BFT's Blog

This makes me want to play catch everytime I read it.

Spring has sprung, but not because of the weather. Major League Baseball has began its long season as most, if not all teams, by now have reported to their respective spring training facilities. The best blog to keep up with all the happenings in the league without question is Buster Olney's Blog on ESPN.com.

In his most recent posting, Olney addresses the major loopholes that still remain in the MLB's revamped drug testing policy. He sites that the use of human growth hormone is banned, but there is no truly accurate way to test for that substance.

Secondly, there is no penalty if a player test positive for a new designer steroid.

Thirdly, test are based of the person themselves. There is no investigation about how they went about cheating e.g. study a needle found in a locker.

Finally, a player arrives at the ballpark and is told that he must provide a urine sample. He is unsupervised until he fills the sample, thus he could easily find a buddy to provide said sample.

Olney demands that the player's union and the front offices of MLB restruction this new plan to truly make it foolproof. Will it take another strike or congressional intervention to make it happen? Olney can only speculate, but he is well aware of the potential dangers these loopholes leave diehard cheaters.

In closing, Olney provides several bullet points about other happenings in the league with a link to more information about the statement. It is very clever and very informative. If you love baseball, then reading Buster Olney's blog is a must-read every day.

David Gudelunas, a professor of communications at Fairfield University, visited Dr. Sapp and Dr. Simon’s ENW 350 Digital Writing class to discuss his opinion about the evolution about blogs and web-based communication.

He first affirmed that he believes blogs did not begin simply because of technology. They started to give people a voice. That voice could say whatever they wanted to and they could say it anonymously.

It is an opportunity for people to talk about popular culture with other people who they ordinarily would not have the chance to speak with or hear about. The information has the potential to be endless.

Gudelunas went on to go over some of his favorite weblogs and what was so interesting to him. A self-proclaimed avid blog reader, he says he spends hours a day perusing these sites. He was shocked to find that barely any student in the class shared his zeal for this phenomenon.

Gudelunas summed up by believing that blogs main purpose was a quest for truth. That people were on these sites in an effort to find the most information, facts, and opinions on a given topic so they themselves can form a truthful opinion.

Upon questioning, he confessed that he would not want a blog of his own because he is fearful of what his peers might think. Between his students and other faculty, he believes his ideas would be too provocative for Fairfield's Jesuit background to handle. Who know? Maybe he is just saying that while he is posting weblogs anonymously because after all, he has the ability to.

All in all, he provided many great points about blogs but failed to express how this is a permanent part of our society as opposed to a modern trend.

In William Gibson’s Neuromancer, the Femme Fatale is the character of Molly. Molly is a beautiful temptress who can snap your neck in a blink. The relationship between Molly and Case is based on one thing: sex appeal.

Molly quenches the thirst of many science fiction “aficionados,” or nerds. She is a strong, dominant woman who can be powerful, smart, sleek, and, most importantly, sexual. The book is written as entertainment and the audience is very particular. They want action. They want science. They want fantasy. Perhaps most importantly, they want the beautiful girl who they are too afraid to talk to readily accessible in the story.

Although it is not a traditional love story, Molly is the quintessential feminist element. Her relationship with Case blossoms as she gets involved in his life because of the mission. Their interaction leads to passion. That passion is what keeps the readers reading.

Her departure is important for two reasons. It separates the story from a traditional romance in that she leaves at the end. Also, her exeunt enables a possible new beginning for Case. He can maybe find a new love interest for another story or seek to regain Molly.

Fairfield University has recently been hyping up its RCADE, which is a state of the art media center on campus. This past Monday, I took a workshop with Adobe Photoshop and learned first-hand how complete a center it was.

First of all, Photoshop is an impressive tool for any aspiring photographer. The program has the ability to import any picture and alter it to your liking. You can eliminate red eye, add or subtract colors, alter the background or the subject, and create graphic designs on a image. The possibilities are endless.

The most impressive aspect of the center itself was the staff. They had a full-time staff of what looked like about four or five instructors. Our instructor, Mr. Peter Sarawit, was very knowledgeable about MAC computers and all of their components. He was a good teacher, explaining the details of the program.

Secondly, it was impressive how accessible the center is to the students. The RCADE has three to four workshops every week and Fairfield students just have to sign up. A student can learn an array of things, ranging from Photoshop to film editing. The catalogue is impressive.

Overall, the center does live up to the hype that Fairfield University puts on it and anyone interested in audio or visual departments should definitely look into taking a workshop.

In the true spirit of the Fairfield Mirror's “credible” journalistic style, Ashley Phan’s February 2nd article titled “All about the booty,” epitomizes what is wrong with the paper. Some people should be introduced to my friend named Mr. Tact.

“From conversation and experience, I have come to the conclusion that you can put most guys into two separate groups: ‘boob’ guys and ‘ass’ guys.” -Fairfield Mirror, week of February 2.

I know what you’re thinking. “Does journalism get any deeper and more investigative than that? Shove over Brian Williams, there’s a new gun-slinger in town. (By now, my sarcasm should be so overwhelming that you are debating whether or not to keep reading. Please do. I need a good grade.)

Obviously this is a good conversational piece one could have with his or her friends, but to be put in print is outlandish. The goal of the paper is to mold students into journalists, not Joan Rivers. This article was pure smut. She actually tries to delve into the psyche of a male and debate the pros and cons of each group.

My favorite part is the conclusion where so oh so cleverly tries to talk about guys and what they bring to the table sexually. Hopefully, she will never find out because the world is in some trouble if this writer reproduces.

