Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Blog as a log

According to wikipedia a blog is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Term blog comes from reverse abreviating web log or weblog shortening it by removing the we and getting blog.

If a blog is a web log, what is it logging?

The free dictionary describes a log as:
log 1 (lôg, lg) n.
1.
a. A usually large section of a trunk or limb of a fallen or felled tree.
b. A long thick section of trimmed, unhewn timber.
2. Nautical
a. A device trailed from a ship to determine its speed through the water.
b. A record of a ship's speed, its progress, and any shipboard events of navigational importance.
c. The book in which this record is kept.
3. A record of a vehicle's performance, as the flight record of an aircraft.
4. A record, as of the performance of a machine or the progress of an undertaking: a computer log; a trip log.

Being that a blog doesn't have anything to do with trees, wood, ships, or vehicles (unless that is what the author is blogging about) we can take the log part of blog to mean that it is a record or journal (bjournal doesn't really work, it sounds like a Swedish word)

Well then, if a blog is a record or journal, what am I recording or journaling about? In the case of my blog I am recording my random thoughts and observations.

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