Readers: The following is a glimpse into the mind of a soon to be college graduate.
I want to go to law school. No, no, that's not right. I want to go to grad school and get a master's in teaching. Wait, no, law school. Yeah, law school. No, no, I'm not passionate about that. I'm passionate about writing. I can do writing, that's not too hard. Yeah, I can get a master's in education, get my teaching certificate, then get an M.F.A. and teach adjunct at the college level. That can afford me the time to write and to talk about writing. But, wait. Am I good at writing? Would I be laughed at, told my work is horrible and that I should have just quit my sophomore year of college. Maybe I'm brilliant! No, no, I'm not brilliant. Maybe I'm subpar, that has to count for something, right? Yeah, I'm subpar. I can get by on subpar. Maybe. Hey, maybe I'll got back to Italy. I wonder how much flights are to Rome right now...
The following has been a brief glimpse into the mind of a soon to be college graduate. Please note that although it appears the mind has stopped talking above, it still goes on and on. It's talking right now, actually. It's thinking about moving to Europe and starting its own travel show to be broadcast on YouTube. Oh, no, wait, wait. It's back to the law school thing again. No, wait, now it's teaching. Teaching and joining the cast of Lost. I fear this mind will never make up its mind.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
"Mom, what's a home phone?"
I keep telling my mom to get rid of the home phone. My mom, dad and I all have our own cellphones and anyone who wants to reach us does so on our own phones. I tell her it's a waste of money, but she still clings on to the dinosaur equipment. Maybe she thinks it'll have a comeback.
While perusing a few news websites, I found this interesting segment from NPR about the decline of land line phones in households and the increase of households with only cell phones.
The "embed" link was not posted on the website, or I couldn't find it. Either way, you'll have to travel here to hear what I'm talking about: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105610844
So, after listening to the segment I asked myself: What implications does getting rid of home phones have for society?
Is it even a big deal, since home phones are being replaced with the same type of technology that does the same thing?
My answer: No. Replacing home phones with cellphones is not a big deal.
However, all the extras that come with cellphones-email, Internet, instant message and the 24/7 connectivity to the world-is a big deal.
I'll admit: Although I am against always being connected, I myself am always connected. I have a Blackberry Storm that goes on the Internet, checks my email, downloads word documents, checks the weather, news, you name it. And I honestly wouldn't give it up. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm afraid that if I surrender these new technologies, I will become as irrelevant as a home phone.
That's kind of a bleak statement, isn't it?
I hate always being connected to the world, always being on, but I feel that if I try to unplug from our technological society, the world will just go on without me.
A Grand Observation
We can't stop moving. Everybody will someday get rid of their home phone, television shows will be made in a garage in Indiana by some amateur comedian and a group of his friends and broadcast on YouTube, teaching will be done solely by computers, books will be museum items that people keep around as accents to decorate. and maybe everybody will work at home in front of their computers.
That's the future. It's unknown. It's scary to be be driving so fast down a dark street without the lights on. Nobody can see two feet in front of them. We can't even slow down to assess the repercussions of an impatient society that has all of humankind's knowledge at their fingertips. We just keep rolling on to a destination that is as vast as it is shrouded in mystery. It's not the safest way to drive. In fact, it's kind of dangerous.
What is good about this revolution is that it holds a lot of opportunity for creative, innovative thinkers to help guide us to the way we will communicate in the future. They will help us reinvent the ways in which we learn, teach, behave, speak to one another and live our lives.
The last frontier: Not space itself, but the limitations in the spaces created by humans.
-Alex
While perusing a few news websites, I found this interesting segment from NPR about the decline of land line phones in households and the increase of households with only cell phones.
The "embed" link was not posted on the website, or I couldn't find it. Either way, you'll have to travel here to hear what I'm talking about: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105610844
So, after listening to the segment I asked myself: What implications does getting rid of home phones have for society?
Is it even a big deal, since home phones are being replaced with the same type of technology that does the same thing?
My answer: No. Replacing home phones with cellphones is not a big deal.
However, all the extras that come with cellphones-email, Internet, instant message and the 24/7 connectivity to the world-is a big deal.
