The Pilot
I’ve made a decision. I’m going to become a blogger again.
Chalk it up to the “mandatory” DC blog, watching too many episodes of The Golden Girls, and reading The Phantom Prof blog (and its subsequent controversy with the SMU community and DC EdBoard).
I like blogging. It gives me a chance to spill on all the things I frequently observe and enjoy (and sometimes hate). However, I’m currently in the guesthouse and cannot get a signal for my MacBook’s Airport. I’ll post this later, once I’ve set up my new blog.
Which will, inevitably, take place after church and a very long nap.
The DC blog lacks… blogging. I’d write more, but sometimes I feel like it would be too much of a coup. I’d hate to turn it into MY blog instead of the DC blog.
Why does it seem like I’m the only staff member (who comes to the newsroom) who wants to blog? And why can’t I express this desire? And why can’t I ever blog about opinions? Why can’t I formulate opinions? And why am I required to be on EdBoard?
(I realize I’m rambling a bit. Please forgive me, as this is my first blog post in a long time. I’ll wrap up all my posts later.)
I’ve never been comfortable with it. News is supposed to be unbiased. My name is under every EdBoard. Yes, they are unsigned. But I’m associating myself with it. Who’s to say I didn’t write it (although truth be told–I didn’t write very many of them, and those I did write for fairly obvious with the majority of the words discussing the news portion)?
That means that every story I write could be… called into question. Of course, this blog also spells trouble on that account. If I discuss anything newsworthy. But that’s unlikely.
Another point of contention–sometimes the EdBoard writer goes beyond how I feel or says things in a way I would never say them. Take the JuicyCampus.com piece. You can feel the words stab the supporters/creators of the website like that bipolar wife who just found out that her husband is a lying, hypocritical, sexist, egotistical bigot and decides to take out her frustration on him like a butcher and his meat cleaver on a piece of steak (10 points to whomever can guess the pop culture reference and its source). I’m guessing s/he was personally trashed or had a friend trashed on the site.
I dislike the site, but come on. There’s something called tactfulness that we need to utilize. That EdBoard just adds to the childish attitudes that flourish at SMU. If we all incorporated a little tactfulness in our lives, maybe SMU wouldn’t live up to the elitist attitude from which it tries to distance itself. I like to think EdBoard is somewhat of a voice of reason on SMU’s campus, but this piece just adds to the controversy (and not in a good way).
I’m not saying this is always a bad thing. Sometimes writers add bits of nuggets or phrase things in such a way that I love or never thought about.
But it worries me.
I could go onto further topics and subsets, but I think it’s about time to wrap it up.
