Final, Final Post!

Ok, so this is my final blog, seeing how the final is in 1 day and the term almost over, so I better make the most of it!

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this class!  Every time I learned something new and cool I'd run to my friend and tell her about it.  And just the number of times I've mentioned something about what I learned in class the other day when I'm at home (probably bothered the hell out of my dad while my mom feigned understanding).

So now I'm studying for this final (luckily the midterm wasn't that hard, so I don't expect this one to be a mountain climb either. Which is great!)

Hopefully I can apply a ton that I learned in this class to daily life, like any future Internet restricting laws the government wants to throw at us....

Is the internet dooming spelling?

I read one of prof. macek's posts on the internet dooming spelling, but I think it's really Word and spell check that's ruining it.

on the internet, all the preteens seem to spell things in the strangest ways (teen slang?), and think they're sooooo cool doing it (really, they just look like idiots).

but it's just a phase.  they grow out of it eventually and learn to spell correctly.

but in Word, when we type a paper and misspell a word, it underlines it in red, and can tell us how to actually spell it.

and that's what's dooming spelling


we don't need to remember to spell correctly, because spell check will just do that for us! :D

Cyber bullying

I know lots of students mentioned last class that cyber bullying surprisingly didn't become a big deal until too late...

what if that could be due to parents not understanding what the internet is about and could be used for? We are the "digital generation", so we tend to know more about technology and its many uses.

our parents do not.

so the adults may not have realized that bullying could move to the internet because they never truly understood what the internet was.

Final Project OVER! (OH MY GOD!)

I spent grueling hours on that final project, finding at least 4 academic sources to cite (even though there was really only 1 that talked about transmedia in Japanese pop culture).....

Then I wrote up all those examples (i think that's what really killed me....)

and cite all the different pages I used for miniscule information (release dates, etc.)....

but now....it's finally.....OVAR!


now onto the final exam........................

Final Project Final Project Final Project

I am definitely interested in my topic (transmedia in Japanese pop culture), and certainly invested in the research.

But, boy, is researching it hard...


I've found one article on transmedia...only one!  I've found several on manga and anime alone, but no others about how the two relate, nor any on how video games relate to manga and anime.

In fact, the article about transmedia on Japan actually cites Jenkin's :D

I've found plenty of other topics, though, that I can easily use as transitions for my many examples.

To list a few examples I plan on using:

Kingdom Hearts and transmedia between video games and manga
Final Fantasy (it's mentioned in a book I found in the library about how there's a lot of anime on it too, but only briefly...there's also manga)

Fullmetal Alchemist (it has two anime series, one related to the manga, one kind of goes off in its own direction)

When They Cry (higurashi no naku koro ni) (it started off as a DS game, then adapted into an anime, then a manga.  One of my articles talks about how transmedia often deepens characters and their relationships with readers, and this one is a fine example.  The manga has elements in it that the anime doesn't have)

Hayao Miyazaki and his Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind movie (produced in 1984).  An excerpt from a book in Google Scholar (yes, I looked there...I was desperate for more sources!) talked about the original manga version, and how he drew it so complicated so no one could animate it


It's great to be a manga/anime/Japan enthusiast.  Half the stuff I'll use for this project is stuff I've found out by reading a lot of manga....

Decline in Newspapers

I never really thought I'd care for the decline in newspapers and print media...until today.

Way back when I actually got the newspaper (until my parents cancelled it because they would just find their news online), all I would read were the Sunday comics.

And now, I've developed a passion for comics and have been drawing my own for several years now.

And with the decline in papers, that means less comics in print publications.

And I won't be able to publish comics in printed newspapers, nor will any avid cartoonist.

It's a sad day for us all.

L

Transmedia in Japanese Pop-culture

Many popular anime in Japan usually has at least 3 other parts to it:  manga, video games, and eventually (if it's really popular) a novel (or series of novels).

For example:

1)  Kingdom Hearts (produced by Square Enix) started out as a console game.  There are two console games: Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.  However, there is a Gameboy game (I believe SP) that happens between the first and second console games timeline: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.  If you haven't played, or heard about its story line, you won't know what the second game is talking about.  However, not only is Chain of Memories a game, but it also was published as a manga.

