sptsouthside

Letter of Self-Reflection

2005-12-14T15:34:00.000-08:00

This marks the end of a very interesting English course for me. During my college years, I have taken several English courses which were geared for a specific purpose (i.e. Business Communications, Basic English, and so on). This course was totally different from what I expected it to be. I anticipated writing all sorts of essays and then be evaluated it on the grammar and context of them. However, I ended up writing blogs. To the course's credit, this was the first time I was introduce to that phenomena. To be honest, writing blogs was different and interesting and I can honestly say, I enjoyed blogging. Now thanks to this course, I have created my own personal blog, in which I can go and reflect about the topic I selected.

I must admit the course was as demanding as I though it would be, given that is an online class. In my personal experience, online courses tend to be very demanding, as far as doing research of topics, writing about the topics and then turning in your work within a specific timeline. I must admit that sometime the timelines were a bit too close to each other, thus it positively helped me developed my time management skills.

I took the course because is a requirement; however, I'm glad I did. I will be taking English Composition II online as well, since I have a good idea now as to what to expect and how to face the course requirements and guidelines.

As far as the course material and guidelines, they were very clear and easy to follow. If I had a question or doubt about an assignment, I could just read the class discussion forum and most of the time, someone else had already asked the same question. Reading the class discussion forum always guided me when I had a minor doubt about an assignment.

I also like doing the peer review part of the course. I must say it does help to get a thumbs up or a great constructive criticism from your fellow students.

As far as working with blackboard and a blogg at the same time, I had no problem with that. I use blackboard mostly to read all the assignments that were due, to see other's people work, to clear any doubt that I may have had, and simply to upload the assignments within the proper timelines.

Regarding the teacher, she was always ontop of things. I received multiple emails from her always keeping me up to date in any last minute change to the assignments.

Overall, it was an interesting course and I would recommend it to others.

Thirteen year old cleared by State Attorney's Office

2005-12-09T18:15:00.000-08:00

The 13 year old that was arrested by a St Pete Police Department officer, has been cleared from any criminal acts. In a statement to the local media, the State Attorney's Office stated that they see no evidence supporting the charge of Disordely Conduct.

The teenager's father is more than happy to see that his daughter will not be prosecuted. However, the family is still awaiting to see if the Police department will follow-up on bringing some kind of disciplinary action against officer Rolon, the officer that handcuffed the teenager, and maybe they are seeking a lawsuit against the Department.

Midtown recognized by the Feds.

2005-12-09T17:39:00.000-08:00

The United States Environmental Protection Agency(E.P.A.) awarded the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Health Center its Phoenix award. The award was given to the health center for its role in helping clean up this trouble area of the City. The award is the agency's highest recognition, as they call it-"the brownfields equivalent of Hollywood's Oscar." The purpose of the award is to recognize cities for turning old commercial or industrial sites into productive locations. The center have made an impact in the community by serving 80 to 100 patients a day. Most of this patients are low-income and live in the neighborhood. Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis, who oversees Midtown's economic development, is happy to see Midtown being awarded such prestigious award.

Plan for revision.

2005-12-09T14:15:00.000-08:00

I read the constructive criticism posted underneath my rough draft. I believe is fair and on the money. It really gave me a better sense on how to go back and correct the errors, in order to do a better paper. I will follow the recommendations given to me and will implement more readings into the paper. I will talk more about the way the website is presented, rather than the life or the history of the Nobel Prize.

Another 13 year old arrested by Police

2005-11-30T16:27:00.000-08:00

The St Petersburg Times today printed a story about a 13 year old female who was arrested and handcuffed by the police. In the story, the parents of the teenager are complaining about a possible excessive force used by the St Petersburg Police officer who arrested her. Furthermore, the teenager was creating a disorderly environment inside the bus and a video depicting only when she placed under arrest was released by the media.

What amazes me, is how the parents do not take any responsibility of their daughter's misbehavior. In my opinion, they want to piggy back ride on the story involving the child from Fairmount Farragot school incident which made national news. On that other incident, the mother never took any responsibility for her daughter's actions. Led me to believe that parents today are out there letting their teenage sons and daughters misbehaviors go unpunished and when they do something wrong, they simply blame it on the bad police, who are actually taking care of the job parents took for granted.

