5 posts tagged “blogs”

At some point today, I'll snap, select, and post my very last photo for Project 365, something I began on July 1 last year after watching and enjoying Marc doing the same.

I'm definitely glad to be done.  There were waves along the way that were very difficult.  Some days just aren't photo-worthy, and you have to come up with something.  That's a good challenge, but there were definitely moments where it felt like a totally pointless burden.  And it's hard to capture exactly why simply needing to take a photo could be such a challenge.  You certainly don't feel like that in the beginning of your year.  And really, it's not hard.  But the photo (ideally) needs to be good.  (Many of mine certainly weren't --but that's also what it's all about.)  And I felt the need to mix it up.  And I felt the need to keep challenging myself.  Perhaps that's why it got hardest right near the end.  Not in-the-last-few-weeks end.  But like a month ago or 6 weeks ago.  The end was in sight, but by no means near.  I'd taken the easy photos (of the cats, of foods, out our window) too many times already.  And like I said, some days it just doesn't happen.  The urge to cash it in was strong, but when you've come that far....

The last month or so got a lot easier.  I could taste the end.  The weather has been good so I've been out more.  And I started to get excited about being done.

In the end, I'm really glad I did it.  I learned a lot about photography, mostly just through looking at other's photos in Flickr photo pools and stuff.  I think I took some cool shots that I never would have taken otherwise.  I got in the habit of taking my camera almost everywhere I go, which I doubt I'd ever have done otherwise.  And there are definitely times I've been glad to have a camera.  You never know when something funny or beautiful or magical will happen to you suddenly, and having a camera to capture it is so enjoyable.  And perhaps this will sound like the easy stretch at the end of the experience, but yes, I do think I've learned to look at my world around me in its relationship to art.  It's not everywhere.  I won't say that.  But I do think it's in more places than we might notice, were we not primed to take it in and document it.

So I won't continue 365 for another year.  But I will keep carrying my camera, and continuing to learn how to take better photos, to capture that rare unexpected moment or that random form of art.  But I'm excited now to leave the pressure and responsibility behind.  (It's like graduating!)  And I've come to really like Flickr.  Mostly I've held back from posting anything other than my 365 photos on there.  But now I'm excited to post photos that wouldn't otherwise make the cut (remember, it had been ONE a day).  And sets for trips and other things like that.

So if you've been following my photo journey at all, keep peeking in.  It's another form of community --John-Patrick says his set functions like a blog, since his blog is only about cooking and his photos are about cooking as well as the other things in his life.  (And he's in the midst of 365, too.  He's done later this year.) 

I'm excited to use mine that way, too.  But will I have a photo for every day any longer?  Nope.  And that freedom not only feels good, but it also feels earned.  Like resting after a hard workout.  So today, I'm on my final sprint into the finish.  Feels good to be (almost) done!

I decided to change my vox address.  If any of you know my old one, it should automatically re-direct here.  But for the record --it is now meghanb.vox.com

So, I've never quite been motivated enough to create a del.icio.us thingamabob.  But I have been wanting to share some websites I'm currently enjoying.  So here they are.

• The obvious front-runner is my friend Marc's blog, Everyday Life.  Marc's blog is always top quality: a great blend of sociology and fun without ever getting snooty.  (I don't know how he pulls this off --his personality is the same way.)  But the arrival of his daughter, Edie, has been extra special.  Not only because he and Sarah are wonderful people, whom I feel lucky to know.  Not only because Edie seems the sweetest little baby I've ever seen.  But primarily, at least in terms of the blogosphere, because whenever I need an Edie fix, she is on-demand on Marc's blog.  So if you don't already know them, I'd like to introduce you to Edie and Marc and Sarah.  (My only complaint with this family so far is that they make it look far too easy.  Sarah even had the nerve to claim that labor wasn't too bad and that she wishes she could remember more of it.  Totally disrupted my worldview.)
  
• While I'm at it, let me sing my praises for my dear Katie P.  She's an excellent writer, and manages to have the same demeanor in person as she does on her blog.  It's not like other people I know aren't like this, but reading her blog is so much like talking to her and enjoying her wit, that I appreciate the blog all the more.  Like being in the absence of Edie and Marc and Sarah, it's a fix.  I'm a major-league fan of P.  I'd use her last name as I often do in person, but you know... it's a public space.  Katie... girl... I'm glad we're friends.
• In terms of websites that DON'T belong to personal friends, let me tell you how much I'm enjoying Clark and Michael.  And let me immediately say that I wouldn't have even had a clue this exists without my friend Marianne.  If you opened the Clark and Michael website link I created a few sentences ago, know that the most current episode begins playing.  I strongly recommend going to episode 1 instead and working from there.  I'm not good at describing my enjoyment of anything really, but especially non-academic stuff.  (Evidence I'm not actually all that smart --just good at echoing the stuff that other people do that I enjoy.)  But let me say --I think Clark and Michael is fucking brilliant, and really really funny.  It brings me joy, which I'm hoping to pass along to you.  In case I still haven't convinced you to click the link, Michael is Michael Cera, which is George Michael from Arrested Development, which is the best show ever (to which I was also a late bloomer).
• Another blog: that of Sherman Alexie, which he's maintaining as he's on his current book tour.  I got to see a leg of this tour about a month ago here in Chicago.  I don't know why I like this blog so much.  He doesn't update super often; I know it's not a permanent thing; and much of it has been a repeat of the things I heard him talk about in person.  But I'm such an Alexie addict... and I think what he says is always so on point... I just love it.  This is a blog post about current favorites.  This is a current favorite.
• CREED THOUGHTS: an under-celebrated but intensely funny from the American version of The Office.  I really think his character is genius.  I'm not sure the blog reflects it well enough.  Were I creating Creed's blog, I would do it differently.  In fact, I'm sure I could make it more Creedish.  (Aren't I amazingly talented?)  But because I love The Office, and because I appreciate Creed, I check Creed Thoughts for its semi-regular updates.  Creed makes me giggle.
• I don't exactly know what this is called, but I found this last weekend and immediately bookmarked it.  The recipes look good, but my favorite part is the inclusion of pictures included on most of the recipes!  I love being able to look at photos of recipes, either as I'm cooking or especially as I'm considering them.  So this was a real joy to find.  I also like that, and this is corny, the recipes frequently have a little story associated with them.  Like, check out this one.  Does the Food Network over-invest in this particular gimmick?  Yes.  But here in what feels like a more pure form, it only adds to my appreciation.
• Finally, what can I say?  It's baseball season which is pure bliss.  Often corny and uneventful, I enjoy the Len and Bob baseball blog almost as much as I enjoy my several-hits-per-day visits to Cubs.com.  I love baseball!

