5.26.2005

019. Meme's.

Well, the other day, Bud posted a meme in his main blog. He wanted to pass it on to the students, so I decided to do it. This should be fun ;)

First 5 Songs in Shuffle of Entire Music Library
1. Leaving Town - Dexter Freebish
2. Ashes - Pain of Salvation
3. Bed of Roses - Mindless Self Indulgence
4. Are There Angels? - Project 12:01
5. Beloved - VnV Nation

* Current Book You are Reading (or lightly leafing through)
I, like Bud, have a reading list I hope to tackle over the summer. But, I've been procrastinating, and have not yet bothered to write it. Once I do, though, I'd like to post it here. (If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear from you)

* Last Movie Seen in a Theater and Where
Hm. I think the last movie I went to see was Beauty Shop at the Twin Peaks Mall, and before that it was Hitch (at the same place).

*Five People To Whom You’ll Pass This
The rest of the blogging class ;)

posted by Elle @ 2:22 AM 0 comments

5.22.2005

018. So indecisive.

After reading Bud's comment to my last post, I feel suddenly re-inspired to continue blogging over my summer holidays. As it is, I'll be going to Missouri in June, and Florida in July which will definitely prove to be learning experiences on a personal level, and hopefully other levels as well. I want to keep a track of it, and hopefully this can be the place for me to do it. Actually, I'm hoping for this to become a place that I can do many things.

>> Helping Bud with his plans for a future class at our school; Journalism.
>> Possibilities for the class, both on and offline.
>> This is a good spot for ideas on it, since Bud can not just read it but comment on it, too. (Beware of possible ramblings!)

>> I want to start a blogging habit. I have a journaling one already, and that's updating three times a week (doesn't always happen, but I aim for it), so I'd like to include Blogging in that habit.
>> Not sure what kind of habit, but I know it takes 21 days to create one, so here's hoping.

>> I love photography, actually I'm taking a photography class at school next year, and I'd like somewhere to show off anything I do.
>> I'm either going to do that with this blog, or make a blog off this username, since there's ElletheStudent, and EllesPortfolio, so maybe EllesPhotos or something along those lines will appear. Who knows. I might just make a blog dedicated to school oritened material and leave this one open as a blog about blogging ;)

It's still all up in the air, though. I definitely want to continue blogging though, even if only for the Journalism class :)

posted by Elle @ 9:25 PM 2 comments

5.20.2005

017. *Sigh* All Good Things Must Come to an End.

And they did. It's sad; I'm sad. The Experiment is over, and my Expedition has (for the time being) reached its end. Currently, I have no real plans in the future to be posting to this blog. Maybe I will. But it's doubtful. I do hope to write a longer response to the class, though.
Other than that? G'bye, Blog-o-Sphere.
Have a great summer everybody.

posted by Elle @ 7:53 PM 2 comments

5.10.2005

016. Grade 'A' Blogs!

Yeah, weird title; I plead temporary insanity because I've been away from the blogosphere, and immersed in journaling. Anyway!
Bud recently asked us what deserves an 'A' in the blog-o-sphere, and after some heavy consideration, I think I've found what qualifies as a dignified answer.
Going against what Tyr classifed as 'Grade A Blogging' when he stated;

I think that the Blogs should not be graded on frequency of posts, not on the subject matter of posts, but what lies within the posts.
Frequency is actually a really big thing (subject matter, too). The actual substance of a post could be absolutely awesome, but have no relevence to anything that we're learning.
Someone could only post once a month with fabulous posts, and that deserves an 'A'? When another student updates weekly with posts that are shorter (but still well written) and they're sitting with a 'B' or 'C'? I don't think that's right.
Blogs should be graded on all three; frequency, subject matter, and content.
For example; when writing a newspaper article (as I often have for the class we have at the school), you need the entire package of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How?
Blogging has the same kind of essentials; Frequency, Subject, and Content. Kinda like the whole a+b+c = d, well Frequency+Subject+Content = Good Blogging.
But that doesn't cover everything that we have done this quarter. We also have to look at the fact that we went outside of blogs, looking at Wiki's, journaling vs. blogging, Bloglines, Furl, and I think that's it. Wait! No! It's not it, we also did Portfolio's (eFolio's, if you may). So hey, let's break it down.