Biz Stone's book titled Who Let the Blogs Out? may have the corniest name in the history of all literature ever written, but the fact of the matter is he has helped revolutionize a billion dollar industry with weblogs.

The author offers many insightful tips to future bloggers and also details how he himself advanced so far in this field. His biggest point was that links are what enable blogs to thrive. Links are the key to success. A person may find a link and tell others, leading to a vast web of readership. He stresses that weblogging is a community practice. People must want to be a part of it.

Another important piece of information was that every blog should be an individualistic approach. Every digital author should bring something new and refreshing to the table. Readers will only be interested in works that they have not seen or been a part of before. Creativity is what makes the blogging world go ‘round.

The book is written in a informal manner. It uses prose and verbage that is hip and young which appears consitent with an author of a blog. His book is though he thought of his ideas and merely put pen to paper. Nothing is over thought.

This book was an enjoyable read. It educates, illuminates, and entertains. The not-so-modest author’s (his website is titled Biz Stone, Genius) book can be purchased on at Amazon.com

After visiting www.ctweblogs.com, I found a weblog titled “Sidearm Delivery.” The author refers to himself as “brushback” and is based in Connecticut. The story he was focusing on revolved around a Russian professional hockey league that was having grave financial problems leading to some of the players abandoning the team. The site was truly individualistic containing legitimate sporting news coupled with uncensored editorials.

Money Problems for Dynamo

The team in Russia, Dynamo Moscow, did not pay star player Pavel Rosa his due salary for the past three months so he defected to a Swedish league. The Russian Super League began a protest, claiming that Rosa did not follow proper procedure when leaving the league. Rosa and his agent considered his contract with the league voided due to non-payment.

The author of this article is clearly a die-hard hockey fan if he is reporting on Russian hockey leagues. His news was both informative and complete. He researched Russian news sources and cited them properly. His reporting had no signs of personal bias and all his main ideas were clear and distinct.

As for the weblog itself, it was clearly a fan page. His biographical information was crude and nonsensical. His passion for hockey and baseball are clearly visualized with motion images and still shots of his favorite players. It was an interesting paradox to see such an intense sports fan write so clearly and without bias in his articles. It was a refreshing site.

In Jonathan Thaw’s article “Yahoo! Gives up Quest for Search Dominance,” the author reports on how Yahoo! Inc., a pioneer in the internet search engine field, has conceded that they will never be able to compete with the dominant Google search engine and are willing to except their place in the market.

YAHOO! We're number 2!

Yahoo! Search was founded in 1994 and was the premier engine of its time until about two years ago when it switched from Google’s search engine to its own technology. Ever since then, users have faded and stocks have been on a steady decline. With Google constantly offering new features and quick product development, any search engine would have a problem competing.

I found this site on “technorati.com” and it is titled “Metamend.” Jamie Olsen is the author in response to this revelation by Yahoo! that it is no longer striving to be the best in the business of search engines. She explains that although Susan Decker, the VP of Engineering for Yahoo!, was the person who claimed the company was content on settling for second place, Decker later revised her statement, believing there to be a mix up. The weblog included a brief snippet of what the VP said and a link to her whole statement. This site was interesting because the main news sources, such as Seattlepi.com, reported this information, but this site was able to find a rebuttal statement made by another member of Yahoo! Search.

The author was able to find a link to a new statement that was not widely reported on and display it for the public. Sure, the more important news sources like CNN.com and abcnews.com take more time to fact check and to make sure that all the information is reported on quickly, but this site was able to quickly add a new element to the story.

Olsen was able to find a new statement and comment on it before it was reported on most professional news websites. The speed and potential accuracy of the writing was impressive as well as the provided links and the proper grammatical structure. Although brief, this website appears to be well-done. The author is well-versed and poised in her writing. She gets right to the point of the subject at hand.

In Dennis A. Mahoney’s weblog titled “How to Write a Better Weblog,” he offers knowledge of different types of blogs and also delves into tips on how to write a professional and innovative weblog. He explains the differences between amateur and professional digital writing which allows the reader to examine his or her own style in the effort to better his or herself creatively.

Mahoney feels that the overexposure the internet provides to everyone who believes themselves to be a writer allows for mediocre to poor writing to be published without editing or critiques. His criticism includes that blogs should focus on good grammar, saying that clarity is essential for good writing. There should be declarative sentences, but at the same time, statements that are too bold could turn off a lot of potential readers. The first person point of view should either be used to the fullest extent or avoided at all costs. You should either voice your opinion strongly or do not use it.

The biggest point he made was that you should write to entertain, enlighten, or grip your readers. Amusing the reader is important because many aspects of life are funny. Share funny stories and anecdotes because everybody likes to smile. With this comes the understanding that not all reactions to your site will be positive. You will get criticized maliciously, but have a thick skin. You cannot please everyone.

Your weblog must be able to stand on its own as a unique and innovative site that will give the readers something that they cannot get anywhere else. Your ideas and writing should be fresh and offer your audience a fresh perspective with fresh information and fresh background material to back it up. Do not fall in line, but rather start a whole new line. I feel that this article was very accurate on two main points.

The tip to amuse your audience is especially poignant because that is why the reader is logged on. He or she wants to be entertained. If they are bored or uninterested, they will not be a consistent audience. Creativity breeds interest. A second point was that proper grammatical structure is vital to the clarity of a work. The use of Instant Messenger has broken the back of good grammar online. The younger generation’s liberal use of abbreviates and quick spelling has changed the written word digitally. It is up to the writer to understand that all people are not accustomed to this.

Be professional. Write professional. To be taken seriously means taking rules seriously. Good grammar is the best way to express opinions clearly and definitively.