tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40189762011-07-14T14:24:52.881-07:00A Blog for Learning About BlogsThis is a shared blog to introduce friends of mine to what blogging is about. Instead of describing a blog, I can invite them to join and give this blog a try. Feel free to read, but keep in mind this blog is really for who ever I a friend or few to test the waters.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comBlogger511100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-1096123956714849052004-09-25T07:52:00.000-07:002004-09-25T07:52:36.713-07:00Me as a blonde. Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-903421142003-02-18T19:26:00.000-08:002003-02-18T19:41:16.000-08:00As everyone who has a blog has probably heard by now, Google purchased blogger.com's parent company, Pyra Labs.
Frankly, I'm pretty excited about it. Two years ago, at a gathering of Internet folks organized by Jerry Michalski, I met Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan, co-founders of blogger.com. At the time, blogger.com had only(!) 70,000 registered users and had pretty much gone through a chunk Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-903419862003-02-18T18:53:00.000-08:002003-02-18T19:08:02.000-08:00Thanks Greg for inviting me to join. Now I'm off and running to learn and post more.Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18351228939315278718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-902651282003-02-01T17:07:00.000-08:002003-02-01T17:07:51.746-08:00Whew...I haven't been here for a while. And feel kind of awful about it.
I just discovered Gerard McGovern's rant on blog and found it a simple expression of how I feel. The simplicity of his blog is wonderful, the navigation suberb: Home, About, Articles, Fun, [Photo] Gallery, University. Pretty much a great resource right there, for himself, for family and friends, and for the rest of us.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901832882003-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:002003-01-20T14:40:32.000-08:00Just checking in after a hiatus. Greg, I'll be sending you my nearly finished article about electronic archiving. Anyhow, yes, I looked at the Pepys Diary, and found it very good--the thing that would make this kind of approach fly would be high-powered contributors who were really "into" Pepys as scholars or general interest people. Pepys is the perfect example of a good subject for online Allosaurushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00816331375756037489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3901710082003-01-11T06:43:00.000-08:002003-01-11T06:44:43.000-08:00I suppose we can consider the gauntlet thrown down. I added my comments onto Greg's blog. I had to create a new sign-in because I couldn't remember my old one, of course. It was probably Nathalie Dressed or something.
I don't recommend my own blog right now, because it's merely a series of snippets of itself assembled as a step towards creating the first draft of a new poetics. I must find Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901703422003-01-10T22:28:00.000-08:002003-01-10T22:29:04.000-08:00No doubt about it, Pepysdiary.com is required reading for all parties here. I am eager to hear your opinion especially, Al. I'm trying to get caught up with it tonight. But I'm already sold on the form. Here is my blog on Pepys Diary as a blog. Says I: "I am awed, and awed in the same manner I was in 1995 when I showed a colleague Wells Fargo's online banking site in Mosiac and explained (both toGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901554212003-01-07T17:16:00.000-08:002003-01-07T17:16:15.986-08:00This quote from Paul de Man's "Literary History and Literary Modernity" seemed particularly apropos for the act of blogging: "The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide" (Blindness and Insight 152).Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901497882003-01-06T15:47:00.000-08:002003-01-06T15:47:38.096-08:00Have you got a URL for that? I Googled around a little and couldn't find it -- it doesn't seem to be attached to the MLA site, which you'd think would be logical (though perhaps unwieldly, since they do have 800 sessions to worry about). Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3901492052003-01-06T13:20:00.000-08:002003-01-06T13:20:41.630-08:00I received an email from Patty Keefe Durso regarding the night-time MLA presentation, "Literary Studies in Cyberspace: Transforming Texts, Contexts, and Criticism".
Wrote she, "The session went really well, and despite the late hour we did draw a large crowd--as always, though, the time was too short and there just wasn't enough time for discussion, although many folks stayed well after the Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3901470122003-01-06T04:00:00.000-08:002003-01-06T04:02:58.000-08:00Peter, on a lark I signed on to the list that you mentioned, and you weren't kidding about either the volume or its very tightly knit nature. I feel like I've walked into a large family reunion where everyone's discussing people I've never met. It is nice to get 59 messages every time I sign on, but that's a little mitigated by the fact that none of them are really for me.
But back to bloggingJennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901441272003-01-05T05:54:00.000-08:002003-01-05T05:54:36.973-08:00Peter: I had actually tried clicking the "publish" button -- more than once, in fact. Naturally, when Greg came over and did the same thing, it obediently posted. Sometimes computers just need to feel the firm hand of the master. They're very childlike in that way.
Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901426822003-01-04T15:31:00.000-08:002003-01-04T15:38:02.000-08:00Hostile technology: Jennifer writes, "Note: neither Al's latest post nor mine is showing up on the web page."
