Blog Critique: "School's Out"

Today, the blog "School's out" is subject to my blog critique. This blog is important because it serves the wider community in Germany but also in particular students in Berlin. It consists of three people writing and participating almost everyday. The first blogger is Andrea Huber (hub). She is working for a newspaper "Berliner Morgenpost" which publishes this blog. The second blogger is Lena H. She is 15 years old and goes to school in Berlin. So does the third member of this blog. His name is Kevin (kk) and he is 17 years old.

The content are mainly news, discussions but also entertainment. Furthermore this blog has six categories which divide all articles and entry to a particular topic. The categories are 1. "Good School, Bad School", 2. "Question of the week", 3. "Chat- Forum", 4. "Scene", 5. "Good newspaper, Bad Newspaper" and 6. "Project log book".
The main theme is centered on school but not in the traditional way. The bloggers talk about issues before, during and after school and users comment on that. There are topics like 'What is your dream school', or a reasonable discussion about the smoking laws at schools. When I was at school I was allowed to smoke within a certain area in the school that was when I was just 16! This blog also discusses issues like racism at schools which is a very important topic.

The entire blog seems like a big forum and attempts to make school more interesting and important. Through this kind of advanced communication, the students get to know techniques I didn't even know they exist when I was that age.
A significant characteristic of this blog is the involvement of thoughts from old and young. The subjectivity of this blog is obvious because without any opinions discussions and forums would not make any sense. However, the bloggers are not subjects of censorship or persecution. The logical reason is because this blog simply deals with issues of students. Things that normally would not threat someone like the government. The style is informal and suitable for students. Although the design is confusing sometimes because this blog contains a lot of information.

The impact on the wider community is simply through their web side because this blog belongs to a big newspaper. On the homepage of this paper the user immediately has access to the web blog. The first entry was in January 2000 and the blog gained more and more article and comments per year. The participation became definitely much more throughout the last two years.

I think this blog is an important institution especially for young people. They are asked to contribute on things they are also involved in as well as they are challenged with technology.
Below I listed the hyper link.

http://www.morgenpost.de/z/plog/blog.php/schools_out

Holidays

hihi,
yepp, this is the first entry from my new house. unfortunately i didn't have any internet before but hey, you can't have the cake and eat it all. nice saying though, hope i said it right.

anyway, the new house in paddington. that area is just so nice. the air, the people, the nature. the only really shitty shitty shitty thing ever is that i have the loser room. we did something like a lucky draw and well it wasn't lucky for me though. on the contrary, i have the smallest room, not on the sunny side downstairs cellar-ish downstairs. my friends always said the whole they knew they gonna get the crab room but well no that was me. i feel little bit like frog down here its so moldy and dark...i am now exaggerating. it's just not nice to hear that both of them woke up through the sunshine and i thought its raining. well, i guess thats life...c'est la vie.

today is the last day of the third semester. wow, the time was running faster then never before.
tomorrow i'll be flying to berlin again. not really looking forward to the flight. i gonna see my little brother. weird.
i really miss my sister. we used to hate each other but since i've been living on the other side of the earth we appreciate each other so much more. her and me went through the some pretty freaky familiy dramas and so we just know how important it is to rely on someone within the family. but she's is in holidays somewhere in spain. i actually wanted to join her but she didn't want me to. don't know why but i just have to accept that.
o my god, i''ll have to do so much today. have to get presents for at least 7 people, sh*t. but later on i'll have a date hehehe.

so guys have a nice holiday!

what a good week!

We've got the house, FINALLY! But we're still very careful with that because you NEVER know. We'll move in next week on Tuesday. I really have to organize everything well because moving, assignments and Germany is kind of happening at the same time. Well, yeah, the whole week seems less stressful as expected. Alright, I am hungry now. I gonna go to my favorite Thai place just around the corner, I will miss their food yummy...and then I'll sleep because I declared today as my 'lazy' day. Everybody needs some laziness sometimes. Don't you think so?!?

House hunting and babies***

hello, everyone. I am just coming back from viewing some houses. we have been everywhere in the city. darlinghurst, paddington, surry hills and chippendale. I definitely prefer to live in Paddington. We found a very nice house today. It is located in between Oxford street and Edgecliff. The area is very quiet but still not far away from everything like bars, clubs, shopping as well as bus and train stations. I especially like that this house has got 4 bedrooms and it's huge with three levels. another pro is it's got a shower and a bath! thats something i miss over here, I love taking long baths. also, it has two toilets, which is often very handy. we are three girls and it would be better with a fourth flatmate. the balance is important because sometimes just girls and then the odd number 3 can lead to some trouble. well, you can see I am very excited. just the imagination to have my own room (again) finally makes me so happy. it is sometimes very difficult to share my room with my friend. we have a bit different perceptions of tidiness and also the way we treat each others stuff differs. I think I am sometimes very fuzzy about certain things like my computer. I just love my mac and she cannot really understand that. well, we are all different otherwise the world would be very boring, I guess.
Anyway, I am looking forward and hope this time everything will work out. cross the fingers !!!
We'll know if we can move in on Monday afternoon.



