#4 - (Insert Image Here)

Abortion is just another word for choice
and symbolizes women's rights, nothing more.

Why should those with so little to do with abortions
hold so much power over their legality?

Should women be forced to have unwanted children?...

...or should they have the right to choose?

So many decide to be pro-choice.

There are more lives at stake than what you might think.

Women shouldn't be forced; it's a choice.

If there's no choice, then...

Is this making sense?

Pro-choice is not pro-abortion.
Pro-life is anti-choice.

The topic of abortion is not an easy one to address, but I feel that I must express my unbiased observations. In order to convey my thoughts on the subject through images, I had to create some kind of logical argument with as few words as possible. I started off with my visual thesis statement, which took a pro-choice stance, and then I explained why. My first issue was why men seem to have so much say in the matter. This may be shooting myself in the foot since I am male, but I still felt it was worth noting to get readers to think critically of how abortion is represented. I then moved on to my next point: women shouldn't be forced into a single decision. No one should have the right to make anyone, including mothers, choose one side or another when the issue is a sound, personal, and moral decision. Women shouldn't be forced to give birth or get an abortion. I then went on to visually state how many share my ideas and the consequences of not heeding our warnings. Finally, I make a dramatic conclusion where I say that it's fine if you, as an individual, don't want to have an abortion, but please don't push your choice onto others. It was different explaining everything in images but I feel that my only obstacle was finding the right images for each part.

Update: I fixed a spelling and syntax error so that it reads "Women shouldn't be forced; it's a choice" instead of "Woman aren't forced, it's a choice."
I also want to add that I am not against those who choose to be pro-life. In fact, I'm fine if you want to be pro-life. I just don't appreciate when some pro-lifers suddenly wish to make everyone pro-life. If you support giving birth, never to have an abortion, then I respect your personal decision. The reason why I said "Pro-life is anti-choice" is to simply state that a pro-lifer is more or less giving up their right to choice and instead always go with giving birth to a child. It's not much of a choice when there's only one option. Again, it's fine if you don't want an abortion and become pro-life, but what's not fine is when you force others to be pro-life as well.

#3 - Techno-naughty Blogs

I have a bad feeling this post is going to be long and boring. Let me see what I can do to make it better for the both of us.

Geekdad - Science/Technology
This "blog" is just a part of Wired which is a magazine dedicated, more or less, to catering current events to the technologically literate crowd. As this site is under Wired's control it has the same look and layout of the rest of Wired: minimalist without being too dull. The blog is pretty self explanatory; the author's a geek and a dad so his posts are mostly about combining the two. The content of the posts are fairly long similar to other news articles online, the pictures are normally amusing, and there is an audience, just no commenters. If I had more time and patience, I'm sure I would enjoy his blog since it has a feel of informal news from a simple geeky enthusiast.

Hot Air - News/Politics
This site is dedicated to vloging and right-wing reporting. The layout consists of headlines at the top (always a good place to put the new and important stuff) and the rest are videos with a few words of description in the titles. You won't find any lengthy news stories here despite it being under the News category. The videos, for all intents and purposes, have replaced actual written journalism which sets is apart from other news sites. This site is especially useful because it's an aggregation of filmed news from credible sources, you watch rather than read allowing the opportunity to multitask if you so wish, and it's easy to navigate since everything you need is right on the front page.

I don't know, what do YOU want to eat? - Lifestyle
No pictures, just recipes. That's about it. Not that uber simplicity is a bad thing but it does tend to limit readership. The posts seem to be submitted regularly, they have a little tid-bit about the dish before describing how to make it, and it's well organized by the type of dish. Even though the authors sometimes include their opinions about the dish, they aren't food critics so credibility for this blog is immaterial. Basically, it's an online recipe book with a few side comments.

Perez Hilton - Arts/Entertainment
Ah yes, "Arts/Entertainment:" the potpourri category. What can I say about Perez Hilton? It's a "gay" blog in more ways than one. Big photos with MSPaint notes drawn on them, short descriptions for the get-to-the-point readers, and a hub for celebrity gossip. The layout reminds me of those teen magazines like Seventeen or CosmoGirl only more provocative and in blog form. The side bars are a little cluttered but if you know where to look then you'll discover that this blog is organized well with a "starseeker" option to search for posts on selected celebrities. I can't say that I don't like the blog, in fact it's quite amusing. The credibility is questionable as it is a gossip blog but the stories aren't all that far from the truth either. I like this blog for it's ferocious bite-sized updates on famous people.

I hope I didn't turn you away with this post. I did my best to condense.

