Join the fun here. I listed myself and my blog is No. 1,878.

Lucky number, ha?

2:19 p.m.

No frickin' wonder. So what is this 'annoying and inconvenient'?

The Angry Aussie has his summation, about recent news on 'arrest over offensive shirts worn in Sydney':

New regulations passed in NSW give police and emergency service workers the power to hand out fines of up to $5000 to anyone “causing an annoyance or inconvenience” to World Youth Day pilgrims. “We want to show our support to Sydney protestors whose civil liberties have been trampled by the NSW government,” stated Jason Ball, President of the University of Melbourne Secular Society and event spokesperson. “These draconian measures are a blatant attack on the right to freedom of speech.”

Lyn Allison, who recently ended her 6-year term in the Senate, commented on the state sponsorship of the religious event, “Australia does not have a history of debate and discussion about the appropriate interface between church and state. The current issues now provide an opportunity to start a real debate on the need for and ways of separating church and state. Other countries are doing this. Norway is consulting nation wide on formal separation. It is time that Australia followed suit.

Essentially, my friend who just went to Italy this week could probably do the 'annoying and inconvenient' thing in the country where the Pope resides and just get people rolling their eyes at her. Or filming her for YouTube.

Julian Morrow (lapsed lawyer, current Chaser) - from the Sydney Morning Herald -"Crack Annoyance Squad Wanted":

One easy way to identify a bad law, other than simply reading it, is to think about what types of conduct might fall foul of it. And it's fun, too.

First, "inconvenience". My preliminary list of things that could cause inconvenience to participants at World Youth Day includes being ahead of them in a toilet queue, obscuring their view of the Pope, or maybe just situating your convenience store too far away. Ironically enough, excessive security checks can also be a major source of inconvenience, as the citizens of Sydney may recall from the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit last year.

Then there's "annoyance". On pain of a $5500 fine, all mobile phone ring tones should be set to silent until the Pope leaves. All banks should drop their infuriating ATM fees in World Youth Day areas. And if being annoying is now a crime, Frank Sartor and Michael Costa should steer well clear of Randwick.

The point here is that the new offence is built on concepts - inconvenience and annoyance - which are vague, subjective and not sufficiently serious to justify imposing a criminal sanction.

From Youth Against World Youth Day:

Melbourne activists join the force of opposition to World (Catholic) Youth Day

Secular and human rights student activists from around Melbourne have organised a rally to oppose the $150 million in taxpayers’ money going to Catholic World Youth Day. The rally also plans to publicly condemn the Pope’s attitudes towards women, homosexuals, non-believers and contraception; a freedom now wholly exclusive to citizens outside of NSW.

The rally starts at 1.30pm on Sunday, July 13 and will be held on the steps of Parliament House, Spring Street. Student groups have organised the speakers, who so far include Humanist of the Year and former Senator Lyn Allison, Rationalist Society of Australia President Ian Robinson, Secular Party of Australia President John Perkins, Humanist Society of Victoria President Stephen Stuart and human rights activist Trent Hawkins.

And just so we additionally enjoy the moment - the ever-classy AdamBuxton:

Indigo Insight

Indigo Children

Indigo Evolution

Indigo Healings

Soul Solutions

Indigo Social

Nobody who works in television has the right to ask that question.

- Clay Shirky

I've mentioned before that one of the common responses I get when encouraging people to give blogging a try is that they don't feel they have anything worth writing about. Although I honestly believe that, no matter how mundane our lives and musings might appear, we all have somebody out there who'd be interested to read about them, I can accept that some people just aren't in touch with their inner writer and will either figure it out one day or they won't. Good luck to 'em, I say.

Others claim that the only stuff they'd care to write about is so deeply personal that they couldn't bear to share it so openly. Fair enough - I've used that excuse myself at times when personal circumstances have caused me to temporarily abandon my blog. The way I see it, if you're trying to choose between sharing deeply personal thoughts you'd really rather keep to yourself and writing about stuff that's really not important to you just so you can post something (something that isn't deeply personal thoughts you'd rather keep to yourself), posting nothing is an acceptable third option. I'm waaaaaaaaaaaay too young to cut my ear off just so you've got something to read during your morning coffee.