Our Blogs

Frequency

The amount that you post! You should be posting often. Once a month is not enough! I think that we should be posting twice a week with something. Once in our blog, the second one in our eFolio's. That's the standard, I think. Well, if we don't do that, we should post in our blog one week, then in our eFolio the next; at least then we don't have to be posting a whole freakin' lot, because I know that not everyone has something that they want to be writing about all the time, or maybe they don't always have a piece of work to be putting in their eFolio.

Subject

Subject of writing! HELLO!? If we don't care about what we're talking about, why the heck are we writing!? Our subjects should really have a meaning. I think that we should write about something at least remotely intelligent. No one wants to read about what you ate for lunch or how long it took; unless of course it's some sort of science experiment. [In which case, I want some pictures! ;)].

Content

Content, content, content. Content matters!!! People want to know what you think, they don't just want you to say 'fact, fact, fact, link'. They want 'fact, opinion, fact and link, opinion'. Because really, if they want pure facts and nothing else, they can go to an encyclopedia or read the newspaper. People want to know what you're saying and why you're saying it, what you're thinking, and why you think it. They're curious because you're curious! And if they aren't curious about it, make sure that in your content, you make them curious about it!

eFolio's

Well, this was the point of this class in the first place. Woo.
Alright, eFolio's. We should be graded on not how many posts we put really. It should be what we put. As in, what items we decide best fit into the eFolio, and then how many reflections we put, and how long/short the reflection is, and the content of it.
Me, I'd fail that part since I don't much like writing reflections since.. I just don't. You can look at a previous post of mine to read on why I don't much care for it.

Outside Resources

Wiki's, Bloglines, Furl, etc.

We should get extra points, just because all of us know how to subscribe on blogger, edit and create a Wiki, Furl a page we're interested in, and more. That's something most of us didn't know about before, that's really added on to our blogging experience as a class.

Personally

For me, this class has made a big difference. I used to think I was blogging, and really I was just journaling on LiveJournal and Xanga to pass the time. It was a place for me to express things that I couldn't normally express. Now, I can proudly say I am both a blogger and a journal-er. It's pretty cool.
On a 'journaling' note, I really want to explain why this makes me so excited ;)
My mom has a journal, and yet she says it's a blog, and that she is reading other blogs. I get excited because when I sit down with her, it's cool to be able to say 'well actually, you're journaling, blogging is -thisthisthis-, while journaling is -thatthatthat-.' I take a sense of pride in myself in being able to explain to someone why or why not a blog is a blog, or what they think is a blog is a journal. Now, back to your regularly scheduled program ;)

Alright, with that done... yay. This class rocked. I'm really sad that it's almost over. I plan on continuing to write in this blog over my summer vacation, but hey. It's the point that I'm in the class where I can be nerdy in my own way ;)

posted by Elle @ 3:28 PM 23 comments

5.03.2005

015. Portfolio Reflections.

Currently I'm supposed to be working on my portfolio pieces and posting a reflection and response to it, although I find that I don't really like reflecting on my writing and assignments. I'm not too sure as of why, mostly because I spent so much time having to already work on the assignment that I don't want to have to further edit and work on it to the point of reflecting on why I did what I did.
I told Bud I don't much like reflecting on my work.
He said that blogging is reflecting...
My argument, though, is that blogging is a reflection of my life. That assignment would be reflecting a piece of work I did. Which, to me, isn't exactly enjoyable. I don't mind reflecting on my life, which is what I do (almost) daily in my journal... which makes it different. I reflect on my life in a journaling-way. I'd be reflecting on my work in a blogging way.
I just find it more challenging and harder to reflect on work that I've already done.
And the 'challenging' part is not a good thing in this case...

posted by Elle @ 3:23 PM 6 comments

5.02.2005

014. Further Portfolio Experimenting

Well, today another submission was made to my e-folio for school. It's kind of exciting; my screenplay already had a review for it. I'm pretty freakin' excited :)
Hopefully, more feedback will be given, but who really knows. It's definitely something different, and a tough experiment.

In other news; we're going to start a Wiki for blogging prompts. So on class days where people don't know what to write about, they can write about one of the options on there.

posted by Elle @ 3:17 PM 4 comments