Then there's another DS game: Kingdom Hearts: 365 days/2 (365 days over 2).  This one has also been recently published as a manga.  This story tells the story from another characters' point of view (who first appeared in Kingdom Hearts II).

2) Fullmetal Alchemist started off as a manga, then was serialized and created as an anime.  However, the anime eventually caught up with the manga (which was not finished at the time), and then just kept going (creating an alternate timeline from the manga).  The manga wasn't finished until after the anime.  Then, they created a second anime series; Fullmetal Alchemist:  Brotherhood.  This one tells the story line of the manga.

It also has various video games and several movies (that also stem off of the first anime series), and is one of the most popular stories to ever be created (the complete box set of the first series was first released for over $600 dollars.  Not even kidding.  I was actually in Japan when they released it, and I was shocked when I saw the advertisement).

Several manga and anime have the same counterparts, some start as an anime, some start as a video game, etc.

The Internet and Copyright in Japanese Pop-culture

Manga is a piece of Japan's heart.  I'm not even kidding.  It's practically referenced everywhere.  It's a part of Japan's history, present, and future.

And in recent years, Japanese pop-culture has come to America.  Animations and graphic novels made in America use the manga or anime style.

But then you have the stuff that originated in Japan, and the large numbers of people reading Japanese-born manga online.

Since most of Japan's manga have not been published in America, and most avid readers can't read Japanese, readers have gathered to form multiple communities for the sole purpose of translating manga into (for the most part) English.

These groups of people involve translators and editors (people who are skilled in photoshop and can remove Japanese text, edit the coloring to make it look like the original printed version, and place the English translation into speech bubbles).  Manga online is often referred to as "scanlations".

What these communities are doing is technically illegal, but no one really tries to stop them until a Japanese manga has been serialized and about to be published in America.

Now if American publishers were to shut down these sites, thousands of readers would be pissed (myself included).  Manga in America is over a year behind it's original Japanese counterpart.  Whereas, online scanlations edit, translate, and release chapters the day after it has been released in Japan.  Much, much faster.

Therefore, many scanlator communities and publishers have reached an agreement: once a new volume has been published in America, the scanlators take down the related chapters in that volume from their site.

CD's to MP3's

The article "Music in the Age of Free Distribution:  MP3 and Society" also mentioned that CD's reproduce sound using bumps and grooves, but the MP3 is purely digital.  That means the CD had both bumps and grooves and the ability to reproduce sound digitally even before the MP3 player was invented.

Unless the world had a secret MP3 we didn't even know about when the walkman and CD's came out.

Could've been a business tactic.  Make people buy the walkman, but have the MP3 player stored in mass security, then release it so people buy that too.

Bumps and grooves from music boxes to CD's

CD's according to the article we read for today, "Music in the Age of Free Distribution:  MP3 and Society", mentioned that CD's and older formats of music reproduction produced sound using bumps and grooves.

The first thing I thought of was something not mentioned in the article that used this method:  music boxes. My mom is a fan of antique's, and she once showed me how music boxes produced sound.  There are little holes in music boxes placed at increments that would produce sound.  The closer the holes are to each other, the more sound that is produced faster (like eighth or sixteenth notes).

Magic keyboards that play music on its own when you put a coin in also uses this method.

DRM of iTunes

I did some research on DRM (Digital Rights Management) in iTunes songs.  I managed to find the iTunes terms of agreement and found the part about DRM.

It made sense for a while, but now I'm all confused again....I read something about iTunes downloaded songs being allowed on 5 computers and 20 devices, then there was something else about unlimited amount of devices and 5 computers...damn iTunes make up your mind!


Then I asked my sister what she thought it was, and she said it was that you can only have your account on a certain number of computers...

So is DRM linked to accounts or songs? :[


Look here if you wanna try to figure it out.

What I learned about Disney

Disney is great and all, but it's really starting to get a bit grabby.

1) Disney succeeded in increasing the copyright law to life of the author plus 70 years (to protect Mickey Mouse and Co. from falling into the public domain in '05).  How do we know they won't do it again in 2025?  They're gonna keep increasing the copyright law and making it harder for the creation of derivative works of every single thing under copyright.

2) Disney has started buying out everything...they've bought the muppets...Marvel....I remember when they bought Marvel...Marvel fans were freaking out that all their favorite comic movies will become frilly and cute...good thing that hasn't happened yet.