Then there are the deluded, self-important assholes who smugly claim that they simply don't have the time to blog and can't understand how I manage. It's hard to ignore the implicit accusation that the time I spend tinkering around with my various online projects (blogs I maintain, communities I belong to, wikis I contribute to etc) is somehow wasted, a time-sink into which I pour my otherwise productive time.

I found the clip below about a month ago, showing author Clay Shirky speaking at a web 2.0 conference earlier in the year. It's an insightful and well-delivered perspective on where this shift to online is taking us, starting with the wry observation that if gin was the critical technology of the industrial revolution (numbing the upheaval of transitioning to an industrial society), the critical technology of the post-war years must have been the sitcom.

Shirky makes a brilliant point in that we have a massive 'cognitive surplus' of time that we really don't have a use for. Throughout history this has never really been a problem, because we used to spend all our time hunting mammoths, tending fields, and slogging it out in Mr Bumble's work house. The dawn of the 40-hour week may have freed us from servitude in many respects, but it also created a problem we'd never faced before - what to do with all that spare time? For decades, television has been the sponge that soaked up all this latent time and energy, but now we're finding new and better things to do with our time. Many of these new pastimes - such as playing elf warrior in Warcraft, or trading pictures of kittens with amusing facial expressions - might not be considered productive in the traditional sense, but it's something, and watching television is nothing. And as the man says, it's better to do something than nothing.

The numbers are astonishing. The estimated 100 million man-hours that have gone into Wikipedia to date may seem like a hell of a lot, but bear in mind that the Internet-connected population watches a TRILLION hours of television per year - enough to build 10,000 Wikipedias. That's one hell of an asset, if we could only figure out how to use it - imagine the possibilities!

No, seriously, please imagine the possibilities. How do I find the time to create things online? How can you not?

(Click here to watch part 2)

I am also very thankful to all of my readers, especially those that have left comments. Reading your comments gives me the satisfaction of knowing that the time I've spent blogging has been worthwhile. I want to let you know that I have a ton of ideas swirling in my head about upcoming posts, so the month of July should be a great one here at Fielder's Choice. I hope that you'll keep coming back and that you enjoy what you read. Always feel free to leave a comment or send me an email to let me know what you think.

How about a blog forum about what medieval studies and/ or medievalism has to offer a wider public? But not pitched to other academics? How would you talk about a topic of your choosing to a group of community members in a public library, for example? How do you talk about "relevance" (or the lack thereof) to undergraduates? etc.

There have been several responses to this call, but I shall link you to Jeff Sypeck's contribution for two reasons: One, that page links to all the previous responses; and Two, Sypeck's post is what started Dr Nokes thinking.

Now, I want to talk about two things: the weakness¹ of Dr Nokes' approach to the medieval 'fan(boy)', and my own answer to Matt's question 'What can Medievalists offer to the general public'. I'm going to address these things in two separate posts: one, as a general answer to Matt's question, and another coming up in response to Dr Noke's second post.

Firstly, why is all this important anyway? Why are we fussing over what we can offer and particularly what we can offer to teenagers? Forgive me, but it looks to me like the elderly constituent of the congregation I grew up in, fussing over how to be more 'relevant' and more 'contemporary' so as to attract more 'youth'... not out of any inherent concern for the youth of today, but because young bums on seats give the old folks a sense of validation.

It's a given that we all want more students of medieval studies. I don't teach, myself, but that hasn't stopped me ranting and cajoling any potential medievalists I know into taking courses with my favourite teachers. My motivations are multiplicious: I'm a naturally helpful sort of person, the kind of person who likes sharing the things she knows (even if you don't care), and in this case the thing I knew is how to structure your study so as to take two majors. I'm also very fond of the CMS and I don't want to see good students lost to the English or History departments. And thirdly, I happen to live with the major recipient of my medieval cajoling, and the more medieval courses she takes, the greater the chances are that when I walk into the dining hall, a purple-and-blonde blur will rush past, muttering as she goes 'I realised I couldn't talk about confraternities, so I'm doing heretics instead!', or similar nerdy comments. It's good to have someone around who's more-or-less on the same plane as you.