Blog theme update

2005-11-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

This month for the first time, a brand new magazine listing black owned business will be on circulation. The Powerbroker Magazine will be a advertising magazine for all the Tampa Bay Area. The magazine, which is based in the Midtown area of St Petersburg, is hoping to create more awareness to the public of the business that are available to them. The business that will be advertising on the magazine are smaller business hoping to increase their customers. The intent is to let the public know that there are other alternatives, maybe even closer to them geographically, than other big brand names, such as Wal Mart or Target. The magazine will advertise restaurants, retailers and much more. This new magazine is expected to increase business to all of its patrons.

Rhetorical Thinking Assignment

2005-11-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

I've decided to study and analyze a non-profit organization website. Everybody, at any given point of their lives must have heard about the Nobel Prize. So, I figure to do some research about it and I came across Nobelprize.org. The website seems interesting and is full with lots of information regarding the Nobel prize and the different categories it is awarded. The history of the Nobel prize is fully disclosed and I found it to be very interesting. With this assignment, I hope to create some awareness about it.

Bucs

2005-11-21T20:14:00.000-08:00

I am not a football fan whatsoever, but I heard that the Tampa Bay Bay Buccaneers have had two wins in a row. They are doing better compared to last season in which they only won five games. Like I said, Im not a fan, but I enjoy knowing that the Tampa Bay has good representation out there. Who knows, maybe just maybe this could be another year to celebrate.

Southside homicides..

2005-11-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

Last week in St Petersburg, two homicides took place only a few days apart from each other. Sunday morning, November 13, Shanley Batson, a 21 year old man killed his uncle, Cromartie Evans, over a dispute of money. Evans was pronounced dead at the hospital after being fatally shot on his chest.

Later that same week, on Tuesday November 15, another man was found shot to dead in his apartment. According to the St Petersburg Times, the man was identified by the police as Dalvontae Coley, a 22 year old man, whom friends and relatives described as a man who did not bother anyone and only minded his business.

Although, both homicides occurred in the Midtown area, they are not related. One incident is the result of domestic violence and the other seems to be drug related.

With these two shootings, the City of St. Petersburg is now at 28 homicides this year. Last year by this time, the count was only 17. Alex Leary, a writer for the St Petersburg Times stated-"The slaying of Dalvontae Coley makes 2005 the deadliest year in a decade." The city is now five homicides ahead of Tampa, who so far has 22 murders this year.

Electronic community reflections

2005-11-15T12:16:00.000-08:00

It has been about a month now, since I joined an electronic community. I joined a forum in the St. Petersburg Times website, in which I expected to discuss local issues and news. This assignment was the first time for me, in which I took part of such a thing. Prior to it, I have never been interested on going online to chat with others. I actually thought that online communities were a waste of my time.

To my disappointment, I did not like the forum I joined. They were always discussing issues that happened somewhere else in the states. Very little they discussed local issues, I even had to post about local news to get them going, but the feedback was very little or none.

In the forum, Steveinclearwater, was the most common poster. According to his profile, he is an educator in the Clearwater, FL area. His ideas and thoughts were always revolved in criticizing the police actions around the whole continent of the United States. He is always going out of his way, in order to find news regarding police misconduct and/or police being busted for the use of drugs.

Although, I always disagree with his posts, I must admit that Steveinclearwater is well spoken and always had a website supporting his facts.

I did learn a few things about online communities, but not enough to keep me interested. After participating in this forum, I don't entirely think they are a complete waste of time. However, I much rather spend my time doing something more productive.

Blogg theme reflections

2005-11-15T11:25:00.000-08:00

It has been a month since I began jotting down my thoughts into this blogg. Back then, I intended to create a blogg where others can read my postings and maybe offer some feedback with their own personal views, whether they agree, disagree, or were simply amused by them. However, as of this time, I have not received any type of comments regarding my blogg theme, southside of St. Petersburg, FL.

I have been wondering, if whether my theme was too serious, maybe boring, or maybe just maybe nobody cares about what is going on in south St Pete. I figure there could be a lots of reasons as to why nobody did comment on my blogg; however, I would like to know why.

Searching for answers, I browsed through other students bloggs to see what kind of themes they were following throughout the course. To my surprise, I find that they were talking about much more simpler things in their bloggs. For example, I read about one student who is a bartender, that student made the blogg about bartending; another student made a blogg about water sports, and another student made the blogg about his family. Upon noticing this, I realized that the blogg theme I had chosen was maybe too serious and perhaps more complicated to follow.

When comparing my blogg to others in the course, my blogg would have been more complicated to follow. This is due to the fact that to properly discuss the issues in my blogg, you would either have to keep up with the news about this side of town in St Pete, or you would have to live in this side of town. In my case, I don't live there, but I do work there and I constantly follow the news affecting this area.