Remember you have to click one of the buttons with "publish" in it to get posts transferred to the web page. It is a Blogger UI idiosyncracy I don't like. Instead of Blogger's "post" and "publish," other blogging systems use the terminology "preview" and "post," which makes more sense.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15926379056000216506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901379932003-01-03T08:45:00.000-08:002003-01-03T08:45:52.990-08:00I just want to say hi and tell you that it's great fun reading your blogs. I particularily enjoyed reading
of Jennifer's encounter with the passenger who shared her experiences of cyber-romance, or lack
there of.
Al, I loved your piece on elitism. I'll be checking in every once in a while.
Recent posts on poetry are really interesting to me since one of my mentors calls poets who
use Ellenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16328176877037593292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901350982003-01-02T14:17:00.000-08:002003-01-02T14:17:42.550-08:00One salutory effect of WiFi -- if you fail to engage the buggers, they'll vote with their browsers. On the one hand, the idea makes my skin crawl; on the other, I realize that this simply means that we'll have to accept that our audience is no longer captive -- and indeed never was -- and plan accordingly.Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901347262003-01-02T12:49:00.000-08:002003-01-02T12:49:38.613-08:00Uh-oh. It is starting. Slashdot has a post called Professors v. WiFi. Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901317292003-01-01T17:52:00.000-08:002003-01-02T06:25:00.000-08:00A quick note, though I am crippled by a headache and a cold. Somewhere down there in the archives I bitched that Peter's and Greg's references were easily linked, whereas mine are all in books, books, books. Turns out that's not necessarily the case. As an experiment, I linked the hell out of an entry in my own blog, Revolt and Resignation, and discovered that every blessed thing I mentioned Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-901275102002-12-31T09:35:00.000-08:002002-12-31T09:35:57.460-08:00Happy New Year from the Elitist Allosaurus
Actually, I think elitism might be a good part of the cultural mix today -- rather like dandyism in mid-to-late Victorian England (Dickens' fancy suits and Wilde's green carnation in the lapel), for instance. Not a bad idea to have a few elitists around for the sake of variety, I think... I suppose I played this role on the way home, 35,000 feet up in Allosaurushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00816331375756037489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900955492002-12-27T12:26:00.000-08:002002-12-27T12:26:02.540-08:00One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15926379056000216506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900955232002-12-27T12:14:00.000-08:002002-12-27T12:26:24.000-08:00It's interesting how this blog is being a discussion amongst the authors -- blogs usually play to the audience (whoever that is) a little more.
I kind of like it.
Open Source: another, less-confusing name for Free Software (where "free" means freedom, not zero-cost). Basically, the idea is that if you give people the source code for a program when you distribute it, as well as the compiled Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15926379056000216506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900931082002-12-26T15:18:00.000-08:002002-12-26T15:18:02.336-08:00I see what you mean about the Samuel Pepys blog. I would have chosen the letters of Vincent Van Gogh, but the principle is the same. I also like the idea of someone who is "far from an expert" taking on the task. It might be interesting to do the same with a translation, either a serial translation of a long work (I dibs Schlegel"s Lucinde) or daily translations of short poems (Paul Celan, forJennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900926252002-12-26T12:03:00.000-08:002002-12-26T12:16:07.000-08:00I, too, am new to blogs and am just beginning to understand how to use them. It is helpful, at least for me, to think of a blog as more for my own edification and as a tool for browsing the Internet than as a way to publish thoughts to others to read.
"Blogrolling" is the term used for tracking other blogs that are of interest. The blogroll generally appears as a along side the blog. Blogrolls Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3900910672002-12-25T20:30:00.000-08:002002-12-25T20:30:47.703-08:00It's called revoltandresignation, and already has a rather brilliant insight about structural linguistics on it.Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3900902282002-12-25T09:40:00.000-08:002002-12-25T09:40:03.546-08:00Jennifer, what is your new blog called? The tool we are using, blogger.com, does not support comments at the current time. There are other tools that you can used to capture comments. To do so requires manipulating your blog's template. I can help you with that.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900897712002-12-25T02:33:00.000-08:002002-12-25T02:40:02.000-08:00By the way, now that I've created my own blog just for hoots, how do I make it possible for random folks to sign in and post comments? Remember that I don't know jack about HTML and such, though I'm a quick study. I did make it a public blog. Also, how do I add links? I tried going to my webpage and right-clicking, but that quickly devolved into a nightmarish series of screens interrogating Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900897472002-12-25T02:03:00.000-08:002002-12-25T02:08:45.000-08:00Certainly every writer aspires to be quotable.
A couple of notes about your post, Greg. I'm going to begin with what I don't entirely understand, and move on to what is, for me, firmer territory.
