In the later days of the Summer of 2012, I decided to change my major for college from education to journalism, more specifically, automotive journalism. Now, the school I had planned on going to didn't really have a specific area for journalism, but it did have a major that covered it well, so I took it.
The reason why I chose automotive journalism is because of a post on a website I follow quite heavily, Jalopnik. They had posted an article titled "The Ten Best Jobs in the Automotive Universe", and the number 3 was Automotive Journalism.
The reason for it was quite simple: "Why it's so good: Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't possibly
borrow the Aston Martin Virage this weekend. No, not even if you drop it
off at my house, I simply don't have time. Call me back when the new
Vanquish comes out, I think I'll be available then."
I mean, who could argue with that?
In order for me to get noticed by the automotive journalist world, I'd have to start creating road test articles of vehicles I've driven. I'd decided to do it on my personal car first, a 1991 Mercedes Benz 190E 2.3.
Back in the Winter/Early Spring of 2010, my father had agreed to take me out to buy my first car. He had been talking to a friend of his who had an older, affordable car: a 1991 Mercedes Benz. When my mother had told me about the car, I did a little digging on the car. Created in 1982, the 190 class was the precursor to the now brilliant C-class. They were compact executive cars that had a lot of money put into it's researching and development; a massive £600 million, and was subsequently called 'massively over-engineered.' I figured that the car must be good.
At first I was iffy on it. A small, low horsepower engined car doesn't really appeal to a 16-year old high schooler. I eventually grew on the idea, however. I mean, how many kids can say that their first car was a Mercedes Benz? When my father and I had reached the house of the owner, I had gotten my first real look of the car, and it was in spectacular condition. For a car with 179k miles, it was a beauty.
When I sat in the drivers seat, I felt that this car was for me. I took it out for a little test drive, to get used to it's kinks and quirks, I felt as though I had bonded with it. When the drive was over, I knew that this was my car. My father paid the owner, and she was mine.
On my first sort of 'road trip' with it (about 30 miles on a highway), I was able to determine this car's personality. It's low amount of power never encouraged me to step on the gas and fly down the road, but rather cruise in it's comfortable cabin, the sunroof slightly open. It's leather seats gave a very comfortable ride, never causing me to become uncomfortable and have to shift my position in the seat.
It's not exactly a loaded car, it has a sunroof, power windows, and an aftermarket radio. I'm fine with that. I know that the first car is never meant to be the best there is. My baby Benz gave me the thing I needed: a car that can bring me from point A to point B, and it does it with class and style. I couldn't've asked for a better first car.
Do I like that it's low on power? No. Do I like it for everything else? Yes. I think that that is really all I need. Sure it's got it's quirks, but it's personality and style make up for everything else.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
All the things small.
Things come and things go. That's basically the nature of almost everything, from internet sites to species of animals, nothing lasts forever. I'm not going to go in depth with animals, but I am going to try and go in depth with internet sites.
Through the early 2000's, there was a social media site known as MySpace. It was very popular with teenagers to put some things on it about themselves, such as photos, where they live, who they're friends with, etc. I personally never used it because the school I was in was always finding bad things about that website and just shoving down our throats that its bad, you shouldn't use it, it'll only end up with trouble. It was also something that I just never was into. My parents had bought me a gaming system, and that's really all I did after school, other than hanging out with friends.
There was one reason that my teachers had told me that was a bad thing that happened on MySpace, and it was one of the major reasons why they told us not to have one. It was a little thing called 'CyberBullying.' There have been a lot of stories throughout the years of people who get cyberbullied on line, and it sometimes has a very dramatic affect on them. There have been people who have committed suicide from cyberbullying, like the Amanda Todd story. She was not only cyberbullied, but she was also bullied in school. She had moved to a different school, but that didn't help, so she eventually took her life.
Another story like that is the Lori Drew/Megan Meier story. Lori had a teenage daughter who was friends with Megan, but there were rumors that Megan was spreading false statements about Lori's daughter. Lori then decided to get back at Megan to create a Myspace page of a 16 year old boy, 'Josh Evans'. She gained the trust of Megan, but then eventually Lori sent a message to her that the world would be better off without her, so Megan took her life. Megan's mother took this to court, and the court decided only to give Lori a misdemeanor, but otherwise let her go. I disagree very much with this decision, because Lori had pushed an innocent teenage girl to the point of suicide, which was taken.
Moving on! The band Truth on Earth had given some 'medicine' for cyberbullying, their music. They had come out with a song called 'Shot with a Bulletless Gun.' It was a song about cyberbullying, which basically said that you shouldn't take it seriously. There is a random nobody who is bullying you, you may not know them, but you shouldn't take it to heart. I think it was a good idea, it showed people that just because somebody is bullying them, it doesn't mean that they have to take it seriously.