That third point, I think, is where we can say that academic medievalists really do have something to offer the general public, if by 'general' you mean 'isolated teenage nerds'. What an academic can offer- via blogs or books or public forums or school visits- is firstly a bit of solidarity. Hey, that guy's an even bigger nerd than I am, and HE'S made a career out of it. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is that regardless of whether or not the nerd in question goes on to do any medieval subjects at uni- maybe she discovers her true calling and becomes a stockbroker- is that an intelligent teenager, unless she's very, very lucky in her schooling, is never being pushed to think as far, as deeply, or as independently as she could. Which is a pity, because knowing stuff is fun, and thinking about it is MORE fun. Whether it's Dr Nokes' 'Big Beowulf Bash' or Jeff Sypeck's book 'Becoming Charlemagne', a bit of academic medievalism, pitched to her level, might give her a bit of intellectual stimulation she's not getting from the high school syllabus. I'd say the same thing to scholars of Shogun Japan and to Microbiologists: there are kids out there to whom the opportunity to learn something they're really passionate about, to whom the encouragement and non-patronising interest of a specialist in that field, to whom simply the chance to use their brain at a higher capacity, would be as precious as gold. No matter what your speciality or it's immediate usefulness, society can always do with more kids encouraged to think beyond the bounds of the high school classroom.

I always knew I didn't want to teach your average school student, I wanted to teach people who were smart and engaged. My mother suggested 'university teaching' when I was about seven, but from the time I was ten until I was... oooh, fourteen or fifteen, I wanted to be a trained Gifted & Talented upper primary school teacher, just like one Mrs Coffee, who had rescued me from mental stagnation and got me started on reading fantasy fiction, amongst other things. That's been crossed off my To Do List for Life, but I still care about the education of smart kids. A little broadening of their horizons, a sprinkle of encouragement, the promise that other people out there in the Big World will value their quirky interests and passions, yeah... that's worth doing.

Don't do it if you don't like kids. Don't do it if you're going to patronise or talk down. But if you have the time and the resources, do. If not public appearances, then books. There are never enough books out there on which an intelligent youngster can sharpen his brain-teeth. Websites aren't a bad idea either, but I don't know that any website, no matter how engaging, could beat a beautifully illustrated book like Kevin Crossley-Holland's 'The King Who Was And Will Be', a wonderful introduction to high medieval culture in bite-sized snippets. It's thanks to Kevin C-H that I discovered Marie De France, Dr Nokes. Kevin C-H sticks in my mind as the only pop history book I could find that said right out that there probably was no King Arthur, but that didn't matter. Camelot, he says 'is in our minds and our hearts'. If you have a nerdy child in your friend or family network, one who appreciates beautifully decorated books and interesting windows into a past society... find a copy of that book and give it to them. From memory, it should be comprehensible to your average ten year old, but I was still enjoying it at fourteen.

Comin' up: Teenage girls are smart and they read history books! Special Investigation This Evening!

~

1. That's polite academic-speak for 'inherant sexism'...

More here.

As a morally corrupt, prostitution-advocating libertarian and atheist who delves into all these matters in his posts , I wonder what I'd be thinking now if I were Iranian.

Mas vamos olhar mais de perto. Dos 8 links, 2 são internos, ou seja, remetem para dentro do portal globo. Desses dois links internos, um remete para relatos do Vc no G1. Dos 6 links restantes, 4 remetem para blogs. E, finalmente, dos dois links que sobram, um remete para um website da Telefônica, outro remete para o Twitter.

Após esse pente fino eu chego a seguinte conclusão: o G1 parece estar perdendo o medo de linkar pra fora do portal globo. E mais: prova que essa disputa blog x jornalismo está superada ou não faz sentido. Após essa minha análise otimista da coisa, questiono: a) estão perdendo o medo ou entenderam - e conseguiram traçar estratégias para se enquadrar - que isso é a tendência do mercado de informação?; b) a disputa está superarda, não faz sentido ou o jornalismo se põe um passo a frente (comparado a estratégias como a campanha de ataque aos blogueiros do Estadão) com atitudes como essa?

