brad haggadone

Everyone Loves a Good Human Interest Story

It’s true.  People are always drawn to a human interest story, especially when they are good and juicy like a nice murder.  Oh, please Mr. Newsman tell about Troy Davis.  Did Georgia really go through with it? Did he really even do it?  This guy was executed and Casey Anthony walked?!?!?  You didn’t forget about her did you? Of course not, there is over 3000 news stories about her this week alone.  It is true what Charles Merz says “it is doubtful whether anything really unifies the country like its murders.”  Come on, admit it, we all hope she gets what’s coming to her right? 

As interesting and/or important as these stories are(really what’s difference in stories this fascinating) , there is one that stood out to me even more.  After years of bullying, a 14 year old boy committed suicide.  Enlighten us Anderson Cooper…

You clicked on the video didn’t you. Of course, you did.  Just like the fine folks at CNN knew you would.  Now, I am in no way trying to make light of any of these horrible situations, just the absurdity of the way the media often handles them.  It illustrates that much of what Helen MacGill Hughes said about yellow journalism 74 years ago still holds true today.  It is important to remember that the people bringing you these stories are still just trying to find a way to get more viewers to sell more ads.  I would like to believe that Anderson Cooper really cares, and maybe he does, but he is covering this story because he knows it will get ratings. 

Then again, it is this kind of coverage that makes people aware of problems.  For that I say thank you Mr. Newsman.  The real problem, you know other the murdering and suicides and what not, is how the viewer reactions to these issues.  Sure we all said this was horrible, but Jamey Rodemeyer is just one of approximately 4500 teens that will commit suicide this year.  So maybe the question shouldn’t be how should the media handle this, the question should be what are  you  going to  do about it? 

A Chair.

Here I sit, taking a slight break from the mountain of reading assigned  to do as my instructor wished and spend a few minutes.  I am sitting in my office and just a moment ago my hand lightly grazed the arm of the chair.  It felt much too familiar for a chair I have only sat in once before.  It took a second but then I realized why, I had sold a chair just like this at office depot.  The irony of the chairs we sold at the depot was that I only got to sit in them a couple of times.  Yet, here I am sitting in one now.  I had a sudden realization about where I am today and where I was only a few weeks ago.  When I worked for the depot making minimum wage, doing trivial often mindless work for often angry people, I would often find myself jealous of the people buying supplies for jobs I wish I had.  I wished I had a desk that required a chair, but instead I had to stand 8-9 hours a day.  Last fall was the worst, helping all those students get what they needed for school reminded me that I was going nowhere both figuratively and literally. 

Yet, here I am today sitting in my office, in my grad school, in Chicago.  I am the one buying the school supplies now.  It feels nice.  Our past shapes our future.  Not just as the path it took us to get to this point, but it also frames the way we see ourselves today.  Working at the depot was just awful enough to get me to finally apply to grad school.   Now that I am here, the depot has provided me with a frame of reference.  I am so much more grateful of some of the little things because in the not so distant past I did not have them.  Today, I can find joy in something so trivial as a place to finally sit down.     

The future of the Internet

Right now people think of the internet as a place where a bunch of web sites are hosted, but soon it will be more about information traveling across platforms.  We will not think www.facebook.com we will think about using the facebook or having email updates sent directly to us without ever going to www.gmail.com.  It is about accessing a service or information, not a site.  Some of this is already happening. Google is in a good spot for this with Android being found on so many phones and tablets.

