Blogging About Blogging

When I first heard that a major part of our AS class this year was going to be our blog, I was really apprehensive.  First, I am not the most technology driven person- I find it to be a great accomplishment when I get a DVD to actually play on the TV.  Also I didn't watch the news or have any constant flow of outside information.  I told myself that I didn't have time but I really just didn't want to take the effort to check for it.  This lack of following the news early on in the year is reflected in my early blog posts.  In my first three blog posts (Is There Such a Thing as Coincidence, The Means Not the End, and The Most Interesting) I did not reference a single news story.  All of the blog posts were based off of my personal experiences and event. And while this is not an entirely negative blog topic, it severely limited my audience.  As I have written more blogs, I continue to link them to more modern universal issues.  For example my blog post Connotations of Actions talks about the acceptance of gay and lesbians, which is a topic very present in the news today.  

A similarity between my different blog posts is that I always directly relate them to the main topic in class.  I will always write my blog post after looking at my class notes for the week and then finding an article online to support it.  A change to my blog that I would like to see in the future is finding a news topic or article before linking it to class.  By doing that I would be able to widen my topics in my blog and go deeper into our class discussions then just "in class we have been talking a lot about connotations of different words" (Connotations of Actions) or "in class this week we started talking about our interview subjects" (The Most Interesting).  By digging deeper than just the direct topic in class discussions I will be able to address many different topics and have empathy for my readers other than just fellow AS students.

My favorite part of the blogging process has been the commenting.  I often comment on my peer's blog before I comment on my own.  In the beginning of the year I was very cautious to not disagree with someone or make them feel bad.  Now I feel confident challenging the statements of my classmates and enjoy when they challenge what I have to say.  Commenting also continues a discussion on a topic that not everyone could have time to voice their opinions on in class.

Overall I have really enjoyed blogging.  Although sometimes it is a pain to log on and try to get inspired, more and more often I am getting ideas for blog post in everyday life and without even trying.  Blogging has got me to look at stories with a more critical eye and be wary of what I read and see.

The blog post I would like you to grade is my most current blog post, Creative Liberty or "A Million Little Lies".  It was posted on Sunday, October 24, 2010.

Creative Liberty or "A Million Little Lies"

In class this week we were just assigned a new project.  As excited as we all were (just a little touch of sarcasm- haven't yet mastered the art of an innuendo in the written word), this new project was actually intriguing.  We were told to find specific evidence of differences in Frederick Douglass's three memoirs:  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and finally The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892).  When reading the three separate excerpts, Dani (my partner) and I were shocked and confused to find that as time went on the narrative edits got more and more detailed.  By the time forty-seven years had past, Douglass's memoir had nearly doubled in size.  And as I have gathered from personal experience, I am pretty sure that people's memories work opposite from that and didn't understand how that could happen.

While talking about the different levels of detail in the memoirs with Dani, I remembered from about seven years ago the book, A Million Little Pieces.  It was a book about James Frey's personal journey dealing with the hardships of overcoming a severe alcohol and drug addiction.  I also remember that it was 'all the rage' and even appeared on Oprah's Book Club.  I also remember the controversy surrounding the book that surfaced later.  After checking to see if his story checked out factually, many (including Oprah) were stunned to find out that many of the experiences vividly described in the memoir were completely fabricated.  James Frey now includes an apology to readers in the first few pages of the book (see Amazon link above).  When I was a young girl I could not understand what would drive someone to do such a thing.  But now that I am older (and somewhat wiser) I believe I understand.  He did it to add a shock element. He did it so his journey would be extreme.  He fabricated all of those hardships in order to seem like a more reliable source.  By exaggerating how bad he had it he made sure that his story would not be one to be looked over.  He wanted it to be a lesson and a warning, he wanted it to make a distinct point and so he fabricated evidence in order to make it unforgettable.
 
Now, I am not saying that Frederick Douglass has fabricated his story in order to make it more believable; I truly believe that the events described in the narrative are actually those of Frederick Douglass.  But what I am unsure about is how much 'creative liberty' Douglass took when fleshing out his memoir.  In the span of forty-seven years much is forgotten yet his narrative nearly doubles in size.  How much is actual memory and how much is exaggeration in order to set the scene or make his point.  How much more willing are authors to add details that they cannot verify themselves in order to prove something?  How does the author's agenda shape their writing?

Connotations of Actions

In class we have been talking a lot about connotations of words.   We have been discussing the difference between whitewashing a house or fence to rid the paint (denotation) or the unification and cover up of something that is embarrassing or looked down upon (connotation).  I started to think about not only connotations of words but actions as well.  When I was checking my email (on AOL) in my news feed an article came up titled Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids.  This article talks about a recent study to prove whether or not being gay is a nurtured way of life.  It mainly features two men and a women: Walter Shumm, the researcher, Paul Cameron, an strong anti-gay voice in research, and Abbie Goldberg, a psychology professor.  Instead of focusing on the research itself the article focuses mainly on the connotations of doing the research in the first place.  Abbie Goldberg remarks that, "The fundamental problem with this [type of meta-analysis] is such samples tend to be biased".  If the results have a direct relation to the data sample pool, it is possible for the researcher to skew the results in their direction.  The connotations of performing this test with this result imply the researcher is against gay adoption or rights.  The research made me wonder how do connotations of actions differ from connotations of words? And how does the personal aspect of connotations of actions affect the way we view others?  

What is Ideal?

This past weekend my friend and I were bored and so we bought a movie called The Joneses.  It was the story of a 'family' of individuals hired as salesmen for companies.  These people pretended to be the perfect family so that everyone would want what they had.  The group of people never had any problems, were never unsure of themselves and lived life in the most 'ideal' way possible.  Just by being the most flawless family everyone in the neighborhood wanted to be exactly like them.  The whole neighborhood tried to copy this family because they were the epitome of what happiness meant.  The family itself was product placement.
In class this week we started talking about teachers and students.  Mr. Bolos brought up that studies show that teachers believe that the ideal student should be docile.  They believe that the 'ideal' student should be calm, passive and nonthreatening.  This movie and study got me thinking about what ideal means to different people.  In the movie, ideal meant the most money and clothes without any problems or anything that abnormal, and according to Mr Bolos' study the ideal student is very much the same.  Has the capacity to learn and is very generic and calm without being intimidating or rebellious.

Is there a definition of ideal that is universal to all people and situations?  Is the ideal person also the least variable and abnormal?  If this is true, how does our society reflect what is desired?