Eventually, if not already this Christmas shopping season, Toys 'R' Us will begin selling a toy made of hot pink plastic, called "Baby's First Blog Machine" or the "Easy Blog Oven" or something like that. There's a great tendency to infantilize technology trends because we think it's unbearably cute to imagine that little Maddie or baby Calvin can understand Mommy's Blackberry or Daddy's iPod.
Which hurts me, really, because it suggests that I'm a baby (or at least infantile) in the technology world. Only this year do I join the blog-erati. Or the blogospherians. Or the chattering class. Or whatever we're calling these people this week, these people who divert their boundless streams of consciousness online to water the mental fields of the masses.
Speaking of watering, before I dared to write this first post (at the invitation of the OnMilwaukee.com staff), I decided to check out some of the competition. I started out, of course, on the OMC blog site and wasn't surprised to find good quality writing about Milwaukee and elsewhere, some sweet, some scathing, some off-the-wall, some just-the-facts-ma'am. Not a bad start in my search for model blogs. But then, I wandered off the edge and discovered a shocking truth about blogging:
Some people blog about watering their lawns.
I swear on my favorite shoes, there are people out there like "Lila," who announced in her post this week that the weather where she was remained unbearably hot and that her husband (or "hubbie" as she spells out his unfortunate position in the suburban hierarchy) was RIGHT THIS MINUTE out watering the parched lawn. Lila breathlessly provided data on the color of the grass, the last date of watering and the excuses for why there had been no watering for 10 WHOLE DAYS, as well as an analysis of the air temperature at 7 a.m. when she woke up and at the time of the post (both estimated and actual).
Oh, my.
As a new, optimistic blogger, I want to hope I never get to that point, and I'm absolutely insisting that if I ever do, my family pulls the plug on my laptop. DNR.
Jennifer Morales is an elected member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, the first person of Latino descent to hold that position. She was first elected in 2001 and was unopposed for re-election in 2005. In 2004, she ran for a seat in the Wisconsin state senate, earning 43% of the vote against a 12-year incumbent.
Previously, she served as the editorial assistant at the educational journal Rethinking Schools; as assistant director of two education policy research centers at UW-Milwaukee; and as the development director for 9to5, National Association of Working Women.
She became the first person in her immediate family to graduate from college, earning a B.A. in Modern Languages and Literatures from Beloit College in 1991.
In addition to her work on the school board, she is a freelance editorial consultant and a mother.