I'll admit: Although I am against always being connected, I myself am always connected. I have a Blackberry Storm that goes on the Internet, checks my email, downloads word documents, checks the weather, news, you name it. And I honestly wouldn't give it up. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm afraid that if I surrender these new technologies, I will become as irrelevant as a home phone.
That's kind of a bleak statement, isn't it?
I hate always being connected to the world, always being on, but I feel that if I try to unplug from our technological society, the world will just go on without me.
A Grand Observation
We can't stop moving. Everybody will someday get rid of their home phone, television shows will be made in a garage in Indiana by some amateur comedian and a group of his friends and broadcast on YouTube, teaching will be done solely by computers, books will be museum items that people keep around as accents to decorate. and maybe everybody will work at home in front of their computers.
That's the future. It's unknown. It's scary to be be driving so fast down a dark street without the lights on. Nobody can see two feet in front of them. We can't even slow down to assess the repercussions of an impatient society that has all of humankind's knowledge at their fingertips. We just keep rolling on to a destination that is as vast as it is shrouded in mystery. It's not the safest way to drive. In fact, it's kind of dangerous.
What is good about this revolution is that it holds a lot of opportunity for creative, innovative thinkers to help guide us to the way we will communicate in the future. They will help us reinvent the ways in which we learn, teach, behave, speak to one another and live our lives.
The last frontier: Not space itself, but the limitations in the spaces created by humans.
-Alex
Thursday, June 11, 2009
House of Cards
A good jump-in to this post: A story on NPR's One for the Books about the current state of books and the publishing industry.
In my meeting with Dana over the past couple weeks, we've had some insightful conversations about media in a digital, computerized aged. We've discussed blogs, podcasts, the Kindle, digital learning environments, handwriting, the death of books and the publishing industry and we've pondered the question: What's next for the written word, advertising and the craft of writing itself? What rewards do sticking with the publishing business-writing for magazines, newspapers, and print media in general-offer the 21st century writer?
Media writing is a interesting topic to look at as we undergo our current recession. I feel like many people-more specifically, people who still read those ancient tomes called newspapers-are just waiting for newspapers and magazines to fall. It's only a matter of time. So, with the slow death of newspapers spreading fast and wide to even our local newspapers, like the Nashua Telegraph, Concord Monitor and Boston Globe, I can't figure out what will become of daily newspapers and the advertisers that use them to push their products. Will the newspapers go to completely online content? Will the news companies be able to survive in a digital enviornment? Who will pay the writers? Will online newspaper sites be a lucrative enough feeding ground for the advertisers to pay the overhead costs of the website and the salaries of the newspaper's employees?
Another big question: If the online newspapers want to charge for content, who will buy it if they can go to WMUR.com, CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, the Economist or any other online news site and get the same information for free? Searching for something that might be able to help me answer my questions, I found another news item from NPR that tackles the issue. The story highlights how newspapers are transferring to online content and the many issues that are coming up with the idea of new digital media. Take a listen:
I think only time will answer my questions. As digital media changes and evolves over time, a more concise idea of online content will evolve. Whatever that looks like will remain a mystery until the eventual fall of paper media happens and these companies are forced to go online to keep running. Until then, it is interesting to watch where media is going in the 21st Century. It's really up in the air and nobody knows what it'll look like in twenty, ten or fives years. Heck, in June 2010 the whole media landscape could be vastly different then today.
Before I take off, I'll leave you with an ancient news piece from 1981 that I first saw in a media class last semester:
So, newspapers killed themselves? Something to think about...
-Alex
In my meeting with Dana over the past couple weeks, we've had some insightful conversations about media in a digital, computerized aged. We've discussed blogs, podcasts, the Kindle, digital learning environments, handwriting, the death of books and the publishing industry and we've pondered the question: What's next for the written word, advertising and the craft of writing itself? What rewards do sticking with the publishing business-writing for magazines, newspapers, and print media in general-offer the 21st century writer?
