Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
Bits of my Life
Hi everyone, my name is Mitch Majure. I’m a Mathematics and Computer Science double major from Des Moines, Iowa. To be frank, the main factor in my decision to attend Iowa was finances, and after a semester of needed transition, I look forward to the possibilities that college has in store. The things that excite me most about Iowa city is being closer to my sister who also attends U of I and the various opportunities to engage with math and computer science outside of the classroom. Some of the things I miss the most about home are food related. Des Moines has many excellent foods and restaurants: Graziano’s Italian Sausage, The Cheese Shop, and Zombie Burger are a sample from the wealth mouth watering options I could have chosen from.
I’m excited to see what we’ll do in rhetoric. I think examining media’s messages and messaging is a very important skill while also being enjoyable. I have already taken a rhetoric class focusing on novels and writing in high school which was a lot of fun. My favorite part of that class would have to be the final assignment comparing and contrasting two words that seem to have the same meaning but with different origins in a short magazine. My magazine compared intelligent and ingenious in the style of a grocery store checkout isle tabloid. Debate club was another area where I had to exercise my knowledge of rhetoric. In my opinion, the hardest part was tailoring the argument for the judge audience. What makes a winning argument to a parent judge doesn’t carry over to the college student judges with 4+ years of debate experience. My debate experience taught me how hard creating concise, logically sound arguments can be.
My friendsgiving meal was my favorite of 2019. I don’t think there is any other setting where traditional thanksgiving turkey, penne alla vodka, Ethiopian rice, gobi manchurian, and hamburger pizza would all share a table. Even with the bizarre combination of food, it was a blast to cook with friends and enjoy the food together. My favorite movie I saw over the past year was Parasite directed by Bong Joon Ho. It is the most recent movie I’ve seen where I could not immediately put it into a box after watching which was very refreshing. On top of that, it was incredibly well acted and directed. I would recommend it to anyone, with the caveat that they watch it with as little information as possible.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
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