Regardless of what other people may believe, I still think that South St. Pete has a lot issues good and bad to be discuss. Discussing these issues can bring up a wealth of knowledge and ideas that maybe some day could be put to work.

Jennifer Porter sentence

2005-11-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago, Jennifer Porter, a teacher accused and convicted of a fatal hit and run was sentenced in Hillsborough County. As a result of her actions, two children died as she left the scene of the accident leaving the victims helpless. She was only sentenced to five years house arrest and 500 hours community service. Today, the sentencing has triggered some racial issues, as she is a white female and the children who died were African-American.

I do not agree with the sentencing she received, granted that nothing done to her would ever bring the children back. As a result of her sentencing, closure to the victim's family, who pledged to the Judge for justice to be served, did not showed up. Today, the sentencing has received large criticism from several African-American communities, who believed justice was not served at all.

Cases like this, makes you wonder how proper are our sentencing guidelines, in which a person can take two lives away forever and still see light of day from her own house.

Recent events in southside St Pete..

2005-11-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

With a 61 % lead, Mayor Rick Baker was elected again as the Mayor of St Petersburg. Also, this same day, Council man Earnest Williams of District 6 defeated his opponent Darden Rice. The race for District 6 draw more attention from the public, since Darden Rice was a white female running for the district where Midtown, a mostly African-American neighborhood, is located.

Baker's victory did not come as a surprise, as his opponent, Ed Helm, an ex-federal civil rights attorney, did not had a strong platform that could defeat Baker's already established acceptance ratings. Under Baker's administration, the Midtown sector of St Pete, is now experiencing new beginnings with the recent opening of Sweet Bay, a grocery store, in the Tangerine Plaza, right at the heart of Midtown. Before Sweet Bay, citizens had no grocery store to go to, since they were all located far South on 54 avenue or 62 avenue.

The Tangerine Plaza represents new economic developments for the area. New jobs are available and much needed services are available to the residents of Midtown. Another highly expected business in the area, is the new coming Sun Trust branch to be open soon across from the Tangerine Plaza. This bank will become the only bank in that area, as right now, residents have to travel great distances just to get access to a bank.

Now, time will tell where to go from here, as there are many other projects under development for the Midtown area. The success of these new projects will be measure upon the success of Sweet Bay.

Reader's response-The Virtual Community: Introduction

2005-11-10T15:17:00.000-08:00

In the article, Reinghold talks about his personal experience since he joined a virtual community. He talks about how he dealt with the fact that he wanted to interact with others who share his same interest around the world. He talks about how his daughter saw him interacting with a computer probably more than he spended time with her.

In my opinion, people join online communities everyday for several different reasons. Whatever they might be, is their personal choice to do so or not. I can understand how people would want to talk to others who share same interest, maybe to exchange ideas, discuss issues, or maybe for their own personal reasons. Whatever the reason it may be, I just think there should be a balance between your virtual world and your real world. In the article the author said he spent about two hours a day, seven days a week. In my opinion, that is way too much time spent online. Why can't you spend that available time with the family that you already know?

Although, I agree that the Internet is place to learn from a a great wealth of knowlegde, I would not want to spend all my time online. I refused to become attached to a computer to the point that it may become the only source of interaction with others. This could lead to several problems or to a lack of social skills a person needs to interact with others in real life, rather than in virtual reality.

Reader's response-MUDs and MOOs: What are they?

2005-11-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that this is the first time I heard these terms. Prior to reading the article, I have no idea the terms even existed. I learned that a MUD is an acronym for Multi User Domain; a MOO is a Multo Object Oriented; and a MAUD is a Multi Academic User Domain. They are server programs that run on the Internet and they allow multiple users via a telnet.

These MUDs, MOOs, and MAUDs are mostly for interactive cyber space in which users can talk to each other as they are playing a game. They can also be use by teachers to interact with students.

I have no personal experience with this type of activity, but I know that if I try it once, I might get attached to it and forget about other things

Reader's response-The rise of Electronic Community

2005-11-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

The author gives an in-depth analysis of how fast and how important electronic communities have become. The article explains how much more effective online services have become for businesses. These online services are being build taking in consideration the customer's needs, as well as their comfort. Today, thanks to the Internet, people can make things happen from the comfort of their homes with the touch of a mouse click.

One clear example of the comforts provided by the Internet is online college classes. It is a great comfort to me being able to go to school by just seating at my computer at home. Online courses are just what people on my position need, since working a full-time job takes the majority of my time.