Media writing is a interesting topic to look at as we undergo our current recession. I feel like many people-more specifically, people who still read those ancient tomes called newspapers-are just waiting for newspapers and magazines to fall. It's only a matter of time. So, with the slow death of newspapers spreading fast and wide to even our local newspapers, like the Nashua Telegraph, Concord Monitor and Boston Globe, I can't figure out what will become of daily newspapers and the advertisers that use them to push their products. Will the newspapers go to completely online content? Will the news companies be able to survive in a digital enviornment? Who will pay the writers? Will online newspaper sites be a lucrative enough feeding ground for the advertisers to pay the overhead costs of the website and the salaries of the newspaper's employees?
Another big question: If the online newspapers want to charge for content, who will buy it if they can go to WMUR.com, CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, the Economist or any other online news site and get the same information for free? Searching for something that might be able to help me answer my questions, I found another news item from NPR that tackles the issue. The story highlights how newspapers are transferring to online content and the many issues that are coming up with the idea of new digital media. Take a listen:
I think only time will answer my questions. As digital media changes and evolves over time, a more concise idea of online content will evolve. Whatever that looks like will remain a mystery until the eventual fall of paper media happens and these companies are forced to go online to keep running. Until then, it is interesting to watch where media is going in the 21st Century. It's really up in the air and nobody knows what it'll look like in twenty, ten or fives years. Heck, in June 2010 the whole media landscape could be vastly different then today.
Before I take off, I'll leave you with an ancient news piece from 1981 that I first saw in a media class last semester:
So, newspapers killed themselves? Something to think about...
-Alex
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Upping the Award
This April, I presented a short play at the UNHM Undergraduate Research Conference's Cinema Day.
The script I wrote, Art Show, was selected as a winner of one of the URC Awards of Excellence. For an award, I won money towards tuition next semester. When I opened my email this afternoon, however, I received a notice that said the prize had increased. Apparently, one of the award categories was unfulfilled, so the prize money from that was split up between all the recipients. That was the best piece of news I received today.
I wrote the script last year during the Spring semester in Dana's Media Writing class as one of the last assignments of the semester. From there, the script sat on the back-burner for a while until Dana brought up the URC in her scriptwriting class this spring. Intrigued by the idea to share my work with the UNHM community, I asked her if she would be interested in coaching me through the URC process and she agreed. The rest is history.
Many thanks go to Dana, who helped me rewrite the script and present it at the URC and to all of the judges, audience members and fellow presenters who made my first URC experience pleasurable.
-Alex
The script I wrote, Art Show, was selected as a winner of one of the URC Awards of Excellence. For an award, I won money towards tuition next semester. When I opened my email this afternoon, however, I received a notice that said the prize had increased. Apparently, one of the award categories was unfulfilled, so the prize money from that was split up between all the recipients. That was the best piece of news I received today.
I wrote the script last year during the Spring semester in Dana's Media Writing class as one of the last assignments of the semester. From there, the script sat on the back-burner for a while until Dana brought up the URC in her scriptwriting class this spring. Intrigued by the idea to share my work with the UNHM community, I asked her if she would be interested in coaching me through the URC process and she agreed. The rest is history.
Many thanks go to Dana, who helped me rewrite the script and present it at the URC and to all of the judges, audience members and fellow presenters who made my first URC experience pleasurable.
-Alex
Summer 2009: Facing Four Classes
That's right. I'll be taking four classes over the summer. I would be really bummed about trading the pool, sun and summer for books, a computer and several papers, but I'm not such a fan of the summer months. I'm quite happy to stay in school, actually. Some call me crazy, the UNHM counseling office even suggested that taking four classes might be too difficult to manage and succeed over such a short period of time, but I feel as though I can do it. Certainly, I've managed harder things (like my fear of heights in San Marino, culture shock in Ascoli Piceno and navigating the subway in Rome), so a few accelerated classes, although a challenge, are manageable.
For the next five weeks, I'm taking Diseases of the 21st Century and Advanced Media Writing. For the next ten weeks, I'm taking Propaganda and Persuasion. In six weeks, when the Diseases and Media Writing classes end, I will take Creative Writing for, I think, five weeks. So far, the three courses I've been taking have been really interesting. I'll post more about those in a few days.
My decision to take four classes is based on a few things:
1) I'll graduate a little earlier and save a little money.
