So, now that I have my very own url (and a very appropriate one for me, at that) and a nifty design I made all by myself, I feel a strange obligation to actually be some sort of credible blogger.

I'll try and resist, but just in case, I'm gonna take a day or two off to read this book from Reporters Without Borders.

Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution. Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they are tremendous tools of freedom of expression.

Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how totoo remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.

In addition to reading this, I'm also taking a few days to celebrate my 21st birthday, which is next Tuesday, for those of you of a mind to send cards, e-mail me.

I'm celebrating by seeing Avery Brooks (a/k/a The Sisko) in Othello at the National Shakespeare Theatre. Front row, baby! Fifty feet from the Sisko. Who needs booze?

Well, anyone who's turning 21, obviously, so if you're in DC, drop me a line and I'll tell you where you can buy me a drink on Friday the 30th.

Enjoy the show. I got you a present today but it won't arrive until after Tuesday because I am going to try to get it signed by the author at Sam Weller's on Saturday. - The Old Man

Posted by  Anonymous @ 7:35 PM

 

Speaking of Star Trek stuff, check out the song "The Chaneling" by The Doors on their "L. A. Woman" CD. I bought it at Young Rebels Soul record store in Detroit when I went there with Megan (good picture of her at the Falls by the way). - UT Lizard King

Posted by  Anonymous @ 8:36 PM

 

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