I was looking through to make sure I had all my work done and realized I totally forgot to post my research proposal, oops!

I changed my topic last minute and decided to do the effects the internet and blogging has on the status of celebrities. I'm going to incorporate different blogs that post things about celebrities, which say things that are both true and complete rumors, and talk about the effects it has on celebrities. Actions that celebrities have can either make or break their career, and the internet certainly helps them get there in ways that it never could before

Sorry I have a lot of make-up work to complete because things have been so hectic recently so hopefully yall don't mind reading a bunch of posts at once. Anyways things have been so hectic because (as I'm sure everyone is going through the same thing) there has been sooo much school work recently. I think I have like three papers due this Friday or something, a lab final on Monday, and another test on Friday. It sucks! I can't wait till it's all done with. Except I want to stay here at school, I wish we could just stay here with no work haha. Also, I haven't really been able to get anything done because I just found out my dog's dying. He's eleven so I guess he could be considered pretty old but I always just picture him as a puppy since he was so energetic. The vet thinks he had a stroke like two weeks ago and since then he's been having seizures at night which my parents say is pretty scary to watch, they put him on some form of medication but nobody's too optimistic at this point :(. That's all, hope everythings well with everyone else!

"Cloning." Wikipedia the World Encyclopedia. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dolly_the_sheep>.

This site provides a lot of information on Dolly, the first sheep cloned. It includes a basic outline of how she was cloned, where she was cloned, and her life and death. The site also includes many other external links that could be used for further research, including pictures, along with a vast amount of references used in the information.

"Cloning Fact Sheet." Human Genome Project. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/human_genome/elsi/cloning.shtml>.

This site is a general fact site about cloning, or the human genome project information. It talks about what cloning is, what animals have been cloned, what different technology is used in cloning, and discusses the risks included with any cloning procedure. It also includes many other general links of sites about cloning.

Marc, West. "Rebirth of Cloning Debate." Mr. Science. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://misterscience.blogspot.com/2006/11/rebirth-of-cloning-debate.html>.

This is a blog about someone's general opinion about cloning. It not only talks about their feelings, but includes many other prominent people's opinion, mostly living in Australia. The site also gives links to articles or journals these featured people have written, and also other links to general facts about cloning.

Marc, West. "Marc's Blog." First Science Blog. 14 Dec. 2006. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://www.firstscience.com/home/blog/62.html>.

This blog is a follow up to the last link I just posted, but five years later. It is by the same author as before, and asks the same people their feelings on cloning. It is interesting to see how their opinion may or may not have changed in the past five years.

"Cloning." Wikipedia the World Encyclopedia. 3 Apr. 2008. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cloning>.

This is the wikipedia site about cloning. It is a follow up to the research towards the wikipedia site on Dolly, the first sheep ever cloned. This site gives many resources about cloning and also follows up with many links that could be helpful with research.

For spring break I just went home back to Northern Virginia, and while I do really miss home sometimes at school I definitely wish I had at least gone somewhere for a couple of days! It was nice to see a lot of my friends who had the same break as me or who came home for Easter weekend though. I had to fly back Sunday morning though so I really didn't get to do anything for Easter which sucked. I'm so glad to be back at school, but I had nooo idea how much work I really have coming up. Three huge research papers a bunch of tests and a project is really stressing me out. Plus there's only like a month of school left and I realized today none of my grades are really where I want them to be. It's definitely time to get my stuff together!!

I love college! I went to Gatlinburg on Monday for the first time ever and had soo much fun. Since it was such a gorgeous day out my friend and I decided to just road-trip there and spend all afternoon and dinner. Since I don't have a car here I hardly ever get to go off campus and this was definitely the furthest I've been from Knoxville, I had no idea there was so much else to do! I was seriously in shock passing all the different dinner show places and mini-golf and such. We ended up going to a Wax Museum which was hilarious and all of the different cheesy shops. Also on the way back to Knoxville we went go-karting which I had not done in a really long time and was definitely worth the five dollars :) Overall I think it was the most sober fun I've had in a while haha. Too bad since Monday the weather has definitely not been as nice!

I feel like there is a big difference between writing a personal journal and posting something online. Someone's personal journal is there deepest and darkest secrets and feelings which they pour out openly because they believe that nobody will ever read it. When you are writing your blog you know that at least someone is going to read what you say, so you may be a little less open about how much information you give. You also are trying to reach out towards the audience you are writing to which may make it limited in terms of what exactly you write about, whereas in your own personal journal you are free to write about whatever you want. I think journals can be a really good way to keep memories though, I used to keep a journal when I was like 9 or 10 and I've gone back through it to read before and it's just really funny to remember what your most important thoughts might have been at such a young age.