So that's it for now.  Maybe I'll do this again in a few months, when inevitably the non-friend-blog hits will have shifted.

I found this nifty little tool via Dan Myers's blog.  It's the Gender Genie, a tool which tries to predict the gender of an author.  I had to try it.

First I tried my most recent blog entry, about being sick and riding transit.  I wondered if this one might trick it a little, since it was written in sort of a strong, authoritative tone.  Nope.  It knew I am a woman. 
Female Score: 377
Male Score: 352

So I tried the blog post below that one next, just to get a capture of my gendered-blogging consistency.  The post is called Cold, Flu, Go Away!  And it was still, obviously, written by a woman:
Female Score: 356
Male Score: 227
This one was even girlier than the first one!

Given that the Genie distinguishes between fiction, nonfiction, and blog entries, I had to try some of my academic writing.  So I tried the abstract from my second special field exam:

"Current US race scholarship breaks from the conventional wisdom that racism is a dirty chapter in our nation’s past, something that no longer impacts our lives in any meaningful way. Rather, sociologists of race and other race scholars explore the ways in which racism is central to social life, resulting from personal prejudices and continued structural and institutional policies, practices, and laws. These social structures are maintained by ideologies that deny the significance of race and implicitly uphold racial inequality. Termed color-blind racism, this combination of the denial and maintenance of white privilege is central to US racial dynamics and the paradigm under which most current sociologists of race and ethnicity form their analyses. My research interests are in exploring the dynamics of color-blind racism, and in particular, the ways in which white social collectives or white individuals navigate a racial awareness in the context of color-blindness.  This exam will explore the dynamics of color-blind racism by grounding this development in prior race scholarship, and connecting analyses of color-blind ideology to the few examinations of white self-concept."

What do you think?  If you think it's mannish, you're right!
Female Score: 40
Male Score: 176

Well, maybe abstracts are uber-formal.  Let's grab a paragraph from elsewhere in the paper:

"The paradigm of color-blind racism has provided a necessary inroad toward examining the contradiction between a foundationally racist society with a widespread denial of race as a salient factor in modern life.  Like all critiques of ideology, it lays bare the contradictions over which ideologies are meant to gloss, and helps scholars and activists probe for a dual analysis of material realities and hegemonic frameworks enacted to justify those inequalities.  Scholars have shown how many whites in particular have readily adopted a “color-blind” way of thinking and talking about race in the United States, to the detriment of contemporary struggles to eradicate racism.  While useful in many ways, the dynamics of color-blind frameworks of analysis present a particular challenge in current research.  While color-blind racism presents an inroad toward exploring the dynamics and subtle maneuverings which defend and uphold racial inequality in United States society, some of the realities and assumptions that surround the model have inhibited meaningful work on the myriad ways that this racial inequality has been maintained.  In other words, we have the “what” of widespread white ignorance and subtle racisms but rarely the “how” of “doing race” among whites."

Survey SAYS????
Female Score: 92
Male Score: 203

Yep.  I blog like a woman but my academic writing is distinctively male.  Sadly, this is probably an asset.  And it makes sense given the overwhelmingly male standard for much of our scholarship in the discipline.  Oddly enough, most academic men say I am an excellent writer, and most academic women think it's too formal.  I agree with the women.  I sort of think the paragraph above is crap-ola.  I think it's my training in theory, actually, which is to blame for the overall tone.  But the gender dynamics are, like, super interesting.

For now I am just playing.  I'm not sure if I'll share this blog with anyone.  Knowing me, I eventually will. 

I have started 3 different blogs in my e-past, and I have abandoned all of them. 

• one was a blog about social theory.  I had the most fun with that one, but never shared it because I felt like pretentious ass.

• one was about my time in China.  There were lots of problems with that one, especially as I got more exhausted and frustrated there.

• one was about me.  I stopped because it was stupid.

This is why I am the insecureblogger.  Even in my non-internet life, I often wear too much of my self on my sleeve.  I get excited, I feel connected,  and I email / talk / joke / preach.  And then I always think I've gone too far, made an ass of myself, and regret it.  Give me a webpage?  YES!  Wait, NO!  Wait... wait.... and keep waiting.  Give me a classroom?  No comment.

To blog or not to blog:  I just plain don't like internet personas.  Or, some of them.  But I also just plain like the internet.  This is the core of my blogging insecurity.  How to participate in this paradox?  How to navigate a personal perspective which concurrently takes things very seriously and also not seriously at all?  If you've met me, you've seen me fumble with this.  And perhaps you'll see me e-fumble.

But I promise, if I ever let you, you don't have to look.