Claro que falta além dessa análise quantitativa rasa de uma única matéria uma observação mais cuidadosa, tanto no que diz respeito a amostragem empírica (uma quantitade maior de matérias de diferentes jornais) quanto no que diz respeito ao léxico dos links. Ou seja, falta também uma análise de conteúdo sobre os links feitos. São links que contribuem para a matéria ou são para falar que linkam? Dá pano pra manga...

Por aqui no Estado o Gazeta online trocou de visual. Rafael Paes fez uma boa análise sobre as mudanças. Resta saber o destino que isso tomará.

Now, I have a lot of favorite blogs that I check out on a regular basis... and many (although not all) of them would qualify as "Mommy Blogs" because, well I guess I AM one now. 

Even though I DESPISE that term "Mommy Blog" -- it sounds so fucking condescending, like Oh, you're a MOMMY.  And you BLOG.  Yeah, I bet that's just FASCINATING to read, I'll be sure to check it out (not)." 

But anyway, despite the name, since I entered into this Exotic Land of Electronic Words and Pictures a few months ago, I've come across some really great "Mommy Blogs" that I read on a regular basis.  Others aren't so great but have one or two elements that captured my attention, so I go back every now and then to see what's new.  Still others kind of suck, but I left a comment once and the blogger commented back, and now I feel obligated to keep returning -- like going on a date that was really bad, but the guy was kind of nice, and now he's just kind of pathetic, so you accept a second date, and then spend the rest of the week thinking Why did I do that and how can I get out of it? 

(Not that I've ever done that, I mean at least not in the last 17 years, but if I WAS single and DID date, I imagine that's pretty much how it would go for me.  Assuming I was ever lucky enough even to be asked out by THAT guy, which I probably wouldn't because I am SO not the social butterfly.)

(Oh, and if you're reading this, and I've ever commented on your blog, and now you're wondering if YOUR blog is the pathetic second-date guy, chances are it's NOT you I'm talking about.  No, really.)

But I digress.

Just a few of my very favorite "Mommy Blogs" (seriously, we need to find a better name for these) include MommyPie, Absolutely Bananas, The McMommy Chronicles, Mommy Needs a Cocktail, Mommy's Martini (lots of drunk mommies out there, I guess), Crash Test Mommy, The Benevolent Dictator (best name for a "Mommy Blog" EVER) and, of course, The Bloggess. 

Some of them are snarky, some are sweet, some have weekly "festivals" that, because I'm a good "Mommy Blogger," I participate in when I can or when I care to.  I have aspired to be Just Like some of them, others aren't really anything like me and I'll never try to emulate, but I enjoy reading them anyway.  My favorites are always the ones that employ sarcasm at an alarming rate and say "fuck" a lot.

(Note:  These are not, by any means, the only blogs I read on a regular basis.  I have LOTS of other favorites, many of them written by the non-mommy variety.  But this post isn't about them.  It's about me these "Mommy Blogs" and what a jealous bitch I am how they're all going to BlogHer and I'm not.)

There is very much a network of "Mommy Blogs" (really, couldn't we call them "Personal Family Blogs," or "Domestic Journal Blogs? " No, those suck, too) -- they all seem to know each other, or at least know OF each other, and they often refer back to each other in their posts.  Blogrolls (that little list of favorite links on the sidebar of a blog, for those of you, like me, with no clue) often look eerily similar, with the same Usual Suspects appearing over and over.  Most of them also keep in touch via Twitter, a social networking site that is notoriously unreliable and only allows you to type updates of maybe twenty words or less at a time (both a blessing and a curse). 

As I started really getting into this whole blogging thing, I found this network of "Mommy Blogs" ("Woman Blogs" maybe? No?  Fine, you try then, asshole, it's not as easy as it looks) and decided immediately that I wanted IN.  These blogs were all so clever, so interesting, so entertaining, I should DEFINITELY be In the Club.  After all, I was all of those things too... these women would be CRAZY not to welcome me with wide, open arms!