At some point you've got to think, Disney, don't you have enough?  I love you and all, but your acting like a 2 year old in the "mine" phase...

Copyright over the years

I wrote a whole paper on copyright for my English class last term.  So I did a fair amount of research over copyright throughout history.

If anyone has noticed, the copyright term has increased drastically over the last few decades.  Disney, in fact, started before copyright.  He created Steamboat Willie off of Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.  And that is how Mickey Mouse was born, and, in fact, the whole Disney corporation.  What Disney did at the time was not illegal, because there was no copyright law.

Now, the copyright law can last the life expectancy of the author and 70 years.  So that could very well be over 100 years until something is in the public domain (and by then it could just fall off the face of the earth).  If you wanted to use works under copyright, you'd have to ask permission (good luck with that!)

Thankfully, the rise of the Internet also brought about an addition to copyright, called Creative Commons.  Someone can put the CC license on their works, making their works copyrighted, but also allows for someone to use content from it as long as they give credit.

Blog Prompt #4: Internet Filters, Yeah or Neah?

I remember when I was in high school, and a lot of students loathed the Internet filters.  They couldn't do what they went, go on social communities, surf the net, etc.

Looking back on it, however, I feel that filters are necessary in a school environment.  You don't want a student to be on a disturbing site, because everyone else around them is exposed to the site.  It also keeps students from being distracted in class.  They are forced to pay attention because Facebook is blocked.

Also, parents don't have to worry about their child using the Internet for unapproved purposes.  Since every student is under the same filter, all parents are appeased that their child will be safe from the dangers of the web in school (parents can just personalize their own computers' filters to protect their child at home).

Therefore, I approve of filters on school computers.  Kids can just keep complaining about it; nothing's gonna change! >:D

The file-sharing religion

I read Prof. Macek's blog about Sweden's new religion, file-sharing....why isn't it a religion here?


That must mean their Government can't get involved (but I'm assuming, and I don't know anything about Swedish Government, so take what I say with a grain of salt)...and here's ours, creating all these new laws to interfere with free information...

So if Pirate Bay disappears, then you're interfering with Sweden's new religion.

This makes me sad...

L

How much privacy can the government take away from us?

So I read Prof. Macek's entry on another legislation that infringes our privacy and our freedom to use the Internet however we wish...it's called H.R. 1981, and would require Internet providers to record your I.P. address and search histories, and to give all that to the Government whenever they ask...

Didn't the Government hand over the Internet to private companies YEARS ago?  So why does it look like they're trying to take it back?


Thank you Government for trying to ruin the Internet AGAIN...how long is this going to happen?  We, as American's, have a right to privacy....this new law is about to infringe on just that....

The Age of Competency in Internet Media

One of the readings in the "Generation Digital" book discussed the rise of Internet laws, and what age children are to be competent enough to distribute their private information and sign contracts online.  Since kids younger than adults (18 and over) use the Internet, the government thought they should make the legal age 13.

But is that really wise?


The government says that 13 year old teens legally can understand and sign stuff, but 13 year olds are really just kids stuck in a pubescent body.  They don't magically understand everything there is to know about legal proceedings, etc. the day they turn 13.  They act just like 12 year olds! Bratty and THINK they know everything.

13 year olds want to grow up too fast, so they end up making themselves looking ridiculous.  How can you say a 13 year old is legally competent when they go around online spelling in slang?

They're not cool.

They're not adults.

And they're not legally competent.

13 year olds are just kids making stupid decisions because they want to act grown-up.  And the government says that, legally, 13 year olds are bound by the same laws as their parents.

Blog Promt #3: Facebook, kids, and honesty in profile creation

I actually don't mind that kids under the age of 13 are creating facebooks (since most of the time, their parents are the ones who set it up for them).  What bothers me is that facebook thought they should make a law in their terms and agreements.  Obviously, most people don't read those, and therefore are unaware that they are breaking the law....if facebook is going to do that, they might as well enforce it.

For facebooks on dogs, fictional characters, etc.  I don't mind that either.  I mean, my dad had one for our dog, and it was kind of funny to see it.  Friends actually thought it was me in disguise and tried to friend me.  That didn't work!

Piracy and South Park

Many of us loooove South Park, right?

