First Blog Entry

This happens to be my first blog entry ever. Let's start off by introducing myself. My name is Christina Swan, I'm a freshman at the University of Maine Orono, and my beat for my journalism class is the arts. My beat is pretty broad and general which makes it easier to find things to write about. So far, I've written about the play that was showing here at UMO a couple of weeks ago called 'Side Show'. I'm currently writing a feature story, or a profile, on one of the main actresses in the play. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be writing about in this blog, as I feel that the arts are not related to the news that often. Sure, there are art shows, plays, and musical groups that play, but does anyone really find these things important when faced with real news like the economy or Obama's new administration? Personally, I think I could have chosen a better beat, but seeing as I'm not a journalism major, and I have no idea what I'm doing in this class, I had to make up my mind by a certain date, and the arts was all I could think of. It's what happens in the world of deadlines. Decisions have to be made and what you really want to do is sometimes sacrificed to an easier choice. I'm looking at all the buttons above this blog site now, random I know, but still rather relevant. I'm wondering if I should make the writing look fancy or put it in a different color or something... No, that's like yelling to try and make yourself sound smart; it usually doesn't work. I feel as though the only thing I'm sure of right now is the fact that I'm so very unsure. As my teacher walks to and fro in the classroom, I realize that I am ranting and that I have no actual tangible idea as to what I'm supposed to be writing. I do know that as long as my fingers click aimlessly away at this keyboard it makes me look busy, almost like I might know what the heck I'm doing.
Blogs do amaze me, though. The mere fact that people would want to sit down and read something someone else has written without even knowing the validity of the source, or even the source of the blog itself is astounding. They are useful though, in their own sense. For people who simply want to get things down as a record, citizen journalists, and even people who just need to get down feelings. I imagine that blogging about feelings is allowed? I've read a couple of fashion blogs, so I suppose that I should know what blogging is all about, but having never made one myself, it's hard to just sit down at a computer and type, especially when commanded to. The concept of a blog confuses me though, because of the complexity of its nature. The style format is left up to the discretion of the blogger, so he or she could blog about real events or simply rant and rave their own opinions giving no objectivity whatsoever. Almost like what I'm doing right now?
It's getting to be quite close to the end of class now. The day has been alright thus far; a 96 percent on my journalism midterm and the news that our feature story deadline has been moved to this Friday. On the downside, I have Statistics next and I should be getting back my midterm in that class. I shudder to think of the outcome. I've also had little to no sleep, and being that I am not a morning person, I should probably get a coffee as soon as I am done with this class. It was surprisingly nice to just sit down and type like this, and I can almost see now why people do it. Maybe this will be fun after all.