When you comment on my blog, please comment on the tone of it. I tried to lighten the tone and even add some sarcasm, but please let me know if this lowers the academic nature of my blog or even makes it not academic at all. Thanks for the feedback.
The Doomsday Clock:
Bad Astronomy,
Good Paranoia.
For the science/technology link, I viewed the Bad Astronomy blog and I really, really enjoyed this blog. It managed to combine science with humor/fun, which I had rarely seen in my many years of undergraduate science studies. Yes I always found science fun, but somehow most professors managed to produce work that was only dry. This blog, though, stressed sarcastic comedy, which I really love and which actually makes me laugh out loud (I apologize to the people sitting in the Grad library reference room right next to me). To me though, that is the key for a science blog, to combine science, which most people perceive as boring and dry, with a fun or even comedic twist. My hypothesis is that this blog is a success (bad humor absolutely intended). Also, this blog has some type of picture in every entry, which I seem to see in every blog.
For my arts/entertainment blog, I went to the Perez Hilton blog. When I first went to this site, I had low expectations. I guess you could say the arts aren’t on my top things to look at online, and Extra is not on the list of my favorite TV shows. Much the science website from above did, this one managed to intertwine it basic topic (entertainment) with a new twist, in this case outrageous humor. Whether it’s a doctored picture or a picture that is of something so awful that someone should doctor it, this website combines tasteless comedy with celebrity gossip, and if I will be focusing on celebrity gossip, that is actually how I will like it. Watch out that guy from The Soup, whose name I can’t remember; that person who I don’t know that runs this blog may be taking your job soon.
This was officially my first time on a cooking blog, but scrolling up and down I don’t know, what do YOU want to eat is making me hungry. The recipes all look incredible, and staring at that page for a few minutes makes me seriously wonder why there are no food stores in the graduate library. Come on Michigan, get it together here. Anyway, the recipes and ingredient lists look fairly straight forward, which makes it easier for someone with little cooking experience. Of note on this blog, though, was that there were no pictures. This could be flaw or a technique. The author might just want you to imagine how the foods would look; or even more unique would be since you can’t see a photo of the recipe, you are forced to imagine how it would smell or taste (saliva cleanup on aisle 3). This is either a brilliant move by the author, or the author is just lazy. Either way, it’s time for the last blog review before I start to sprinkle my hand with some virgin olive oil and basil and take a bite.
And now for my own personal blog choice in the politics realm: www.umichdems.com/blog. I have blogged and continue to blog for this website. This is (to the best of my knowledge) the most popular College Democrats blog in the country and for most of last year was the 9th most popular hit on Google when you typed in “College Ass”. This blog combines multiples articles every day from a variety of College Democrats at the U of M, with postings ranging from weekly series to random posts. The topics, although mostly political, range a broad spectrum, from the healthcare debate to the high price of road salt. I find all of these articles intriguing with zero errors anywhere; no, I’m actually just kidding but if I didn’t say that our editor might beat me (also just kidding, sorry Dana). Nonetheless, this blog generates a considerate amount of traffic and many comments for a blog of this size. It also has a picture or video for nearly every blog post,
which brings me to my final conclusions. Almost every blog has a picture or video accompany every blog entry, which emphasizes the need for aesthetic information more than aesthetic backgrounds. I say this because the background on almost every blog was bland. This was a plus for me, though, since it made me focus more on the text than on bright flashy colors. The only blog that attempted to portray even limited validity was the science blog, which I expected, because the sciences are slow to evolve and even some degree of credibility is needed in the scientific community (just look at how quickly Bug Girl got stomped on; again, awful humor intended). And finally, the comments. The comments are just as haphazard or coherent as the comment author chose to make them. On all four blogs, I ran across bunches of unrelated comments that were about just as relevant as a Mike Gravel campaign speech. I also ran across many comments that added some value to the discussion. These were actually beneficial and added to the debate. Finally, I saw some comments that were so ridiculous that they made me question why we have a right to free speech in this country. Bottom line: blogs are sweet, and so is that YOUTUBE SONG THAT EVERYONE MUST WATCH AT THE TOP OF THIS ENTRY.
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about the Bad Astronomy Blog. Besides the fact that I am not really into science, I liked the way the blog incorporated humor and actually made me interested in what the blog was saying. Its funny to read your views on such blogs as Perez Hilton, as you went in not looking forward to it, and came out thinking it was "tasteless comedy." As far as your tone throughout your blog, I feel you do a good job incorporating your own thoughts while not straying to far away from totally casual.
Dayna
First of all, don't worry about your tone/style. It fits quite well into the blogosphere, and you manage to be sarcastic without sounding snarky, which apparently is incredibly difficult for some users.
ReplyDeleteYou jokingly question the first amendment in your post, and I have to agree with you; there have definitely been times when Youtube users say the most hateful, disrespectful comments--things you could never say to anyone face-to-face. Often, it depresses me and makes me never want to read the comments of any blog post or Youtube video, even if there is some intelligent discourse hiding in there. I am glad that Blogger allows for users to moderate the comments and block some of them, but what about blogs with massive amounts of traffic?
The video, by the way, was creative and funny.