Reader's response-Cyberselfish

2005-11-07T07:34:00.000-08:00

The article was written in August 1996. Back on the days when Silicon Valley California, the heart of dot.com millionaires and new online companies, emerge into business with the rest of the world. It was at that time that the Internet first came into existence and it was growing at a fast pace among anybody who have a computer.

The author states that back then the U.S. government was one of the biggest contributors to these research and development(R&D) scientists and now since they have reached astronomical profits with their developments, they do not want to be regulated by the government. The author refers to them as "flaming libertarians."

It is amazing how these high-tech scientists do not want to be regulated by the government after they made it possible for them with all the money that was poured their way. Now, since they have what they needed, they want to forget who was it that help them accomplish their goals.

I am not a government advocate, but I just think that is not good business to bite the hand that feeds you. Never the less, this article was written nine years ago, and things are now different that they were back then. In nine years, the Internet has grown incredibly to be a powerful tool to conduct worldwide business and socializing as well.

Reader's response-Technology,Community,Humanity and the Net

2005-11-06T16:34:00.000-08:00

The article was written by Howard Rheingold on April 29, 1999. The author, who describes himself as a critical friend of technology, is defending the online communities purpose. He gives several reasons as to why people join online communities as their own way of socializing with others. He states that online community chatters have been labeled and stereotype as-"geeks", which is a term commonly use to describe people lacking social skills.

Personally, I must say that I'm not a big supporter of being attached to a computer screen for hours at a time. In my opinion, there are negative consequences to a person's social skills, personality and his or hers health as well. I believed that a person must interact with others and learn from others. By being home attached to a computer, the only interaction that person will received will be limited to a keyboard and screen. I'm not saying that nothing can be learn through chatting online with others because that is possible; however, it is not the best way.

Another consequence is dependency. When a person accustoms to a routine that only involves being around a computer, what would happen if that computer is taken away? There could be many negative implications to that question.

Simply put, in my opinion online communities are not a bad thing, as long as is not the person's ONLY way of socializing and interacting with others. Getting involve with an online community can open up a new wealth of infinitive knowledge to anyone willing to learn.

Online community update.

2005-11-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

It has been a few weeks since my insertion to the SPtimes forums now. During this time, I have been able to read other people's thoughts and opinions on different topics, such as politics, drug policies, headlines, and entertainment. I even participated several times by replying to on going dialogues and starting new posts, as well.

I find that most of the people in the forum has many difference of opinions when it comes to specific topics, like our nation's drug policy. In this topic, most of the posters criticized the way the government conducts their drug interdiction programs nationwide, to a point that one of the posters call the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) several offensive names. This topic has the highest number of replies by the members of the forum.

The topic was started by guy who goes by the name of SteveinClearwater. According to his profile, he is an educator; however, it does not specify what level if any in particular, he teaches. I must say that all his posts are always back with an URL to an article from somewhere in the Internet that he is referring to.

I have already interacted with him in the forum regarding the topic of the 1st amendment, Freedom of Speech. He posted about a case in Bradenton, FL where police arrested a Hispanic male for interfering with an undercover drug operation. The male alerted others in the area about the real identity of undercover officers operating in the area. As a result, the operation took a dive, as the target criminals fled upon knowledge of who they were dealing with. Police arrested the male for obstructing their investigation.

According to the excerpts in the post, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n1441.a07.html,
the case was dropped because prosecutors and the Florida appellate courts say that free speech includes the right to disclose an undercover officer's identity. However, a Judge in Miami said otherwise- Judge Frank A. Shepherd of the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami has said free speech rights do not apply when a person tries to thwart an ongoing undercover operation.

I replied in favor of the decision made by the Judge Shepherd in Miami. Police undercover work is the most dangerous and vulnerable position in which an officer operates. Therefore, a man alerting others of an undercover officer, is not freedom of speech, it is a threat to the officer's live and a clear obstruction of justice.

As of this time, SteveinClearwater still disagrees with my position. He believes that undercover police operations do not serve any purpose. I maintain my position favoring these type of productive operations by the police and other law enforcement entities.

Just blogging....

2005-10-29T15:06:00.000-07:00

This past week the major league baseball World Series was over with a surprising and stunning victory to the Chicago White Sox. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that the franchise have been waiting for this to happen again since 1917, when they first won a baseball World Series. Not only that, but they won by four straight wins in a row, winning the last game by 1-0. I'm not much of a sports fan and I'm not a White Sox fan either, but I do think this is something to celebrate big time.

