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I find irony a little more complex than most, especially when dealing with work done by Virginia Woolf. Woolf is a very deep, very wise and very strong willed woman, and I thank her for that. She holds so many cards and knows exactly when to fold, bluff or take the entire pot. Woolf believes in women and gives women the credit they don’t always receive from men, even in today’s ‘more accepting’ world.
I really like the quote “London was like a machine. We were all being shot backwards and forwards…” (page 26) I felt as though that quote was one of the first ironies of the chapter. It seemed to me that Woolf was trying to show us that she almost wasn’t getting anywhere, that it was like she was sitting in a rocking chair, desperately trying to move, but was at a stand still.
Another quote I found quite ironic was (page 27) “Women do not write books about men-a fact that I could not help welcoming with relief, for if I had first to read all that men had written about women, then all that women had written about men, the aloe that flowers once in a hundred years would flower twice before I could set pen to paper.” I find this quote very strong and shows the reader(s) exactly what Woolf believes in. This statement is ironic because it shows men’s vast interest in women, how we think, why we do the things we do, the way we look, etc and it shows that women could really careless about what men are doing with their lives and what they think about.
The final quote I found was “Rich people, for example, are often angry because they suspect that the poor want to seize their wealth.” (page 34). Can this possibly be all she means? Does that statement really have anything to do with wealthy men? Probably not. I personally think that Woolf is trying to say that in a way, men are jealous of women and don’t know how to deal with that, so they treat women as the weaker sex and as though we aren’t important in the world.

My favorite blog post of the week came Jezebel and was about a pregnant man and whether or not he is faking a pregnancy or its really happening, and this man is making history. From personal experience, living life, learning basic things as a child, etc. Your first response would automatically be that this guy is full of crap. Scientifically speaking, men cannot get pregnant; it’s physically impossible for that to happen. Men do not possess the body parts that women have that are required to carry a child. Such as a womb, a vagina, etc. I truly don’t have any idea what is going on with this man, but according to the article, the man’s gynecologist confirmed that fact that he is indeed pregnant.
Even with the amazing advances we’ve been able to make in modern medicine, science and everyday life, I never thought it would be possible for a man to become pregnant, especially since we’ve got such a long way to go with developing this country, the country that is supposed to be the greatest country in the world still has so much to do for global warming, saving energy, lowering the population, lower the nation debt, etc. When would researchers have spare time to find a way to make a man be able to give birth to a child? Personally, with all the proof that says a men becoming pregnant is false, I’m going to have to believe that, after all, his doctor could have been paid off to lie or could just simply be mistaken.

Personally, if the Presidential Elections were tomorrow, I would be more persuaded by The Daily Kos, www.dailykos.com because they had more information on the candidates whereas Wonkette, www.wonkette.com mainly had information about President Bush. Bush is already our president, why should I be too concerned with what he is doing? Bush has already made his contribution to destroying the world, and he won’t be in office for too much longer, so what other havoc could he wreak? I want to know what is going on in the world with the 2008 Presidential Candidates and what they plan to do to make the world a better place.
As of right now, the United States as a whole are basically up shits creek, and I want a President to do the best they can to fix that. I hate the people that vote for a candidate for stupid reasons. For example, I have friends that plan on voting for Barack Obama because he is the best looking candidate, not because they agree with what he stands for or even because they are Democrats, they are strictly going to vote for him because he is the best looking. To me, that is so completely lame, it isn’t eve funny. I almost didn’t know how to respond to that when they told me their reasons. You should have a better reason to vote for someone; otherwise you’re vote is basically useless. You could be voting for a candidate who believes in completely different things than you do, but you are throwing that out the window because you were to lazy to do the research or just don’t give a damn.

I chose to look a Jezebel for this assignment. Jezebel follows the first two rules from the Corporate Weblog Manifesto, and I assume that the Manifesto ordered the rules by most important. The first rule from the Manifesto is to tell the truth and Jezebel does nothing but tell the truth, the good, bad, the ugly and information celebrities would rather not be published.
The second rule from the Manifesto is to post fast on good or bad news fast. Jezebel, from my experience (from following the “Blogs I’m Watching”) is one of the fastest to post on day-to-day news and they prefer not necessarily bad news but juicy gossip that will draw the attention from the viewers.
I don’t think that Jezebel follows Manifesto rule number 9, which is to underpromise and overdeliver. As much as I like Jezebel and all of the celebrity gossip they provide, they don’t promise a whole heck of a lot. You know that you will receive gossipy information that some people care about but that’s about it.

And after reading the Nick Denton interview, I was somewhat intrigued, I felt as though everything Denton had to say was interesting and made since. Also, I found it very interesting that Denton uses unknown writers as apposed to really well known newspaper or magazine journalists because he believes that they are “hungrier” than other writers. To put it bluntly, I liked when the interviewer asked Denton a question about him not believing in blogging is/will become a big “business,” yet he’s a blog entrepreneur and then Denton replied with “I don’t see why that’s controversial.” And I completely agree that statement, Denton could just have a passion for blogging and like he said later in the interview, if he has to have another job to support his blogging “career,” he will. Also I found it intriguing that Denton talked about “unbundling” and what he meant by that was without the help of blogging, people would be forced to look through newspapers and see what they (the editors) thought was important first, without any say in the matter. Whereas with blogging you get to pick and chose where you want to put the articles without the editor making the decision for you.

