Dig the Chaos Baby!

Working for the DNA has been great so far the one thing that gets me is writing. Not the worst problem but it is a little embarrassing when your a Journalism major. My boss told me to have an"off the cuff style" to "help me find my voice". Good advice to be sure but, I did have my own reaction to it. "Man I've been writing on a blog years now and I still haven't found my voice." We both had a laugh over my statement but, it is true. I've been doing this blog for some time now and I still don't have a theme to it. I guess you could say, what ever jumps into my head, is the theme, that really doesn't help me though. I've had a few ideas here and there but I never really got around to them because of college. It goes into my college has consumed too many years of life rant but that is something I'll talk about again in another post.

I wrote a little about the forth of July and the reporter who stopped by asking for stories. it was an okay post I think I can do better. I need to put something in about how there is not going to be a fireworks show in Elgin this year. I guess everyone is going to have to go somewhere else or, head up to Wisconsin and sneak some back. I think I might just go to Chicago myself this year. I have never done it before and I HAVE to see the 4th of July fireworks there. The 4th of July parade will take up my time in the morning but I will be on the first train to Chicago the minute it's done.

Recently I took a personality online, and for some reason I can;' stop thinking about it. I got sucked into the crazy Facebook quizzes that keep popping up in the news feed. Apparently everyone I've ever friended on Facebook has very little time to take care of themselves and needs to find out what Twilight character they really are or what their secret fetish is. I myself have tried not taking these quizzes but I when caved and tried one. Apparently the real color of my heart is black and the spaceship Captain I most is Admiral Adama.

The one that for some reason captivates me the most is the one where I find my D&D alignment. Apparently I'm True Neutral, so I make it a point to never take sides. Ever since I took this quiz all I can do now is look at the world in alignments. I see people throughout history and start categorizing them Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good. I did like what it said about neutral people.

You are Neutral. You are Undecided.

Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has a normal respect for authority and feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel. She is honest but can be tempted into lying or deceiving others.

People who are neutral with respect to good and evil have compunctions against killing the innocent but lack the commitment to make sacrifices to protect or help others. Neutral people are committed to others by personal relationships.


A neutral person or roleplaying character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos.

Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil -- after all, she would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, she's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way.

Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.

Neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion.

Having never played the game I only have a basic understanding of how fits into the game. I do like the questions of morality it imposes and the way it shows how people think and see life. The lawful good person who will always by the rules and make sure to what right at all times. He's always seen as being too good but people rely on him since he can trusted. Then there's the chaotic neutral person who totally unpredictable. The free spirit you know who doesn't really have much responsibility but is really fun at parties.

I guess this is just a fad I'm thinking too much about but it really is fun. At least I'm not making this into a big report for a high school class. A blog is a lot less nerdier.

At the end of this of this last semester I realized I still have 14 more credits to go and the first that went was... FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK
Make no doubt about it I will 30 and I'm still going to college to for a Bachelors in Journalism. I should have graduated about 2 years ago along with friends who studying elsewhere. When I left the Marines I had friends who were studying full time. I was going to work full time and studying part time. I did this for the first two years after I left, until I realized it just wasn't going to work this way. I managed to finally get an Associates in Art (woohoo) and then attend NIU. This college isn't the best out there and it has that stigma that it's "close to home." This University isn't all crap and it has certain features that bring students.

I thought I was out of college out, and was pretty good timing. My GI Bill exhausted and my Illinois Veterans Grant getting dangerously low I could join the real world. That isn't the case though it seems now. I have to plow through some more credit hours and hang oout in Dekalb. The town that should be eternaly grateful that it has the University there. Let's face it barbed wire can only take you so far.

Despite this setback towards entering real life, I find myself optimistic. I can use this summer to get an internship which will help me in my career. I can get two minors out it, now one in Communications. I know a few people that have been laid off thanks to recession we're in and it makes a little glad to still be in college. If I had graduated two years earlier as was obsessing about before, I would be a victim of it. I would probably be getting laid off considering how bad things are in the news industry right now. Things should be on the rebound by the time I graduate in December and more places will hiring. At the very least offering internships that pay.

The very irony of it all is that I have a friend I made fun of for getting a Communications degree. He was going to grad school anyway for Public Administration, but it still means he won't let up on that. The other point of irony is how another friend of mine was complaining about how we have to meet a certain number of credit hours before we can graduate. He just wanted to learn his major and minor, then leave. I told him,"It would be irresponsible for a college to educate you one thing and not give you a well rounded sense the world."

Now that this is happening to me I say, "Screw the well rounded crap and let get out of here!"
Let's face it Univeristies want the same as any place that uses it. They may not be able to find there place in the future but that remains to be seen. That's a whole other ball wax but i think about from time to time.

Right it's all about making the most out this opportunity and making sure I can still learn something from my classes. Then once I graduate I can finally start reading the books I want to read.

I went up to Algonquin, loaded up on waaaaaay too much caffeine, and had a pretty good time. I was meeting other people at the Web 2.0 meet up group. Everyone there had some sort of job, or experience with Internet. There was even a woman there who was giving a presentation about social media.

A couple came all the way from Beloit, Wisconsin which I couldn't believe. I found it to be something of a breath of fresh air being able to talk to people about the Internet face to face. The man who started it all was a great guy who really wants to help people understand, and implement social media for their needs. He plans to make a meeting every month for people in the northwest suburbs. I plan to be there with a lot less caffeine in my system.

