Shaad's blog

Animal Planet is one of my favorite television stations. Last night i found myself watching a special on mermaids. The special talked about how there was a body of a mermaid found. Now I am not one who is easily persuaded by things I see on television, or hear on media outlets, especially when I already do not believe in the topic being discussed. But the information provided in the special definitely got me wondering if there is such things as a mermaid??

The special had many interesting information that got me wondering. In the 90′s and early 2000′s there were random beachings of whales in many different places (Australia, Africa, and the state of Washington). The beaching were said to be part of a test done by the navy in which they would release a certain sound in the water that made whales go to shallow waters and eventually became washed up on land. The beaching in Washington was the most interesting part of the segment to. The navy released the sound into the water and whales were washed up on shore, but one thing the navy did not do after releasing the sound was block off the beach.

There were two boys who were on the beach and seen numerous whales washed up along with something they never seen before. When the boys were first asked about what they seen they said they seen something that resembled a person,but when the NAVY came they “convinced” the boy and their mother that what they saw was a Seal. But at the end of the show, it showed a video that one of the boys had on his camera phone. The video was of one of the boys picking at this weird figure with a stick and you see something that look like fingers move, and the boys continues to poke the figure and the figure jumps up at the boy  and it resembled a person.

There are many details that I left out but after seeing the video and hearing what some scientist had to say, I am convinced that their might actually be mermaids out there. Heres the link to the video so you can see the craziness I seen. Enjoy!

http://press.discovery.com/ekits/monster-week-mermaids/special.html

I think hands down that ‘being true to yourself’ and ‘remembering that stats should not drive you crazy’ are the strongest of the 10 commandments. I feel like regardless of what you are doing you always have to be true to who you are, and don’t let no one or nothing make you do otherwise. Being who you are in blogging or anything else is extremely important. At the end of the day if you can’t be true to yourself you cant be true to anyone else, especially your readers.  Also if you are a blogger you should not be all caught up into stats, because the main objective of blogging is to tell a story, and regardless of the stats you get a chance to tell your story.

Before this, I never thought about the role ethics play in my blog writing. But thinking about it now ethics ‘especially the ones I just mentioned’ play a big role in my writing. When I write I make sure that I am being true to my readers and myself in everything that I write. I also don’t care or worry about how many readers are reading my story as long as I got one person that has read it. My main goal in writing is to tell my story and if at least one person has read my writing I am content with that.

If someone has taken some of my blog posts and posted them on my site and mentioned me as the author I would not get too mad. I wouldn’t get that mad because the person has posted that I am the author, but I would contact the person and ask them to post a link to my site on their page. That way I get all the credit I deserve while getting a chance to comment back on comments made by readers.

Social media outlets do a great job of getting out many stories to people but the thing about their stories is that they are often false. Personally I do not think that social media outlets such as Twitter, and Facebook should not be held to the code of ethics I just read. I say this because those media outlets are for people enjoyment and whether or not you believe what they post or report on their page is up to you. People should know that all things posted by individuals, especially those on Twitter and Facebook is not always reported in the best or truthful manner. People should try not to report false information but we are not obligated not to report false information. Just how people have the right of speech they also have the right to post whatever they want on the internet whether it is true or not.

The first blog I chose to comment on was written by Ted Miller. Ted’s blogs are mostly about college football, in particular the Pac-12,its players, and topic surrounding football. His topics range from individual player information, to something as broad as should college football be banned. I am an athlete here at Oregon State and can relate to and am very interested in the topics he writes about. His story on whether or not college football should have a playoff is very interesting. This has been a topic of discussion around college football for quite some time and if it was to be implemented now it could affect my football team and myself.  Ted does a good job of looking at both sides of the issue and also gives a link that shows all the scenarios of implementing a playoff system.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac10/post/_/id/38433/pac-12-should-make-a-stand-on-delany-model This link also serves as my comment link! Name- Rashaad4435

I found this next blog from searching on Google for food recipes. As soon as I seen the title of the blog it caught my eye, and was like nothing I have ever seen before. This blog gives you a recipe for how to make cookies using boiled egg whites! The thought of making cookies with egg whites really caught my attention and upon going on the page I found many more interesting dessert recipes. This blog would be a perfect place to find links for other wacky but good dessert recipes. The blog does a good job of laying out the directions to making the food; while giving the reader good eye candy by displaying a picture of the finished product. I definitely love this blog and will share this with my girlfriend, and mother so we can try some of these recipes out!

http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2012/05/cookies-made-with-hard-boiled-egg.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CupcakeProject+%28Cupcake+Project%29

Comment Link- I tried to comment on this blog multiple times and it was unsuccessful. I simply said that I never thought of using eggs to make cookies and am intrigued to try the recipe out. I shed light on how different this recipe is compared to other ones I have encountered, and said I am excited to share this recipe with family and friends!