I personally believe that personal blogging is more important than business blogging because people generally know the large companies that exist and wouldn’t really be more persuaded to buy the product because a blog tells them to anymore would they if a commercial told them to. Personal blogs to me are very interesting because I always tend to “route” for the underdog or the little guy, basically I would support a local artist before I would a mainstream artist. I would go to a local coffee shop in a town before I go to a chain coffee shop, etc.
I tend to support the “underdog” or “little guy” when it comes to blogs because I have a personal blog (besides this one) and I would like people to give someone like me, an unknown, someone who isn’t famous, a chance. “…venture capitalists have poured in only three percent of what they poured into dot coms in 1999. And the blogging trend is powered by ‘normal folks,’ while the dot-com era was powered by companies.” I think this quote sums up what I’m trying to say, blogs are for “normal folks.” Companies can have all the dot-coms they want, I almost feel that big corporate companies take advantage of weaker companies or “average Joes and Janes.”
Just because “normal folks,” “average Joes/Janes,” etc. don’t have a lot of money or social status doesn’t mean that what they have to say isn’t important. I have many beliefs, thoughts feeling and concerns and who’s to say that what I think or what the next person thinks isn’t important and interesting?

My favorite blog of the week was The Hills Season Three Preview: Justin Bobby Strikes Back from Jezebel. I found the video more entertaining than the actual article itself, if you can even categorize it as an article. Jessica aka um_ok from Jezebel is clearly a huge fan of The Hills; she begins the article with “Oh my god, you guys, the new season of The Hills looks aaaamazing” and goes on from there. You can clearly tell whom she does and doesn’t like on the show from her use of language and attitude towards them, but don’t we all have favorite T.V. show characters?
I think to truly appreciate this post; I’d have to be a fan of The Hills or a former watcher of Laguna Beach. The show consists of drama, drama, drama, and since I tend to be a ‘drama free zone,’ I enjoy watching the show, and laugh at all the drama that could be in my life that I refuse to allow into mine. The basis for the show is Lauren Conrad, the main “character” and her life in Los Angeles, her friends, family, potential guys and of course, drama. The people on the show are very rich and live a very glamorous lifestyle which many fans are jealous of, this show is focused toward teenage to upper 20-something year old girls.

The blog I looked at was http://english.ohmynews.com/ and the website as a whole is a good blend of articles, pictures, polls and interesting facts. I really like how the website mainly focuses on issues in other countries. Many of the websites I tend to visit aren’t international, and its nice to know that if I want to learn more about other countries, there is an easy and convenient way for me to do so.
I believe that Mackinon’s statements about OhmyNews are correct, I believe that Roh Moo-hyun was elected mainly because of the exposure he received from OhmyNews. This is very much a political blog, and if Roh Moo-hyun’s exposure to Korean voters helped him win the election, more power to him. Also, this blog helps because word of mouth tends to spread like wildfire, and the more people hear his name, the more likely they are to remember him when it comes time to cast their vote.
Someone who doesn’t agree with what I’ve said could say something like this: I used to think that foreign affairs weren’t important because the U.S. really isn’t affected by what goes on in the rest of the world, but after doing some research, I’ve come to realize that just because Roh Moo-hyun being elected president doesn’t directly affect me, it affects thousands upon thousands of people around me, and we are all connected, if something bad happens in one place, there is the potential of the ‘domino effect,’ we could all be in danger.

I found Arianna Huffingtons (a well known author and columnist) beliefs about blogging very interesting. Though I concede that the majority of mainstream media tend to focus on the “big thing,” the giant breaking story, I still insist that mainstream media isn’t suffering from attention deficit disorder. The viewers want to know as much as they can about “big, breaking stories.” The news stations, newspapers, magazines, and other forms of news media wouldn’t repeatedly play the same story over and over if it wasn’t breaking news and the viewers wanted to know everything they could about the story. Just like anything else that is going to be seem by the media, it wouldn’t be aired or printed if the editors didn’t think that the viewers would be interested, and that the event or story would bring in even more viewers once word of mouth got around. Mainstream media does everything for a reason, nothing is an accident.

After reading Emily Nassbaum’s “My So-Called Blog,” my position on parental intrusion on teenager’s online “life” hasn’t changed. I strongly believe that teenagers should be treated with the same respect that their parents would demand. No matter how young they are or how immature they seem to be, they are still people and deserve privacy like any other person.
It really drives me nuts that “teenagers” are almost considered a different specie when it comes to internet us, parents and teachers forget that have guided and taught these kids right from wrong, what is good and what is bad their entire lives. The second they get on the Internet, they aren’t going to throw caution to the wind and be like “screw you, I’m going to do stupid things just to piss you off.” What these parents, teachers, counselors, etc. are doing to these kids is basically a form of prejudice.
I don’t think I will ever be convinced that teenagers Internet use should constantly be monitored. A few years ago, I was threatened online by someone I used to work with and the first thing I did was tell my dad and we handled the situation accordingly. He wasn’t mad at me, I didn’t do anything wrong, he was angry with the situation and upset that someone who was supposed to be my friend would treat me that way. To be honest, he was proud that I had the courage to trust him and his judgment.
According to Emily Nassbaum, a well-known journalist said, “In daily life, most bloggers don’t talk about what they say online. One boy engaged in vociferous debates on Mideast policy with another blogger, a senior a year ahead of him. Yet the two never spoke in school, going only so far as to make eye contact in the halls.” I completely disagree with that statement, unlike MySpace or Facebook where most people who have either are “friends” with people they don’t actually talk to or really are friends with, almost everyone I know who has a blog only allows their closest friends read it. Most of my friends blogs consist of random things they did that day or recently or whatever is going on in their lives. Yes, it’s an online journal, so a person really can’t write things that are too personal, yet sometimes you forget that it is online, or just don’t care and write things that you normally wouldn’t, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
I don’t think anyone should assume anything because then you literally make and ass out of you and me (ass-u-me). With the situation I was in, I could have done what I did, or kept it to myself, but I was nervous and knew I shouldn’t have to deal with something like that. People need to give credit where credits due, and teenagers deserve the credit.