Blogging can be done in all sorts of ways. There is no standard. There is no governing body. You can pretty much do it however you like. That’s precisely what makes the form so great. Something for everybody. That said, I feel that there are two very important rules for blogging that every blogger should obey.

1. Don’t write terribly. You can write well and you can write badly. You can even write good or bad. Hopefully, you’re writing is excellent. But, please, don’t let it be terrible. If you can neither spell nor spell-check, then maybe this isn’t right for you. If you don’t know how to capitalize or where a period goes, then maybe this isn’t right for you. It’s not that perfection is a must, it’s just that your grammatical/typographical errors to coherent thought ratio has to be better than 10:1. And, hey, there’s always podcasting, so don’t feel too bad.

2. My other rule comes from Smay’s “Ten Tips for New Bloggers”:

Do not delete posts – There will come a time when you post something to your blog and later wish you hadn’t. It’s tempting to just delete the post. Don’t. The fact is you did write it and you did post it. Deleting it doesn’t change that and it’s almost surely cached somewhere. Pulling it is dishonest or unethical. A better approach is to do a follow-up post and say that you were wrong…or hasty…or misinformed. Or you just changed your mind about what you wrote. All okay. Deleting posts is considered very bad form and you’ll catch a lot of grief for doing it.

For example, you can try your hand at a clever and humorous post with clearly homophobic undertones if that’s what strikes your fancy. It’s a free world. And, when you start to recieve sharp criticsm of that post, you can write a follow-up post recanting your homophobic thoughts if that’s what you really want to do. But, please, don’t delete the original post and comments because you can’t handle the criticism. And, when you end up deleting your follow-up post as well, that’s just lame. Beyond lame. You have no credibility left whatsoever. Go away. Please.

According to the New York Times, Universal Music Group will launch a music service to compete with the likes of iTunes. Customers will be able to download songs from the Universal catalog at no cost. Sure, it’s 99 cents less than iTunes. But, it’ll be in WMA format, you won’t be able to make copies of what you download, and you’ll have to wade through advertisements to get to the song.

Apple’s iTunes is not exactly an unrrestrictive model for music consumption. But, you know, I think it works. I like the device itself. The iPod works very well for me. And, more importantly, iTunes works. Sure, I could find a “better” mp3 player. I could figure out ways to break the DRM so I could share music between players and services. iTunes gives me most of what I want, so I’m content (at the moment, anyway) to be subject to their proprietary restrictions. What I want to do is listen to music–and iTunes lets me do that. Of course, their domination of the market doesn’t allow for a whole lot of other options.

Hopefully, at some point, competition will lead to something better for the consumer. We’ll be able to listen to the songs we want, when we want, and where we want. And, the artists will still get paid. We’ll be able to get music from a variety of sources and they’ll play on a variety of devices. Until then, I’m pretty comfortable with my setup.

With that being said, I’ve decided to give emusic a try. It seems like a no-brainer. Packages start out at 40 songs/month for $9.99. I don’t have a whole lot of money to spend on music, so this would allow me to get more music than I’m getting now. There aren’t the DRM restrictions on their downloads as elsewhere. And, even though that has frightened off some major labels, my music tends to run towards the smaller labels anyway. As long as I can play all of my music on one device, my loyalty to a particular service is up for grabs.

If I’ve got earbuds in my ear, it means that I’m occupied. They are headphones through which some sort of audio is being piped through for my enjoyment. It means that if you’re trying to talk to me, then I won’t be able to hear you. Why is that so difficult for people to understand?

If I had big headphones that covered my ears completely, surely people wouldn’t be trying to have conversations with me on the elevator. Maybe it’s unfamiliarity with the technology. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem that confusing to me. Why else would I have wires coming out of my ears?

If I was having a conversation on a cell phone, you wouldn’t be trying to talk to me. You’d consider it rude to interrupt with your own words. Let me tell you, it’s rude when you interrupt me and Elvis Mitchell.

If it’s important, get my attention and I’ll press pause or take the earbuds out of my ears. But, if it’s just small talk, then get a clue. Your lips are moving, but I’m not processing anything. I hope you’re not saying anything important. You probably aren’t.

NewsOK has just launched a site, The Pass, for their OU & OSU sports coverage. The site will offer “podcasts, blogs, instant updates and opportunities for readers to weigh in on” OU and OSU.

I wouldn’t know.

When I click on the link to “read more about The Pass” I’m taken to the login screen where I’m required to either get a 7-day subscription or pay $7.00/month. I’m not yet ready to pay for any of their coverage. (What, no free trial? Or, did they have one and I missed it?)

The sports people over at NewsOK have attempted to integrate blogging into their coverage before. Mostly it’s been coverage of live games…which doesn’t work well in the blog format. Every ten minutes a new post appears with the updated score, time remaining, and a few observations. I can get this information and much more, in a much better format, on any number of other sports sites (like here or here). Sports blogging can really work, but not on a minute by minute basis.

I’d be curious to see how this site ends up working. But, I’m certainly not going to pay $7/month to find out. I quit reading Maureen Dowd once the New York Times launched their Times Select. Damnit, I want my internet to be free! I’ll get my OU coverage elsewhere.

UPDATE: I received an e-mail message this morning from NewsOK offering up this new service. The message also stated that “every member of the The Pass gets their own blog to rant and rave about their favorite team.” OU fans blog-arguing with OSU fans. I can’t wait. And, it would only cost me $7/month.

Before, we could use the mnemonic device My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (or some variation) to help us remember the names of the nine planets.

Now that Pluto is no longer a planet, what mnemonic device will you use to remember the names of the eight planets?