Reflection 1

“What I expect to get out of this class” –or– “What blogging means to me” –or– “Meta-blogging”

Besides expanding my views of the world, identifying/implementing effective change, taking part in intellectual conversation, etc. , two things that I expect to get out of my time in CHP 396 are an understanding of blogging and an ability to meaningfully contribute to the blogosphere.

I have never written a blog before, and indeed have never even kept a journal. The form, caught somewhere between a formal essay and a personal self-dialogue, is entirely foreign to me. I am driven by finding solutions to problems. I have never felt the urge to write my thoughts out in an extended fashion and publish them for the world to read; it strikes me as somewhat exhibitionist. I also question the validity of my opinions constantly, and am loath to share them; I am most comfortable with facts.

A brief flirtation with Google unearthed this post from Dave Sherman about the purpose of blogging, and that led to this post and this post from Dr. Frank Buck’s Blog, as well as others. It seems to me that some people blog purely to say what is on their minds, but that the most successful and most interesting blogs have a unifying theme, be it an ongoing critique of the American educational system, horticultural tips, the answers to the daily crossword puzzle, or whatever. A “personal blog”, in which the writer merely writes about whatever he is thinking about, is the form that I have in the past most associated with blogging; it is this form that has always kept me away because it strikes me as tedious, pretentious, and boring to read. With this blog, the theme will be reflections on readings for class. I hope that this will allow me to avoid the sort of mental dumping that repulses me, although this post is turning out to be less grounded and less interesting than I’d like.

I am a fan of brevity, of conveying only the most important points as concisely as possible: If I were to write 1000 words about one topic, I would almost surely edit it mercilessly, probably sacrificing some intricacies of the ideas present, until the post was little more than a sentence. For example, here is this blog post as I am naturally inclined to write it:

“From this class, I hope to develop an appreciation of blogging, a foreign concept to me.”

Hopefully, in the future I will avoid blogging about blogging (meta-blogging?) and instead concentrate on crafting meaningful posts about material relating to class. I hope that I will be able to offer unique insights into focused topics. I hope to deepen my views of the material (and, by extension, the world). I hope to increase the fluidity of my writing so that I am able to express myself more quickly and clearly (this post has taken far longer to write than many would believe). I hope that eventually I will enjoy this blogging process.

test post

Hi everybody,

This is my first blog; I set it up for CHP 396. I'm looking forward to the first day of class!

-Dave