This next blog I found fits perfectly for what I want to do with my significant other. I have a girlfriend and we have been talking about taking a cruise for a couple of months now. I have searched for different ideas for a romantic, and unforgettable cruise for my girl and myself. This blog site is a perfect place for someone who is in love, or simply someone who is trying to do something nice for their partner. What I liked most about this blog was the fact that it gave you the names of cruise companies that are perfect for couples. It does a good job of highlighting what to do and what not to do while searching for a romantic cruise. This blog had a good mixture of seriousness and jokes in regard to taking romantic cruises and activities to do while on the blog. I am going to research some of the companies mentioned on the blog to hopefully book a great cruise for my girlfriend and myself! Thankshttp://blogsoflove.com/stories/love-stories-from-all-around-the-net/romantic-cruises for the great advice!

Comment link- http://blogsoflove.com/stories/love-stories-from-all-around-the-net/romantic-cruises/comment-page-1#comment-20788

My next blog comes from one of my favorite online shopping sites. This blog is perfect for me because I love fashion and think that I am very fashionable. I try to keep up with fashion as much as I can, and with summer right around the corner I am interested in clothes for the summer.This blog is talking about L-R-G (lifted research group) summer clothes and this is a brand that I have worn and liked for quite some time now. The best thing about this blog is that it does not have a lot of writing but does a good job of showing the clothing, and it gives links to more L-R-G clothing. This blog is a good example of a short blog that gets straight to the point minus a lot of reading.

http://blogs.zappos.com/users/115

Comment link- http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/rideshop/2012/04/12/l-r-g-summer-2012#comment-4992

This next blog is very cool. Sense I have recently started blogging I wondered is there a way that blogging can improve your life. I came up with some ideas of how blogging can improve your life but this blog does a better job of giving examples of how it could. This story gives you ten reasons why blogging could improve your life, and I must say I agree with most of them. I love how after each of the ten ways it improves your life there’s a short description of exactly how it improves your life. I love how this story gives you an example of what you can do with your blogs (keep private or public), among other things.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/10-ways-blogging-can-improve-your-life.html

Comment link- http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/10-ways-blogging-can-improve-your-life.html#comment-525109846

After reading this blog I found that this was very interesting. Prior to me reading this blog I did not know anything about Occupy Wall Street (OWS). OWS from what I got from the reading is a big protest made by people about the inequalities in economics mainly big companies and rich people avoiding taxes. This subject seemed to get a lot of people riled up and in my eyes it is for a good cost. I believe that no matter how rich or poor you are, people or corporations should not be able to get around paying taxes if others are. I do not know how well Greg Mitchell (Author of story) pitch of people taking out all their shares in the “six too big to fail” (Mitchell,1) wall street firms would help send a message and help solve this problem.

In my eyes I believe that this is indeed journalist. I say this because the author is providing an important story intended towards a large audience, and has not only reported the story, but also investigated things related to the story. Also the post was on the website of a big magazine. Also I would say this is journalism because it has to do with organizations such as the government and focuses on social and economic issues.

I think that Greg is a very down to earth writer. He is not a writer that looks at both sides of the story but instead it seems like he is trying to pursue his targeted audience to buy into what he believes. He seems like a writer who is strong about his opinion, will stick to his guns, and don’t care what people think about what he has to say. I can not say that I totally trust him because I do not know a lot about him but in think that he can build my trust because he has been writing for a while so that means he is doing something right. His article is sort of compelling to read, I had to read it over twice to actually grasp what he was saying but what he said was actually interesting.

For my NMC 399 class we were asked to read some information on what makes blogs good and bad. The readings gave strategies on how to make your blog good, stand out, interesting, while also showing examples of bad blogs. I have done a little research and found 5 blogs that are all good blogs in my eyes, and are all interesting in their own way.

