The Mountain

The best thing about going back to the place where I grew up is that nobody can find me unless they really try.  There is no Internet, no cell phone service, and it's a hundred kilometres from any town that anyone has heard of.  You can fly over the property in an airplane, soaring across the Selkirk mountain range in southeastern British Columbia, and not see any sign of human existence for more than half an hour.  I love this place.  Six acres of wilderness that's almost as wild today as it was when my family moved there in the early 1970s.   

We did manage to tame it a little bit. Dad created our own electricity with a Pelton wheel and 1000 feet of pipe, harnessing one of the streams that tumbles down the mountainside. Mom tilled the clay soil, mixed in a lot of goat dung and created several gardens that have thrived for decades during the short growing season.   Today, there's a verdant front yard full of clematis and rose bushes where there used to be thistles and rock.

But many other things remain untamed.   Grizzly bears and black bears still wander across the property from spring until hibernation time.   On winter nights, coyotes still perform their eerie vocalizations outside the bedroom window.   Five meters of snow continue to fall between November and March, turning the wood-frame house into an igloo-like tunnel.  Like clockwork, the sun disappears behind the mountains in the second week of December every year, and emerges again in the first week of February.   And the only communication is still an old-fashioned landline.

As a journalist and television producer I have travelled to some of the remotest corners of the planet and have encountered very few places that feel as technologically remote as my childhood home.  Many of my friends are in media, and based in big cities around the world.   For those who visit, it takes time to adjust to life on the mountain.  Some of them don't adjust.   "So there's really no way to get a signal here?" a colleague asks with no small amount of irritation.  Sure there is, if you want to spend thousands of dollars hooking up a big satellite dish near the top of the tallest cedar tree at the top of the property.   And we've considered it, if only to make it easier to work from the mountain.   But so far, we've decided against it because we know it will change everything irrevocably, and we aren't ready to give up the delights of disconnectedness-- a rare place where the outside world, and its expectations of instant responses, can be put on 'pause'.

The BC government has promised that every resident of the province, no matter where they live, will soon have access to the Internet.  It seems to be a reasonable promise in one of the world's wealthiest countries.   And I'll admit that life on the mountain will be easier once I'm able to connect more readily to my city-based work.  (I'll even be able to post blogs!)  But I also know that letting the world in with a single click will irrevocably change what I love most about life on the mountain.

My trip preparation routine

I love traveling because, for me, it means meeting a new culture, a new atmosphere. I love the sensation of thinking for two or five days –depending how long is my trip- how would I feel living in the place I’m visiting. When I was living in Barcelona I used to travel at least twice a year. Now that I live in Toronto I continue travelling but mostly to go back home.

Spring and fall are my favorite seasons for traveling because it’s a way of avoiding extreme weather conditions. The truth is, though, that choosing these seasons often brings you rain so, the perfect weather for traveling doesn’t exist!

As my friends say, I have developed a trip preparation routine, and I love it.  The first thing I do after deciding my destination is Google it for doing some primary research: reading the history of the place, learning some basic words in the new language, etc.

After having a general idea of where I’m going I use go to a bookstore to read some guides. I do a quick research but usually just buy one. I confess that depending on the destination I will choose one or another. I don’t have a favourite one.

The preparation continues underlining the guide and starting a list of My Musts of the city. But that list needs other recommendations too. I need to know places that don’t appear in the books – and I don’t mean finding secret treasures, I mean normal places someone went and liked-. That’s why I usually try to find friends, or friends of friends, for asking personal tips.

The next step is marking on the map all the places I want to visit. And I do it creating zone groups. I just prepare the zone groups because I don’t like to know exactly what I’m going to do every day. So I get different itineraries and once I’m there I will decide how to spend my time.

Another step that I consider vey important during my preparation is having a list of restaurants or local markets. Every time I’m traveling I try to visit three different types of gastronomic places: The first ones are restaurants -full of locals- offering lunch menus. The second types are the food markets –I love buying some fruit, wine or local ingredients and preparing delicious sandwiches or meals-. Finally, in every trip I do, I try to choose a special restaurant for having a special dinner -I have to admit that the criteria I use for choosing depends on the place I’m visiting-.

The last step -but not least- of my trip preparation is to find a place to stay. The first option is always finding someone’s friend with an apartment for renting. If there is no success, I try airbnb. I personally prefer apartments than hotels. I love spending time in my new home imagining how would it be my life there. For me, spending some time cooking local dishes, having a glass of wine or reading a book after all day walking it’s also part of traveling.

Our First Class Post

This is our first blog post. We are very excited to be working together and learning from each other. 

We are pleased to be working at The University of Toronto.

Notes in Preparation for Week 2

There will be no class next week, as we're breaking for Thanksgiving, but we meet again the week after that.

1) Your own first post (Show Us What You Love!) should be up on the class blog by Wednesday at midnight. Please come to our next class ready to give feedback on your classmates' blog pertaining to what works about each post and why.