The way I see things going is that eventually you are going to pick one company and run with it.  You will want everything in one place and not want to log into and out of a bunch of different sites. One place for your email, contacts, calendar, pictures, music, and everything in your digital life will be linked through one main service.  I am not saying you won’t still have a bunch of side accounts, but there will be one main account that you will use as you primary add to run your daily life.  It is seems the leading two are Google and Apple.   No surprise, they are also the two biggest names in smartphone OS.  It think it is pretty clear why both of them are one top so I will focus on some others. Microsoft also has a mobile OS and many people have a hotmail account already.  Plus, they have the xbox.  In addition, if they ever get their stuff together, they have the biggest name in all of tech, Windows.  Maybe they recognize the warning signs and that is what Windows 8 is going to try and capture, but as of now Windows 8 looks like a cell phone, not a computer and I don’t like it. I hope that they will make adjustments.  The other problem with Microsoft is that they are not cool.  Despite having Xbox, they are a fairly boring company.  They have also had some busts lately, many people still haven’t forgiven they for Vista and they really push bing, but it is terrible.  Still, with a little re-branding and a few adjustments they could easily take the lead if they invested in social media R&D and started linking everything together.  I think they have started with Live, but they have some work to do. Next comes Amazon, the online shopping juggernaut has been really pushing for more features like video streaming and adding a music cloud.  If they continue to grow, who knows where they will stop.  At the same level is Facebook.  They are still the king of social media and I don’t think they are ready to give up that title.  So far facebook has really struggle to be more than social media though and most of their feature seem like toys. They do have a few major advantages, like having so many members.  Everyone has a facebook account. Having that high of membership is an incredible tool 750 millions users is a powerful thing. There are tons of people that can barely use a computer that can still use facebook, they are not interested in learning something new.  If it does what they need they are happy.  Then there are many smaller companies that are highly specialized.  I would imagine a strong contender to come out of here by merging or joining one of the other big companies.  Imagine Yahooterzon, a combination of Yahoo, twitter, and Amazon.  I would join because of the name alone.  The Netflix streaming video service is just wanting to be plucked by one of the bigger companies, especially if they have another PR nightmare like their recent price hike.  It is hard to predict which companies will survive, but it will probably be the most flexible and most willing to adapt.

Google +

I suddenly find myself with an urge to write on social media.  Which is a good thing since that is what I am going to school to study and hopefully make money with someday.  Google+  I like it.  To start with, I like Google, I like what they do and what they stand for “Don’t be evil” as a general rule I hate all giant corporations, but them do seem less evil than most.  They provide great products and services usually for no money and make money off ads.  I love the business model.  That being said maybe my view is tainted, but here is the reason I like the idea of a Google social media.  It is integrated.  As of now, Google runs my phone OS, all my email, my contacts, and my calendar.  So if I forget your birthday you can blame Larry Page.  Why not my social media?  Last fall I was writing a paper, I posted it to Google Docs so some friends could help with edits.  It was incredible to all be working on it at the same time.  What a powerful tool.  I love the circles idea.  I know facebook has something similar, but I like the way this works.  I think it understand something I have been wanting for a while.  I think this will be one of its greatest strengths.  I believe one of the big reasons Twitter took off was because it gave you access to so many people, including celebrities, you could easily message anyone and join their conversations.  I think with Google circles you will be able to have lots of “friends” but still maintain a great deal of privacy.  I know one of the big problems with facebook is that I have too many friends.  And it is not the strangers I am worried about.  Now, everyone knows someone else and I have to be very careful because everything can get back to the people I want to complain about.  I am not saying I want a place to post about my love of killing kittens*, but sometimes I do like to vent and have a friend tell me everything will be all right. I used to be able to use facebook for that and I liked it. 

Another thing I think might be cool is the hangout feature.  Google wants it to be like walking past a porch with some friends sitting there chatting, of course I would join.  I would love it if I logged on and saw Ish and Mels were hanging out and I could just pop in and say hi.  Hell, you might even meet new people that way.  After watching the Social Network I remember them saying they wanted Facebook to be like the college experience online.  It is not, it is not even close.  What it became was a fantastic tool for college students.  I think the google+ hangout could be more like the actual college experience.  My college friends are all over the country it would be great to interact with them more directly them text and wall post.  I have never been a big phone talker, it feels so intrusive.

Why I think google+ will work even though save and buzz were both failures. One thing google did right this time was the whole beta thing.  Currently, it is invite only.  Once you get in you can invite a few people yourself.  It feels special if you can get in.  You belong (despite the fact millions have joined) to an exclusive group.  I think one of the best things about early facebook was that it was college only.  If you watch the Social Network, one of the big ideas Zuckerberg supposedly took for the winklevosses was the idea that having a Harvard.edu email made you special, and then later it was an anyschool.edu but it was still elitist, not everyone could join, so you wanted it even more.  Personally, I was disappointed when they opened it up to everyone.  The google+ invites give it that same elite feeling.  Another reason it is google, they like to dominate and have the resources to do just that.  Yes, Wave and Buzz where big failures, but this feels different.  Instead of being another social network site, it feels like getting a bunch more features to my google account.  Maybe I am different than most because I use gmail, but I like having one account with everything linked. This is one of the biggest differences between g+ and facebook.  Facebook is a web site whereas Google is a digital system. The next big trend in tech is features not sites.  I will talk about this more in another post, but people want everything in one place, they want communication not several accounts.  If they can merge everything then they can think about sharing pictures, not logging into flickr.