The first blog I found was the NFC East blog. This blog is a good blog for many different reasons. The first reason it is a good blog is because the writer says what he feels and does not hold things back regardless of whether people would like it or not. Another reason is because the stories that he writes about are on resent interesting sports topics, therefore giving his audience resent, and down to earth news. Lastly the writer posts new material often, which is one of the guidelines mentioned in the reading for an successful blog.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast

My next blog I found caught my attention as soon as I came across it. This blog is simply amazing!  It has to do with two important topics dessert, and celebrations. The blog gives people many different ideas on pastries; wedding and birthday cakes, for individuals loved ones.  This is a great blog because many people can relate to the topic it focuses on.  The creator of the blog made it to where people can comment on the blog, which is cool because it allows you converse with the others. Another great thing about this blog is that it new material is posted often, and the blog poster gives you feedback on challenges he or she had while making the item, which could save people a lot of anger and time.

http://blog.weddingthings.com/2011/05/tim-hortons-tim-bits-donut-holes.html

The next blog I am going to talk about is very interesting. It shared a lot of information on many different categories ranging from pregnancy, food, housing products, health and celebs. This blog seemed to fit many different audiences and could serve as a main portal to many different blogs.  This blog seemed really put together well, and had good details and history regarding the topic you chose to look at. The tone of this blog fits perfect for the material on the website, and the food recipes are amazing. I actually used a home-made potsticker recipe that was on there.

http://blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2010/07/28/take-a-break-from-take-out-homemade-potstickers/

This next blog I chose was my favorite of the five that I found. What is so great about this blog is that it is all related to sports, and not just one sport. You can get recent and past information on all major sports, providing articles, and videos for the sport. It is well put together, it gives random stories and information about sports that I have never seen before and about topics that are related to sports but not always to the athletes. The post are made very often, and the information provided doesn’t seem biased it seems like the information is put on their to get the information out. If there is such a thing as a professional blog this would be one I would say is a professional blog. This blog seems like the writer knows what he or she is talking about and has been doing this for quite sometime.

http://www.rantsports.com/philadelphia-eagles/?utm_source=oldsite&utm_medium=redirect_script&utm_campaign=redirect

The next blog I am going to talk about is very interesting. The blog is different from all the other blogs I just mentioned which is a good thing. Unlike the other blog this blog does not seem to have a clear tone or writing style but it is still very interesting. The blogger does not tell stories or give information on many things he or she post many random thoughts, pics, and videos. This blog is definitely eye candy and could keep a person interested. Another positive to the blog is that you can leave comments on each item that is posted on the blog (which is posted often).

http://classicgentlemen.tumblr.com/

For my assignment in my online blogging class this week we are asked to give our opinion on whether or not we believe that bloggers are journalist? Before answering this question I am going to define what a journalist is according to Merriam- Webster dictionary. A journalist is “a person engaged in journalism especially: a writer or editor for a news medium”.

I have mixed emotions when it comes to this question. I believe that there are some bloggers who can be classified as a journalist, but the majority of bloggers cannot be classified as journalist. According to the definition above journalist are people who are paid by a magazine or newspaper company. So by definition bloggers who are not paid for what they do cannot be called journalist. I know there is a lot of bloggers who believe that they are journalist but they are not because even though bloggers get news out to people, they are not paid for it and could do it optionally. Being a journalist is a person’s occupation, while blogging is a person’s hobby. So if all bloggers were considered to be journalist that would bring down the credibility of the title journalist, because there could be people like myself who are occasional bloggers to be called journalist.

On the other hand I believe that all bloggers who are paid are journalist. The obvious reason for this is because journalist are people who are paid to write news, and bloggers who are paid to write news no matter what the news is should be considered the same.

The reading my classmates and myself had to do this week for our course gave an example of a blogger who is paid to blog for Forbes magazine. In the article it talked about how a federal judge who created this seven requirement criteria for individuals to be considered a journalist. Some of the requirements listed as the job was ok, but there were others who were just outright outrages in my opinion. One of the outrages requirements made by the judge in my opinion was that the person must “Contacting the other side to get both sides of a story”. This is ridiculous because demanding that someone gets both sides of a story to be considered a journalist is ridiculous. There are some paid writers who write that getting both sides of a story is not for their material.

Overall I think that whether or not bloggers can be called journalist depends on the personal opinion of the person involved. I have asked people this question in some of my courses and have come away with many different answers.

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