Alright, moving on to something else. Bands also used Myspace to advertise their music to a newer audience by linking their songs on their page and posting tour dates as well. This gave people who have never heard their songs to give them a chance to sample their songs, and if they like them enough, to buy the songs or albums. My favorite band, AC/DC, have a page setup that has their music, tour dates, and old videos of live performances put right on their page.
Time to get off Myspace and move on to another website that has become less popular, Digg. Digg, in my mind, was basically a blog for the entire website. People would post links to a whole different selection to different posts on the entirety of the internet, and it would be put on the front page. It was useful when it came out, I used it a lot, but then I discovered Stumbleupon, and that gave me a better, more fun way to explore the internet. It replaced Digg on my favorites bar on my browser.
Another website like Digg is Reddit. Reddit is still very popular, but I don't really know much about it, I have rarely used it. I don't have much to say because of that, so I'll just say what I know. Basically Reddit is like Digg, but posted a wider range of websites, and they could be sorted into different categories.
On to a different topic, the election of 2012. Just bare with me. During that election my Facebook wall was light up with posts of everybody saying 'Oh I hope so and so wins!' or the more dramatic, 'if he wins, I'm moving out of this country!' Because of all the stupid posts of the election, I basically just stopped using the social media sites just for that reason. I watched the election of TV, and thats about it.
Sorry for the long rant, just had to get it out.
Ciao
~Travis
Through the early 2000's, there was a social media site known as MySpace. It was very popular with teenagers to put some things on it about themselves, such as photos, where they live, who they're friends with, etc. I personally never used it because the school I was in was always finding bad things about that website and just shoving down our throats that its bad, you shouldn't use it, it'll only end up with trouble. It was also something that I just never was into. My parents had bought me a gaming system, and that's really all I did after school, other than hanging out with friends.
There was one reason that my teachers had told me that was a bad thing that happened on MySpace, and it was one of the major reasons why they told us not to have one. It was a little thing called 'CyberBullying.' There have been a lot of stories throughout the years of people who get cyberbullied on line, and it sometimes has a very dramatic affect on them. There have been people who have committed suicide from cyberbullying, like the Amanda Todd story. She was not only cyberbullied, but she was also bullied in school. She had moved to a different school, but that didn't help, so she eventually took her life.
Another story like that is the Lori Drew/Megan Meier story. Lori had a teenage daughter who was friends with Megan, but there were rumors that Megan was spreading false statements about Lori's daughter. Lori then decided to get back at Megan to create a Myspace page of a 16 year old boy, 'Josh Evans'. She gained the trust of Megan, but then eventually Lori sent a message to her that the world would be better off without her, so Megan took her life. Megan's mother took this to court, and the court decided only to give Lori a misdemeanor, but otherwise let her go. I disagree very much with this decision, because Lori had pushed an innocent teenage girl to the point of suicide, which was taken.
Moving on! The band Truth on Earth had given some 'medicine' for cyberbullying, their music. They had come out with a song called 'Shot with a Bulletless Gun.' It was a song about cyberbullying, which basically said that you shouldn't take it seriously. There is a random nobody who is bullying you, you may not know them, but you shouldn't take it to heart. I think it was a good idea, it showed people that just because somebody is bullying them, it doesn't mean that they have to take it seriously.
Alright, moving on to something else. Bands also used Myspace to advertise their music to a newer audience by linking their songs on their page and posting tour dates as well. This gave people who have never heard their songs to give them a chance to sample their songs, and if they like them enough, to buy the songs or albums. My favorite band, AC/DC, have a page setup that has their music, tour dates, and old videos of live performances put right on their page.
Time to get off Myspace and move on to another website that has become less popular, Digg. Digg, in my mind, was basically a blog for the entire website. People would post links to a whole different selection to different posts on the entirety of the internet, and it would be put on the front page. It was useful when it came out, I used it a lot, but then I discovered Stumbleupon, and that gave me a better, more fun way to explore the internet. It replaced Digg on my favorites bar on my browser.
Another website like Digg is Reddit. Reddit is still very popular, but I don't really know much about it, I have rarely used it. I don't have much to say because of that, so I'll just say what I know. Basically Reddit is like Digg, but posted a wider range of websites, and they could be sorted into different categories.
On to a different topic, the election of 2012. Just bare with me. During that election my Facebook wall was light up with posts of everybody saying 'Oh I hope so and so wins!' or the more dramatic, 'if he wins, I'm moving out of this country!' Because of all the stupid posts of the election, I basically just stopped using the social media sites just for that reason. I watched the election of TV, and thats about it.
Sorry for the long rant, just had to get it out.
Ciao
~Travis
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