Count Down to NYCity 5 Boros Tour

On Sunday May 4th, 2008 my husband and I, along with 30,000 other people, will participate in a 42 mile bicycle ride through the 5 boros of New York City. We will start at Battery Park, and then make our way through the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. We will then cross over to Staten Island on the ferry, and finally back to Manhattan. Following is the link to bike New York. http://www.bikenewyork.org/index.html Unfortunately, it is too late for anyone interested in participating to register for this particular ride; however, there are many other rides you can participate in listed on this site. Counting today we have 6 days left until the ride. It should be a very exciting day.

Blogging Research

The start of this blog is to research blogging and mass media for my communications class. I can't think of a better way, or a better place to start putting my thought together than right here. I thought I should start with the definition of a blog. Move to the different types of blogs, and then to starting my own blog, reading other blogs, and my experiences in this blogging community.

A blog is an abridgement of the term web log. This is a web page where an individual, or collaborative group of individuals, can post running commentary. Some blogs are personal diaries, while others focus on specific interests, while others my focus on politics or news. Most blogs are textual with a few graphics such as pictures or logos, while other incorporate videos and or music.

There are many types of blogs.

The personal blog: personal diary, experiences, opinion.

Blogs by genre: political, travel, news, gossip etc.

The corporate blog: private or business, marketing, public relations, internal news and communications.

The device in which you compose your blog may differ. Even this site now offers mobile blogging which allows you to download blogs from your mobile phone.

Blogging and the blurred line with mass media. many journalists write their own blogs outside of their mainstream venues. Many worry that doing this may lead to uncredible stories. By blogging a journalist skips the filters set up by his or her mainstream media outlet and my push his or her message directly to the public.

Starting my own blog. Type blogging into any search engine and you will be bombarded with hits. I searched on MSN and found http://www.blogger.com/ along with many other choices. The reason I chose blogger.com was it was free, quick, and easy. I was given step by step instructions on setting up an account, and then I was given templates to chose from in order to create my page. Now I haven't figured out every aspect yet but I hope to do so before turning in this research paper.

My Fear of Writing

Writing a blog can actually be a daunting task. Some people write for fun, while others write as a job. Then there are others, like me, who write for a school assignment. Writing is so personal. When you write you put your words out there for everyone to see, read, and critique, or not, maybe no one reads what you write, maybe no one cares. It's interesting the anxiety felt by some, when putting words down on paper, or electronicly. It seems like once these words are posted anyone can read them, and see into my soul. That may seem like a giant leap. I'm just writing about nonsense, just my thoughts as they come up, but aren't your thoughts and emotions what make you a person? Aren't your thoughts your very being? In a forum such as this where I sit here alone writing to no one but myself I still feel like my words are vulnerable. I know that seems silly for those who write everyday, for those whose words are read by millions, for those who are critiqued in front of the world; however, my words are hardly ever noticed. Until I recently started back to school, it had been almost 15 years since someone had criticized my writing. In most office environments no one says a word about a memo with misspellings, or a brief with bad grammar. Most seem to skip write passed the errors, and those that find the errors think it to be rude to correct you, so we just go on not thinking much about that everyday sort of writing. Then I throw myself into this. Into writing for "fun". This is for a school project but I could have chosen something I felt more comfortable with. Instead, I chose something that is challenging for me, and I am hoping in the end I will be a better person for it, and possible be a better writer, and one who enjoys writing. Hopefully, this has opened the door to my days of blogging.

The Begining Of My Blogging

This is my first blog. Until now, I have never thought about blogging. Currently, I am a college student in a communications class. The class focus is on mass media. As a requirement for this class I have to complete an eight page paper on an element of mass media. Last night, I decided I wanted to write about something that I have very little knowledge on, and that topic is blogging. I spoke to my instructor, and received approval of my topic. He suggested I create my own blog as part of my research, so this is the begining.