OFFICIAL Blog Post 1 (Mr. Parker, look here!)

Okay, so last class in English, it was called to my attention that our first blog post actually had some criteria to follow.  Because yes, in the end, this blog is an assignment.  Whoops.  Well, I already have, what, five posts?  (Nerd, right?)  So here's what we're gonna do.  My first five posts remain my first five posts.  But my first assignment post is this one.  (Don't worry, there won't be a lot of these.  In fact, according to Mr. Parker, this is the only post we'll have criteria for)

So, I am now to show you three blogs that I like.  Such as...

The Oatmeal
(Note: the author swears a little.  Sorry, guys.)
     I actually didn't know about The Oatmeal until about a week ago, when we started looking at sample blogs in English.  Basically the author, Matthew Inman, just has general thoughts about things, and he makes them into comics, which often turn out to be pretty awesome.  And though a lot of them are just sort of weird and random, a few are actually useful, like his comic on how to use "whom."  ("Do it for the bourbon.  Do it for the mustaches.  Do it for the steeds.")  He also has a few comics on how to use other writer-y word tool grammar things (like that dreaded semicolon).  So, um, that's useful.

ZenPencils
     ZenPencils is another comic bloggy website thing I like.  The author, Gavin Aung Than, takes quotes he finds to be inspirational and illustrates them.  Most of the quotes are from famous people, and a lot from people I respect, like this one.  (Nerdfighters?  Anyone, anyone?)  And in illustrating them, he generally uses everyday characters, making them seem more relatable and applicable to everyday life.

Writer's Mafia

     Okay, so this is actually an old blog of my own.  Is that cheating, to use your own blog?  The thing is, it wasn't just my blog.  It was my blog, but also fifteen other people's.  We all met through a writing camp at the "U" a couple of summers ago (Sieze the Story 2012), all became friends, and all decided to create a blog so we wouldn't lose touch immediately after the last day of class.  It was great for a while, and we had our own little critique group, but then we had some technical difficulties and a lot of our posts got deleted.  After that, people just sort of forgot about it.  But I still really like the blog, and it has a lot of great pieces of writing on it.  (Wow, I forgot about some of those kids....)

So anyway, that's that.  Sorry that my first few posts have been just these big blocks of text.  In the future, I'm gonna try to post less wordy-word-wordness and more...well, more cool-looking stuff.  Like art.  (Notice how my first two blogs are comics?  Visually enticing, my friends.)  And also poems.  Those are cool-looking, right?

Anyway, thanks for reading.

'Til then,
-Allie H-S