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
Friday, February 15, 2013
Youtube
Hurray, finally something good I can talk about! I love Youtube, it provides me with the tools to watch videos of my favorite bands, videos of people hooning cars, and it allows me to fully listen to a song that I'm thinking of buying on iTunes, instead of just a 30 second preview.
Alright, to go more in depth on these things. Bands; I listen to a lot of rock and roll, like stuff from the late 60's to the early 90's, and their new stuff in the 2000's. Apart from Rock and roll, I do listen to other stuff too, like Blues, Hard Rock, Dubstep, Irish Rock, and a small bit of Orchestral Stuff.Here's a couple examples of songs that I listen to: Love Hungry Man by AC/DC (1979), Tattoo by Van Halen (2012), The Gears of War by Body Count (2011), and so on.
Usually when I'm on Youtube, I find my way to videos of people hooning (messing around with cars) cars, drifting or just videos of people talking about their cars or overviews of auto shows. Here's a couple I've watched recently: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG revving it's engine, The finish of the 24 Hours of LeMans 2012, the 2013 Detroit Auto Show recap by Car and Driver, Ken Block hooning his Ford Fiesta, just stuff like that.
Those are kind of the reasons why I use Youtube, as a time waster or as an informational media.
Alright, to go more in depth on these things. Bands; I listen to a lot of rock and roll, like stuff from the late 60's to the early 90's, and their new stuff in the 2000's. Apart from Rock and roll, I do listen to other stuff too, like Blues, Hard Rock, Dubstep, Irish Rock, and a small bit of Orchestral Stuff.Here's a couple examples of songs that I listen to: Love Hungry Man by AC/DC (1979), Tattoo by Van Halen (2012), The Gears of War by Body Count (2011), and so on.
Usually when I'm on Youtube, I find my way to videos of people hooning (messing around with cars) cars, drifting or just videos of people talking about their cars or overviews of auto shows. Here's a couple I've watched recently: Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG revving it's engine, The finish of the 24 Hours of LeMans 2012, the 2013 Detroit Auto Show recap by Car and Driver, Ken Block hooning his Ford Fiesta, just stuff like that.
Those are kind of the reasons why I use Youtube, as a time waster or as an informational media.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Bah. I've never like Twitter, never will. I find it a website for people who have no life, but pretend they do and post stuff like "Eating a sandwich. lol." Oh my god, who freaking cares? Twitter is just a smaller Facebook where people can describe their menial tasks that they do in 140 characters or less, instead of just writing the novel on Facebook.
Do I have a Twitter? Unfortunately, yes. Why? For contests and tournament info for video games. I don't 'tweet' on a regular basis. Do I follow people? Yes, video game companies and people in the video game industry and people in the automotive world.
Do I have followers? Yes, but few. I only want people I know personally following me. I don't need people who spam my inbox with messages like 'I just won a 25$ iTunes gift card here:....." or have people who have an IQ sub 80 talk about how they didn't know that the Titanic was real or that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, not rode a bike in the Tour de France.
Anyway, here's my Twitter account. Like it, hate it, I don't care (warning, thar be sailor talk).
https://twitter.com/LAZYH0B0
Do I have a Twitter? Unfortunately, yes. Why? For contests and tournament info for video games. I don't 'tweet' on a regular basis. Do I follow people? Yes, video game companies and people in the video game industry and people in the automotive world.
Do I have followers? Yes, but few. I only want people I know personally following me. I don't need people who spam my inbox with messages like 'I just won a 25$ iTunes gift card here:....." or have people who have an IQ sub 80 talk about how they didn't know that the Titanic was real or that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, not rode a bike in the Tour de France.
Anyway, here's my Twitter account. Like it, hate it, I don't care (warning, thar be sailor talk).
https://twitter.com/LAZYH0B0
Friday, February 8, 2013
Blogs? What blogs?
I've found that today, to be a well known person, you have to advertise yourself across the world multiple ways, be it blogging, social media sites, or just have your own website.
One way that I got to know people is through their artwork. I see their artwork on a website, which usually ends with me 'following' them on that site. I look at their profile, like more of their work and become one of their many daily followers.
Art is something that I like to keep track of, new styles that people are using that give me inspiration to draw from. There is a website about a local art council that keeps track of all the exhibitions that are going to be around this area, called the Madison Arts Area Council (http://madisonareaartscouncil.org/), or the MAAC.
Another way is the News media. Doing something that gets you on the news, good or bad, will lead to people finding out about you. Like I said, it could be good or bad, but either way you will end up having people from different areas hearing your name or having prior knowledge of meeting you. You could end up local, or you could end up worldwide. It all depends on what you do.
One way that I got to know people is through their artwork. I see their artwork on a website, which usually ends with me 'following' them on that site. I look at their profile, like more of their work and become one of their many daily followers.
Art is something that I like to keep track of, new styles that people are using that give me inspiration to draw from. There is a website about a local art council that keeps track of all the exhibitions that are going to be around this area, called the Madison Arts Area Council (http://madisonareaartscouncil.org/), or the MAAC.
