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.

None of my flights were spectacular. On one of them I talked to the man next to me about Cormac McCarthy for about 20 minutes, then spoke no more. On another, I sat beside a sweet Muslim couple, and saw how tender and loving they were to one another, all the while noticing a few stray eyes lingering in their direction.

It was not until I actually began my travel to the interview in D.C. that I met the people who would inspire me to positivity. On the crowded metro, I moved my bag for an older gentleman to sit down. He immediately struck up a conversation, asking me about my business there and wishing me luck on my interview. He was kind, unassuming. He told me about visiting his only grandchildren in D.C. every few weeks, about his retirement from the airlines and his life back in sunny Tucson. In short, he distracted me. He never made me tell more than I wanted to, and instead let me share in his own personal joy for our 15 minute shared ride. I do believe he did this intentionally. When I would stare off or seem distracted, he changed the subject or asked me random questions. He shared his own son’s fears of finding a new job, he helped me relax.

When he got off the metro, I was smiling, relaxed and inspired to keep the positivity going. I found my stop and my building not much later, with an hour and a half left for lunch. I stopped at the only place close: a crowded restaurant/bar with a Mexican theme. I was stuck at the bar, and began voraciously pouring through my prepared material. I was questioning my preparedness, fearing that I had wasted my time and money. Then I met Max.

Max came into the restaurant and immediately went to the bar. The bartender knew his order, so I knew he had to be local. I started judging him immediately. What kind of guy comes to a bar at lunch so often the waiter knows his drink? Then, he broke my thought by talking to me. He asked what my business was, and told me he worked at the Library of Congress. After a short discussion on his job, my potential job and the Library’s acquisition of the Twitter archives, our conversation turned towards the bigger picture. In his discussion of the Library he mentioned a study of oral history, of the Library’s attempt to record true American stories from everyday people. He insisted it was a brilliant plan, and upon thinking of some of the more interesting people I know (my father, for one) I agreed. We spent the rest of the hour agreeing that everyone has a story worth hearing, and that we each should strive to find those stories, to help them live in a new mind.

I hated to part ways with him. I have since fought the belief that creeps into my mind that fate put him there for a reason. To calm me down, to inspire me or to give me something to write about again. I try to tell myself, even as of this writing that he was just there for his daily screwdriver, but I just don’t believe that. Sometimes we are destined to meet certain people, to learn from them or to teach them. My assurance of came on my way home.

In Reagan Airport, after my interview (which I still think went pretty well, if not spectacularly) I sat at my gate thinking about the man from Tucson, and about Max. I watched a bird hop around on the floor, and smiled. I’ve always found humor at birds indoors, something about perseverance and hope maybe. My thoughts were broken by a man’s approach, a man looking for a seat. He stood there, in full Army fatigues, not looking directly at anyone, and obviously expecting to be ignored. I called to him as he walked away, and offered him the seat my bag was in.

I am a radical anti-war, hippie child. I come from a family of intense military men that often walk the line between hero and Great Santini, but I’ve never seen the use in shunning a soldier. I don’t agree with what they do, but god do I respect what they are willing to do for what they believe. I won’t share our conversation, I feel that was intended solely for me. I’ll share that he was returning home from his second tour of duty to his wife and two year old son. He had been in Northern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. He was obviously nervous, tired of traveling and weird looks. I thought of Max, and of my chance to do for this soldier what he had done for me. I distracted him, I got his story, and I shared mine. I nearly floored him when I reminded him that his son, who he remembered as a tiny baby, would now be able to walk to greet him.

We discussed life, parenting and family. We talked of war, media and the fall of Rome. We talked of everything and nothing, but when we got up to board the plane, I looked back at him. He was smiling, ready for his final flight to go home. And I was smiling too, ready to go home, good news or bad, and try to approach everyday as a thing of potential beauty.

Since then I’ve been constantly sick, back to working too much and haven’t had any advancement in the job search. But I’ve been more positive, more hopeful and more happy with myself where I am and as I am. Hopefully, if all else fails, these lessons will remain.

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.

The thought first cropped up when I was reading a personal essay by a vegetarian discussing whether or not she dates non-vegetarians. She went through a series of relationships, and discussed how the issues of dating an omnivore, a vegan, etc affected their relationship. Overall her theme was, if you want to be accepted, accept that in others (i.e. eating meat) in others and see their reasons for it.

The comments were mostly other vegetarians sharing their similar experiences with relationships, or just some inspired people excited by her extremely positive outlook. One man, however, posted a hateful comment about accepting those who do something you admittedly despise. He made some good points but in a very hateful way. The author argued with him a bit in the comments before deciding to simply accept (maybe tolerate?) the man himself.

