On my absence from my blog
This is a hard post for me to write, but I feel that I need to explain why it's been so long since I've posted anything to The Writing Way. On Jan 17th my mother had what the doctors were sure was a minor heart attack. All the test results seemed good, so mom went home the following Friday. On Sunday, January 23rd she had a massive heart attack and died instantly.
I am from a huge family--I'm the second oldest of twelve children--which really helps at a time like this. Still the loss is immense, as others who have lost a parent know. This is especially true for my father, who lost his wife of 62 years and his independence all at once. Mom had been his primary caregiver, and he is now moving into assisted living.
In the context of my mother's death, my research project on citizen reviewers, bloggers, and seems pretty darn inconsequential. Still, I hope to return to it and to add some relevant posts in the coming days.
posted by Lisa Ede @ 10:49 AM
15 comments
15 Comments:
Lisa and Sara: Here is something to note in your research on blogs and bloggers, Lisa—an example of how one reader reads blogs. In this case, I scrolled down to see what new postings there were, knowing as I did that Lisa was back in town. I saw that one of the new two new postings already had a comment, so I clicked on the comments feature so as to read that comment. I have not as yet read Lisa's two postings. I shall now go back to them, having read Sara's comment first. I am a reader manifesting what Lisa probably knows an arcane term for, such as “narrative discontinuity preference syndrome.”
Anyway, I am glad that Sara has stopped by here as Sara is shortly to embark on the graduate school life and Lisa is a distinguished academic. Thus, it behooves Sara to get to know Lisa if only in electronic form although Lisa is very personable in her incarnate state and I would guess that Sara is as well though I can’t say having met the one and not the other.
Here is another aspect of blogs. Having composed the above in Word and having cut and pasted it into Blogger comments, I can read in the Blogger comments window Lisa's touching note about her parents. Thus, what I wrote above now strikes me as tastelessly flippant. But I shall leave it as it stands as that is part of blogging--quick responses to subjects that call for greater depth of thought and feeling of the kind that Sara showed in her short but touching note above.
Hope
Interesting that Roy and I ran into the same problem—-getting off the subject of your recent loss and onto the subject of blogging.
Lisa: Your dates are off about your mother.
Roy: How did you come upon Lisa's blog?
Hope
First of all, thanks to all of you who responded to my post about my mother. Your comments affirm our basic humanity--our ability to emphathize with others.
I am very concerned about my father, but I'm fortunately to have 9 siblings to share in the concern and responsibility.
Ray, I want to respond to your comments about blogging and the fact that the blogs that are most often read are by persons who in other ways have traditional cultural capital and expertise. You make an excellent point here. Though many bloggers hope that blogs can lead to more democratic forms of communication, the human impulse to rank and hierarchize is pretty strong.
I do think that while some "celebrity" blogs may get the most hits, many ordinary people are sharing their views and finding readers. Hope's Humor Hangout is a good example of that.
Paul Bausch, co-developer of Blogger, shares Ray's interest in making blogs by ordinary people available to the general. He runs the site ORBlogs as a public service, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in getting a multitude of views. This includes a directory of blogs written by Oregonians.
Just one more quick comment: Hope mentioned the erratic way that we read blogs. Do we read comments first, then the post to which they respond? I find that my own reading practices on blogs vary quite a bit, depending on the reason why I'm reading and nature of the blog.
Right now I'm wishing that Blogger functioned to allow me to read now only my post but readers' comments as I write this response. I want to thank the first responder (Sari? Sani? but didn't write her name down and can't remember it exactly.) This isn't a criticism of Blogger but rather a comment on the way that software makes some things easier while other things are harder.
Again, thanks for these responses. I appreciate them.
I just went back into the comments and see it's Sara. Sorry, Sara, about getting your name wrong.
If you ever do want to chat about academic life, let me know. I've been a university professor since 1976 and have taught at two public universities. I love teaching, but it's a complex and at times difficult profession.
And now for another apology: I see that it's Roy, not Ray.
I'm seeing that it's a challenge to read people's responses to a posting and them remember and respond to them. Is there a trick I'm missing? Do those of you who respond to comments print the comments so you can respond carefully? That seems somewhat laborious.....
One more thing: thanks for pointing out the problem with the dates, Hope. I went back and corrected that.
I do not compose posts in Word and import them into my blog. That seems too labor intensive. I do proofread (or try to) before publishing, but obviously I'm not always good at that.
Hi, all.
Roy: How would you define a blog versus a web page? And what is the difference between a web page and a web site? I think of a blog as a web site that is updated more frequently than most web sites. Isn’t that the main difference?
I came to Lisa’s blog because she is a friend of mine and told me about it. Pretty simple.
Actually, I am in favor of the democratizing aspects of blogs only until my blog makes me rich and famous. After that, I hope to join the ruling elite.
Lisa: Whom are you calling ordinary? Harrumph.