Community blogging.

2005-10-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning if this assignment, I have been able learned about this new Internet trend called blogging. To be honest, the subject was not so appealing to me, until I created my own blogg. On top that, I have to join an online community, something I thought I would never do. I guess is like they say, never say never. Today, as part of this assignment, I have been following up with the theme I chosen for this blogg.

Recently, I came across an interesting article printed by the New York Newsday paper. The article is title-"What's hate got to do with it?" Mr. Bill O' Reilly, a well known news talk show host, was interviewed. In his interview, he calls the St. Petersburg Times the worst newspaper in the country. Mr. O' Reilly attacks Erick Deggans, a staff writer for the SP Times, calling him a dishonest, racially motivated correspondent.

I have read several articles by Mr. Deggans, and I have to agreed with O'Reilly. The writer is always writing about racial issues that simply are not there. He is always instigating conflict in the community between black and white people. I most definitely agreed with the term racially motivated, since that is all that he writes about.

I remember a few months back, when he wrote an article about a young man name Brandon. In the article, Mr. Deggan attacked the integrity of the St Petersburg Police department, as he called them racial profilers. The story revolve around Brandon's change of heart towards the police. He wrote about how Brandon wanted to be police officer when he was younger, but as times went by, he now hates the police. He said that the police is always in his neighborhood praying on the drug dealers for no reason.

That type of journalism, is the type of instigating material that is not needed by any local media. It just goes to shows what people can do when they are given a position that they are not ready or qualified for. What motivated this writer, I don't know, but I certainly don't approved of it.

Ethnographic research

2005-10-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

Ethnographic research is the study of a specific culture or community. The research is done by living among the members of the community or culture. To do the research, the ethnographers plays the role of a participant-observant. The researcher's goal is to define the beliefs, rituals, symbols, problems, and patterns of behavior of the community. The researcher also studies how people are influenced by the environment they live in.

Moxley listed nine steps that need to be follow, in order to conduct a successful ethnographic research. The first step is to select a culture. In this step the researcher needs to identify a culture that they are not familiar with. The second step is learn about the culture. In this step, the researcher needs to read other enthnographers research to learn what is already known about the culture or community they chose. The third step is to arrange access. This is a critical step, since it has to be done carefully without damaging any relationship that has been previously established.

The fourth step is to develop field notes. The author recommends to write, write and keep writing, by taking field notes always asking journalistic questions. The fifth step is to use research tools. By tools he doesn't mean only the tape recorders or cameras, but to use your eyes and ears collectively to understand your surroundings. The sixth step is to select key informants. Take more than one informant and then analyze their information to make your conclusions.

The seven step is to analyze artifacts. This step requires knowledge of different disciplines, like anthropology, or psychology, in order to understand the symbols or behaviors manifested within the culture. The eight step is to observed rituals. Here the researcher needs to observed the rituals, customs, and routinely behavior of the group. The nine step is to conclude your work. This is the final step where the researcher get it all together to interpret his work.

I find ethnographic research interesting. I see that this communities assignment is pretty much a ethnogaphic research, as we have already selected a specific community to join. Is always interesting to learn other's people way of thinking, in order to develop a broader set of mind.

Field Research

2005-10-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

After reading the Field Research tab for this assignment, I realized how much details are involved in planning a successful research. Before, I thought research consist of just going out to the field and ask people questions or simply observe them. However, field research requires much more than just winging it or merely playing it by ear.

I learned that there are three common models of field research, interviews, surveys, and ethnographic observations. In an interview, the researcher makes contact with whomever he or she wants to target for the research. This contact may be done in several ways, such as face-to-face, telephone, or groups interviews. The researcher should determine which type to use according to his/her goal. There have to be a purpose for the interview; therefore, the questions to be ask during the interview must be clear and consistent with that purpose.

There are several types of interviews; oral histories, expert testimonies, slice-of-life profile, and memorable quotes. Oral histories is simply getting someone to talk about a person's past. An expert testimony is when the interviewee is a subject matter expert talking about a specific subject in which he / she is experienced, it is usually use to support the researcher's goal of the research. Slice-of-life profile is when the researcher interviews a person living a certain type of life, for a example a homeless person, a person in a cult, and so on.

There is a certain methodology involved when conducting research. The researcher can use a particular discipline like psychology, sociology, or anthropology, in order to format the research. Once the discipline as been chosen, the researcher just follows the established guidelines. The author recommends to the beginning researchers to have fun when doing their research. He says that they should avoid overwhelming themselves with unreasonable expectations.