Another way is the News media. Doing something that gets you on the news, good or bad, will lead to people finding out about you. Like I said, it could be good or bad, but either way you will end up having people from different areas hearing your name or having prior knowledge of meeting you. You could end up local, or you could end up worldwide. It all depends on what you do.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Interesting Blog Article
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/a-new-kind-of-holster-for-iphone/
I found this article interesting, not because I own an iPhone, but because I had just recently lost my iPhone to the deadly fall from 5 feet. I didn't have a case on it (my fault), not because I forgot, but because my case is very inefficient. It's more of an 'aesthetic' thing than a protective case.
The only problem with this amazing case, is the price. $200.00. That'll set you back.
I found this article interesting, not because I own an iPhone, but because I had just recently lost my iPhone to the deadly fall from 5 feet. I didn't have a case on it (my fault), not because I forgot, but because my case is very inefficient. It's more of an 'aesthetic' thing than a protective case.
The only problem with this amazing case, is the price. $200.00. That'll set you back.
What's happened so far in my blog
This being my first blog, this should be a very short post.
A few things to look at:
A few things to look at:
- # of post: Like I said before, I've only just recently started, so my massive amount of posts is....2.
- Topics: I've only done two topics, one on Facebook, and one on all of my precious electronics.
- Links: I've never needed to post a link before, so no.
- Template: Yes, I have changed the template. I like to personalize everything I do to an extent that I like.
- Comments: I've never posted anything that I need comments for. I just speak my mind, so I don't care if or what people comment on.
- Traffic: Very surprising. Italy, huh.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Questions of Facebook
Facebook. In other words, the biggest time-waster on the internet apart from Twitter, Youtube and online games. I do have a Facebook, yes, but I'm not one of the people who are on it 24/7 and make a big deal if they cannot get on to Facebook at a certain time.
So in the text, when Levinson brought up the subject of adding a 'friend' based on your 'interest', I was dumbfounded that people actually add people who they have no knowledge of. How dense can you be? 'Oh hey, he likes Transformers too! I think I'll add him!' No. Who knows if that person isn't some hacker on the other side who'll steal all your personal information?
Then there's 'It's not official until it's Facebook official.' The biggest load of malarky I've heard in a long time. I mean, who cares if somebody you've never met before, but for some ludicrous reason are friends with, is having 'the best party of the year!' I sure as h*ll don't.
It's amazing how many people depend on Facebook as a daily intake of their lives.
So in the text, when Levinson brought up the subject of adding a 'friend' based on your 'interest', I was dumbfounded that people actually add people who they have no knowledge of. How dense can you be? 'Oh hey, he likes Transformers too! I think I'll add him!' No. Who knows if that person isn't some hacker on the other side who'll steal all your personal information?
Then there's 'It's not official until it's Facebook official.' The biggest load of malarky I've heard in a long time. I mean, who cares if somebody you've never met before, but for some ludicrous reason are friends with, is having 'the best party of the year!' I sure as h*ll don't.
It's amazing how many people depend on Facebook as a daily intake of their lives.
Friday, January 18, 2013
My electronics
I've always been a major electronic person, spending a majority of my time on some sort of electronic device from as long as I can remember.
1. My Xbox 360. I spend a massive amount of time on my Xbox. You could say it's my best friend, but I use it for more than just playing games. A lot of my old friends (I've moved multiple times) own an Xbox, so it's a good way for me to stay in touch with my old friends, along with my family who are more than a couple of hours away.
2. My Laptop. When I'm not on my Xbox, I'm on my laptop, be it for homework or just a general time-wasting session. I use my laptop to stay in touch with friends who don't own an Xbox, with the use of email or Facebook. My laptop is my main DVD/Youtube-video playing device.
3. My iPhone. I love listening to music. My phone is the main device I use for listening to music, other than my radio. My radio is becoming more and more obsolete, however because I'm adding a good majority of the songs I love listening to on the radio on to my phone.
4. My radio. The car I own has only a 6-track Cassette player, because it's old, and the really only time I listen to the radio is when I'm driving. My radio in my car is one of the only ways that I listen to the news, weather, and current events, because I'm too lazy to look it up on my laptop.
My life is dominated by electronics, and I'm perfectly happy that way.
1. My Xbox 360. I spend a massive amount of time on my Xbox. You could say it's my best friend, but I use it for more than just playing games. A lot of my old friends (I've moved multiple times) own an Xbox, so it's a good way for me to stay in touch with my old friends, along with my family who are more than a couple of hours away.
2. My Laptop. When I'm not on my Xbox, I'm on my laptop, be it for homework or just a general time-wasting session. I use my laptop to stay in touch with friends who don't own an Xbox, with the use of email or Facebook. My laptop is my main DVD/Youtube-video playing device.
3. My iPhone. I love listening to music. My phone is the main device I use for listening to music, other than my radio. My radio is becoming more and more obsolete, however because I'm adding a good majority of the songs I love listening to on the radio on to my phone.
4. My radio. The car I own has only a 6-track Cassette player, because it's old, and the really only time I listen to the radio is when I'm driving. My radio in my car is one of the only ways that I listen to the news, weather, and current events, because I'm too lazy to look it up on my laptop.
My life is dominated by electronics, and I'm perfectly happy that way.
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