The drawback I see to Paul’s Oregon-centered site is that some people prefer not to have their state of residence known to strangers. Much of the joy of blogging is the animosity. Oops. Anonymity. Spellcheckers.
Lisa: I for one do print out the comments of the people I shortly thereafter respond to. I go through a lot of paper, but it's not that hard.
What is writing if not labor intensive?
Hope
Thanks for your comments and questions, Roy and Hope. This discussion of web pages versus blogs is interesting. I agree with both of you. One basic characteristic of blogs is that they are updated frequently--or at least that's the spirit of blogging (whether the flesh is always able to come through). But the differences Roy notes obtain as well. In my conversations with him, Paul Bausch has also emphasized the collaborative nature of blogs, with their response and trackback features. And the ease with which one can set up a blog is astonishing.
In her talk on blogging at OSU, Professor Laura Gurak suggested that blogs may make personal web pages obsolete. I don't know about that. I recently also read an article on blogging in Fortune that quoted Bill Gates as saying that the distinction between blogs and email may become less clear. My comment here is a good example of that. I'm posting it on my blog, but it's really a response to Hope and Roy.
Roy, thanks for asking how I am. I have been surprised at how intense the grieving process is--and how unpredictable. I've gotten wonderful support from friends (like Hope and her parents) and family. And I and my siblings are inspired by our father's courage. He entered a nursing home on Monday. According to my sibs who were there, he was pretty despondent that day, but since then he has rallied and is beginning to try some of the social activities the home offers.
If my father, who lost his wife of 62 years, can have that kind of courage, then I can too.
Nothing can really prepare you for the loss of a parent, though.
Hi, Lisa and Roy. Thanks so much for the disquisition on blogs, web sites and web pages. I think Roy’s is a useful distinction: Web sites are big on graphical content whereas blogs tend to be striped down and prose heavy. I know that one of the biggest complaints of users of Blog Explorer was that those of us who were required to spend 30 seconds at least at each blog we visited often were stuck in graphics-heavy sites that took forever to download, thereby preventing us from moving along to the next site thereby racking up credits so that more traffic would go to our own blogs.
Good point too Roy about always being the space of someone else in a blog.
I had only a bit for experience with message boards. I realize now that is far preferable to have a blog of one’s own for reasons practical and selfish. Why send a lot of time posting material on a site run by someone else and it is easier to be able to post and edit at one’s own blog. I think people use "blog" and "site" interchangeably.
Blogs won’t replace email at least in the workplace, anyway. I receive specific email requests that concern only me and one other person. Why clutter up a blog with such things? Privacy is called for, too sometimes and blogs are anything but private.
I think Gurak is wrong. Personal web pages serve the artsy crowd. Blogs are for the prose-centered among us. There is room for both.
Maybe Roy can explain trackback. I have never understood it.
Pace Paul Bausch, blogs are collaborative only in the sense that readers chime in after one person has spent hours working solo on a posting.
Yep, it is amazing how quickly one can set up a blog thanks to Blogger.
Good point, Lisa that you are using this blog in lieu of email to some extent and as a blog, too. You could have emailed Roy and me. Instead you are posting your notes to us—which may generate comments from other visitors to this blog.
Speaking of blogs—Roy, when I clicked on your name above I was taken to your Blogger profile, not to your blog. Do you not have one?
Now onto to personal matters. Your father is an amazingly resilient person, Lisa or perhaps at heart a considerate one, trying to put on a bold front for his children’s sake.
Hope
Roy: Thanks so much for the link to an explanation of track back. I will check it out.
I don’t quite follow you here, “The lack of imagination one found in those pages led to Google.” You mean the founders of Google wanted to help people avoid dreck?
Banality can sell. Many magazine publishers have made mints by peddling it. But I agree with you that specialty blogs are the ones that probably will make it.
I think what you say about blogging is probably true. Publishing in all its forms is struggling as people read less and less. I wonder if even comic books have a future. The average reader of those is in his forties or fifties or more. Kids play video games.
I don’t quite follow you here: “…such people are going the blog-route, thankfully.” Do you mean that blogs undermine the stability of the Internet infrastructure less than web pages do?
My only experience in a chat room environment was in a community college online course and it was incredibly frustrating trying to get the academic work done. My classmates would not stay on task. Women.
It must be stressful but rewarding to be the sole source of news for people in places of turmoil.
I agree with you that there is a lot of hype around blogs. But I am determined to stay deluded until I am rich.
Hope
Hi, Lisa and Hope. Lisa, Roy is a great resource. Exploit him ruthlessly.
One thing I have been wanting to mention, Lisa, is that I think that you are conflating blogs with reviewing on the Internet. Blogcritics is a blog but reviews on Amazon are postings on a commercial web site. Very different animals, I would say.