Nobody would have thought ten years ago that weblogs would have such a profound impact on today’s society. Whether you’re talking about celebrities, sports, or the economy there is a webpage for anything someone might want to read or write about. Because of the internet today thousands of people all over the world are given the opportunity to create their own weblog and connect with anyone else from the outside world. Keeping a weblog gives a person a chance to discuss exactly what they want to discuss and it doesn’t matter if the way you feel is not how everyone else may feel because it’s your own personal weblog. I think that having a weblog helps any type of writer gain confidence in their writing style because of many different ways.
First of all by having a weblog a writer is given a chance to express their ideas freely, this gives someone the confidence to write about things that they never would have imagined before. They also have the ability to receive immediate feedback on how others feel about their writing, unlike books which may take months after the final draft is sent in for the author to receive any feedback.
Another way maintaining a weblog may affect the way someone writes is because of the audience they want to portray themselves to. When someone is writing in a journal it doesn’t matter what they say because nobody will ever read it, but with a blog people are purposely putting their own personal thoughts and writings out on the internet. If they are writing about being a Tennessee football fan they aren’t going to also include how they really like the Florida gators too. Because a writer wants to please the audience they are speaking to, they may be extremely one sided on the specific topic they are discussing. The great thing about a weblog is that someone has an opportunity to search for the exact topic they are interested in, no matter how obscure it may be, so when they find it the reader doesn’t want the author to take a different opinion than they might have.
One of the downsides I have found in maintaining a weblog is that someone’s spelling and or grammar may suffer. Since there is no English teacher checking your work for sentence structure or if you have a topic sentence, a weblog basically gives someone the opportunity to ramble on and on without getting in trouble. While this may not matter on a weblog, when the author goes to get something published or write an actual paper it could end up hurting them in the end.
Overall I feel as though the place of weblogs in today’s society is a great thing. It gives someone like Joe the Peacock a chance to express himself and his life in a way he might not ever have had before. Weblog’s give someone an opportunity to gain online reputations and meet people all over the world, and also gives others the possibility to discover interests online they might not have ever known before.

I really liked Mentally Incontinent. Originally I wasn't really quite sure what to expect from the book since I had never really read a blog, let alone a book that was completely based off of blogs, but I really enjoyed it. I definitely enjoyed some of the stories more than others, but once I got used to his sense of humor and such some of the stories were actually hilarious. I think he maybe included one too many stories, and I would suggest cutting out some of the ones that had the fewest votes so people don't get bored with the stories. Otherwise though I really enjoyed the book and would definitely suggest it to others for a fun read!

I did exercise number five and I got 15 out of 17 right

I haven't been able to post in a while because I broke my computer. I'm actually not sure what I did to it but all the sudden the screen just went black and wouldn't turn back on! I took it to the comptuer store and they basically have to clear off my enitre hard-drive, so I'm going to lose everything I have on my computer, I'm not pleased haha. In other news my really really bad intramural basketball team finally won a game last night haha, we all signed up as a joke thinking it wouldn't be that serious but some of the teams are really good!! So we have pretty much been getting our asses kicked every night, it's pretty funny though only a couple of girls on our team have ever even played.

Okay just to warn you guys this story is kind of vulgar but I will always remember it as one of my most traumatizing work stories ever..

I'm from right outside Washington, DC and the area I lived in probably has atleast three tanning stores for every 15 miles, so naturally that's where I worked my senior year of high school. The job was actually ridiculously easy since all you have to do is check people in and clean the "bed" after they are done tanning. Most of the time it was pretty quiet and you usually would work with someone else, read magazines or "study" and drink the starbucks that we got for free from next door. Anyways a lot of customers would share accounts with their significant other or would bring someone along with them so there was never really any way to stop people from going back towards the beds even if they weren't tanning since the bathroom was back there too.

One day around prom season it was SUPER busy and people were literally waiting around for like 40 minutes to tan, and it was near the end of my shift so I really wanted to get the hell out of there. This one older kind of sketchy guy had gone into one of the stand up booths and shortly after his wife came in too so I just figured she wanted to tan after him. Everyone can lock the door to their room from the inside but I'm guessing this guy just didn't because he knew his wife was coming. It was really busy so we never noticed the wife never came back to the front until way after the bed had shut off. (We have computers in the store that let us know when beds haven't been clean yet, when they are in use, and when their time has run out and how long it's been since their time has run out so usually it takes people about five minutes to walk out after they are done) So when the bed had been shut off for like 15 minutes and neither part of the couple had walked out we started to get kind of suspicious. Anyways, I'm sure you guys can imagine what they had been doing, and it was only proven when I went in there to clean the room and saw some evidence haha...The worst part was we thought the wife had left and were talking about how disgusted we were and such when she came back from the bathroom and asked if she could go tanning now! It was horribly awkward, and from then on everyone always tried to pay special attention to people who went into the back to use the "bathroom"

One of the blogs I found that I really like is this random facts of the day one. http://community.livejournal.com/afactaday/

At my high school we used to have those random facts of the day that you can find on the caps to Snapple bottles and I always thought they were really funny and this blog reminds me of it. Some of them definitely look more interesting to read than others though.

My roommate situation at school could not be any weirder. Before the first semester had ended she had only slept in the room twice and I hadn't seen her in about 2 months. She had called once or twice so I knew she wasn't dead or kidnapped or anything but I knew she wasn't going to class because one of my friends had class with her and she hadn't been there in a really long time. The day the dorms closed for christmas break she called me around seven asking if the dorms were still open and if she could get her stuff out of my room. I told her no, the dorms weren't open and asked her if she was moving out, she said she had joined the army a couple of months ago and was sorry that she hadn't told anyone. So, when I got back to school I was expecting all her stuff to be gone except it's all still there! She hasn't been back or anything, but she told me she hadn't paid for the dorm second semester so I honestly don't understand what the deal is. I'm thinking about packing up her stuff and putting it into her closet just because none of her stuff matches with my stuff and I can't stand looking at it, it's just depressing, and I really want to decorate my room! Oh well, well see what happens.

 Hey Guys, my name is Natalie Jacobs and I'm a Freshmen here at UT. I'm from right outside Washington, DC (I know pretty random) but I absolutely love it here in Knoxville. I'm living in Hess right now by myself actually because my roommate dropped out of school after like a month and they never moved anybody else in! I used to play basketball year round in highschool and could have actually played in college for some small schools but decided not to. I have one older sister named Rachael who's 26 and is in chiropractic school in Portland, Oregon. I'm really easy going and so excited to have Ms. D for another semester!