Friday, May 18, 2012

Who is this girl I see.. Uh, I mean, Reflections (on my blog assignments)

Okay, when I first heard we had to write a blog (a first for me) for class I was like...
http://go.osu.edu/KYJ
I wasn't really sure what would be required of us. I read blogs all the time of course, but had never attempted one of my own before. So I was mostly just unsure and lost, two things which lost their holds on me as time in class went on and I became more sure-footed in writing blog-like notes.

When I actually started writing the blog posts it wasn't as scary as I thought. The whole class felt that way, scary at first, then..alright. I still get a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach when I have to proofread my own work, but I think that's getting a little better. The blog posts were fun to do, I only wish I had had a little more time to complete some of them. Most of the time we wrote our blog posts during class which didn't leave much time for thinking about the topics more clearly. Although this was frustrating sometimes, it did help in that we had to learn to write a comprehensible piece in a limited time frame. I feel that my previous posts could have been better than they are, but I don't necessarily think that the lack of time negatively impacted the quality significantly.
The take away from being in this situation - forced blogging - is that it's not incredibly difficult and doesn't need to be too time-consuming. I think everyone interested in improving their writing ability could benefit from frequent blogging, on any subject. Sometimes the hardest part of writing is the simply starting to write, and I think blogging helps with that. When you blog, typically you are blogging on something you are interested in, and it's in a very informal tone, so it's easier than, say, just sitting down and writing an ARP. You also have the benefit of user feedback, which can help or frustrate you at different times, but is overall useful in learning your audiences tastes and preferences.

Author: Eyehook.com
Yay, we're done! Have some champagne for breakfast (that is a very unfortunate color..)!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

For my commonplace essay I will be writing a description of my analysis into whole grains and their effect on our bodies. We were recently told by my son's doctor (3 days ago) that he has wheat and dairy sensitivities that are slowly killing him. Obviously we immediately cut out all wheat and dairy from our regular diet. But you can't simply cut out two food groups without changing other dietary habits and avoid adverse effects. This change brought to my attention the groups of people who have chosen to say no to wheat and dairy. These people claim that wheat is killing ALL of us, because of the grain's protective poisons. But if this is true, why would we, as a culture, depend on grain as 50% of our daily diet? And what are the dangers of cutting out dairy and wheat together?