When I started reading the first chapter, it reminded me of one of the South Park episodes where the boys find out about online piracy and that celebrities were losing money because no one was buying their CDs.

One of the celebrities said to the boys, "Because people are illegally downloading songs I wasn't able to buy my private island for my birthday".

HA!


Think about it, how march harm is piracy doing to celebrities?  This might sound cruel, but they have enough money anyway.  Sorry I don't have as much money as them to buy a CD so they can buy a private island, jet, huge mansion, etc.

At least that's what South Park taught me.  Thought it was note worthy.

Suing a 12 year old...

I started to read the first chapter of the Generation Digital book, and it said that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) was suing hundreds of young adults, teens, and kids for illegally downloading music.

Here's my problem with the situation:  the RIAA was suing KIDS who probably didn't know much about the law, let alone that they could get in so much trouble for it.  They didn't know what was coming for them...

That's heartless of the RIAA to sue kids (like poor 12 year old Brianna LaHara), having them stand in court facing fines for something they may not have fully understood.

Even a rapper thought they were crazy...

The White House Has YouTube Channel?!

I discovered that the White House has a YouTube channel!


I saw it on YouTube's main page, the top video on the sidebar was an hour long video on the State of the Union.

And here the government wanted to pass SOPA/PIPA (and now ACTA) that would eventually shutdown YouTube...


Anyone else see the irony?

SOPA/PIPA, More info

Yes, these laws have been shelved, but we may run into a similar problem (like with the ACTA law).

Here's a video a friend found on Vimeo. Here's the link.


PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

SOPA/PIPA Rises Again!

So I'm sure many have heard that SOPA and PIPA have been shelved because of the amount of hate that people had for them.

Well, sadly these things come in THREES!


This one is called ACTA, Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.  This one appears to allow other countries to use this act....greeeaaaaat.  But it basically does the same thing (but it sounds like it's not just limited to the Internet...I think it can strike at ANYTHING), it's designed to boost the already advanced copyright laws...

We've got two down, one to go!

Books vs. eBooks?

So in class we were talking about whether Google was making us stupid.  The conversation then veered off into the Internet in general (and how you can just Google search books or keywords to get the info you want).

Then I got to thinking:  What about the rise of eBooks (the elimination of paper books, you can just buy a book off the internet and get it on your tablet, iPad, phone, etc., for a much lower price)?  How will regular paper books be affected?

The sad truth is, paper books could be eliminated.  With the rise of demand for "going green", almost everything has been made to eliminate waste and overuse of resources.  Books are no exception.

There are avid supporters of both, but I'm just going to write my thoughts on it.

Yes, eBooks are nice (especially for those darn expensive textbooks!), and they save paper, cost less, etc.

However, if people don't read everything on the Internet, how can they read an eBook? I don't think I can.  All that brightness and pixel made letters (instead of ink stained onto a page in thick blots), I think my eyes would go bad (or worse).  Reading things on a bright screen (like on the Internet) just makes my brain go all fuzzy.

Here's where the whole "Is Google making us stupid" argument comes in.  If people just scan web pages, and go someplace else for more info, why won't some people do the same for eBooks?

That's why I still support paper books.  I can actually put it close to my face and it won't possibly blind me...

But how much longer will books be around?  With the rise of the Internet and digital media, and the many uses you can get out of such media, may very well eliminate paper materials altogether!

Harry Potter vs. SOPA/PIPA

First off, I really enjoyed the chapter from Jenkins' book "Convergence Culture" on the Harry Potter wars and fanfiction.

I got to thinking, Warner Bros. had tried to shut down sites that "exploited" the property rights of Harry Potter back when the movies were underway.  This led to fan writers accusing them of violating their freedom of speech, unfair prejudice on small sites, etc.

So can SOPA/PIPA still do the same?  Take legal action to shut down these sites that Warner Bros. has already deemed safe and fair?

Rowling appears to have supported the existence of fanfiction, and Warner Bros. soon was forced to follow.

But SOPA/PIPA has not.  


Not only can these new laws potentially shut down Harry Potter fanfiction sites (assuming someone else bypasses Rowling and Warner Bros., if at all possible), but then can shut down any fanfiction known to man!

Will Harry Potter be at risk again?

