Gossip Girl

Blogging is kind of a big deal these days. For instance, one of my new favorite shows, Gossip Girl, is premised on an anonymous blogger chronicling and interacting with the a group of kids on the Upper East Side. This is interesting in light of the fact that the show is based on a series of books by Cecily Von Ziegesar that came out beginning back in 2002.

The show is great for a number of reasons. Besides being filled with really good looking people, it has amazing clothes. [I am a fan of most everything Blair wears]. The anonymous blogger aspect of the show is also interesting. It kind of reminds me of when I really wanted to know what Mr. Big's first name was on Sex and the City. Sometimes during the show I actually catch myself thinking, "Well since so-and-so was at the party when the blog post was published, she can't be Gossip Girl ." I thought I had it all figured out until I signed up to start this blog yesterday and I realized that my assumptions were based on bad facts. Evidently, you don't need to be at your computer to post to your blog. You can do this from your cell phone... who knew? Not me. Now that I know, I have to rethink my whole "identity of Gossip Girl" theory. Sadly, there won't be anymore episodes of Gossip Girl in the near future because of the writer's strike. In the mean-time I will blog and perhaps in a few weeks I will even be brave enough to try posting from my cell phone.... but don't hold your breath.

I have a blog.

Today I was doing some research for a paper I am writing in computer law. It will likely have something to do with the Internet. According to the paper I was reading, the Internet will be 25 years old this year. In light of the fact that I will also be 25 years old this year, I decided to celebrate the last quarter of the century with the Internet by starting a blog. Of course, the Internet and I have both changed a lot since 1983. We are both larger, faster, and more efficient. I must say, though, that to date I think the Internet may be beating me on the whole "changing the world" thing. I sincerely doubt that I can catch up, so instead of attempting to beat the Internet.... I am joining forces with it. Hence my participation in this whole blogging craze.

It seems like everyone has a blog and there is a blog about everything. I don't really care to read most of them. I imagine that not very many people will care to read this blog... maybe my mom?... but it can't hurt to try it and it will give me yet another way to procrastinate in the law library.

So to wrap up this first post, some thoughts about the world online:
1. Why the fascination with lower case letters? A lot of things online start with lower case letters... eBay, iTunes, and so on... perhaps this a way to distinguish a new form of media with new conventions from old print media where the rules of capitalization still apply. people don't capitalize anything when they send emails or instant messages either which i find slightly annoying. Seriously, hitting the shift key is just not that much extra work.
2. Can you imagine what school would have been like before the Internet? I can't. I try to imagine it sometimes when I walk around the law library and look at the books that no one really knows how to use. Sometimes older lawyers come in to use the books for research. They know how to do it. Perhaps I should learn.... that way if cyber terrorists ever manage to shut down the Internet, I will still be able to do enough research to figure out who to sue.