On 23 August my little half brother Henry Torsten was born. He is a huge baby. Aaaaauuuu!!!
56 cm and 4100 gram. I already spoke to him on the phone that was weird but also very amazing. When my fathers girlfriend already was pregnant they visited me last February. So, one could say he already visited me. Well, I'll see him in two weeks in Berlin. that it'll be interesting.


That's him Henry Torsten Howell

All over again !

i wrote last week that i found a house, right? wrong at approximately 5 pm last friday the real estate agent called us and said that we cannot move in anymore. allegedly the city council sent her a letter saying that the property has to be used in a commercially. well, we called the city council and their told us this should not be a big issue. all we had to do or let's say the owner of the property has to apply a development proposal to change the standard into a residential one.
but the dodgy thing was on the same day i transferred the bond money of 2400 AUD and picked up the keys we get the notice. the whole last week we were negotiating and talking to so many institutions such as the fair trade union to know whats going on. everything was just sooooo disappointing, we even bought color to paint the walls on thursday. the agent was not a good help on the contrary she actually tried to kick us out of the contract as fast as possible. she was obviously annoyed by us because we didn't just accept it. she underestimated us and probably thought we are going to leave immediatly without questioning the issue. well, very wrong lady. but to come to an end, we already looking for another places because it is useless to waste anymore energy on that. we will definitely make a complain and already told the tenant union what happened to us. it is just a pity because we imagined everything. we bought color, rented out the car spaces, i already found someone for my old room and so on.
it is the real estate agents fu**ing responsibility to care and to prevent those things. the worse is that we just had to give in but we will try to get a compensation for all our costs. and yeah everything all over again!!!!that just sucks...seriously.

my little unborn baby brother did still not pop out to our world. my fathers girlfriend was supposed to give birth yesterday. we'll see it will happen soon. i already bought a present for him. it's a teddy bear a very stylish one. it looks like the Mr.Bean teddy bear.
well thats all, i am tired now and a little bit tipsy too hehe.

Auf wiedersehen!

German news versus Australian and much more other stuff to tell

hi everyone,
haven't wrote anything for quite a long time and feel bad about it. but everything was just so exiting recently. also i had to do a lot of stuff. i had to confirm my return flight to Germany. had to rearrange the flight back to Australia. then, my friends and me were looking for a new place...and we found one. it is a very nice place. it is bright, spacious, not very expensive and located in a familiar area. i am now living in surry hills and will move just one street further which is very handy because of moving all my stuff.

anyway, my best friend is back again and we're sharing my room. i thought it would a bit complicated sometimes but it is actually quiet cozy. we're both studying and working so that means we don't annoy each other too much. when this semester is over i fly to Berlin, again. actually i think it is too soon but i have to visit my little baby brother Henry.
Henry is not born yet, but will 'pop out' soon, probably this weekend. he is just my half brother though. but that doesn't matter i think. it is a bit weird to be such an old sister. i gonna be 22 years older than him...for gods sake i could be his mother. what a strange world we live in, he?!

a propos strange world. since i got a bit more knowledge about podcast i download every and single day the German news from an independent channel called ZDF. it is so interesting whats happening in the world but if you watch news on channel seven, nine or ten you become or stay stupid. honestly, there are 22 south Korean Christians kidnapped in Afghanistan (2-3 killed) and its apparently not entertaining enough to keep on reporting on that. there are also two Germans kidnapped near Kabul and one of them got already killed. i haven't seen anything about that in the news. furthermore, a virus spread in Great Britain which could ruin thousand of existences. nope, nothing for the glamor news on most of the channels. i can really recommend the abc news or world news on sbs. but most of the people find those ones too boring to watch...it is a shame. well, i just had to let that out because it just makes me angry that news like "brangelina" or "who is in the rehab today" are more interesting for people than the reality with all it wars.

alright folks, that was my 'speech of the day'***

thank you very much for your comments. i really appreciate that. well well, fortunately i am better after one week. it seems like everybody's getting the flu lately. some of us are used to such a cold weather and some not. i am actually used to worse. well there are sometimes -25 degrees during winter in Germany. but the significant difference is : our houses are isolated and we have built-in heaters. and that makes the whole thing soooooo much easier to stand.
let's just hope that this boring Australian winter will be over soon. i shouldn't complain at all because i haven't had a winter for two years. so, actually i kind of deserve this.

well, the time of boredom is hopefully numbered because my best friend from germany is coming back!finally! i will pick her up on monday at 7 am in the morning. thats very early and normally i wouldn't do that but i missed her so much and i promised it. she is gonna move into my room for the next couple of days until we'll find another place to move in together. i hope everything will work out as we planned it.

alright, now its getting boring and i'll stop writing. i prefer watching television now. bye bye