One key element mentioned by Moxley, is to conduct a proper and ethical research. Do your homework before going out to the field and get the specific guidelines for wherever the research is to be conducted. For example, if you are targeting a shopping mall, find out their administration rules regarding research in their premises. The author encourages the researcher to be honest with his research and the people he / she is conducting the research with.

In conclusion, there are many details that need to be taken into consideration, in order to conduct a successful research. Knowing these steps and guidelines will only help you ease up your work and will help you have great dividends at the end.

Online community

2005-10-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

After looking at several different online communities, I have decided to join the Sptimes.com discussion forums. I find it to be a very suitable place to discuss local and nationwide issues that I'm interested on. I believe this to be the best place to discuss the issues surrounding St Petersburg, FL. The forum has different topics to choose from like sports, entertainment, dining, and so on. I'm particularly interest in the topic from the headlines. This topic covers breaking news locally and statewide. Of course the issues varies day to day and that is an attractive feature, as it avoids redundancy. The forum has a moderator and a very strict policy, in order to joined.

Before making this final decision, I browsed through www.communites.com and it did not attracted me at all. Although the Web site seems to be very organized, I did not like the topics or the communities within the Web site. It all seem superficial to me. I decided that if I'm going to spend time on a community doing assignments or research, this was not the one for me.

Another Web site I looked into was http://groups.yahoo.com, again the Web site did have some interesting communities, but not interesting enough for me to become a member. I did find this Web site to be user friendly. I also looked at http://groups.google.com, this community group Web site was very similar to the Yahoo groups, as well.

Once again, I very much look forward to other people's comments.

Blog theme

2005-10-16T20:20:00.000-07:00

I chose to create a blog regarding the South side of St Petersburg for several reasons. Although, I'm not a resident of the City, I do work there. Every day at work, I get to experience the problems surrounding this side of the City. Issues like domestic violence, economical development, and racial issues are always among the top subjects I get to deal with daily.

I would like to discuss articles printed by the St Petersburg Times, www.stpetersburgtimes.com, the local newspapers. I personally believe this newspaper to be bias and very unreliable. When it comes to reporting events in which the police is involved, I find that the reporters are always giving a negative spin to the story by always assuming that the police acted ineffectively when dealing with the incidents.

One of the issues that interest me the most is the racial issues surrounding this area of the City. Any time a major event happens in the communities of this side of the City, The St Petersburg Times will always comment on the race of the persons involved in the incident.

Another reason motivating me to do this blog, is the way this newspaper supports the International Peoples of the UHURU movement in this side of the City. A movement whose actions and demands very well fit the definition of a terrorist group. This movement is responsible for creating and instigating division among African-Americans and white citizens in the City. They are always claiming to be the victims of the white men devilish plans to antagonize the black community in South St Petersburg.

A recent example of these actions, is the District 6 City Council position race that recently took place. In this race, Darden Rice, a white female candidate, is running for the City Council chair as the only white candidate. One of the candidates was Chimurenga Waller, leader of the UHURU movement. During one of Rice's meetings with the citizens of the district 6, members of the movement showed up and initiated conflict at the meeting. Among other things, they called Rice a murderer.

With this in mind, I look forward to discuss the issue in a productive and intellectual way. Any feedback and comments will be welcome.

Blogging

2005-10-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

The days of keeping a secret journal or diary are way behind us now. A journal which would keep sacred personal information about a person's most significant and emotional events, has been evolving into the online world since the 1990's. This new evolution is known as blogging, an online weblog in which people express themselves. People share their intimate thoughts with the rest of the world wide web searching for feedback and input from other readers that are active bloggers.

Rebecca Blood, author of the Weblog Handbook, traces the term blog, which is a short for "Weblog" or "Web log", to 1997. She says that today there are over a million active Weblogs in which bloggers are actively seeking and sharing information. The information they share varies depending on each individual interest. Topics such as politics, entertainment, movie reviews, or simply expressing personal thoughts about a current event are among the most talk about subjects.

Although, I have been a Internet user for years now, the term blogging is relatively new to me. I learned about it through this English Composition class I'm going through now. I like to think of it as a diary of one's thoughts that are share, in order to seek validation from external sources.

Among other interesting facts about blogging, I learned that blogs are organized in sequential order always emphasizing the present. They can also be use to encourage daily writing to stimulate and improve the person's creativity.

Today, I have created a blog in which I will post my personal thoughts about St Petersburg's south side. I look forward to reading other peoples's thoughts and opinions.