Everything Has Changed

Barack Obama is the newly elected president. AHHHHH!!!! That was what most of us were doing here at UMass when we found out. We were screaming, crying, dancing, and watching in disbelief and joy.



As the New York Times put it, racial barriers have fallen because of him. It's history in the making. What an absolutely amazing time to be here at UMass, with my generation's first vote. I am so proud to have cast my vote and been a part of all of this.

I am so excited for everything to start changing. As a friend of mine said, we are a country again. Obama has united us all. We are proud to be Americans now, and are proud to have Obama as our leader.

Political Coverage

For this week's election-related assignment, we were asked to compare the sites Daily Kos and Instapundit in their political coverage abilities.

I really enjoyed both sites. Instapundit didn't have much in the way of photos or videos, but it wasn't really necessary. The headlines were enough to get me interested, and the stories were just as good. The site was also updated fairly often. Daily Kos was also just as good, especially with the live map of election results. With videos and statistics, my interest was kept the whole time.

Both sites seemed to play up stories on issues with the polls and stories for Obama. Being for Obama, I can't complain, but they may not have been completely fair to the Republicans. Daily Kos held my interest by putting up youtube videos of the candidates and Instapunit had the up to date stories everyone is interested in as well as the weird stuff that people love to read.

Palin Hung in Effigy

Have you seen this? Really, nuff said. Check out the story.

Here's CNN's video, too. So far, 3127 comments.

My hometown has a blog?!?! Well, sort of...

Upon googling my hometown, because placeblogger.com wasn't working, I found one blog for Hudson, NH. Unfortunately, it was only a MerchantCircle blog to promote businesses in my town. However, I did find out about some cool businesses that I didn't know were there. I had no idea my town had a Limousine service, or an Electrolysis office.

The only other blog that I found for Hudson was a Hudson for Obama website. It's funny looking at this business blog's pictures. One of the local restaurants even has a picture of a hamburger up.

Well, overall, this isn't a very good representation of the businesses in the area. We have numerous plazas that have just gone in and there is no information on them. I did find, however, a local newspaper in town, a jeweler that I didn't know about, and a sewer and landscaping company.

Hudson, get on this! To begin, more businesses need to put their information online. Also, why doesn't my town have a blog? There are almost 30,000 people, at least one person could start a blog about it. I am deeply saddened.

Trash Can Surfing

I love my friends. When we're together, we just laugh. A lot. Well, we all practically live at the Fine Arts Center because we're music majors, which makes for some interesting times. The FAC is nicknamed "the bunker" because of its bomb-shelter-like qualities and because there are no windows where we have our classes and practice. It makes life here on campus a little more gray, but we still seem to find ways to laugh about things.

For my original videos, I decided I would include two of the few videos I have shot on my camera (turn the volume down, I'm laughing pretty hard). Two of my friends are doing what I like to call "Trash Can Surfing", on a particularly overtired day for all of us. It definitely beats rehearsing.

Comparing Sites

(© RON CHAPPLE/CORBIS, ps. check out this article from Scientific American on getting your fiber through coffee)


One of the assignments for this week was to compare these sites:
BaristaNet, LoudounExtra, and iBrattleboro.com. After poking around on the sites for a while, I noticed some things.

As far as the strengths and weaknesses for each site, I have to say that iBrattleboro.com and BaristaNet were set up well. On both sites, you could scroll down through the headlines and get short, to-the-point stories on just what you are looking for.

LoudounExtra is still loading on my computer... The top box that includes the top five or so stories has not been working for me. I clicked on a story once it was finally loaded, and now that one isn't loading. I give up! Even the pictures associated with other stories as you scroll down aren't loading. I'm sure these not-loaded things could be strengths of the site if they actually worked.

I like how Brattleboro's stories were all provided by townspeople. People get a chance to read and write exactly what they want to know/say about the area. I mean, it just makes sense. It's like talking to all of your neighbors at once, without having to deal with the morning coffee breath. I also really liked how Brattleboro has a little section for "Who's Online" so that you can potentially talk to a neighbor if they're available.

Again, BaristaNet's stories were short and clear. I wish my town had something like this. Also, Barista, as well as the other sites, had a lot of links to blogs, events in the area, and other stories of interest to readers.

I think overall, despite the fact that LoudounExtra is still loading, the sites do a pretty good job at informing locals of what's going down in their area. They all had sections that a reader can click on for specific information on a certain topic, as well as the latest news and constant updates. Each of the sites had published about 6-7 of the latest stories for the day by mid-afternoon. I say, well done.

Stolen Glances

You know those moments- a glance at a stranger on the bus, in a grocery store, or a crowded subway station that seems to connect you with that person for a split second. You make eye contact, and in those few moments, everyone else in the room disappears. Time seems to stand still. Well, at least until your subway train whizzes from your happy moment.

Everyone seems to experience these little 2-second love excursions. James Blunt even has a song about his lost connection.



CNN.com has a cool story about these lost connections, and the romance ads that have been popping up on the Internet since ISawYou.com and SubwayCrush.com were intoduced. One couple in the story even owes a lot to Craigslist, which has a "missed connections" board on the site. Question is- is the Internet making it too easy to find people? Back in the day, those lost connections would be lost forever. I guess I wouldn't expect anything less from our Internet world today. But, maybe the Internet really is bringing people together, even if it is through "girl in the red sweater on West 82nd" romance ads. Maybe James Blunt should post his lost connection...