PIPA Is The New SOPA!

We’ve all heard of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), right?

Well now there’s another one!

It’s called PIPA (Protect IP Act).  It’s supposed to enter the Senate on Jan. 24^th, and does basically the same thing as SOPA.

Restricts our right to the Internet!

(Google for more info J)

This is a call for concern, since SOPA has been receiving so much negative attention, if people don’t do the same for PIPA, it could be passed!

So remember,

PIPA is also bad!

The Blackout Is Coming! The Blackout Is Coming!

In retaliation against SOPA, multiple sites are blacking out!

Sites are shutting down for 12 hours tomorrow (Jan. 18^th) from 7AM to 7PM Central Time.

This includes: Wikipedia, imgur, reddit, Cheezburgers, and much, much more!

This is what the web could look like under the Stop Online Piracy Act.  The webpage (if you click anywhere on the page) will also provide you with the script used to blackout your page in that same manner.

So if the site you are trying to use tomorrow shows that, it’s blacked out for the day!

Blog Prompt #2: Am I addicted to Google?

Why, yes I am!

I love Google!  And if anyone has heard me, I say it all the time, especially in this class.  I think my recent fascination with Google came with entering college.  I would run into problems that a textbook wouldn’t help me with, so I Googled it.

Every time!

Mainly I would Google Adobe questions I had, like how to make a liquid layout in Dreamweaver (which is how I made my personal site for this class).

Not only have I Googled questions I had for classes and programs, I’ve also Googled how to create ringtones for my iPhone (something my dad couldn’t figure out!)

And I’ve Googled problems I’ve had with technology.

And I always get an answer!

It might take a while, and some of those answers might suck a bit, but Google always helped me figure things out.

However, Google is great and all, but what about our privacy?  I will have to say that it concerns me a bit that Google tracks my location and recent searches to give me specific ads.  It’s really frightening, but it’s not going to frighten me away from Google. I usually just ignore it all anyway and pretend it doesn’t happen.  Google is tracking millions of people; they can’t possibly single out a single person for anything drastic, right?

It’s the search engine for me, and it will always be that way.

SOPA and How It's Gonna Ruin Our Lives

Anyone hear of SOPA yet?  It's that bill the government is trying to pass that will restrict our Internet (like China does).  So America wants to become a Communistic country! Yaaaaaay! 

*bangs head on desk*

This is great, just great.  The bill is intended to stop piracy (and we all know that people will find loopholes), but SOPA will, in turn, restrict our usage of the Internet.

This is a violation of our Constitutional rights!

Of course, you have probably all heard that, but it’s true.  If the government takes away our use of the Internet in any way they want, they are thus restricting our freedom to use it.

What’s next?!

ICANN’t Stand New Domain Names!

Everyone knows what the .com, .org, .gov and .edu stand for on webpages.  “.com” is the generic site domain name that may not be as trustworthy as .gov or .edu sites.  It is also the most common domain name.  Anyone who creates a site that is not related to an organization, government, or education has a .com domain name.

“.org” is an organization site, any organization can have one!  This one is semi-trustworthy, it really depends on the organization (is it a good one, or a bad one?).

Then there is “.gov” for government.  ONLY American government sites have the .gov domain name.

And “.edu” is for education.  All of our schools have a .edu domain name.  These signify higher educations and information sites and are very trustworthy.

Since Internet around the world uses these same domain names, we need to learn to share as html and web creators.  In Japan, their .com domain names end with “.co/jp”.  That seems to work.  It separates Japan from American sites.

However, apparently everyone is upset that they cannot have “.gov”, because it is strictly for American use.  Yes, that seems unfair.  But the solution of ICANN, the group that runs domain names as a business, is to create more domain names!

Instead of everyone having “.gov” or “.com” at the end of their sites, now ICANN will start selling personalized domain names for about $185,000.  That’s a lot of money!

So if Google wants a new domain name instead of “.com”, they can buy their own domain name for thousands of dollars to have a “.google” domain name.

Problems:

1.        My key problem is that organization of sites will go down the drain.  Now we won’t know what sites are trustworthy or not because the hierarchal system that our previous domain names provide will be gone!

2.        Now we need to remember more to sites.  We can’t just guess and assume that the site we want ends in “.com”.  Now we actually need to remember what its site and domain name are!