So I started a blogroll of my own, and added most of them.  I check their blogrolls often, to see if The Bean has "made it," and my feelings get hurt when it hasn't.  I joined Twitter and (when it's working) I put in my two cents here and there.  I send "tweets" to let the group know when I've published a new blog post, hoping my message will reach them at a weak moment and they'll click in for lack of anything better to do.  I make comments on their blogs when I had something really snarky and bitchy to show how "cool" I am of value to say.  

I do all of this with the hope that one or two of them might find what I have to say interesting, might somehow find my latest post and like it, might add me to their blogroll or refer back to me in one of their posts, and maybe one day I could be one of the Usual Suspects, too.  Maybe one day someone will ask ME to go to BlogHer. Maybe one day I'LL be one of the cool kids.

I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of hard work.  Definitely time-consuming.  And lately I've started to think that maybe I should just relax, stop worrying about what Mommy Pie thinks of me, or wondering whether The Bloggess has any idea who I am, or even trying to get their consort "Daddy Bloggers" like Black Hockey Jesus or Backpacking Dad to notice my "tweets" on Twitter.  (That's what she said.)

It's starting to feel a little bit like I'm back in high school.

Now don't get me wrong, I've had some really nice comments and mesages from several of these "Mommy Bloggers" (I've got it -- "VAGINA BLOGGERS"!!  That's it!), including Mommy Pie herself and McMommy and Auds at Barking Mad and Crash Test Mommy.  The ones that I have interacted with have been Fucking Awesome in their own special ways, and I wouldn't expect anything less, given what great writers/VAGINA BLOGGERS they are. 

But lately I find myself becoming a bit disenchanted with the whole VAGINA BLOGGING business. 

The BlogHer thing is what's done me in.  I got into this whole blogging deal late in the game, I guess, and I didn't even know this thing existed until the posts about how everyone was already going started.  I did look it up, and it looks very cool, and I would love to go to something like that and meet other VAGINA BLOGGERS and see how they do it.  Being new to the game, it would be great to see what works, what doesn't, what's fun, what sucks, what's easy, what's hard, etc. 

And seeing how I started this VAGINA BLOG for fun but quickly decided I wanted to use it, somehow, to springboard into a real writing career instead of the mind-numbing technical shit I write now, it would probably be beneficial to see how these very accomplished women use their blogs for professional gain, or if they do at all, or if it's even possible.  Maybe I'm just spinning my wheels here.  (Which, even if I was, wouldn't stop me from blogging because I like it and I like to think I'm pretty good at it and it beats going to the gym.)

But, alas, I am NOT going to BlogHer (yeah, I said alas - fuck you).  I wasn't invited and even if I had been I couldn't go, because I can't afford a trip to San Francisco right now and I really doubt I could stand to leave my baby Bean for even one night, no matter how bad ass it would be to see the Fish Market and ride a cable car and drive across the Golden Gate and maybe catch a gay marriage ceremony or two. 

But they keep writing about it.  And writing about it.  And writing about it.  Which I guess makes sense, since it's The Big Thing for them right now and after all, blogging is all about whatever Your Big Thing is at the moment.  And it's only going to get worse as the conference gets closer, and as they all start panicking about what they'll wear, how their hair looks, who they'll meet and get shitfaced drunk socialize with.

I'm not going, and I won't be missed.  And I'm not In the Club, either. 

Basically, I'm that kid in high school, the one that wants SOOO BAD to be in with the cheerleaders and the football players that I'd sell my soul and eat my boogers if it would get me a foot in the door (but eating my boogers would *probably* have the opposite effect). 

I'm the kid that sits at the table JUST to the left of the cool kids' table in the cafeteria, eating my tray of mystery meat and tots (Napoleon, give me some of your tots) while I watch the cheerleaders flip their hair and the football players puff up their chests as they all eat sushi their maids packed for them and complain about the theme of the upcoming homecoming dance.  (I've also seen WAAYYYY too many John Hughes films.)