King of the New Media Hill

It always surprises me about how many odd coincidences occur in my life. When I'm eating my Hello Panda cookies I suddenly hear about pandas. I miss an important meeting and find out that it was canceled due to weather conditions. I'm taking this new media class and now I'm bombarded with new media articles on the web.

I stumbled upon GamePolitics which detailed who is the king of new media. The "media experiences" were music, video games, cable TV, DVDs, on-demand, and theater. Each of these were compared based on their initial costs, replayability, and cost per play. This wasn't really an official study, but the findings were stunning.


According to the chart, music is pretty inexpensive, has decent replayability since everyone listens to a purchased song more than once, and each play is extremely cheap. On-demand and theater are understandably expensive since it's a one time thing. DVDs and TV seem to be okay as customers normally watch DVD movies numerous times considering that they bought them and TV gets quite a few views for the average $75 charge bringing the cost per play to a relatively small number. But what's this? Video games have a pretty big intial purchase price at around $50 and yet get about 250 plays which means it only costs 20 cents each time!

Looks like video games are pretty lucrative for new media. I suppose it's a combination of getting information across to the public as all new media forms do and their high replay value since the users are heavily involved the outcome is determined by their actions changing the experience every time they play.

I'm wondering why the internet wasn't part of that list. I feel that that would beat out everything since it only costs about $50 per month and yet customers use it for hours everyday. Nonetheless, there's no denying that video games are way up on the new media chain of importance and influence.

#2 - That's Real Mature

Skimming the "Academic" Blogs, I found most of them to be rather dull. Practically all of them had posts that went on and on. As a reader, if I don't find something immediately interesting within the first few seconds of just looking at a blog then I move on. As far as the internet goes, I'm extremely impatient and A.D.D.. I simply do not have the diligence to read an entire post -- especially those longer than three paragraphs -- if I can tell early on that I'm either not going to gain anything worthwhile or be amused by reading it. Even as I write this academic-like post, I cannot resist checking email or wanting to surf the net. Such is the life of an Academic Blog in my eyes.

Crooked Timber doesn't fit within my spectrum of interest. It's plain with a black and white background and the occasional burgundy text. The content is also insipid. There's just nothing I really care for on that blog.

On the other hand, Bug Girl's Blog, is quite fetching although that might be contrary to others' opinions. I feel like I can relate to her oddball rants and, sometimes, completely random posts. I can tell that she's making a conscious effort to make her blog interesting and appealing. The blog has a simple white background and some green text, but, unlike the Crooked Timber, having simple text with charming content and images emphasizes the content which makes for a well balanced blog. Admittedly, her posts are on the silly side rather than a series of in-depth articles on insects, but that's what surprises me and keeps me coming back to see what other crazy antics she's capable of.

Finally, A Walk in the Words for me is like the baby bear in Goldie Locks: just the right amount of humor and intellectual journalism to hold my attention. The design is clean and not cluttered, posts are submitted regularly, and the content is original yet not overwhelming. This balance is key if bloggers want to be both professional and maintain readers such as myself. I just hope that can find that balance with this blog.

#1 - A Blogger Is You

Image source: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/wp-content/uploads/blogs.jpg

I'm no stranger to the internet. I've lived off of it for 10 years now. I've watched it grow to what it is today. I like to think that I helped shape the internet but I certainly know that it has defined me.

My blogs are more than my thoughts written down, or rather typed, each and every post is my contribution to the mass of knowledge and information the web offers to any individual with internet capable device. Just as The Economist noted about LiveJournal, blogs are open conversations. They're faster than email but more inviting and thought-provoking than instant messaging clients. If you knew me well enough, you'd know of my awful social skills. If I had the choice, I would never open my mouth to have a conversation because I prefer typing so much more.

In order to better define what a blog means to me, I could quote Why I Blog from The Atlantic the whole time. That one article explains my exact thoughts on blogs. "Instant and global self-publishing," "spontaneous expression of instant thought," "We blog now—as news reaches us, as facts emerge," etc. These statements are precisely what I think of when I write on my blogs. A blog is like one giant notepad that everyone has access to where one person incites a conversation and the community, whoever large the blogger wants it to be, adds to it no matter when or where any individual is.

I can keep my blog up forever or delete it whenever I want. A blog is my way of connecting with others and how everyone else connects to me. I never have to worry about whether I'm being politically correct or if I have all the facts straight like in print journalism. I have the complete and total freedom to post what I want when I want as long as I'm not severely hurting anyone in the process. I suppose I will go as far as to say that blogs are conversations 2.0.