Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

I’m not sure what to expect of blogs to be honest. I expect short excerpts in comparison to long novels. I expect free flowing thought. I expect people to use a friendlier tone than in written research papers. I can’t say that I expect a journey or an information fest because there are so many different types of blogs out there. I can expect the unexpected, to be cliché. I expect blogs to connect with others who have similar interests or ideas floating around. I expect blogs to be a mess of beliefs and different viewpoints from all over the world, representing different people and cultures. That’s about it though.

I won’t lie; I’m not a huge blog reader. I’ve even tried to write multiple blogs at various points in my life, and none of them panned out for me. I don’t know what to write. I don’t know who my audience is. Well, I guess the audience would be me, but then what if a liberal peace loving person read my blogs? They would be offended, share it with other people who would also be offended. Then someone would hunt me down and kill me because this is Northern California and people don’t go for my thinking at all. What can I say, I’m a rebel. I just went on a crazy rant that has nothing to do with the prompt.

I can appreciate beautiful writing, no matter what the topic is (please no poetry), but I like to know that a story will have an ending. Frodo ultimately destroys the One Ring. Harry Potter marries Ginny and defeats Lord Voldemort. Michelle regains her memories and the Tanner family is once again whole. Blogs can be wonderful, but reading about a bagel that deserves the perfect cream cheese… yes it’s interesting, but it doesn’t go anywhere. In one person’s life it can be an exciting life altering experience, but it’s hard for me to see the big picture; where does this bagel fit in? I can enjoy informative blogs because I know I am cracking an egg so that I can make zhi bao dan gou. There is an end, but I need to care about the topic as well.

Anyway, I will start with Amy Tan’s blog. I cannot believe that Amy Tan has a blog. She is amazing and her blog was as thought provoking as her novels. Maybe it is because she is a novel writer that I was immediately drawn to her blog over Howe and Okano’s. She brings up interesting ideas about e-mail writing; it’s such a simple concept with such intricacies behind the entire act of writing an e-mail. I love how she connects with the audience. She appeals to the everyday man (or woman) by the use of her language; it is informal and colloquial in nature. My favorite part is when she uses humor and says, “Maybe it's because oooooooxxx looks like a bull crying in pain” when exploring the use of x and o in e-mail signatures. Regarding her style of writing, it is similar to her novels in a way. Her sentences are short and often fragmented. I actually like the way she does this though because I feel as if those small sentences carry so much more weight than a lengthier one.

Howe’s blog about his relationship with walking and Parkinson’s disease is noteworthy. I especially enjoy how the blog begins with a quote centered at the top of the page by a person other people can connect with. This blog was very much like a novel beginning to unfold. The rate of revelation is gradual and the point of entry was brilliant. I honestly thought this was going to be a selection about walking or running exercises, and I was genuinely interested because I’m trying to get back into those exact forms of exercise. Then as I read on I discover slowly that this man’s ability to run has been taken away, he can’t even walk at times. My mood changed from excited about the topic at hand to poignant due to his nostalgic narrative. The allusion he uses to Animal Farm is also a very effective use of imagery in my opinion.

Kunihiko Okano’s interview was very lengthy and in depth. The title of the blog is I Love Typography. It’s no wonder why I couldn’t enjoy the reading. I can appreciate long thorough writing, but not when it’s about typography. I’m sure others who have interest in this area will be captivated by the article though. The use of the photographs was exceptional. I appreciate the layout of the article with all of the text on the left. The text box only filled up the left, while the pictures presented filled up the entire width of the webpage. The space on the right where the main text was not written communicated captions for the pictures. A lot of jargon is used within this interview, much of it I had to skip over. The audience is definitely not someone unfamiliar with typography.

I enjoyed Tan’s blog the most. Maybe it is because of the credibility she holds as the author of novels such as The Joy Luck Club, but I found it much easier to read her blog as well. When people want to read for leisure rarely will they pick up a scientific essay about molecular gastronomy; it’s full of jargon and formal tone! And I’m trying to become an English teacher, scientific articles use a lot of passive voice; it’ll confuse me when I’m looking for active voice in student papers. While I do appreciate Okano’s interview because he is obviously a very talented artist, I don’t think I am the audience he was looking for at this particular blog.