Blogged down!

I have been "blogged down" this week scouring the Internet for the web logs I like to complete this assignment in week three of our Journalism 2.0 distance learning course. I started by scanning the A-list bloggers on the top 100 at Technorati.com, as our teacher, Mark Briggs suggested. I did find a few "flogs" (favourite blogs? sorry Mark, couldn't resist), but there are thousands out there and I am sure that as I read more of them, my selections will diversify. I have also set up a few news alerts but need to search around some more.

Since I have just started blogging, I chose the following two for their wealth of tips, advice, quality of writing, and links.

http://www.copyblogger.com/

http://www.problogger.net/

I could not find any new blogs from war correspondent Kevin Sites, but his gripping reports from the past remain my all-time favourite. Sites' compelling posts from the world's areas of conflict- were the first blogs I ever read, prior to this Knight Center programme.

His 'Hot Zone' reports for Yahoo, from the world's most conflict-torn areas haunted me, especially the moving stories of children like the abused Afghan bride, the beautiful and upbeat Gulsoma (http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs2986),

the cheerful Nepalese boy, Yubaraj, who at 13 becomes head of his impoverished family and parks bicycles for a living (http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs4389)

and the most chilling account of rape and war in the Congo, (http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs1152.)

Sites' last "Hot Zones" blog account (that I found) summarises his almost year-long coverage of 22 warn-torn areas in 19 countries and is at http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs9538 which I have chosen as my third favourite blog.


MY FIVE GREAT WEB HEADLINES:-

Getting Writing Done: How to Stop Thinking About It and Write

1. DO IT.

by Jane Northcote

http://www.copyblogger.com/getting-writing-done/

2. Strewth! Aussies reel at TV swearing

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-aussies-reel-at-tv-swearing-799042.html

3.New ladies' vodka gives doctors a headache
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/od_nm/russia_vodka1_dc;_ylt=As0C5ZFzBBor7yy1aaPiDp0SH9EA

4.Fleeing shoplifter forgets son

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080320/od_nm/dutch_dc;_ylt=AuJHmH6cZOkFMmPqVsiRHGys0NUE

5.No Horsing Around in the Hospital

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_No_Horsing_Around_in_the_Hospital_15461.html

The good headlines work because they are short, direct, and like the red-hued "Do it." grab your attention. Others are funny, full of innuendo and unusual for their subject, especially the items culled from the "Odd News" section, which made me first grin and then want to read the rest that follows.



FIVE POOR WEB HEADLINES

This is a beauty coming from the usually careful "Independent" newspaper, I enjoyed the mixed metaphor, young lion or a wet duck, loud roar or one quack of a headline?

1. England's young lion takes to Test scene like a duck to water

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket/englands-young-lion-takes-to-test-scene-like-a-duck-to-water-798904.html

2.White House: Old Computers Were Destroyed: Admin. Tells Judge Seeking Missing E-Mail Data That Hard Drives Were Removed For Physical Destruction

http://greenpagan.newsvine.com/_news/2008/03/22/1383562-white-house-old-computers-were-destroyed-admin-tells-judge-seeking-missing-e-mail-data-that-hard-drives-were-removed-for-physical-destruction

Too wordy, repetitive and long. This headline should be headed for physical destruction.

3.Endangering, the environmentally endangered … From elephants to what next?

Friday February 29 2008

http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=142115129303232008&an=350658089502282008&ac=Columnist

I am unsure what this headline wants to say, and since I feel endangered by such wording, I am unwilling to see what comes next.

4.Developing airlift strategy for St. Croix is goal of newly formed panel

Friday, March 21st 2008

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17622221

Not a bad headline really, just very boring, newspaper's website really needs a better strategy and shorter words if its' goal is to gain readers.

5.Science Etcetera Jupiterday, 20080320

http://www.technorati.com/posts/vBuNFq0W90D7%2FkWowN%2F7erY85Id7DlZ7LChMo7v3Kv4%3D

I felt like screaming MAYDAY! when I spotted this one while browsing technorati.com etc.


COMMENT ON STUDENTS' BLOG

I liked Claudine Housen's blog,http://claudinehousen.blogspot.com/
it is attractive, the white contrasts nicely with the black background, her posts are well-written and there are even photos! I sure am inspired to do more with mine!

