Writing Samples

Blogger provides the stranger's eye-view

I've made the decision. I'm facing eviction, but I can see and taste good things ahead. I'm NOT gonna leave the NY area. I AM gonna continue following my dreams. And I can see most of 'em here in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary. The technical geographical name for the New York metro area... :-) (Another thing I learned today..)

Another great quote: 'Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.' - Woody Allen

Hee.. :-)

Awright, time to make the donuts."

The foregoing is a sample (from 'Joe Pennant's Itinerant in NY blog') from a creative outlet that is growing in popularity on today's Internet: the Web log. In the spirit of the Web cam, personal Web logs are springing up everywhere — because people love to read them and, just as significantly, because people love to churn them out. From the most mundane trivia to the most intimate personal details, regular Weblog readers will tune in daily to read up on the latest adventures of their favourite Web loggers.

One of the organizations which has done the most to encourage the popularity of this artform is Blogger. Blogger provides easy-to-use tools to let even the greenest of Webmasters publish their personal Web logs, or blogs, as Blogger calls them.

Once you have filled out a form and received your free membership to the Blogger site, you are free to customize the look of your Web log's pages or select a template. Creating a daily entry is as easy as filling out a form and clicking 'Publish'. If you are using you own Web space as opposed to Blogger space, Blogger will generate the HTML file required to display your current Web log along with customized archive pages. Blogger then prompts you for your FTP information and transfers the generated files to your server.

If you customize your own Web log template, you are free to call the generated files anything you want and use any file extension you wish (.htm, .html, .shtml, .asp, .cfm or whatever). This flexibility allows you to include server-parsed tags in your template so your content can be even more dynamic.

For the Web log reader, Blogger.com is set up like a hub where fresh Web logs are constantly served up for the public.

Each time a Web log is updated, it gets a brief moment in the sun as it is showcased among the Ten Most-Recently Updated Blogs.

For the Web log writer, this listing can be a rich source of multinational referrals or click-throughs.

This growing interest in Web logs should not be surprising. The new Reality TV shows that have cropped up in the last year prove that people have an insatiable interest in the ordinary lives of total strangers. You don't have to look farther than the Internet to see how developments such as the Web cam have drawn traffic to personal Web sites for the same reasons. Powered by the same magic that makes gossip so interesting, Web logs hold the same fascination and power for the reader.