Well, this is new. Blogging, that is. I like this unconventional approach to a Writing and Composition class. Last semester's ENC course was oh so boring. We went to class and our instructor wrote journal questions on the board pertaining to the chapter we were on. That's about it. No class discussions, no reading interesting material. Just sit, write down journal questions, and zip through the chapter to try to finish them. It was not a particularly effective way to run a class, and I wasn't exactly thrilled about going to class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. ENC 1102 is a breath of fresh air--blog and all.
I must admit, I had my doubts on the first day of the semester when our instructor...errr...instructed us to create a blog. I'm not particularly savvy when it comes to computers, so I thought, "Ugh, how am I going to pull this off?" The night I was creating the blog, the "Three Simple Steps" weren't "simple" enough. -_- Yeah, it's that bad. And to top it all off, the pressure of having to come up with a blog name! (Okay, so maybe it's not that much pressure, but you get the idea. ) "Can't I just skip this step and sleep on it?" The answer was,"no." Hence my somewhat original blog title--a title I feel is not "me." Sure, no one else came up with it, but to me it lacks creativity. Not that I didn't stare at my computer for an hour hoping for a pop-up window to show me the light. It just never happened.
So. I, Alexi Cardona, an eighteen (soon-to-be nineteen) year-old attending Florida International University have a blog. In essence, an online diary. Only I most likely won't be writing on a daily basis, nor will I be writing about who broke my heart or who's cute in school or what my family members did to stress me out. Or will I? Let's call it a journal. It sounds less elementary school.
Seeing as this is a requirement for Writing and Composition, my blog is simply something that is required of me--for now. For now I will respond to the prompts my instructor assigns and make them as interesting as possible for her to read. I don't know how I feel about making this open to anyone other than her, or you, because you're the only one reading this, Natasha. I think.
I find myself wanting to write this entry in closed-form prose. Every paragraph with a topic sentence and transitions to each new paragraph so they flow and make sense. I should stop. Blogs aren't about that. Although they could be. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Is there any sort of criteria to blog-writing? Is there a good or bad blog? There must me. If this were Microsoft Word it would kill me for all my fragments. I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. I'm having a stream of consciousness thing going on here.
Aside from being new and unexpected, I'm thinking the blogging world will be exciting, especially since I'm not just going to be writing fluff. This seems fluffy to me but I'm sure the next ones won't be. I remember having a diary when I was little. I would write in it every day and apologize to it when I missed a day. Or several. Having one didn't last long--it becomes tiring keeping a diary. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks that.
Although they are a pain to maintain, diaries/journals are good for looking back to see how much you've grown and matured as a person. If I were writing this blog in middle school, it would have TONS of abbreviations and acronyms and text speak, all things I refuse to use now in any context. I don't even use text speak when I text, even if it means I have to send 3 messages to get my point across. I used to have a notebook in which I wrote about all the troubles I experienced in a past relationship. I went back and read those entries 6 months later and I made myself sick. How could I have written all those things? I sounded like a Toni Braxton song. (My apologies if you like Toni Braxton) It was bad. I laughed at myself. I was appalled with myself. I tore each entry to pieces and--literally--flushed them down the toilet.
I think I'm officially done with my rant. Despite my reservations about this blog, I can already tell I'm going to like it. It's not very often I get to share my thoughts with something that can't talk back. Sometimes we all need that. I feel somewhat special having my own URL. It screams, "Virtual world, I am here!" By the same token, it murmurs, "So are millions of other people. Calm down." If I ever find out how to really work this thing, I'll make it pretty. And maybe, just maybe, I'll make it public. I have my reservations about doing that, too. Ooh, maybe I should find out where the security settings are. And how to change the background. Is that what they call it? A background? How about an "About Me" section? Is that only on Facebook? Oy.
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