3.        Businesses are going to waste tons of money and possibly go bankrupt because they want to stay on top and have their own domain name.  If you don’t have your own domain name your fucked!  You won’t seem as powerful to online consumers with just a “.org”, “.gov” or “.edu”

4.        Now if someone were to scam people out of thousands of dollars to buy a fancy domain name to scam and con more people, then consumers will just believe the site is true and powerful because it has the big fancy domain name!

It’s stupid, it’s a waste of money, and dear God now we will have billions of sites that we won’t know what exactly their function is.

Why can't everyone just have a ".gov/countryinitials"?

Beard Line?!

I’m sure everyone has an inside joke that no one outside of your major will understand.

But I think I’ve found one that tops them all.

And it’s called:

Beard Line!

What’s a beard line?  It’s a typography term used to describe the bottom of a character that goes below the blue line on a sheet of notebook paper (or the descender).  Such as the bottom of the “p”.

I guess you could say that the descending line is like a beard falling from the face.  Other than that, I don’t know why they call it that.  All the rest of the terms make sense!  Just not beard line…

Haha, beard line.

The Life and Love of Dreamweaver

I decided to use Dreamweaver instead of KompoZer to create my personal web page for my SPC 260 course.  And I decided to challenge the hell out of myself.  I had only learned how to create a site using a fixed size for the web page (this means that the web page would only fill a portion of the browser screen, not stretch to fill it all).  Instead, I decided to try my hand at a liquid layout

And, boy, was I stupid.

I Googled practically everything I needed to know to create this format, and nearly nothing made it work!  I spend half a day trying to actually get the damn page to format right, but instead of giving up and going back to a fixed layout I just kept making this work!

And, so, after painstaking hours of screaming at my computer and trying everything I could to have a nice looking layout that shrunk and stretched with the browser size,

ê I finally got it to work! ê

Now I kind of know how to make a web page that fills the whole browser.  Onto the designing part!

Once you go Dreamweaver, you’ll never go back.

When our class went over the Nvu (now know as KompoZer) how-to and did a little in-class exercise, I wanted to bang my head through the wall!  It has nothing to do with the class (the class is AMAZING so far ;D ), just the KompoZer program!

Here are my reasons why:

• I could not, for the life of me, get any of it to work!  The text would format weird, I couldn't get the banner along the top to look right
• I hated the format!  There was all this white space around the banner, which I couldn't get to size right in the first place...
• And when you have already taken a class in Dreamweaver, nothing else makes sense.

So, to make up for my anger at the KompoZer program and my lack of ability to understand the simplest web design program, I wrote a big:

I don’t get this, I’m using Dreamweaver!!!

Where has all the snow gone?

As you all probably know (unless you live in a cave and never come out), there has been no snow this winter!  At least no snow that has stuck to the ground and covered more than a mm.

It has seriously started to screw up our ecosystem!  All the fat squirrels are still out…they should be sleeping right now!  And last night my friend mentioned that birds are starting to fly back.  That’s bad.  When it really starts to get cold (which it will!  Just really late in the year.  Either that, or it will get warm in March instead of May), those birds and squirrels are going to freeze.

Another thing about why this winter sucks.  I did not get to have a white Christmas! Instead, it didn’t feel like Christmas at all.

L

Blog on "Bloggers on Blogging": The Tiffany B. Brown Story

Now say that 5 times fast!

For the 1st blog prompt, blogging on our thoughts about an interview with bloggers by Rebecca Blood.  I chose to read Tiffany B. Brown's interview.

I skimmed most of the other interviews, like any other reader of online material, and what attracted me to Brown's interview was the phrase: "Web technology and design, internet life, stuff that catches my eye, and whatever is rumbling through my head at the moment".


Well, I really breezed over the "web technology and design..." part.  What really interested me was "stuff that catches my eye, and whatever is rumbling through my head..."!  Interesting people are only interesting if they can get away from the dry, boring stuff and into the random, what-the-heck-is-that stuff.


I also enjoyed when Brown said that she thought she had more to write about when she focused on topics in gender, race, and culture instead of web development.  


Because people are more interested in controversies than stuff they cannot understand.

The First Amazing Blog: CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Welcome to my first blog.  This one is very boring.

The end.