And, of course, my immediate idea was to call him a jerk and move on. After thinking about it, two more thoughts came along. Why should this guy be held to some standard of acceptance and tolerance just because he works in animal rights? Why does the idea that someone is progressive have to mean he is a good person, an accepting person? We’re all human. He can have anger. It would be sad if all activists, progressives or people were the same or even very similar. He has a right to be different and a right to be angry. There are good Republicans, Christians, Muslims, Anglos, what have you. And there are bad ones. So of course, an angry progressive is possible…and really, pretty healthy.

My second thought was a little more negative, but then again we all have those thoughts from time to time. It ran through my mind that, he’s right. If he (and the author) believe killing animals for food is wrong, why accept such behavior in the person you love most? I wouldn’t accept a racist, because I believe that’s wrong (a point I believe he actually made). Its one of those thoughts that is hard to deal with. We want to be accepting, but we have to stand by a view, even if it is not the majority view.

Overall, I’m glad this commentor believed so strongly in something like animal rights that he was willing to fight so hard for it. I was ecstatic to see a different representation of a progressive activist. I’ve met some rude, even hateful activists in my life, and it is only fair to represent our movements as having that kind of zealot.

And really, I was very happy to see the overwhelming response to this poster as being one of outrage mixed with acceptance. This is a great example of tolerance. Tolerate him, accept him, and just move on with the movement as you see fit. It was inspiring to see so many activists who believe he was wrong in his view – but more than welcome to it.

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.

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.

In my experience, there are certain major fears that rise again and again in the minds of those less-inclined to support progressive movements. There are dozens of these fears, and certainly they vary with each individual and area. Many people are just tired of being asked for money. Some people hate the term “progressive” in itself. But one of the biggest issues for the opposition, especially with the environmental movement, is a fear of regulation’s effect on jobs and lifestyle.

This is the first issue to address for Environment Indiana. Anyone who holds this fear holds a fear of the group itself, and cannot be reached until we alleviate their distrust.

The fear of a fallout from regulation can be dealt with in much the same way as any problem at the heart of someone’s distrust of the progressive environmental movement. Environment Indiana must reach out in a personal manner, and must show some cohesion in goals. Basically, Environment Indiana must reach out through personalization and patriotism.

It is difficult to argue that increased regulation or EPA standards does not cost business more – money they can save by moving operations overseas. In answering this fear, dodging the issue of cost will only empower the opposition to distrust us more. If it costs more, be honest. Do not immediately jump into blaming the business for moving overseas. This will only come off as an attack on capitalism.

What Environment Indiana must do is instead focus on the goals of this regulation.  In short, get personal. If Environment Indiana is canvassing at a mall, they must speak to their potential signatories like friends. It seems easy. It is the first rule of signature-gathering, but it goes much further than being polite.

It means seeing a mother pushing a stroller and politely stopping her to have a conversation about pollution in the local stretch of the Ohio River. How does this problem affect her family? How will this regulation solve this problem of which she may not even be aware? It does not mean telling the mother that Indiana water is 11 percent higher than the national total in toxic water according to the EPA. Statistics are great for signs and reports, but they are not personal. It means talking to her about how a new budget with a proposed $5 million program for cleaning up the stretch of river will result in cleaner water to mix with her child’s milk.

While you are talking to this mother, be proud of Indiana. It may not have a lot of green space, but it is your green space, and it is hers too. Patriotism is missing in much of the progressive movements I have been around.  That is the basis of the distaste for the progressive label. What’s wrong with our country (or state)? Who hates us so much they want to change us?

Talking about all the drastic changes and problems turns people off in the most basic way. It is an insult to their way of life, and honestly its a drag that people don’t want to think about. These are basic self-preservation tactics in people and should not be under attack. Instead, a successful progressive must show the love the movement intends. It isn’t that Indiana’s stretch of the Ohio is so much less amazing than Ohio’s portion or (even worse) some river in France. It means Indiana, and the baby in the stroller deserve more.

The opposition I have experienced most in my life revolves around my being painted as the enemy. I’m making fun of someone’s way of life, judging it and finding it lacking. It doesn’t matter that my demeanor has never intended this, but it is the vibe “special interests” give off far too often.  Instead, I’ve learned to talk to each person as just that, an individual person. I’ve learned to assert my movements as public interest, not special interests.

Don’t keep lists of facts you rattle off, because odds are the person you are talking to right now does not care or cannot adequately picture those numbers. It sounds simple but talking to them in their (for lack of a better word) language has made all the difference.  Being able to tailor your pitch to an individual is key. If they are wearing a flag t-shirt, they care about their country, so tell them how they can help it. If their son is a boy scout, tell them about his earning his fishing badge in infested waters. These things matter, even to the least progressive person in the world.

