogging, Kline quoted Frank Barnako of CBS.MarketWatch.com saying, "No one reads blogs". This was the first thing that caught my eye in this book. What? No one reads blogs? Blogs are becoming the most well read and listened to ideas and opinions in the technology world today. Political blogs have become a very important part of the news; Americans tend to read blogs rather than watching television and reading the newspapers about politics. Being able to trust the media became hard after they gave them many reasons not to, so people were dying to hear some honest opinions and blogs were a source that gave that honesty to them. Kline agrues that being able to trust the media became very hard after they gave them many reasons not to, and I agree because blog readers were dying to hear some honest opinions and blogs were a great source to give that honesty to them. I never would have even thought of blogs being that big of a reference that it could change the way that people react with elections, politics and much much more.


9-6-07-- I added work using a template from the book They say I say. (underlined)

HW 2: Blog! The 12 key ideas. How do I connect?

Writing is a way for me to get my thoughts and feelings out. I can not and have never been able to get my feelings out verbally; I am a very introverted person most of the time. I keep a journal, and every so often I write how I’m feeling that particular day or if something exciting had happened to me. With writing, it allows me to get everything I cannot get out to anyone. I have learned in my past English and writing classes that you need to find your 'voice', and that everyone has a 'voice' in writing. I think that it's hard to find your voice most of the time, but when you do, you realize, you can write.
Blogging is a way for people to write, electronically. My journal for me is my form of 'blogging' I suppose. I consider blogging to be a way of releasing feelings, attitudes, and certain thoughts that you just want to share, or about a specific topic. This is my blog, my thoughts. In Dan Bursteins book Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture, burstein writes about 12 key ideas that he feels sums up the world of blogging. I feel that I can somewhat relate to the second key idea. Blogs are particularly interesting because they marry so much personality and attitude with this complex mix of software technologies.