My Top Destinations...

Where I would like to visit, or what I would like to see before I die:
1. Great Barrier Reef
2. Italy
3. Hollywood
4. Northern Lights
5. Mount Everest
6. Egypt
7. Great Wall of China
8. Aruba
9. Grand Canyon
10. Puerto Rico
11. Big Ben
12. France

13. New York City
14. Mt. Rushmore
15. The Sydney Opera House
16. The Gateway Arch
17. Stonehendge
18. The Moai Statues
19. Sweden
20. Norway
21. Germany
22. Spain
23. The Carribean
24. Ireland

The Last Chapters of HotText

These chapters of hot text says that "Good writing is not data," and it is also organized and persistant. To write well on the web, you must have somewhat of a sense of humor, and a snappy headline to catch the readers attention. Another element that would catch an average readers attention is a short reading. If it is too long, the reader may get distracted and feel the need to only skim and not focus on the entire article. Pictures and links can also help the readers visually understand the topic at hand.
Reading some of my fellow classmates feature stories, it was though they were so long and hard to finish reading. Now reading Chapter 17, I realized I should have added pictures to my feature story and maybe got a more eye catching title. An update of my feature story will be on my website as soon as I edit it.

This Moment on Earth...

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry are coming out with a new book called "This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future."

Last evening, John Kerry appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and talked about his 250 page book. He said, "We are running out of time to make very important decisions..." and goes on to talk about how it mentions global climate change, toxins, chemicals, and cancer.

He includes stories about individuals making a difference in the environment. The Bush administration back off of The Polluter Pays Act which means citizens pay instead of the actual person dumping their pollutants into the environment.

Kerry states that this book is about regular people in America that don't think of themselves in an environmentalist way, but just want to make things right

Former Vice President Al Gore summarizes the book:

"John Kerry and Teresa Heinz have written a book that is a profound challenge to all of us but contains, in the examples of the men and women who are fighting the great fight for a better future for our environment, the clear hope that if we can embrace their resourcefulness, determination and essential patriotism we will prevail. Both John and Teresa have been long-time leaders in the battle to save the Earth's environment. Way back when it was not all fashionable, indeed when very few people in the world were even paying attention to it, both John and Teresa were providing outstanding and courageous leadership."

If you want to see the clip of John Kerry and Jon Stewart, visit the John Kerry Website.

Hot Text: Concepts from Chapters 1-16

Considering I have been catching on to this blog thing, the chapter from the Hot Text textbook have been commone sense. Chapters 1-4 talked about knowing the audience. I you do not know the audience, you will have a very vague idea what to write about.

This blog is for a class and includes students and a professor, I write about topics that may interest them. You also have to make sure you have fun, learn from what you are writing about, be aware of how it will affect you, and get close to people whom you write for. The next important step for a blog would be the structure of it and paying attention to what you are writing about.

Chapters 5-10 discuss the importance of cutting away unnecessary details, using a before and after concept, seperating the blog into paragraphs, and using simple words. If you do not put the text into seperate paragraphs, the reader will not want to read anything that you typed. It gets boring. Next is including some vizualization of text. In chapter 6 the textbook talks about is seeing if the title can survive out of context. An example: "Shark eats man at Venice Beach".
Announcing a new topic can also keep the reader interested. But to make sure they have your full attention, use bold, italicized, key words, links, and phrases.

When you are creating a blog, use the most important information and establish credibility from where you may have recieved your information. It is also bad to stray far off the topic of the blog. If you stray, the reader may not have an easy transition to the previous conversation.

Distinctive paragraphs help connect the dots from one paragraph to another and make an easy transition. It is best to start with the summary or conclusion, and if you say "no"- say why.

Chapter 10 talks about adding visual proof to your blog such as, menus, graphs, tables, maps, and different levels of the context. Another important concept is perceiving stability when it comes to the blog. Instead of keep changing the background, keep it the same. Not only does it make the website or blog look neater, it is also easier to navigate.

In Chapter 11-16, the textbooks focuses on blog genre's. When topics are being explained, it is best to have questions and answers wtih the reference included. Defining confusing terms for the readers show that you care if they read your blog or not. With a blog, you have the options of expressing your own ideas, and you are able to use quotations from famous people or even yourself. The important lesson to being a good blogger is putting emotion and attitude of your own into your work.

Is Hillary the next feminist icon?

According to Wikipedia, "Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon of the United States, representing the six million women who worked in the manufacturing plants which produced munitions and material during World War II while the men (who traditionally performed this work) were off fighting the war. This "character" is now considered a feminist icon in the US, and a herald of women's economic power to come. Rosie and her slogan were featured on newspapers, magazines and posters. Many people think that there was no real person who could be called "Rosie the Riveter". A real "Rosie the Riveter" was named Rose Monroe. The posters were made before she was discovered. She died at age 77."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter

After watching Hillary Clinton on C-Span today, my opinion of her grew even greater. I thought, "this is a woman who wants to stop the chaos and make America the way it once was.

She first wants to enforce the Equal Pay Act. She wants ALL women (Black, White, Latina...) to make the same salary men make for doing the same exact job. White women now are only making 70 cents of the one dollar men are making. Black women and Latinas are making even less.

Then she wants to get more American women involved in supporting EMILY's List. "EMILY's List, the nation's largest grassroots political network, is dedicated to building a progressive America by electing pro-choice Democratic women to federal, state, and local office."

She wants Healthcare issues in the United States taken care of so children can get proper exams and women can too.

And last but not at all least, Hillary wants to end the war.

She was inspired to run for president when she heard the words, "Dare to compete...Dare to compete." Well she is daring to compete, and in my opinion, anyone who is against stopping this war should maybe go over there to fight, maybe kill an innocent civilian....then see how you feel. How can you kill so many innocent civilians and call yourself a true American?

Hillary for President in 2008

To get this out of the way, I will be voting for Hillary Clinton for president in 2008. She shows more maturity than most of the men who run for President. She wants to stop the war the right way. She wants to put a cap on the amount of troops sent to Iraq. She wants to make sure that we leave Iraq alone and focus mostly on Afghanistan. That was the main focus to begin with.
In my opinion, George Bush is the worst thing that could have ever happened to this country. Whether he is a republican or democrat, I would definately vote against him or against someone who will carry on with this war.

To support Hillary visit her website to purchase "Hillary for President" products.

Political Scrutiny? Ha!

I read a blog about "Politcal Scrutiny." It kind of made me angry. This person said that Global Warming is NOT a big deal and Democrats are blowing it way out of proportion. Now in my opinion it is not nice dissing the other political parties. That shows no class what so ever. But as a democrat, I am not afraid to speak my mind. I think that global warming is something to worry about. Think about it- taken from Wikipedia-


"An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including a rising sea level and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. These changes may increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, and tornados. Other consequences include higher or lower agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer streamflows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors."



Now when you read that, do you really think it would be ok to not try to do something about that. For all we know Florida will be at the ocean floor in 30 years, we will all be dead of Malaria, and dengue fever, and there will be probably mass events of distinction. The Democrats can make all the fuss they want. It's better to be sure of something than to be left out in the dark.