Travel, teach, read, and write. If I could spend the rest of my life as a dancing gypsy, nothing would make me happier. If the first four options are the closest I can get to go back home and join a band of nomads, then so be it. Someday, if I'm ever ready for it, I'll adopt two kids and a puppy and call them my family.
Food. My life revolves around cooking, eating, entertaining and feeding people. It's my mother's fault. I can't remember any occassion in my life where a guest in my house was turned away on an empty stomach. I've lived with people from absolutely all corners of the world; people of different faiths, cultures, beliefs, and sexual orientation, and nothing...absolutely nothing makes everyone forget their differences, sit together, laugh, and talk like old friends other than a table groaning under the weight of home cooked food. It's not just subsistence - its a way of life. In my life, it's a celebration and a passion.
My other interests: traveling (India, U.A.E, Cyprus, Las Vegas, New Jersey, Tucson, California, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and counting. It's Europe next - I can feel it in my blood), reading (when I have the time, I can actually forget about food if I'm reading), writing, blogging, great friends, laughter, and deep conversations. If you catch me at the right time, I'll probably be contemplating the meaning of life.
Somedays I fancy myself a gypsy, hence the "wander" in both my blogs. My ancestors were bitten by the travel bug, and I'm pretty sure that it coded into our genetic makeup. I was born in New Delhi, India and I lived there until I turned 10 in 1992 (yes I'm old...very old). When I turned 10, my family decided that we had lived in one country far too long, so we migrated to the Middle East (United Arab Emirates) and lived there for eight years, and four years back, we moved to Southington, CT in good 'ol U.S. of A. My writing, poetry, and rants are often inspired by my perpetual homesickness and love for Indian food and culture. So I've literally lived all around the world, travelled pretty extensively for a 22 year old, and now I'm ready to move on to my next adventure in Europe.
My general introduction? My name is Neha and I'm a junior at Seton Hill, studying Literature after earning an Associates degree in Marketing. Half way through my degree I realised that I hated the corporate world, regardless of the fact that it is possibly the most dynamic field out there. Why did I go through it? Because you've gotta eat to live, and no one out there hands out jobs to Lit majors on a silver platter.
Considering the class is going over Rebecca Blood's book today, I thought I might blog about an article I came across on Weblogg-ed. I believe that the original post can be found on Kairosnews, although I haven't been able to locate it because it is buried deep in their archives.
"About a year ago, I asked my first year composition students whether they did much reading and writing outside of class. Most of them said, "No." But when I asked them if they wrote emails, used AOL IM, and surfed the Internet, they almost unanimously said, "Yes." To them, the Internet and other forms of electronic discourse were not associated with their concept of "reading and writing" in the school sort of way. I imagine that this difference might be because one is "fun" and the other is "work." But regardless, I've come to feel that reading and writing the Web is a way for me to tap into a writing space that students already use--and more importantly, want to use."
The central issue of this excerpt explores the diminishing practice of reading/writing amongst college freshmen. I've seen first year composition students comparing the class to having blood extracted from their veins, drop by painful drop. They would rather have their teeth pulled than write a five page paper. Not that I blame them - traditional media is exhausting, requires painstaking research, and lets face it, just words are plain boring.
Ever since my English teacher twisted my arm into setting up my own blog, I've been a die-hard proponent of blogging. From wracking my brain to come up with something to write about, to making virtually every thought of mine a blog post, I've explored a year long journey that has also helped me improve my writing skills. A year ago, I was cracking jokes on my blog - around the same time this year, I was giving a presentation on them.
The difference in the mindset is not one that is immediately recognizable. However, a dip into my archives makes me cringe at my writing. My style was relaxed, my language was colloquial, and rarely did I ever link to an external source of information. I think that there is a dramatic difference now because over 300 posts later, I've developed my voice, because with the click of a button, writing suddenly became fun again, and it allowed me to experiment with different forms.
I'll end this post here because I plan on following up on the same topic. Besides, I'm late for class!
On my personal blog, I've always maintained that the closer any possible thing (creature, phenomenon, experience, what-have-you) comes to reminding me of home, the greater my degree of affection for it. Big surprise that I made myself stumble across Likha, a blog on everything I love - creative writing, art, and learning. I never thought that my interests could ever be summed up in three words. But here they are. Literally translated, Likha is the Hindi word that means "to write," or "written". Quite a pleasant surprise for me to discover that in Filipino it means "to create". It essentially amounts to the same, doesn't it? Maintained by Chicago based artist Zarina Docken, Likha is a doorway to the very pleasant musings of a creative writer trapped in the trying-to-get-published world. She also employs her blog to showcase and sell her visual art. Her content is well developed and the blog is well linked and aesthetically pleasing. In fact, with a faded newsprint background, it's one of the most unique layouts I've seen so far. All it lacks right now is a Permalink option, incase someone wanted to dip into her archives.
Falling not too far from the creative writing tree is Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind, a blog run by Sarah Weinman, contributing editor of January Magazine. Considering she's also the mystery critic of the Baltimore Sun, her writing has an obvious bent towards crime fiction. Not necessarily my favourite form of writing, but it's nice to dip into a different genre for a change. Confessions boasts a highly detailed blogroll, linked to many authors of crime fiction. The layout is typical of TypePad blogs, with everything that a user could want with only a click away. Both blogs are definitely worth a visit and then some.
So what is a weblog you might ask. One of the most succinct definitions I've seen so far is the one given by Cameron Barrett on his weblog Camworld. He says:
Typically, a weblog is a small web site, usually maintained by one person that is updated on a regular basis and has a high concentration of repeat visitors. Weblogs often are highly focused around a singular subject, an underlying theme or unifying concept."
However, what comprises a weblog is more the focal point of this post and presentation. So, without further ado, here we go.
Anatomy
Web Counters/Site Meters - This service helps bloggers track all the traffic on their websites.
Blogshares - If you're interested in the stock market, then you'll enjoy putting up shares of your blog out there. All fun and games ofcourse.
For more accessories and design possibilites, see a personal favourite of mine - Spinning.