Environment Indiana must find what matters most and use that to fight the seeds of distrust in potential supporters. Through personalization and patriotism, you win the trust and acceptance of those you wish to support you. This idea of positivity and concentration on story over facts can work well in social media, hand outs or in person, creating a cohesive message for any level of activism.

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…

1. For James Cameron, there is no such thing as subtlety. I agree with every point about imperialism, war and terrorism he wants to make with the film. I love that he’s bringing a pro-environment message to the masses and MAKING them like it. Overall, he has a good point with the film. It may just be me, however, but I’d rather come to the conclusion about what the movie “is saying” myself, instead of having Cameron beat me over the head with the message throughout the film. He even has his big-bad soldier enemy discuss “fighting terror with terror.” Ever since Cameron had his bad guy drive a car through a wall to make an entrance (Terminator) he has forgotten all about what subtlety even means.

2. Let’s face it, the whole movie is racist. I know that (spoiler alert if you are one of two people who still haven’t seen it) the natives win in the end, but that doesn’t make this film’s plot acceptable. It is, in its simplest form, what is called a “going native” story. Think Dances with Wolves, but with a fake race instead of Native Americans. The plot revolves around the chosen white man coming to Pandora to inadvertently – with no training and no experience – save these oppressed people. He “becomes” one of them through a fast-tracked ritual and is suddenly better than every one of them, and more important to the people’s history. The enemy is the white man, but they can only be defeated by a white man, the rest of “the people” just aren’t good enough.

3. The acting is awful. Just horrible. The script isn’t well written, so you have cheesy speeches like the aforementioned “fighting terror with terror” that no actor could salvage. And just taking two of main actors from big summer epics (Star Trek‘s Zoe Saldana and Terminator Salvation‘s Sam Worthington) doesn’t mean you’ve found great actors. If you saw this movie and just listened, you’d know how horrible the script really was.

4. Pandora isn’t that original. So much praise has been heaped on this beautiful world the film created, something so new and original. This is a complaint I have with much sci-fi, as much as I love the genre. Cameron has no thought for true originality. Instead he takes mountains – and makes them float. Jungle cats – but they look oily. Birds – with FOUR wings. Really, it gets old. Making things shiny, double sized or acid-trippy colors does not constitute originality. So don’t call it that.

5. How lame is it that they are mining for “Unobtainium?” Really, I know I said he lacks subtlety but this one even amazed me.

6. There were so many better choices for this award. I know its a matter of taste and that every year you can find many more films deserving of awards than the winner, but there’s no reason to give full-on awards to what are basically technical masterpieces. I love Lord of the Rings, but even I was upset when it beat out the beautiful and well-done Mystic River in 2004. Give it the awards it deserves for art direction, costume or whatever, but leave the actual awards to thought-provoking affairs like The Hurt Locker.

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…

My Story

To make it simple, yesterday I woke up on my third or fourth day of Charter. Like most days I immediately grabbed my computer, ready for my morning routine of emails, Facebook, New York Times, etc. Then, horror of horrors, the Internet wouldn’t load. It was slow, lethargic even. It was back to the days of dial-up speed, something I haven’t experienced in years.

Now, let me add here how much you discover about your technology habits when you have something like slow Internet or a power outage. While the boys of the house were screaming about Xbox Live not loading, I had continuous problems letting one page slowly load at a time. I kept opening more tabs, clicking on links and the like. I’m a multi-tasker, I feel like I’m procrastinating if I only do one thing at a time, and high-speed internet feeds this.

Back to the story. When I realized the problem was with the Internet service, I used some valuable loading time to get Twitter up, where I posted a Tweet about Charter’s failure. Within minutes, I had a tech from Umatter2Charter respond offering help. At first I feared a bot, but then realized after looking at the very professional, well-linked profile it was real.

I gave the matter time, then posted an entry about teaching my roommates how to get customer service through Twitter. Two more responses came from the Charter team. I then opened a dialogue with direct messages and Tweets (which you can see at the bottom of this post) where they walked me through some basic support help. They asked for a speed test, the hilarious “results” of which you can see below:

The speed test, which somehow resulted in all 0's.

A reboot followed, and when I couldn’t respond within 15 minutes (the Internet had finally quit entirely) my roommate received a call from their customer support team. Short story, we have Internet service back up today.

How Social Media Saved the Day (for surfing)

So, how does Twitter turn a company known all over town into a respectable customer service-focused business? Ok, of course there is some irony in having to use the Internet to tell my Internet service provider about my problem with the Internet, but still, I can’t let the irony get in the way of results.

Charter used Twitter to give itself a face, to let me see the names and faces of the men willing to help. They empower them to seek out people, instead of making us look up service numbers, wait on hold and then talk to a possibly-automated customer-service nightmare. No outsourcing, no “press 1 for X” dial systems that are hard to use on touch-screen smart phones and no hassle to me, the customer.