Holi days

Very serene, sunny, Sunday morning in north-eastern Antigua, where I live, can hear the comforting chorus of birdsong, shiny crows, tiny bannaquits, bawdy sparrows, an occasional bejewelled hummingbird, and glimpse them flitting restlessly across my verandah. I feed them all, and since it's very hot, the birdbath dries out quickly leaving an ugly muddy sludge, the smelly residue of the piped water here.

The bougainvilleas are blooming in profusion, the cerise and royal purple bunches, all the more startling against the white picket fence running atop the cracking concrete wall. Swaying in the strong, trade winds that whip through the small valley, the neem trees whisper and whistle incessantly, as they discard another sudden shower of crackling gold leaves, carpeting the parched lawns.

Mount Pleasant rises nearby, a somnolent limestone curve, gleaming green and pale yellow in the tropical light; from which steep stone faces streaked dirty gray, peep out sullenly.

My fingers are stained magenta from the "abeer," or coloured liquid crystals that I mixed in water, for my eager children to celebrate Holi, or the ancient Hindu spring festival which was marked by us on Friday, the full moon day of the Phalgun month.

Dyed powders or "abrack," symbolic of the bright colours of the season, are also generously splashed on each other, and in our case, on the balding head of my most reluctant husband, and an overly-excited dog, who is still walking around with a rather pink coat!

A public holiday in some countries like Guyana, Holi coincided with Good Friday this year, so our observances were muted and mostly confined to the late afternoon.

Someone turned up outside our gate offering power-washing services and scuttled off in sheer panic, when my absent-minded spouse, his face an alarming mess of bloody red, riotous purple and sheer rose, hurried out to meet him. When rebuked, my husband regretfully announced, "I should have told him, my wife just 'buss' (burst) my head!"

Trouble

I have just launched this basic first blog to satisfy a requirement of the current digital Web 2.0 course I am participating in, sponsored by the Knight Center for Journalism. We are in week two and it has been pretty tough for me, since I have not kept up with the technology over the past years and too many of the concepts and applications are all new.

But it is also gratifying to learn something different almost every day even as there is so much to catch up with. I must confess though it can be pretty frustrating at times struggling with the fundamentals. As our course progresses and I learn more, I hope the blog becomes better.

I am having problems pasting the link to my Yahoo web-based RSS reader into this blog. I know I should use a screenshot of the page with the feeds and news searches, but don't know how to do it on Windows independent of Screengrab. I tried, but the quality was so poor, I could not discern any feeds. I tried cutting and pasting, but it had errors and didn't load.

Sorry Mark, I did not see your note until today and by then it was already late. I am going to keep trying and if I can figure it out with help before the 7 p.m deadline I will replace the initial assignment. I hate having to give up after I have spent so much time on it today. I have asked Vernon, Nazima and Carlos for help, and the latter two have responded so far, but I have not been able to copy and paste the link in a word document and upload it into the blog as they suggest.

Called up the IT guy who is employed at my husband's workplace but he had never used RSS and I guess that will be the trend across most of the Caribbean, except Trinidad.

I have used Yahoo as my RSS feeder since it is easier for me. I am freelance so I don't work in a conventional newsroom , but I am interested in what's happening newswise, especially in the region. Since I am Guyanese by birth, married to a Trinidadian, with two young Barbadian children and now living in Antigua-Barbuda, I am especially keen on regional news! I have found a Caribbean news website, Caribbean Herald.com and set up a feed.

I have traditionally read what's available on the BBC World News, so that's in, as well as the Independent.co.uk site which I find has a wide range of well-written news stories, features and analyses. I have chosen one of the two private newspapers in Guyana, the Stabroek news which helps me keep in touch with what's happening at home, while the other feed is sourced to EcoEarth.info Environment because that's topical and features three of my passions in its name.

Two of my neighbours are trying to outblast each other, with music so loud I can't hear myself speak, and my head is already pounding harder than the incessant bass. The din shattered the Sunday evening reverie suddenly and looks like it's going to last well into tomorrow. It has been a horribly long day and it's going to be an even longer night.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=tibetan+protests&ei=UTF-8

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=guyana+killings&ei=UTF-8

Five RSS News Feeds

http://www.ecoearth.info/

http://www.independent.co.uk/?service=Rss

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/default.stm

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=au&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Stabroek+News+Guyana

http://www.caribbeanherald.com/index.php/ct/10/id/e5abd99746ab67f4/