Inspiration: Its Been Awhile

I haven’t felt very inspired to write lately. I’m still looking for a serious job that I want to really put myself into, and its getting hard to look at the positive things in everyday life. I’ve known a great deal of people who have graduated recently and found themselves in similar situations: well trained, ready to go and fighting depression.

Last week, however, I had one of those days where everything goes not only well, but so well it makes you wonder what it all means. I was traveling (four flights in one day) to Washington D.C. for a job interview. I was nervous, since I was basically spending a few hundred dollars on a chance at a job I may not even get. I’m still waiting for them to get back to me.

But in this trip, I had a few good signs, met some amazing people who helped me see what I keep losing so much: the joy in everyday life.

Acceptance and Tolerance

My boyfriend hates the word “tolerance.” For him, it implies the thought of putting up with someone, not truly accepting them. I’m not so picky. In fact, I’m not as touchy as a number of well-voiced activists or pundits.

I could make some sort of Palin-”retarded” joke, or point out any of PETA’s go-so-far-people-lose-respect initiatives, but those involve publicity, and reasons for being picky towards certain actions.

But intolerance, and really, a kind of picky sensitivity has been on my mind recently.

New App

I have been absent from my blog for a time as I have been thinking about direction, for both myself and the site.

Just yesterday, however, I finally upgraded to a smart phone, a Droid Eris. Now I’ll see just how tech savvy I really can be. Hopefully I’ll be back to posting more now that I can write and update as the thoughts hit me.

On Expanding the Progressive Movement

This is an essay I wrote for a job I hope to get. The topic is how to expand the progressive movement to those who do not currently trust any “special interests.”

I have grown up in a nation plagued with partisan politics. My two-party nation is creating a two-party society, a country of us vs. them. While this is a generalization, it is a trend that is impossible to ignore.

The best way to respond to this mentality is to diagnose it. We must ask of our opponents, what is the person battling, and why do they oppose it. In short, any organization, Environment Indiana for example, must recognize their opposition not only in name but in beliefs. Environment Indiana must realize the fears that build the distrust of their opposition. Once the fears are realized, we can successfully begin a campaign based on those fears, and find answers to them.

Discovering them should be easy. It is what they say under their breath as they walk away from signature gatherers in the mall.  It is what you overhear on the bus to work between an angry man and his friend. It is all over Fox News. The fears are easy to find, but their responses must be subtle, and must be honest.

Avatar: Popularity and Awards

Last night, I watched the Golden Globe Awards…or at least the last half. I was surprised when Avatar, the $492 million epic by Titanic’s James Cameron won best director, and horrified when the film itself won best motion picture – drama.

There are a myriad of reasons I think Avatar is one of, if not the most overrated film of all time, which I will list below. But first, its interesting to discuss what this means for Hollywood – and filmmaking in general. Avatar is beyond popular. It is cruising quickly to become the highest-grossing movie of all time, and even now, almost two months after its release date, it stands at number one in the box office.

Only one of its competitors came even close to making a quarter of Avatar’s money (Inglorious Basterds made over $120 million), while the other three (The Hurt Locker, Precious and Up in the Air) instead roamed in the lower ranges like most critically acclaimed films.

To make it short, in my unschooled estimate, Avatar was simply too-big to ignore. Awards shows have long been trying to gain audience by choosing crowd-pleasers over more critically acclaimed films (Crash winning the Oscar over Brokeback Mountain comes to mind), and Avatar is a good way to do that. Regardless of its (many) flaws, Avatar is and will continue to be a turning point for major motion pictures. Audiences like it, its making loads of money, and award shows know a chance of an Avatar sweep will make their historically-ignored shows watchable.

But there are many reasons to be disgusted that Avatar won last night. I’ll list them after the jump…

Twitter and Customer Service

One of my big interests as of late has been social media as a format for social movements.  Just this morning as I wrote my first Tweet of the day, I noticed a strange trending topic (Yele) which turned out to be musician Wyclef Jean’s chosen word to text to donate to Haitian earthquake relief. Social movements and services on Twitter are exploding everyday. I even categorized some of the different services Tweets can offer/receive in my portfolio.

So after many successful experiments and a good eye for a Twitter moment, I immediately took to Twitter yesterday when my Internet wasn’t working properly. Some background: after a year and a half living in an apartment with AT&T wireless Internet, I moved in with a friend to stay off-lease so I can move when I eventually get a big-people job. He has Charter for his Internet/cable. In Athens, Ga. where we live, Charter is the big-bad Internet monopoly. It fails often and hard, and has a history of bad customer service among UGA students. But I discovered yesterday they are attempting to alter their reputation in our small town with their very up-to-date customer service on Twitter.

Read the story after the jump…

Some Thoughts on Retweets and Homosexuality

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been consumed by moving, working over time, and trying to get a sub-leaser. In between that, I’ve been applying for jobs.

And in all of this where I have an ever growing list of concerns, distractions and to-do lists, I am most distracted by a celebrity war on Twitter being called the #biggaybattle.

It all started with Gay-Pop Culture watch site AfterElton.com’s Gay Man of the Decade Poll.  Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mohter, Doogie Howser) later posted a short Tweet about throwing votes his way, which resulted in an all out Twitter war between NPH supporters and those supporting UK candidate John Borrowman (Torchwood).

After Elton did a good job of recapping the situation here, here.

I came upon all of this when my Twitter-God Neil Gaiman mentioned it this morning. He even gave it the hashtag that continues. So you have celebrity battles, gay movements and Internet activism all rolled into one big event totally distracting me from job applications. But it is giving me some good thoughts….

English Libel

In one of my last classes (ever), the great professor Fink discussed an issue raised by the new form of online-heavy journalism I had not previously thought about: libel law.

In the United Kingdom, anything published (even something online, written in a different country) is subject to libel laws. We discussed this in our class in the guise of preparing yourself for writing for the web. Professor Fink’s main point was in avoiding something that could libel someone in the UK and leave you susceptible to the harsh UK libel laws.

While looking into English libel law further this morning, I noticed an interesting 2009 update: defamation on Internet bulletin boards is treated like slander, not libel. Now, that doesn’t really make a lot of difference legally, except that slander is brought up in court less than libel, but it is an interesting label.

Explanation after the jump

Great Photography Lives

Looking through the Boston Herald’s three-part series on the best news photos of 2009 has me thinking about news photography.

Like most people, I fancy myself a photographer. I’m not too great, but I have a good eye. With training I’ll be quite solid. And as an editor, I find that most people see themselves the same way. Almost everyone wants to be a photographer, or already sees believes they are one.

But as less and less money is available and more papers are closing, times are especially rough for photographers. When I attended the McGill Fellowship Symposium, we were visited by former Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographer W.A. Bridges, Jr.  discussed how dramatically the field changed while he was working.

My New Experiment

This week I have begun a new experiment online. The goal is to study how we present ourselves by the links and stories we share.  In order to do this, I have created a Tumblr account where I post one link a day everyday. In a few months, I will present the site to a group of individuals who do not know me who will detail what views they have of the writer from the posts and links.

I plan to use my former web writing teacher’s next class for the experiment. Some time near the beginning of next semester, after her students have the basics, I’ll ask if 20 or so minutes can be dedicated to looking through my experiment, brainstorming words that come to mind and writing up their thoughts.