Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Weblog Notes

I remember reading a number of these blogs a year ago, but didn’t remember the details and was interested in looking them up once more. The first blog that I went to was My Boyfriend is a Twat. It sounded fun and entertaining, but was pretty much anything but that. I found that this particular blog didn’t say very much at all. Yes, it talked about Zoe’s daily happenings, but it wasn’t captivating to the point that I could continue reading her entries now or in the future. Her entries were easy to get through because they weren’t long, but they seemed to be compiled of random thoughts, rambling. The blog itself was disappointing, but her title was definitely an eye catcher, I’ll give her that. I did, however, visit her past posts, and those seemed to have more content. In these blog postings, Zoe actually commented on her twat boyfriend, which is what we expect more of when clicking the link. Looking through the site, however, I realized that there is a disclaimer that makes sense to me now that I’ve read some of her writings. It states that her blog consists mostly of rants about her and her household. She then goes on to say that a friend of hers calls her family a mixture of The Osbournes, Absolutely Fabulous, and My Family. Although I’m unaware of who or what Absolutely Famous and My family are, I can still conclude that her family is perceived as a little nutty. I have yet to find an entry to prove such a thing.

My second attempt at finding an entertaining blog was a success. I think the reason for the interest in this particular one comes from the fact that each entry is like a mini story. It isn’t the author rambling about nothing just to have something to write, it has substance. Waiter Rant is fun to read because if you have not been a waiter or waitress, you get another point of view. Even if you have been a server, the stories that the author shares are still entertaining. He includes a lot of dialog, and you get the feeling that you’re reading a story instead of just reading a narration of the same occurrence. The author is able to pick up conversations between customers or coworkers that are funny or just plain outrageous where you can’t help but laugh or at least sit back and wonder what the hell he just told us. This mixed with some real situations makes things interesting. When Carmela, a coworker complains that her whole table had ordered dessert, she exclaims, “Why can’t I get a table of anorexic bitches? They never order dessert.” It’s so politically incorrect and yet you’re forced to slight nervous, ashamed laughter.

Post Secret is a different sort of blog. It uses a collection of images that real life people create on postcards as its blog entries. It can be used for many reasons such as an outlet if you need to get a secret off of your chest. Because it is as anonymous as you wish it to be, people are able to say anything freely without concern for retribution. It can be used to send a message out to someone that you couldn’t say to their face, or that you don’t want them to necessarily see but feel better just putting it out there. The confessions or secrets on these postcards can range from scary to funny. For example, one states, “I tried to choke myself with a belt when I was on LSD ,” while another says, “Please pee on me… I like it.” Some of the more outrageous ones are sometimes hard to believe, like the one saying I was molested as a child and never told anyone. As an adult I tracked him down, killed him, and never told anyone.” This particular one is scary in a sense that they’re admitting that they committed a murder, which brings me to question that if this were true, what are the legal actions connected to this. The postcards do not have return addresses, so what are the moral obligations of Post Secret?

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