Thanks so much for your interesting and useful distillation of blog-related matters, Roy. I now have much more mixed feelings about Google given that measuring things by links rewards that which is already popular and makes it more popular rather than spreading popularity around. Bu that is pop culture for you and I shouldn’t grouse, as some great cultural figures were great pop figures too like Dickens and Chaplin
Good point about how easy it is to get in and out of blogs. I deliberately keep my blog as low tech as possible and have only one link, that to Blogcritics because I belonged to Blogcritics before I realized it wasn’t quite my cup of tea and I don’t know how to remove the link. I try to send my tiny number of readers to other blogs by mentioning them on my blog rather than by cluttering up my site with a huge blog roll.
Interesting point about blogs being the primary source of information in low-tech parts of the globe. Interesting that right-wingers made such effective use of blogs in the CBS matter.
My blog: http://humorhangout.blogspot.com/
Most kind of you to ask. And what is the URL of your web site?
I would rather not say where I live as I like the freedom to write about my workplace and daily routine without feeling that I am revealing anything that might cause me any trouble from shady types or embarrassing my employer.
Yes, I would indeed think it incredibly stressful to have to take care to protect people from violence in other lands. The BBC on the radio and on the Internet covers countries Togo and Ukraine very well indeed.
How do I plan to get rich on my blog? Ah, by using the blog to build up a readership that I will use as ammunition in my efforts to get some mainstream organ to publish my stuff in whatever form will generate some income for me. I don’t think I will get any advertising or riches therefrom on my blog.
I think you are too hard on banality.
Do you speak French? You pepper your writing with it.
Lisa makes me sound way, way nicer than I am. I have been telling her for years that I am not nice and she doesn’t buy it. She is silly that way.
Hope
Wow! I returned from my weekend of R&R to find that Hope and Roy have been engaged in a powerful discussion. This is one sequence of comments that I knew I needed to print if I were going to respond.
So here goes.
First, thanks for these insights and observations. They really extend my thinking.
Just to clarify (most important things first): I am not too generous in my praise of Hope. Hope is a thoughtful, nice, and generous woman.
Want to fight me over that, Hope?
Now on to blog and citizen review issues.
I do recognize the distinction between blogs and citizen reviews. When I talk about them together, I'm trying to focus on what they share as general cultural phenomenon--which is that each provides access to "publication" and claims of authority for "ordinary" citizens.
They both represent challenges to cultural hegemony (sorry for the jargon)--though that's possibly truer for citizen reviews than blogs, since people could always send letters to editors, call in to talk shows, etc.
Just as a reminder, citizen reviews appear not only on Amazon.com, which as Hope says is a commercial web site, but also on individual web sites, such as Danny Yee's book review site.
I had no idea when I started my citizen reviewer project that I'd be so drawn into blogs and blogging, but they seem to reflect shared opportunities and impulses. I often feel rather like I've opened Pandora's box......
On to other matters:
I agree with Roy that the best blogs provide important information or fill an important need--like the need for humor. I also agree that the democratic possibilities of blogs are at the very least challenged by many forces, from their structure (as Roy points out) to the fact that as humans we seem unable to tolerate true democracy. Hence recent efforts to determine whose blogs are "A-list" blogs.
Still, lots of folks are blogging, and at least some folks are reading these blogs. I don't know any other way that I'd be in conversation with Roy right now, for instance.
Roy, I'm quite interested in your internet research. Can you send me anything I can read/point me to a URL?
Here's another question, Roy. You gave Hope the URL of www.corvalliscommunitypages.com. Is this the "picture book" you mentioned in an earlier comment? Is there a reason why you characterize it as a "picture book" rather than web site?
I went to your URL and have to admit that I was pretty overwhelmed by how much information is up there. I take it that maintaining this site is a public project. Whew! That's quite a commitment. I'd love to know more about why you do it. I'm also wondering why you don't have any "about this site" or "FAQ's" on your site. Or did I just miss this.
I ask because when I come to a new web site one way that I try to evaluate it is through looking at these features.
On a different matter, I really appreciated the clarification of how Google works in comparison with Yahoo. I tend to agree with Hope that its method "rewards that which is already popular and makes it more popular rather than spreading popularity around." And yet the strong praise that I hear of Google--and my own experience using it--suggests that the developers of Google understand something about human nature.
Actually, Professor Gronas's project relates to this, so perhaps I'll close for now and post something in response to Hope's query about what he's trying to do.
One more thing: I want once again to thank those of you who have posted thoughtful and supportive comments about my mother's death, or have emailed me. These gestures of support have moved me and given me renewed faith in the potential for human goodness and generosity.
Hello, all. I have been having server trouble. I am going to print out the above and read it and respond brilliantly at some point.
Hope
Roy,
Thanks so much for your helpful comments about your interesting and important site. I'll check the index and read more in your "About this Side" page.
What I'm most struck by is your generosity in hosting these pages, which are providing essential information to many.
I look forward to returning to your site and reading more.
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