Did A Paper On Blogging For My University Class And I Thought I Would Post It, "The Revelations On Blogging"

I just got back my paper I wrote on blogging for my English class at Concordia University here in Montreal, did not bad, got a B- for a grade. I made few corrections to the paper as it was posted thanks to the Professor pointing out my errors in grammar and basic English structure. I really got to work at improving my written English, that is what the course is all about, doing it right. The paper is as follows:

After reviewing the articles "The Blog Phenomenon" by John C. Dvorak and "The Intimacy of Blogs" by Michael Snider, I found the authors approach the subject of blogs slightly differently, but it is evident that the blogosphere is very active in revealing human stories, by self made authors portraying life for various different reasons.

The blog is a form of web diary that over ran the Vanity web page of the Internet.
Those who maintain blogs are called bloggers and there are hundreds of thousand of blogs
covering every possible subject. One of the reasons people blog is to interact with other people
through the medium of the Internet. Some blogs are started through inspiration from reading
blogs that exert a strong influence for the reader to start writing themself. Blogs or weblogs are maintained by individuals or by a number of people through a website host such as http://www.blogger.com/ Snider quotes Joe Clark who is a blogger himself, as saying that, "The thing that’s attractive about reading weblogs is that you know there is one human being or a group of human beings behind them."(2003) The web hosts provide an easy-to-manipulate format for posting writings on any subject that the author cares to write about. Blogs are defined in two different ways, those that have written material on a subject with numerous links to other web postings on the same subject or personal diary type blogs that tell individual stories.

Both authors try to reveal a sense of why people blog and illustrated this in
different ways. The main reasons put forth by Dvorak are "ego gratification ...
antidepersonalization ...elimination of frustration...societal need to share... wanna-be
writers..."(2002), where as Snider takes the prospective of interviewing bloggers and questioned
them on their reasons for blogging. According to one interview, "Your weblog becomes an
exterior part of you" says Clark, "so you can have some distance from your feelings, even though
you’re putting them out for everyone to read...."(2003).

When people read your blog, they often have an option to interact with the author
by leaving comments on a pre-programed format which is part of the blog. These comments from a blogger’s readership can keep a person writing as he gets to interact with his readers. The audience gets to know the blogger in an intimate way and friendships can be built out of this
interaction between blogger and reader.

Through being a blogger myself, I did get to interact with some of my readers and I
have made friendships out of it. I can relate very closely to the reasons given by Dvorak and
Snider for why people blog; in my case, I had several of the given reasons when starting to
blog. Blogging became a habitual practice and I developed my skill at it. After making regular postings for a period of time, thus setting a track record with your blogging style, one can apply to the various advertisers so that they can receive income from blogging which is not mentioned by Dvorak or Snider, possibly due to paid advertising on blogs being more of a recent blog innovation. One can receive newsletter emails on how to become a more effective blogger and drive up traffic to your site. Yaro Starak runs a blog traffic school to help bloggers succeed, and his website is http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com./ He makes a comfortable living off the Internet and enjoys helping others to try and succeed financially from blogging, a growing industry of self published authors.

This is what became of my paper after corrections were made when I got it back this evening in class. I did better on this class assignment than my last paper, and I intend to continue working on my writing skills.

Art Group At The Hospital Is Having Another Table Expo/Sale

Here we are coming up the middle of Febuary with Valentines Day around the corner, and Birks House Artists is having another expo/sale at the Hospital following on the Valentine theme. There are only three of us taking part in the table sale but we have a lot of quality art and photography. Our Animatrise invested in art supplies for the event, thanks to some of the money made at Christmas. It ended up that I brought home work from the Art Group back to my apartment to be prepared for the show. Wooden picture frames, hearts and heart boxes were purchased from the Dollar Store by our Animatrise and I have my hands full at home preparing for the expo/sale. Along with trying to complete some of the projects inniated by our Animatrise, I am trying to complete some of my own projects for the sale. I plan to have seven canvases for sale, some of which where on display for sale at Christmas, my stock of art for sale is building up. I have an abundance of 9" x 12" sketches for sale, done in mediums ranging from chaulk pastel, charcoal to graphite pencil and oil pastel. I also have a selection of different style miniature clay mandelas that are a carry over from Christmas sales. I wanted to make some heart style mandelas for the Valentines sale but I do not have the time between now and the day of our sale. I am kept very busy between preparing for the sale and doing my homework from University along with the homework from my guitar lessons and French class at the Hospital. It is good to be keeping busy thanks to Hospital progams and the University course that I am taking. My guitar practicing has slacken off some and I am not practicing enough, trying to find the time is the problem. I am even late with getting this blog posting up due to being so busy. Keeping busy helps keep my mind focused in a healthy way compared to thinking too much much over trival mental health issues that I have to deal with.

