Confusion regarding material in phpmyadmin backup

I just did a phpmyadmin backup of my database. I opened my downloaded file to investigate it and found a ridiculously huge section of what looks to be Dashboard announcements and WordPress Development Blog posts and comments in the file. This material is being inserted into the wp-options table, or so it appears. My blog is only about two weeks old and has 29 posts and 67 comments but the wp-options table is reporting 151.6 KB 34,100 Bytes. Is this because of this filer material? Why is this in my database? I’m confused, and am probably misunderstanding this, so if someone can straighten this out I would appreciate it. Here’s an example of what I found in my database back-up file:

“description”;s:1453:”\nLast night, I had a dream where I was visiting somebody else”s house (I don”t know who, and apparently it wasn”t important). On a small table were some leather-bound books. As I examined them, one stood out, partly because it was slightly larger than the rest, and also because the binding was a little different. I realized that the owner of the house had created the book cover by hand (a hobby of his, I guessed).\n\n\nWhen I examined it more closely, I saw that it had a title something like “The Essence of Romance” or words to that effect. And then I realized that it wasn”t actually a book at all. When I picked it up and opened it, I found that the inside actually contained a pocket on each side, stuffed with smaller articles. It was mainly pocket-sized books of poetry, but also I recall a silver flask of brandy or cognac, and a few other knicknacks (candles and matches?).\n\n\nI”m not sure where that idea came from (especially since the other pieces of dreams that I remember from last night had no relation), but it stuck out in my mind after I woke up. That item just seems like a really cool idea, like something that James Bond would have on his bookshelf when wooing some female enemy agent. Except that his version would include knockout pills to slip in to her drink and a hidden miniature laser gun.\n\n\nAnyhow, if anybody ever sees anything like this in the future, just remember that I thought of it first!\n”;s:7:”pubdate”;s:31:”Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:52:53 +0000″;s:7:”summary”;s:1453:”\nLast night, I had a dream where I was visiting somebody else”s house (I don”t know who, and apparently it wasn”t important). On a small table were some leather-bound books. As I examined them, one stood out, partly because it was slightly larger than the rest, and also because the binding was a little different. I realized that the owner of the house had created the book cover by hand (a hobby of his, I guessed).\n\n\nWhen I examined it more closely, I saw that it had a title something like “The Essence of Romance” or words to that effect. And then I realized that it wasn”t actually a book at all. When I picked it up and opened it, I found that the inside actually contained a pocket on each side, stuffed with smaller articles. It was mainly pocket-sized books of poetry, but also I recall a silver flask of brandy or cognac, and a few other knicknacks (candles and matches?).\n\n\nI”m not sure where that idea came from (especially since the other pieces of dreams that I remember from last night had no relation), but it stuck out in my mind after I woke up. That item just seems like a really cool idea, like something that James Bond would have on his bookshelf when wooing some female enemy agent. Except that his version would include knockout pills to slip in to her drink and a hidden miniature laser gun.\n\n\nAnyhow, if anybody ever sees anything like this in the future, just remember that I thought of it first!\n”;}i:18;a:6:{s:5:”title”;s:43:”Owen Winkler: Atom Syndication Format