Instead, all I had to do was complain on Twitter, share my problem, and receive help unrequited. I may not be blown out of the water by Charter programs and prices, but I have never had a more seamless customer service experience, and thats after working in the field for three years myself.

Social media is a field ripe for experiment. Any company willing to explore this new realm to announce their products, work up some frenzy or simply assist their customers through a problem will reap the benefits of happy customers willing to write up blog posts and tell their friends about their experience. Social media, even something as seemingly inane as Twitter cannot be ignored as a flash in the pan. You have a potential audience of millions, and whether you are a newspaper looking to get eyes on the page or the big-bad monopoly trying to change your public image, you can’t ignore the water-cooler, even if it has a funny little blue bird as a mascot.

I complain and discuss my Internet issues. Also, I make small talk

My answers come, as well as some interest in what's going on

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….

First, I keep looking at all the links. Essentially everyone is linking to either the original list or one of the three catch-up pages, but everyone has a different short link. Bitly, Tinyurl and so many more I had never used are sites that shorten links to make them easier to share on a site like Twitter or Facebook. The fact that they are all different points to each person opening the site, then copy and pasting the url into their favorite shortening site. And frankly, it is interesting to see the entire community of sites open up specifically for the purpose of shortening URLs for Twitter and other micro blogging sites. The future lies in seeing a need and taking it on.

Second, I’m just so excited to see a gay topic stay so positive and popular. It is really just one of those crazy Internet thing where something small totally explodes into a meme for awhile. And it just so happens to be gay-themed. I know the Internet isn’t an exact representation of the world, but there is some hope in the positivity of this movement.

Third, what most interested me is the fact that so many people (read the celebrities) still did the “RT” followed by a tweet from someone else. Twitter recently changed the retweeting policy (which previously was left up to each tweeter) by adding a button you click to retweet. This way, the original poster shows up in your followers’ streams where your post would have. This combats some of the earlier difficulty in retweeting statements with an “I” statement. Still, tweeters still choose the more established “RT” most likely because it is still the more recognizable form of a retweet.

Finally, the site itself, AfterElton, exploded thanks to the Tweets. In their victory announcement they discussed the more than 80,000 new users that registered thanks to the poll. And while it was for a rather silly point, the site, which does so much to increase gay awareness now has a much larger audience – the goal of any web site. Stupid buzz equals real eyes, and eyes that will return to the site once they see the work put into it.

So many lessons from such a s mall poll.  You can never underestimate the power of the internet to take something inane and make it groundbreaking.

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

According to Mr. Justice Eady of the High Court, comments from online bulletin boards cannot be taken as seriously as those of formal newspapers or publications.

These posts “are rather like contributions to a casual conversation (the analogy sometimes being drawn with people chatting in a bar) which people simply note before moving on; they are often uninhibited, casual and ill thought out…Those who participate know this and expect a certain amount of repartee or ‘give and take,” Eady said.

So, English law recognizes that Internet conversation, in chat rooms and a likely extension to commenting, is casual and not thought out. English law, therefore, recognizes, as I have previously discussed, that the Internet encourages writing without forethought, and that there is some difference between posting and writing.

An interesting topic I’ll have to think about some more.

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.

At one time, Bridges spent a month in South Africa,  taking photographs of the country in the days surrounding the release of future President  Nelson Mandela from prison. Not 15 years later, Bridges saw the photo department shrink, as less money was available to spend on trips like his. Writers were now given cameras, and few saw a difference between a photographer and a writer who takes photos. Bridges left the AJC when he no longer believed they were respecting the craft. He saw the AJC falter as it lagged behind the technological advances of the decade, instead of taking the initiative to make the online transition.

According to my photography professor Mark Johnson, most photographers must now make their own way to the countries they want to photograph, and sell off their pictures piece by piece. It is a hard lifestyle. It is expensive, and hardly ever pays off.

But it is important. After doing a few long-term studies on photographs in newspapers, I’m convinced nothing can survive without the images to which we’ve become accustomed. Photos online used to be small, and low resolution. And yes, many sites still have these settings. Photographers must keep in mind how an image looks online and how it will load.

Things are changing. More and more people have high speed internet. And while papers must keep in mind how something loads on the fastest servers and bigger screens, they also have to think of iPhones and Blackberries.

And yet, there are some photographers still working out there. They are still standing there, on the edge of danger, making sure we back home have the all-important image of that moment – that exact time where the action happens, no matter the danger.

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.

The goal will be to see what people take out of what we present to each other through our updates and posts. I think this will be good information to have when I begin working for an organization in social media. It has occurred to me many times that newspapers and other organizations do not think through what they post, especially on Facebook and Twitter.

I chose to use Tumblr because it was one site with which I had very little experience, so this kills two birds with one stone. Updates to come soon.