To my smokers:

You won't quit until you find a reason deemed worthy by your own understanding of the world and your own beliefs. If you think, “It's my life, if I want to die early thats my right”, then you are absolutely right. If you think, “I'm young my body will not be damaged as much as when I'm older, so let me enjoy it now” you would also be right. But because you have the liberty to do something doesn't mean you have to abuse that liberty. Everything has a limit. Everything should be enjoyed in moderation.

But when you know just how badly it affects your body, how can you still continue to smoke as heavily? You think you are young AND invincible. There are many other dangers in life that can kill you, might as well enjoy what you can. True. But wouldn't you rather the way you die be something not in your control? Yes, have a smoke, but don't do it so much that you accelerate your conversion into a machine-dependent body.

Courtesy ALA Web site
 www.lungusa.org

Starting 2005, Medicare Plan B covered individual tobacco cessation treatment. And in 2010 part of the health care reforms included all Medicare patients. Especially those with tobacco-related illnesses or second-hand smoking problems. So even the government is doing their part in encouraging quitting. According to the American Lung Association, about 47 percent of smokers try to quit every year, and of those only 4 to 7 percent actually quit. And most people need several attempts to quit.

One of the only times a young man quits cold turkey is when they are about to become parents or when their children convince them. So why do they have to wait till that late of a stage in their lives? The human mind has the strength to convince us to do just about anything. Our willpower is stronger than we can understand. So why don't we abuse that liberty to do better things for our body and the world instead?

Everyone has their faults, but we are all capable of handling them.

Improper Imbalance

There is nothing new about this. It's been happening for a while....maybe since the time of the creation of Egyptian pyramids. The poor earn nothing, and do the most work. The rich earn the most, and do the least physical work.

Hand Pressing Dollar  Button
by tungphoto

At the top of the food chain, the empire, the king, the CEO, all delegate tasks while sitting on their thrones, within their chambers, or out on a yacht. A basketball player earns millions for playing ball, and has someone massage him, feed him water, and wipe the sweat off his forehead. A burger flipper earns barely enough to stay alive, but they help to feed millions a day surrounded by a flaming heat and greasy air.

It was a realization after I got my job and started looking around at estimates for annual salaries. Compared to my engineering friends I will always make less than one-third their annual salary. And the ones I know sit online all day and chat. Ugh! The part time job I had paid more than I'll earn as an entry-level reporter. Craziness. But I love writing more than my former job, so I am not going to complain. It's just an annoying realization.

The struggling writer

"If the advantages for you outweigh the benefit the publication receives, then it is justified," said the editor of a local newspaper during my interview. But some publications exist that make the writer work for no pay, and no other benefit than they get their name published.

I have worked for one such magazine recently. I did not want it to count towards my credits, but the internship was flexible and unpaid. Just what a part-time-working, full-time student needed. I thought I was getting a pretty sweet deal at the time, since my only aim was to collect bylines. But what I thought ideal was proclaimed flawed.

I was being interviewed by an editor of a newspaper and without saying so he made me understand my work was crap. I agree.

The magazine was full of community stories. Which was fine. But the way in which the company worked and profited was questionable. They made donations to local organizations and wrote articles about the organization. They were paid for ad space and in turn wrote a piece about the business. But it had to be written in AP style.

I thought that would be enough to impress prospective employers. Turns out my AK-47 was just a BB gun. That sucked.

So even though it was my choice not to take the internship for credit, turns out they can get in trouble for that since the were profiting immensely from it.

Recently this debate reached the ears of higher authorities and clear definitions were written:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/04/labor-dept-defines-rules-criteria-for-unpaid-internships/1

Credo

Think about it from every angle and decide if the good outweighs the harm. Use words precisely and carefully, the way you would a newly sharpened knife. Do not only use personal ambition as your drive, being the first to print doesn't always bring home the prize. Understand the audience and what is important to print. Be open to ideas that oppose your own, and accept criticism. Do your absolute best, though seemingly impossible, to be fair and balanced in the collection and displaying of information.

Remember two things: reading is writing, and be a human to other humans.

It is difficult to express just how intricate a person's understanding is of their goals and aims. While I know that I aspire to be “good” in all my actions, I will undoubtedly fail (even if its for a deadline!) at some point. What is important to remember is that there is always room for improvement and every failure should be viewed as a way to better one's self. I know that when I write I try my best to be balanced, to find a story and make it bland with neutrality instead of spicy with debate. While probably not the most interesting type of story to read, the challenge is making it interesting for an audience and I will have to remember to let the creative juices flow. Sticking to the facts and writing about what you know are the bottom lines. 

I don't feel like my credo captures the essence of what is in my mind, but hey...that's what updates are for.  

It gives me the heebie jeebies...

I like to envision myself as an open-minded, all-accepting reporter. I try not to judge and have always done a swell job of staying very neutral...much to the annoyance of my political science professors. They would always write in big red letters at the top of my papers, "Pick a side, and defend it!"

As an editor, the one thing I would admit makes me uncomfortable is a juicy story surrounding the death of a private citizen or someone in the military. Stories about people who are used to being under public scrutiny aren't as hard to handle. But virgins to the news world make me uncomfortable.

The sources for these stories are going through an emotional nightmare and the last thing they need are reporters shoving questions their way. But that's part and parcel of the industry. It is just hard, as one human being to another, to exploit a person's situation. It may make for a damn good story, but if I had it sitting in front of me I would be extremely nervous, and overly-cautious while reading through the story.

If I had to deal with it as an editor, I would ensure that the reporter on assignment gives ample notice to the family and friends who they are headed out to interview. Also, I would remind them to be sensitive. With the information that comes back, nothing extremely personal should be published unless it relates to the story. And things that are personal should be written in a gentle way, maybe with more of a feature edge.

I don't think there is any good way to deal with the situation, but using extreme sensitivity would be highest on my priority list.

la crème de la crème

I am a little surprised to see which sites are at the top of the list, considering my own surfing habits. It is harder to simply gauge top sites based on clicks when regional characteristics are not taken into consideration. Who are the top users in each region of the world? Each country? Are they educated people only? Which country has the most clicks? 


The way people communicate and search for information nowadays has changed. The top sites are either search engines, auction/listing sites, or social media sites. This means that we spend more time collecting information and putting up our own work, rather than simply being drones to what ever is on the internet. It is an interactive environment. In fact there are even top lists of sites that have user-generated content. But there are still "trusted sites" that have their fingers in other media. This is where the difference in top news sites comes in.


Top news sites are still mostly dependent on an established reputation in other media. For example CNN and BBC top the charts, both of which started building their reputation in TV news. But the most popular are sites that give variety, like Google News. This is because users have learned to read from many sources instead of only trusting one, especially the younger generation. Sites like this will usually have similar stories from many different sites. The sites can be from trusted news sources or blogs from news sites.


What this means for journalists is simply that their work now has the potential of reaching just about anyone in the world if they write a good article. And at the same time: you are competing with everyone else. The playing field has grown and bloggers are competing with journalists for audience attention. The way we write has to change to adapt to the medium too. Writing for print is different than for broadcast/radio, and both are different from the web. The new trend is short and sweet ( unlike this post) and by ensuring you get just the gist of the information out to the audience, you have succeeded in communication on the web.