This was everything they should be teaching at college. I go to Northern Illinois University and right now the classes I've had are good but they don't really go into the progress the internet is making. There was one class which covered a lot but when you only have one class it still leaves a lot out. The rest of the classes have the internet in some way but I can't help but feel like the learning experience needs to do more students there.

Social media should be a required class for aspiring journalists, because this is where we are headed, make no mistake about it. I brought up the news a lot during the meeting, because it shares the same problem Youtube and Twitter have, profit. Figuring out the problem of one will more than likely help the problems with the other.

It seems that what the news industry needs to do is embrace what is happening and help develop new technologies. The captains of the news industry need to help bring the change of their own companies to the internet. They can't just blow it the way they have been doing it right now. Is it too late for newspapers? Maybe, maybe not, but if want to hang in there they not get help from social media. I like to be the optimist along with a few others and say they will still be around.

Editors & Publishers has posted all the gainers in the news print and web realm. The numbers are pretty good for the top five.

GREENWICH (CONN.) TIME -- 111,824 -- 30.74%
THE BIRMINGHAM (ALA.) NEWS -- 781,047 -- 11.85%
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE, NEW ORLEANS -- 820,374 -- 11.72%
WILKES-BARRE (PA.) TIMES LEADER -- 196,229 -- 10.45%
STATEN ISLAND (N.Y.) ADVANCE -- 397,412 -- 9.93%

The Greenwich Time makes me realize why it's up 30 percent considering it's the site. It seems to have a hard local focus. Even the national story of the site links swine flu back to local focus. It's telling how little attention there is to national and world news there is on the site. The most viewed and most emailed stories it has on the news page are local and statewide stories.

This is quite a boost to the people who have been pushing for hyperlocal news. These recent findings are great for Greenwich, Conn. Between first and second place there is an almost 20 percent drop. Why? Is it because of the culture of the town? Do people care more about what goes on their town more than anywhere else in America? It seems the paper has invested a lot in making sure their community knows about their paper and cares about what's going on. I just might call this newspaper to get more information from them.

Youtube, as many know by now, has added TV shows and movies to it's library, it's really bad. You would think that Youtube adding this would be great for everyone, but it really isn't. Why? They added shows no one wants to watch. What's Happening? TJ Hooker? Who wants to watch this? All they need now is put in the shows that lasted one or two seasons like, Studio 60 and SO NoTORIous, then it would complete.

The movie section really isn't that much better. All they did was put all the movies everybody waited to see on television or download. The only section that interests me out of either of them is the documentary section. For some reason Hulu put it in the 'News & Information' section. It doesn't make much sense since it's all pretty much documentaries. I guess online television still has a ways to go before it finally reaches something people will flock towards.

Since I brought up the subject of downloading I'd like to say this as well.

Can we please stop pretending?

After that movie reviewer got fired, doesn't this mean we should acknowledge what people are doing out there? People are not going to stop downloading. They are not going to stop looking up free TV shows online. I'm not the only one with gripes like this.

I sometimes feel bad about my plundering ways. Like many scofflaws, though, I blame the system. I wouldn't have to steal if Hollywood would only give me a decent online movie-streaming service.

Until Hollywood and the networks can do this you can bet people will keep going online to get there video fix. Megavideo and OVGuide will out perform the streaming content on the websites set up TV stations. That's a really sad fact for them.

Looking all around me I have very many positive signs for journalists. It makes me think about what advice I would give any student considering college.

Get a degree with something you actually need a degree for.

I hate sounding anti-education especially against my own major but lets face it. Things are changing so much it feels like you could get more out of certain blogs, research centers and books you get off of Amazon. If your really cheap you can just order them from you library then read them for free. I don't regret going to school or the time spent doing it. The one thing that does get me is how I just wish we talk about more about how the industry is changing.

I guess the solution is to become a professor make it a point never to teach out of text book.

Of course it may not matter by the time that happens I become a professor.

America's colleges and universities, says Wiley, have been acting as if what they offer — access to educational materials, a venue for socializing, the awarding of a credential — can't be obtained anywhere else. By and large, campus-based universities haven't been innovative, he says, because they've been a monopoly.

But Google, Facebook, free online access to university lectures, after-hours institutions such as the University of Phoenix, and virtual institutions such as Western Governors University have changed that. Many of today's students, he says, aren't satisfied with the old model that expects them to go to a lecture hall at a prescribed time and sit still while a professor talks for an hour.

Going to job fairs is a tough thing to do these days. I've been going to a few of them, and the signs there are not encouraging. The jobs just aren't there. Well, the job you want won't be there that's for sure. The lines there are the modern day bread lines of the 1930's.

Every booth there seems to repeat itself. The one booth you want to go to is the booth that is closed down. The jobs they have are as follows: insurance sales, financial planning, real estate and sales in general. You have to be careful when your just walking the floor because there's usually one networker who wants you to be in real estate. He wants you to do some sort of cold calling or Primerica-like job that reminds you why our economy ended up like this to begin with.

The lines are unbelievable but there isn't much choice. I have one coming up next week and I can only imagine the process that will happen there. Selling myself is something everyone in the room knows how to do. At what point do we get what we want?