So what I've decided is this:  I don't care about being In the Club anymore.  I'm not going to try anymore to be cool.  I'll be happy being the dorky kid who uses words like wont and alas and who's allergic to sushi and breaks out in a nervous sweat when someone I admire leaves a nice comment on my blog.  (Seriously, Laurie Kendrick - a nervous sweat.)  I'm going to continue writing posts that I like and I'm only going to publish the ones I'm really proud of, and I'm not going to worry about who's reading them or if they like them.  I'm not going to focus on Blog Stats or traffic (okay, that part is a TOTAL lie) but instead I'll focus on becoming the best writer I can be -- and if it's good enough, the VAGINA BLOGGERS will flock to ME instead of me trying so hard to be one of THEM.

I will continue to spend late nights reading these fantastic VAGINA BLOGGERS:  MommyPie, Absolutely Bananas, The McMommy Chronicles, Mommy Needs a Cocktail, Mommy's Martini, Crash Test Mommy, The Benevolent Dictator (still gets the Best Name Award), Barking Mad, The Bloggess, Foolery, even Daddy Bloggers (PENIS BLOGGERS?) Black Hockey Jesus and Backpacking Dad.  Oh, and Alias Mother.  And That's What She Blogged.  And Dreams, You Got It, Happy. And many, many more. 

I will continue to admire them all from afar and laugh out loud at their hilarious posts, and think to myself, Now why can't I write like that? when I read something truly fantastic.  I will even continue to make comments when I think they will show what a hilarious, sarcastic bitch I am are funny and appropriate.

But I'm not aspiring to be anybody else anymore.  I'm just me, very happy with my modest little VAGINA BLOG, which is called The Bean because that's my kid and he is Fucking Awesome.  I hope it will continue to get better as I read and learn and practice and observe more.  I hope it will find new readers and keep existing readers satisfied.  I won't blow smoke up anyone's ass here (I just LUUUUURV that saying) and I'll never pretend to be something I'm not, no matter how much I might want to.

I hope you like it, but if you don't, I can live with that, too.  Have fun at BlogHer.  I'll be over here, with my boogers and my mystery meat.  And no sushi.

How to Start a Blog

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

A "blog", abbreviated word for weblog, is a web-based journal in which people can publish their thoughts and opinions on the Internet. Anyone can start a blog. It's straight-forward and, in a lot of cases, free.

Steps

1. Find a decent blogging provider that appeals to you. Some may include MuseCrafters.com, Livejournal.com, JournalHome.com, Blogger.com, WordPress.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com, Blogagotchi.com, Diaryland.com, Blogdrive.com, weebly.com or Xanga.com. Most of these sites are pre-made with templates and push-button publishing that don't require much technical know-how.
2. Once you sign up, you'll have a gallery of ready-made templates to choose from. Select one and personalize it. Add your name, interests, images, etc.
3. Add blogging freebies like buttons, images, blog chalks, imoods, tagboards (for example, myshoutbox.com), guest maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers' input, etc.
4. Explore other blog sites that offer more features for a small fee, such as Typepad.com.
5. Decide on whether or not you want your blog to be private or personal: do you want any Internet visitor to be able to read your blog, or do you just want your friends and family to be able to read it? Most blog sites offer the ability to password-protect your published posts so only those who you approve of can view what you've written.
6. Decide on how you want your blog to look. You can pick a color scheme and layout. Most sites come with a set of predefined layouts and schemes that you can choose from, or you can edit your own.
7. After you've set up your blog, write a few posts to test it out, and make any adjustments to the layout or style that you see fit. At first, it will seem tough to figure out what to write, but once you get into a routine of daily blogging, you will find it addictive. Write about your day, your thoughts, events, ideas, fears, pleasures, the news, current affairs, art, or anything you are interested in!
8. Visit other blogs to build a blogging circle. When you leave comments, add your blogging address so they can visit you too.
9. If you want to make your blog look more attractive, there are some sites up that have many "skins" that might make it look better. One example is blogskins.com, which also comes with Photoshop and HTML tutorials.
10. Publish your blog by sending the URL to your friends or publish the URL on your website. Add the URL to posts you make on other blogs. Done