1. What the heck is "open source"? I'm beginning to get a sense from the context, but as I tell my students, the meaning you derive "from the context" is often simply a reflection of your own Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900894032002-12-24T20:06:00.000-08:002002-12-24T20:06:08.390-08:00Your effort is fearless, Jennifer, and your writing quotable: "Finally, if it’s true that 94% of everything is shit, then that’s an argument for more cultural production, not less." Wonderful. How much coal is required for a single diamond? How much decaying plant (and time) to make oil? I shall keep that gem ever ready.
On a logistical note, I often do a quick "select all, copy all" (CTL+A; CTLGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900889452002-12-24T15:23:00.000-08:002002-12-24T15:24:58.000-08:00What frustration. I typed a brilliant post, only to be thrown off Earthlink and lose the whole thing. I’ll try to reproduce it, however, because I grudge no effort.
I was reading The Communist Manifesto, and as it happens Marx & Engels have something to contribute to this debate. In his 1888 preface, Engels summarizes the argument of the Manifesto as follows: “[I]n every historical epoch, Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3900867902002-12-23T23:43:00.000-08:002002-12-23T23:43:13.886-08:00Of Books, Men, and Utterances
I'll buy that for a dollar: most stuff written or otherwise is crap. Or crap as far as I'm concerned. Shit, most of the stuff that's published isn't even English -- how useful is that?
Before taking on Huxley's point more seriously, let me continue to stay up way to late by first point ought the below little gem I found on the Internet (while reading blogs) and Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900831362002-12-22T21:51:00.000-08:002002-12-23T22:13:20.000-08:00Just for fun, here's a comical variation by Aldous Huxley on the old idea that 95 percent of everything is trash:
"Advances in technology have led...to vulgarity.... Process reproduction and the rotary press have made possible the indefinite multiplication of writing and pictures. Universal education and relatively high wages have created an enormous public who know how to read and can afford Allosaurushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00816331375756037489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900743602002-12-19T20:53:00.000-08:002002-12-19T20:53:00.213-08:00These are interesting points you both make, Jennifer and Greg: yes, I would say that I am at least open to the possibilities of the new net forms that are coming along. Jennifer asked me to summarize an article I'm writing about the use of electronic media as a means of preservation for some of the wonderful texts written during the nineteenth century -- something that interests me because I am Allosaurushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00816331375756037489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900736412002-12-19T15:53:00.000-08:002002-12-19T15:53:19.640-08:00Greg writes: "Giving primary responsibility to 'texts' requires giving responsibility to several layered technologies and conventions developed over hundreds of years." I think this is a crucial point, and one that came up in a phone conversation between me and Al just a few minutes ago. A text can't be fully divorced from its means of production; new technologies open up new possibilities and Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900731482002-12-19T13:25:00.000-08:002002-12-19T13:25:49.090-08:00Jennifer - Congratulations on correctly building your first link. (You can always see what the blog looks like by clicking the "view web page" button next to the tabs in Blogger's posting interface.) Welcome, Al. Jennifer has spoken well of you. I'm glad you are giving this a try, even if reluctantly, and being candid regarding your feelings.
Jennifer's reply to your observations, Al, are much Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900665262002-12-18T05:12:00.000-08:002002-12-18T05:14:59.000-08:00Al, I share some of your skepticism about the use of technology in the classroom. Blogging is (if I understand it correctly) a little different from an electronic bulletin board, although that's how we're using it here. For a good, if quirky, example of a blog, you could look at the intensely weird and personal weblog of my friend Thomas Strickland at Grabbing Sand. It's the first one I ever Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-3900640192002-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:002002-12-17T12:53:18.966-08:00Hello Jennifer,
Allosaurus here. Just wanted to let you know that I managed to log on after the cell phone cut us off. Well, on the issue of the academic uses in this medium, I was saying that at present I'm not convinced I really want to structure and assign cyber-conversation about the texts we do in class -- this is partly a personality thing with me; I've never been much of a spontaneous Allosaurushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00816331375756037489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900636352002-12-17T11:28:00.000-08:002002-12-17T11:29:13.000-08:00And another thing: for a long time now I've wanted to start a performance art group called the Customer Service Department that would collect complaints about, say, Verizon Wireless or AOL (I have running battles on with both corporations) and take swift, appropriate, public measures to punish said companies. The punishment would have to be dramatic and appropriate, and would have to cost the Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900627302002-12-17T07:45:00.000-08:002002-12-17T07:47:42.000-08:00I looked at the Intro to Blogging that you recommended, Peter, and was struck by several points.
1. The constant comparisons to talk radio. That creeps me out, since the level of discourse on talk radio is so shockingly low, and it functions primarily to confirm people's prejudices. This is, in part, because ringmasters like Larry Elder and that evil O'Reilly character systematically beat downJennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900611882002-12-16T21:22:00.000-08:002002-12-16T21:25:30.000-08:00Jennifer wrote, "Now I'm really regretting the inability to interlace our remarks." And Peter has offered a simple solution: copy and pasting with quotes. A luxury once had - interlaced comments from emails - becomes a necessity. I realized, too, and thought I'd make a quick comment (before I knew Peter had posted) that people who used letters for correspondence were faced with the same inabilityGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900607782002-12-16T18:54:00.000-08:002002-12-16T18:54:11.223-08:00Jennifer writes, "(though it took a good 5 seconds of my valuable time to clear my screen of pop-ups afterwards -- damn it)."