I see the Nurse and Doctor every second week at the Hospital, they are alternate weeks apart, which gives me a visit at the Hospital every week. I spend too much time by myself due to a lack of friends, I have one close friend from my youth and I am still close to my old girl friend. I have a relatively new aquantence from the Art Group and we usually go for coffee together after group. She is a fantastically gift Artist that can reproduce any thing to surprising detail. With her being a French Canadian by mother tongue, with a limited English vocabulary, I get to practice my French with her every week and she is always trying to help me improve my broken French. So between my French classes at the Hospital and practicing my French with Densie, I should really get to improve my spoken French this semester. A fair bit of French is spoken at the Art Group as well, for I am the sole anglophone in the group at present, it is the same with my Music group at the hospital where French can be the predominate language of communication. I always seem to be having a phrase or two translated from French in my Groups so that I can stay tuned in. Even the Minister of Education of the Province of Quebec is trying to improve the level of French spoken and written by students, through her new proposals in the education system. With the dual cultures here in Quebec, it really makes it for a special place. The Art Group plans to make our website bi-lingual which will come in time with my French lessons for I am the one that manipulates the Art Group's website. To view the Hospital's Art Group's website click on the following link: http://www.freewebs.com/birkshouseartists Finally, I got up my blog posting up which was long over due, as I try and find the time for everything on my plate in my semi isolation, thats all for now and keep your mind stimulated with healthy activities.

Doc GM's Political Messenger Vol V Edition I

Here I Am Back In School At Concordia University For The Winter Semester While In Hospital Mental Health Programs

So the New Year rolls in and I am back in school studying how to be an effective writer. Last semester in school ended well and I got a B+ for a final grade, not bad for my first time in school for quite some time and fighting depression at the same time. I really enjoyed last semester, the Professor was really special and talented at leading the students through our creative process! I learned from the Professor how I lack in my writing skills and what to do to improve upon them. At the end of the course the Professor instructed me to start reading more to improve my grammar, spelling, along with my basic writing skills. I enjoyed keeping a journal on my creative process for my portfolio and I told the Professor at the end of the course that I intended to keep up doing the journal on my creative process, which will now include my visual arts, musical inclinations, along with my attempts at developing my writing skills. With the start of the winter semester I went to Concordia's library and got some books to read as advised to do last semester. I chose to continue reading works on a author I got introduced last semester, namely Edgar Allan Poe. I did one critique on one of his prose last semester and I intend to seek out more of his work to read, including some of his poetry. His writings help me to develop my vocabulary with his use of words and I really enjoy his writings.

Carrying on into the winter semester, I took another writing course to help me develop skills in writing academic papers. The course is a prerequisite for getting into a grammar course down the road. So I got my work cut out for me again this semester in school with maintaining the work for the course and reading more as advised from the Professor last semester. The Hospital programs have started up again after the holidays and I am back attending those classes as well. Due to my course at University being on early Monday evenings, I dropped the gym class on Monday afternoons at the Hospital, the travelling home and then back down town or buying supper out would have been too much. The Animatrices of the gym class were sad to hear I would not be attending this semester but I will be back with them in the fall if all goes well with my schedule. Wednesday music group and guitar lessons are still scheduled into my week, along with the Thursday art group with Birks House Artists. I still have my job once a week cleaning the small office building down town and the clients in the building are so friendly with me that I feel really close to them at this point. Sometimes my work at the building got slack when I was fighting off depression and they understood. For the greater part, I have over come my bouts of depression and feeling a lot better about myself over all. It helped with the encouragement I got at the Hospital selling art just before Christmas, along with settling out terms of endearment with my Psychiatrist.

I am no longer part of the writers group that I was part off last year, due to breach of trust and what they did with my pen name Doctor Goober M.... in a publication. I was lied to and deceived being published in a chap book with the writers group. They took out a copyright on the chap book that I am part of and I am not even on the copyright registration with my pen name. It is illegal and I went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police over it, contacting the department that handles the Federal Copyright Act. This department of the RCMP has enough work on their hands as it is, they did not need another case to handle such as my complaint but shit happens and that is what they are there for! I have an old friend that is a writer and we have been in touch over the holiday season, we agreed that we could work together and legally put out a chap book together with both our works of poetry and prose. I have another friend that knows of some other writers group in the city and she is trying to track them down with a contact phone number, hopefully I will be able to become part of this new writers group and not have the complications I had with the one I was involved in last year. So I am starting the New Year on a positive note and no longer having little bouts of depression that hampered my life, the World is before me still and I intend to kick butt and make something of myself to increase my monthly income and do away with my welfare subsidy on my disability pension. Here is to one and all in the New Year and stay legal or you might get busted by people that like honesty!

(January 24th 2008, with help from the RCMP, the writers group is going to put me on the Copyright registration so all will be Kosher!)