My Religious Disappointment

Last week, a group of clergy members gathered in D.C. for a prayer vigil.

Were they praying for peace in the Middle East? No.

Were they praying for the end of the slaughter of Christians in Darfur? No.

Were they praying for an end to the poverty in the U.S. that was highlighted during Katrina? No.

They were praying for lower gas prices.

Now, I hate $2.80 gas too. I long for the days when I was 16, learning to drive, and gas cost 75 cents.

But I have missed the religious outcry over other matters that seem more pressing. Instead, seeing them pray for the end of gay marraige and lower gas prices.

My Blogging Portfolio

With the end of the class fast approaching, I have been asked to create a portfolio of my blogging this semester.

This blog has gone through several changes since its inception. In the beginning, the blog started as a commentary of current events set to music. Over time, I dropped that idea as I was struggling with it and others were doing it better.

Also, I did attempt a name change at one point. I was considering changing the name to G.R.I.M. (the Guilty Ramblings of an Innocent Man). However, My First Attempt, originally a place holder name, fit more as all of my titles began with My...

The origin of the My... titles began as a "mistake." After the first post, The Beginning, my next two posts happened to start with My... After that, I kept up the string as most posts were my commentary on current events and different forms of media.

Some posts, I liked and, perhaps, didn't get the response I wanted. Some, I was surprised at the high number of responses. And some, were intricately crafted and got a response that I particularly enjoyed.



My Drug of Choice

First, I would like to highlight an early post that got a strong reaction. My Drug of Choice began as a post about my favorite coffee but became something larger as I discussed the small ways that New Orleans was coming back after Hurricane Katrina.

We discussed in class the nature of blogging is that many times the "best posts" do just that -- use a small item to expound upon a larger topic.

However, this is early blogging for me and as you can see there were only two links in the post. Later posts used far more links and graphics. (Hey, looky there, I'm demonstrating my growth!)

My Career Aspirations

I was really proud of a very recent post that, unnfortunately, didn't recieve the attention that I desired -- although I'm not sure what I expected. My Career Aspirations was designed as a link-laden post to discuss my three favorite journalists (perhaps, I need to do one about my literary favorites).

The origins of blogging began as a compilation of links and, I believe that this demonstrates that relatively well. The links were more informative than "cool."

My Mixtape Experiment

The last post of the "best of" that I would like to highlight is one that made me particularly proud. My Mixtape Experiment was a response to a assignment in which we were asked to push the limits and do something that we wouldn't normally do.

My blog began as a news commentary or personal commentary, this post change the blog. From this point on, I attempted to invent new content and push the envelope.

The posts took me nearly two days (not consecutively) to finish due to my relative lack of experience.

I was able to mainpulate photo sizes and provide links and commentary on each song or artist.

This post was well-recieved, and I appreciated that based on the work I put into it.

As a side note, my experience is such now that my blogging was sped up so that I won't take two days anymore.

The aforementioned blogposts represent what I feel is my best blogging, as well as my technical growth as a blogger. However, it was not all greatness.



The Spanish Post

This was one of the posts that I tried to create something outside the box. I attempted to make a statement by putting my thoughts on immigration into Spanish. At the end, the translators link didn't work, and no amount of my work could fix the link so the post sits there.

I am proud that I tried something new, but for most that one broken link takes what could have been a very good post, and turned it into a post that goes here.



Some of my favorite comments came out of some of my favorite posts over on The Hamster's Wheel.

Hey, Red!

This post was outstanding and I was eager to post a comment. I hoped to add from my own experience.

The Electricity Post

Once again, I thought something from my own experience would add to the conversation. In most of my comments, I'm not sure they really expanded the convversation, but I tried.

All in all, I am proud of my blog and look forward to any comments I recieve on my new posts and ideas as they come up.