Sorry, Jennifer -- I surf with Proxomitron on, blocking pop-ups and making all my cookies session-only. More background at AdBlockingProxyServers, although all the software listed is for Windows. (Since it's a wiki page, it'll happily accept additions, though.)Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15926379056000216506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900607632002-12-16T18:48:00.000-08:002002-12-16T18:48:26.666-08:00George Siemens has a pretty good intro to blogging at The Art of Blogging. I've added the link to my IntroductionToBlogging wiki page.
Cool quote: "The ecosystem of blogging is more important than the content being generated."
Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15926379056000216506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900600062002-12-16T15:07:00.000-08:002002-12-16T15:07:41.633-08:00I finally took the time to look at the blog links on Pete's wiki, and I think I'm a little more clear about the phenomenon now (though it took a good 5 seconds of my valuable time to clear my screen of pop-ups afterwards -- damn it). Interesting that one of the authors speculates about why leftist academics don't blog. I suppose I'm in the process of finding out why not. Along those lines, Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900579712002-12-16T07:26:00.000-08:002002-12-16T07:26:09.246-08:00Now I'm really regretting the inability to interlace our remarks. I want to start with a meta-observation about the nature of blogging. To wit: so far I've invited four academics. Of these, three have answered, and two are deeply resistant to joining the discussion we're having. I had a 45-minute long conversation on the subject with Al while I was waiting to board in the Orlando airport. HeJennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900555402002-12-15T14:28:00.000-08:002002-12-15T14:46:35.000-08:00Jennifer, get me a gig at ERAU, so we can chew slowly over your points...Or organize an evening dinner discussion with some friends at MLA when you are in town. (English and Literary Professors Visit Computer Art Gallery. Details at 11...). Seriously, though.
It is interesting to describe language as a "shared convention." It makes me think about the unshared (private) aspects, which I like a Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900523712002-12-14T08:42:00.000-08:002002-12-14T08:42:42.973-08:00I sent an invitation to Alfred Drake, another UC Irvine graduate. He's a Victorianist with training in critical theory who maintains a web archive of Victorian first editions. Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900503692002-12-13T13:49:00.000-08:002002-12-13T13:49:02.263-08:00OK, Greg, so you've convinced me. I looked at the two websites you listed, and I have to agree that my idea of the computer as medium has been limited by the notion of language -- either language as it is traditionally spoken or written, or, at its furthest reaches, computer language. I must see the gallery show mentioned on flong.com while I'm in NYC.
Levy's alphabet project raises the Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900498352002-12-13T11:51:00.000-08:002002-12-13T11:52:23.000-08:00Hi, I'm Pete. I wanted to put a pointer here to a page on my wiki: IntroductionToBlogging.Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15926379056000216506noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900496622002-12-13T11:14:00.000-08:002002-12-13T11:14:00.636-08:00Inviting others to join
Sure. I was imagining this blog as to be a sandbox to let people try blogging rather than a topic-focused blog. But the whole point is to go with the flow, right? So if this turns into a discussion on these topics temporarily or permamently, why not?
I've made you and administrator. So you should be able to see/click the "Team" icon in your menu and from that screen Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900496442002-12-13T11:09:00.000-08:002002-12-13T11:09:16.613-08:00Jennifer, you truly catch on quickly and take things interesting directions. I want to whine for the moment about how this particular channel of communication, as it is configured, makes it difficult for me to interspace my replies to your observations. But, alas, each form has its optimizations and limitations.
Communities are dismayingly self-policing. Electronic communities, in part because Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900477892002-12-13T03:12:00.000-08:002002-12-13T03:12:29.726-08:00Actually, Greg, after reading your email I realized that Georgia Tech has and uses a wiki for classes to develop group projects. They spoke of it as a sort of simplified way to create a web page, but I'm pretty sure it was what you describe. I never got involved because a local lecturer ran the server and it was often down; also, I had a creepy feeling about students being able to edit each Jennifernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900470582002-12-12T20:44:00.000-08:002002-12-12T20:46:46.000-08:00My first newbie will be Jennifer Thompson. I just sent her the invitation.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4018976.post-900470092002-12-12T20:19:00.000-08:002002-12-12T20:19:21.276-08:00All right! I'm creating a blog to show my friends about blogs. What could be easier? Each time I have a friend who wants to learn about blogs, I'll just invite them to join this blog and post away!Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09726993976010872551noreply@blogger.com