2) Your assigned text for Week 2 is "Why the Future of Blogging Starts Now", by Navneet Alang. Please come to class ready to discuss the article and ready to answer the following questions about it:

How are blogs different from other kinds of social media? What can a blog do that other forms of social media can't?
What are the advantages and disadvantages (from the point of view of the blogger) of admitting that blogging is "small"?
"So the future of the blog is neither death nor triumph"—how does this point fit into the conversation about blogging we've been having already?
How does this article change or clarify any ideas you have about your own future in blogging

3) Your next assignment will be to write about something particular to your neighbourhood—a restaurant review, a profile of a person or a place. The reason for this approach is to keep on looking outward, to encourage a variety of responses (because you all like in different places), and to remember the connection between blogging and engaging with the world around you. Please come to our next class with an idea and be ready to begin writing this post.

Be curious, ask questions, and keep your mind open to learning new things

Welcome to The Art of Blogging.

"The revolutionary potential of blogs is found in a shift away from more traditional journalistic principles of objectivity, replaced instead by the insistence on an authorial stance replete with biases and subjectivities." --May Friedman, Mommyblogging and the Changing Face of Motherhood

We will meet Monday evenings from 6:30-9:00. Please bring a laptop computer (or similar device for accessing the internet and composing blog posts).

Assignments: Assignments constitute 25% of your mark. Each week, your assignment will be read an assigned text on blogging, and also to read your classmates' blog posts.

Portfolio: Your portfolio constitutes 50% of your mark, and comprises 8 blog posts (4 on a class blog, and 4 on your own blog) for which you will be given class time to create. If not completed in class, you can finish your blog posts at home, but they must be posted no later than midnight on the Wednesday following our class.

Participation: Participation constitutes 25% of your mark. Please come to class each week ready to discuss that week's assigned text and having read your classmates' blogs. No blog is an island and community is a huge part of why blogging works, so your participation is essential.

Workshop Tips: 

• Please be courteous to your classmates and have your blog posts up in time in order that we have plenty of time to read them. 
• You will not necessarily be the intended audience for each blog post. Let this not be your point of departure for criticism. Show some imagination and empathy. But our discussions will  also benefit from many points of view. 
• Blogging is inherently personal and often political, but we must maintain professional boundaries in a class like this. As we examine the art of blogging together, please refrain from posting content that might be upsetting to others.
• Similarly, please refrain from critiquing your classmates' work for any content you find disagreeable. See previous point about intended audiences. We're more interested in how content is presented than evaluating the content itself. 
• All of these points are to make our classroom a safe and comfortable space for everybody. If you have concerns about anything presented in your classmates' work, please speak to me after class. I welcome all your feedback. 
• Please be respectful and considerate of each other, spend as much time listening as you do sharing, be curious, ask questions, and keep your mind open to learning new things from everyone. 

Course Outline: Fall 2015

Week 1 What’s a Blog, and Why a Blog? :  The history of blogging; the evolving nature of blogging; the multiplicity of blogs; exaggerated rumours of the death of blogging; blogging as a tool; blogging as an end in itself.

Week 2 Anatomy of a blog: Find your focus, and choose your angle; How to name your blog; options for platforms; choose your URL; pick a template; tips for design; writing your About page; creating a blog roll; moderating comments Assigned Text: "The Future of Blogging Starts Now", by Navneet Alang

Week 3 Anatomy of a Blog Post: The importance of titles; great first sentences; length and structure; rules for good writing; links and images. Assigned Text: "Why I'm Breaking Up With My Blog," by Tracey Chappell

Week 4 Blogging Like Nobody’s Reading: On finding your readership; the community nature of blogging; the importance of web stats; the unimportance of web stats; making your blog work for you; overcoming writers’ block; how to keep going Assigned Text: "Woolf's Darkness," by Rebecca Solnit

Week 5 Making Your Blog a Portal to the World: How to avoid blogging pitfalls; how to keep your material fresh and dynamic; getting beyond the navel; don’t take the clickbait; how to be inspired (and inspire your readers too) Assigned Text: "Mary Pratt: On Blogging, and Preserving Light and Time," by Kerry Clare

Week 6 The Quest for Blog Fodder: Blogging is a state of mind. How to find that state and how to stay there, and how your blog can improve the way you live your life. Assigned Text: "Keeping an Eye on the World," by Shawna Lemay

Week 7 The Business of Blogging: Using your blog as a business tool; ideas for revenue; dealing with corporate interests; blogging and ethics Assigned Text: "Yes, Virginia, There is an Agenda," by Bonnie Stewart (and also http://www.thestayathomefeminist.com/2014/10/23/ethicsshmethics/)

Week 8 Taking Your Blog into the Future: Where do you go from here? Assigned text: "Between the Gutter and the Stars: Success in Writing," by Kyran Pittman

Being curious about the world

"Beginning with early ruminations on the politics of identity and throughout my career, I have discovered that being curious about the world meant that I could not be complacent about my discoveries. I had to be involved to understand them on my own terms. It was the the work that proved whether or not I understood. Yet it a challenging responsibility to answer one's questions publicly. It has been both fulfilling and difficult." --Suzy Lake, "Introducing Suzy Lake"