Final Reflections

I am your teacher, as you well know, and not a student, so I approach the great WRIT 101 blog experiment of Spring 2010 from a different perspective. For me, the questions are: how successful was this? What did my students get out of it? What have we learned together as a class, and ultimately, was the experiment a success or failure? The truth is I don’t know, and I plan to reserve judgment once I read all of your reflections.

What I hoped would come out of this is that you would become better writers. I wanted to take the writing experience out of the cold dead hands of the classroom and into the “real world” or at least “the real world of the Internet” which of course is not real. I digress. I also wanted to teach you a little bit about publishing work on the web and creating an Internet persona. I definitely think there was some wavering interest in that. Students are not necessarily as Tech obsessed as the media would have you believe, but I hope that you at least learned some new skills about the world of blogging and web writing.

I know that for me, maintaining a blog was a major contributing factor in my becoming a writer. I started a website when I was 15 and in high school. Remember, this was 1997. The Internet was in its infancy then. They didn’t have applications like “blogspot.” The word blog didn’t even exist. I wrote all my own html and every week I would post random writings about my life. (These were called “vanity sites” at the time.) It was through doing this, the constant practice of writing for an audience that I realized I might have a gift for it. When I would get feedback about my work from random strangers, it encouraged me to keep going. I wanted to entertain and impress my readers. So this was my experience. Yours obviously will vary.

I hope that at least a few of you continue to blog in whatever capacity is fun and meaningful for you. Writing on a regular basis for other people (even if it’s only a few of your friends) I find can be really therapeutic and fun. Also the practice of reading other people’s blogs can be an intriguing endeavor. From this class, my favorite blog posts were probably the “Food” posts. The posts on television and “choose your own adventure” were also particularly fun to read. I look forward to reading your reflections on the process, and thanks for joining me in the great blog experiment. I know you didn’t really have a choice, but thanks all the same J

Choose your own adventure

Choose your own blog post topic week, hooray! What a blast. This is going to be a total blast. we're going to blast it out. Okay, I'm nuts, sorry. So I collected some good ideas from you. I've just sort of condensed, nuanced and filtered the list you've given me. Please pick one to write on. I want at least two full paragraphs of good, careful writing. Please pay attention to mechanics and ease of reading. Try to engage and entertain us. We don't have a lot of blog posts left so I'd like you to make this one count. Also, additionally, in addition. If you'd like, for those of you looking for extra credit, you can choose not one but TWO of these topics and write two SEPARATE blog posts, as in two different posts on two different days. (This is just a blogger convention. Only crazy people write more than one blog post a day. That's what twitter is for.) One or both posts should be up by Monday, April 19th before class. GOT IT? Yeah, you got it. Please specify which topic you've chosen somewhere in the post so I know what I'm reading. Thanks, friends!

• Describe atmosphere/experience at griz games.
• Talk about your plans for the summer
• A day in the life of "you." (alternatively, a week in the life, a weekend in Missoula, a snapshot of some kind)
• A short story or a poem (about the short story: keep in mind short. If you have some long crazy story lying around, consider truncating it for the sake of your audience. blog posts tend to become heady any more than like 700 words so keep this in mind. And believe me, I sympathize. I write long.)
• A vacation, an interesting place you've visited. What did you learn and how did you grow richer from the experience?
• A movie, music, play, show, something review. Something you either really love or really hate, and be specific about why.
• "Two truths and a lie." I don't know what exactly this is but I'm intrigued. Make it work.
• Secret talents - what are you good at and why is it a secret? What on earth.
• Anything else you think you can justify. If you choose something not on this list you'll have to tell me in your blog post what you've chosen, why, and how the post is going to work, so probably better to just choose something on the list.

I may or may not do this blog post. I feel like compiling the list itself was a lot of work!

Real World Road Rules Challenge

Look at me! I'm doing my blog post just before midnight. This is proof that I know what it's like to be a student. So, once you're in grad school it's pretty gauche to pay for cable. The presumption is that we don't have time to watch TV, and also that we're above it. We have time to watch Hulu though! My guilty pleasure shows include but are not limited to: The Biggest Loser, America's Next Top Model, and any incarnation of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge. Some shows that I like that are actually really good are: The Daily Show/Colbert Report comedy rock block, The Sopranos, and finally, The Wire, which I consider to be the best show ever made. For this piece I think I'm going to argue for why The Real World/ Road Rules Challenge is both shallow, mindless, idiotic, AND incredibly satisfying reality television.

The basic premise of the show is this: a bunch of former reality stars (and some people who were never even on Real World or the now cancelled Road Rules) compete in a series of incredibly contrived athletic contests for cash prizes. The way the game works changes for every incarnation of the show, but the alliances, backstabbing, and otherwise despicable, slutty behavior between cast members remains comfortingly the same. One great thing about the show is that all of these people are incredibly good looking but with dubious at best characters, and there's something really satisfying about watching hot twenty somethings slide around on big blocks of ice for the chance to win a BMX bike. Also, it's sort of like sports, but again, the athletes are hot and dress really well. Finally, the inter personal drama is soap opera level epic, but since it's "reality tv," somehow you feel less ridiculous caring about their struggles. Everybody agrees that Tonya is batshit insane and that Evelyn the little lesbian who kills the challenges rules.

To review: I like Real World/Road Rules challenge because 1. I like watching good looking people do stupid shit. 2. It's sort of like sports but without boring innings and rules and the soundtrack is more hip. 3. It has all the drama of television with a "real" component that makes me feel less shallow. Although it probably shouldn't.

So anyway. I'm looking forward to seeing what compelling arguments you've come up with for the shows you like. You may or may not be informed by the Steven Johnson reading I gave you. Really it was just for entertainment and to get our heads in the right space.

Oh. And I found this article after I wrote this that I think is really great. Me and the author are pretty much on the same wave length.

Why I can't stop watching the real world/road rules challenge.