Tips

• If you update your blog frequently, more people will return on a regular basis to read it. Establishing a reader base will motivate you to write more and in turn more people will read your posts.
• Get into a routine of blogging. Make it part of your day. Soon, you will notice things during your day and think, "Hey, I'll blog this."
• Personalize your blog. A pretty blog always catches the eye. Visit blogger.com for ideas; they have a list of their 10 most recently updated blogs.
• You could Google for "blog California" or "blog Shakespeareans" (or anything else), depending on location, interests, etc. For instance, if you have a blog on lawns, you may want visit allaboutlawns.com's forum and other similar type blogs. Circles of interest are the essence of blogging, and it can start to develop you as an authority in the "blog-o-sphere" on lawns or whatever area of interest you choose.
• Keep the posts interesting. Try to avoid focusing on things that most readers won't find worthwhile (such as "I went to the mall today and saw Kelly.") Write about things you noticed, thoughts you had, and feelings or ideas. Blog about a recent trip to Spain. Write about the chemical explosion during class.
• Spell check your writing before posting.
• Some sites allow you to make money off your blog by using an Amazon Associates ID or by placing Google AdSense advertisements. If popular enough, your blog could start to pay your bills.
• Don't feel bogged down if no one visits your site for the first few months. As with communities this large, it will take some time for your blog to get noticed.
• If you want a broad (international) readership, do not use too many abbreviations or slang terms that might not be easily understood by people who are not from your country/area.
• Get interesting news from Yahoo Oddly Enough..., other Yahoo! stories, Crayon.net and other websites that you frequently read.
• Blog on a specific subject. You can't please everyone, so target a specific audience and go with it.
• See also How to Write a Famous Blog.
• Pictures are also a great idea.

Warnings

• Avoid posting anything on your blog that might be personal to other people if just anyone can read your blog (example: Your uncle might object that it's published on the Internet that he is an alcoholic). If something is personal, avoid using last names at the very least, or make up a name for that person. Be wary of unwarranted attention. Blogs are for the world to read. If you want a private blog just for friends, use Xanga or any other password-protected blogging site.
• Xanga and MySpace are good for beginners, but for more public blogs, sites like Typepad and Blogger are much more "respected".
• Be wary of unwarranted attention. Blog stalking is possible; don't give out too much personal information such as name, location, school, etc.
• Read the small print. If you don't, your blog's content may be "owned" by the company that puts it on the web for you.
• Don't make your blogs like MySpace bulletins (adding random posts to suck in friends) and don't include your friend's name or websites in them either.
• Write ins ands outs people love them!

Things You'll Need

• A computer
• A site to start your blog on
• Some content for your blog
• Willingness to keep up your blog

Related wikiHows

• How to Write a Famous Blog
• How to Start a Wiki
• How to Create a Website
• How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger
• How to Write a Featured Article on wikiHow
• How to Write a Fictional Blog
• How to Become Famous on the Internet
• How to Put a Digg Counter on a Webpage
• How to Become Famous Via wikiHow
• How to Get Away from the Computer
• How to Write Dark Poems
• How to Be Safe on the Internet

Sources and Citations

• MuseCrafters.com
• JournalHome.com
• 5min - how to start a blog on blogger.com 5min is a Videopedia for instructional videos. Source of images in this article, shared with permission.
• JournalHome.com
• MySpace
• Bravenet - Guestbooks
• Haloscan
• Enetation]
• Weblog Basics from the weekly podcast Simply Digital. A 30-minute audio overview of the basics of blogging.
• www.fnrtop.com

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By: John Amato on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 4:30 PM - PDT

John McCain, Town Hall Meeting, Merrimack, NH 12/29/07

Hey right wing bloggers. I think he’s talking about you too.

JOHN MCCAIN: “Now we’ve got the cables. We’ve got talk radio. We’ve got the bloggers. I hate the bloggers. We’ve got all kinds of sources of information.”

I’m giddy with the thought that he isn’t very fond of me.