It is the end of the semester and the work is piling up. The workload for most college students is unbearable. Three fifteen-page papers, three finals and two in-class presentations are on the agenda for this week alone. Not to mention finishing up that other essay due from two weeks ago that you needed an extension on. You are scheduled for twelve hours to work in the dining hall this week. The holiday season is upon us and you haven't finished your Christmas cards. Not to mention gathering all the presents you are expected to give. There is a month-long break coming up and your room needs to be ready for it. There are dust bunnies the size of Godzilla that are about to eat your month's worth of dirty laundry that still need to be done. You haven't packed a single sock and your mother is calling about trip arrangements. If it hasn't happened already, the dreaded all-nighter is coming for you!

Racism is a problem that haunts our everyday lives. Scientifically, among humans there is no biological difference between races. So in the end there is no real difference, just variation. There are a lot of people that believe that black men are better at football than white men because biologically they are faster.

Bryn Mawr College was founded with the ideals of Quaker values. One of the key Quaker ideals is the emphasis on equality. At BMC not one religion, geographical origin, or any other distinguishing factors are favored over any others. With this ideal of equality there are no real national holidays that are recognized by the school. Although some large holidays are observed with a break such as thanksgiving and the winter holidays, no other holidays are given a day off from work. Students on campus are hurt by the College’s insensitivity to holidays that are very important to some students. The main discussion of the past SGA meeting was a controversy over not having Martin Luther King jr. day off from school. Most all other schools, businesses in the area and in the country observe this holiday and all the work that MLK jr. did for the United States’ history.

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There has been some interesting talk recently about Lewis Libby and his inability to keep a secret. He recently disclosed the identity of a CIA agent. There will be a court hearing about it soon, there is still a lot of finger pointing as to the original source. Libby says that he first heard about the agent from a member of the media.

I was recently reading a blog by some unknown person (*wink*) about women giving up opportunities in the working world to stay home with their kids. It seems like the "dream life" but could these women (or men) have the secret to curing cancer or some other world-changing talents that we will never know about? The blogger spends a lot of time debating the issue. I had never really thought about how some women really give up all their ambitions in life to be a good parent/spouse.

Did you hear that the Steve Miller Band is back on tour?! I think it's amazing that all these old bands are making come-back tours. Recently in Boston the Rolling Stones played a show at Fenway park. Not too long ago the grateful dead (one of my all time favorites) minus the late Jerry G. went on their Wave that flag summer tour 2004.

Around campus recently there seems to be a lot more coughing, sniffling and general tired eyes. When we all went to the doctor’s last spring to get our shots I bet a lot of you said “meningitis, how in the world would I get that?” or for whatever shots we received. It’s amazing how quickly a virus can sweep (nay- swiffer) a campus! There have been so many instances of mono floating around lately that the average over-worked, and tired college student assumes death when only little drowsy.

What measures influence? Can a simple blog written by simple people change the world? We are the WEB OF INFLUENCE but what kind of influence are we trying to provoke? Can a bunch of motivated people really make an impact on the world? That's what this whole WOI is trying to do, influence people. We are influencing people to hear about the news, or even care about the news. Readers get a glimpse into our world at school and maybe even our personal lives. Could this WOI be more influential than other sources of influence? Music seems to be a very influential part of life. Any blog could probably influence a person quicker than a song could. Blogs are about information and ideas. A good blog gives you the news and then tells you what you can do with it.

Before I left for school I was really interested in documentaries. Anyone who knows me is probably laughing right about now, but I really like them. I watched this channel called the the discovery times channel It has a lot of really interesting pieces about things you wouldn’t even think were worth learning about. I watched this amazing piece about a prison in Columbia (I think) where the prisoners themselves mainly ruled the prison.

The world-wide web is such a huge pool of information that it is sometimes very difficult to decipher between with useful information and the not so useful. So then when it comes to blogging, the main question is with all of the opportunities (basically everyone in the world) to create blogs, what's the point? It would be impossible for every single blog to be read and the author of chapter 21 of "we've got blog" tends to feel that too much information is being spewed out into the world. The author feels that there are too many self-indulged people writing about themselves and not enough pertinent information being shared.

From what blogging experience I had before taking this class I always thought of it as a weird means to stalk people. Some random guy in the middle of nowhere could read some teen-aged girl's blog and find out everything about her life. As a kid adults always told us to never reveal any personal information about ourselves. Blogging always sounded like a dangerous activity that could possibly be revealing too much information. In chapter 8 of "We've got blog" the author discusses a blog-based relationship. With the communities of blogs knit so tight where everyone knows everything about everyone else it seems completely possible to really get to know someone through their blogs.

About a year ago was when I really started to think about narrowing down my choice of colleges. When it came down to it Bryn Mawr was top on my list. I made a quick choice and applied early decision. When I received the letter saying that I was accepted, I never knew what I was really getting myself into. So the summer winded down and I started to get more and more nervous about starting this new chapter in my life. I was nervous about starting a collegiate sport and the collegiate workload. I kept all my nervous feelings a secret and pretended to be excited about this terrifying journey. When I actually got to my dorm, I started meeting one interesting person after another.

All the students participating in this blog belong to communities whether we think so or not. As students of Bryn Mawr we all belong to the educational and social Bryn Mawr community. I belong to the Pembroke East dorm community. My town back home is also a community that I belong to. In my recent past I have participated in sports communities which have been more like close-knit families. The Ice Hockey team that I played for back home was such an important community for me. Everyone on the team got along so well and it helped me on and off the ice in a tremendous way. A community for me is a group of individuals that become important to me for reasons of new ideas, support and guidance.