Welcome to the Future, Salem!

I went to a meeting with some folks from the city last week and heard a presentation from a group University of Oregon communications students. The presentation focused on how to keep neighborhood associations active and relevent in this modern era of technology. I thought it was good information with some good ideas.

Although it would have been nice if the people making the presentation had actually been to a neighborhood meeting, like, ever.

Anyway, the interesting point was that most of the people in the room are in what we'll call the "older generation" and pretty resistant to the ideas in many ways. And yet, we ended up spending the entire 1 1/2 hour meeting talking almost exclusively about this subject and how to make it work, concerns they had, some successes, and creating a smaller group to plan and discuss it. The city even sounds like they will get involved in figuring out how to use social media to communicate with citizens better.

As a blogger, a citizen, and a social media junkie I am very excited about the prospects! What do you think? How could neighborhood associations or the City of Salem use social media to get your attention?

Anybody in Salem Love Asian Food?

I do, I do! And because of this, I was recently featured in a local Salem blog that I admire very much, The Get Real Estate Blog. Here's the link to my list of great places to eat a diversity of Asian foods in Salem.

A Year and a Half of Blogging in Salem

I just realized that I started this, my very first blog, 1 1/2 years ago. A year and a half and 122 posts later I wonder what I have learned about blogging. How has it affected my life? What are my views on blogging now?

I started this blog to learn about blogging and that has definitely happened. I had no idea how blogging would change my life. Okay, I know that sounds corny. And it really hasn't changed all that much. My family is still my family, although now when they haven't seen me for awhile they can check my blog to see what's keeping me busy. My job is still the same although I now use blogging with my students on a daily basis to teach writing literacy skills. My friends are still the same, except for the great new group of blogging friends that I have happy hour with on a weekly basis. My home is still the same except now I don't have TV because I spend most of my allotted time for TV dramas online reading dramatic blogs. I'm still working on my Master's, but since I got interested in blogging I decided to do a degree in Information Technology.

Really, blogging has barely touched my life.

I thought blogging would be a fun little summer project that would give me the info I needed to teach it to my students. What I didn't realize is that blogging is a community like any other. You can either be actively involved in the community, or you can stand on the sidelines. Being involved means creating and regularly updating a blog that has meaning to you and others. It means creating content that will give your readers information, food for thought, or just plain entertain them. It means that you will have some influence, however minor, in the path that your blogging community takes as it morphs with time.

Standing on the sidelines might not sound important, but in blogging it means everything. No blogger wants to fling their words out into the world and just to have them sit there...unread. It's a fate worse than death. The point of blogging is communication. Every blogger wants readers. And ultimately, comments. Which is where the "sidelines" gets a little complicated. As a reader, you can comment and get involved in the blogging world, without ever having a blog of your own. It becomes a conversation among a group of people that care about the same things. And even in our digital, technologized (Yes, I just made that up. I'm a blogger. I can do that if I want!) world, what we all really want is to connect with other human beings.

Blogging is just another way to connect with people outside your normal environment. Blogging is like the Elks Club of the 21st century.

Slow Days in Blogland

Sorry, I'm going to be a little out of commission the next week or so. Hopefully, not completely, but I'm busy taking an intensive Master's course out at Western Oregon University so things are pretty crazy.

If you miss me, I'll be posting things over here that we're discussing in class. All kinds of fun and interesting things to do with Media Literacy, which is a subject we all need to be aware of in this day and age.

New Days for Salem

Looks pretty exciting out there! Great music in Salem. Beer Festivals in Silverton. Crowds at the Salem Film Festival. And now this...

Salemites.com is now officially online. We have our own spot to gather local information and resources. A place to find out what's going on in our area. A place where Salem and Salemites rule.

Long live salemites.com!! :)

Catching Up

So, as I was catching up on local blogs I came across a few things I really liked:

• This idea on Emily's site. Fantastic! T-shirts supporting Salem. I mean, why not? All the cool town's are doing it. Plus, I say if it is socially acceptable for grown-ups to wear T-shirts with Eeyore on them, or teenagers to wear a marijuana leaf T-shirt, why shouldn't we have one that celebrates Salem. After all, it seems like anything goes. (I just reread that last sentence and it seems like I might be comparing Salem to Eeyore and pot. Hmmm. If the shoe fits...).
• Also, I tried the split pea soup from Cindy's recipe site a couple weeks ago and now I'm dying to try this new one for Pork Chile Verde.
• And this. Absolutely hilarious! Why, oh why, would you name a place Soup and 'Balls??? Reminds me a little of Von's Corner on Portland Rd. It's a bar that everyone should walk into once just for the experience. And then promptly walk back out.

Happy First Wednesday, everyone! Hope to see you downtown.

A New Header

I've been playing around with my site and I figured out how to add a cool header. I really like this image, but I had to change some things to make it work right. Let me know how it looks. I'd especially like to know if it goes off the screen on the right hand side for anyone. It looks like it works on my computer, but you just never know. :)

Hope you like the new look!