2) I'll take about 9 months off between January and December to gear-up for what lies in the road ahead.
3) In those nine months, I can save up for furthering my studies and get some much needed rest from the rigorous schedule I've been working with this year. Working full-time and going to school full-time has taken a lot out of me. Putting up with another nine months of it will work if I can get some extended relief afterwards.
Although all of these factors weigh a considerable amount in my decision to forgo my summer and receive my degree faster, the second reason is most important. What will come next after my undergraduate studies? Right now, I haven't decided between going to law school and attending a graduate school to receive an MFA in fiction writing. I have done research on both of these options over the past few months and am starting to scope out some LSAT practice programs in preparation for taking the test and applying to a law school. I have also been looking at MFA programs in case I decide to go through with that option. Either way, the research will continue to take up a lot of my time over the summer. I'll keep you updated on my progress as time goes on.
Well, it's getting late. I have a full day of work tomorrow, followed by a couple hours at the gym, research on two papers and finally sleep.
Until next time,
Alex
For the next five weeks, I'm taking Diseases of the 21st Century and Advanced Media Writing. For the next ten weeks, I'm taking Propaganda and Persuasion. In six weeks, when the Diseases and Media Writing classes end, I will take Creative Writing for, I think, five weeks. So far, the three courses I've been taking have been really interesting. I'll post more about those in a few days.
My decision to take four classes is based on a few things:
1) I'll graduate a little earlier and save a little money.
2) I'll take about 9 months off between January and December to gear-up for what lies in the road ahead.
3) In those nine months, I can save up for furthering my studies and get some much needed rest from the rigorous schedule I've been working with this year. Working full-time and going to school full-time has taken a lot out of me. Putting up with another nine months of it will work if I can get some extended relief afterwards.
Although all of these factors weigh a considerable amount in my decision to forgo my summer and receive my degree faster, the second reason is most important. What will come next after my undergraduate studies? Right now, I haven't decided between going to law school and attending a graduate school to receive an MFA in fiction writing. I have done research on both of these options over the past few months and am starting to scope out some LSAT practice programs in preparation for taking the test and applying to a law school. I have also been looking at MFA programs in case I decide to go through with that option. Either way, the research will continue to take up a lot of my time over the summer. I'll keep you updated on my progress as time goes on.
Well, it's getting late. I have a full day of work tomorrow, followed by a couple hours at the gym, research on two papers and finally sleep.
Until next time,
Alex
Media Writing in a Digital Age
I must admit: I have ulterior motives in getting myself in gear and starting to blog again. It’s not just to write and discuss what I’m doing as I did with my blog when I was in Italy.
I've included blogging as part of an independent study I'm taking with Dana Myskowski at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester over the next five weeks. The class, Advanced Media Writing: Writing in a Digital Age, will revisit the core concepts learned in Dana's Media Writing class, but will focus on the use of media in a digital environment. I will be using the lessons and activities used in the Media Writing and see how they jive in a 21st Century world.
I'll be discovering at how businesses and organizations can successfully advertise to a population that has grown up with the internet, shunned newspapers and magazines, fast forward through primetime TV or watch it online, and have tuned out their FM radios and replaced them with XM Satellite radios and digital music players.
So, over the next five weeks and at least for the rest of the summer, look for my comments on the "new" media world interspersed with regular posts about what I'm learning and what I'm doing.
I've included blogging as part of an independent study I'm taking with Dana Myskowski at the University of New Hampshire at Manchester over the next five weeks. The class, Advanced Media Writing: Writing in a Digital Age, will revisit the core concepts learned in Dana's Media Writing class, but will focus on the use of media in a digital environment. I will be using the lessons and activities used in the Media Writing and see how they jive in a 21st Century world.
I'll be discovering at how businesses and organizations can successfully advertise to a population that has grown up with the internet, shunned newspapers and magazines, fast forward through primetime TV or watch it online, and have tuned out their FM radios and replaced them with XM Satellite radios and digital music players.
So, over the next five weeks and at least for the rest of the summer, look for my comments on the "new" media world interspersed with regular posts about what I'm learning and what I'm doing.
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