Only time will tell if Google+ works, but if it does not you can be sure google will try again.  Or they could just buy out the competition (youtube anyone?)

*I don’t actually enjoy killing kittens. I never have and never would intentional harm a kitten, it is puppies I like to kill**

**Ok, again I don’t kill animals.  Learn to take a joke people

I failed spelling, that’s unpossible.

Perhaps this should have been my first post or maybe a pop-up warning when entering any site I write on.  I can’t spell very well.  I am terrible.   I learned pretty early on that I was severely dyslexic.  My mommy didn’t diagnose me when I wrote my name backwards, if that is what you are thinking.  I know many self-diagnosed people with varying degrees of legitimacy.  I went to several doctors and specialists and it was pretty obvious to all of them.  So, if I spell something wrong on here, sorry.  I do proof read, by often I can look at the same mistake ten times and my mind just jumps over it and I don’t catch it.  Often it is not just miss spelled words, but missing words altogether which is why my sentences don’t always make sense.  Again, my brain takes things in by large chunks and it is easy for me to miss that.  So, I will make a deal.  I will do my best to use spell check and proof read, if you do your best to pretend I don’t spell like a third grader. 

I would like to start by saying that my brain works a little differently than most (major understatement for many reasons). There are a few things dyslexia makes difficult for me: spelling, reading with speed, repeating numbers, etc.  However, I refuse to let it be an excuse on being unable to do something.  I never once asked for extra time on a test, an extension, or permission to be excused for something.  To be honest, most of the time in school, I was still smarter than most the other students and always got great grades.  I don’t consider it a “disability” it is a difference.  Also, it doesn’t bother me.  If I say something and you think of a good joke, please share.  Seriously, I got thick skin and find most things in this world amusing.  And for the love of all that is holy, don’t give me any sympathy.  I start grad school in a few months, I am doing just fine for myself.   Personally, I think they need to do some studies on how to use dyslexia as a benefit.  I can only speak for myself, but I know I am better at some things than many other “normal” people.  I don’t know if this is something to do with the dyslexia or something else in my head.  I do know that I am able to take in a large about of information very quickly from something visual and I am great at seeing the “big picture” I think this probably has a lot to do with it.

Also, I would like to add that not all my mistakes are excusable.  Something I just have a brain fart, like everyone else.  Sometimes I know better, it is a typo, or I am just being stupid.  Also, I tend to write very late at night or possibly drunk.  So like I said, don’t feel bad for laughing.

P.S. My last few posts of dealt a little bit with intelligence.  Expect a longer post on the subject when I get around to it.

amendment

Well, after talking to a few people about my last article, I decided to add to it.  I just felt the need to clarify it a little.  Part of the problem was how I phrased it; however, another part of the problem is the nature of the internet.  The post was already excessively long and I was trying to keep things as short as possible.

I would like to clarify the difference between unskilled labor and skilled labor I was trying to draw.  I have a great deal of respect for skilled labor and frankly the idea of spending my days expertly crafting furniture appeals to me greatly, however judging by my latest attempt at a scratching post for the family cat I realize that that isn’t the career for me.  I wasn’t saying anything negative at all about any skilled trades, simply that college isn’t a good idea for them.  Now unskilled labor is a different story.  There seemed to be some concern about the fact people look down on these jobs.  I would agree, in fact I would think that most people that have these jobs look down on them.  The idea of doing the same task over and over seems terrible to me.  Every person I have ever known that did work in a factor agreed with me.  However, I don’t think having a bad job makes someone a bad person.  I don’t look down on the people with these jobs. I have worked more bad jobs than I care to remember, but that doesn’t change who I am as a person.  But I do believe that it is probably true that On Average people with higher IQs end up in a white collar profession and On Average people with lower IQs end up working physical jobs, especially repetitive factory jobs.  That being said, I also believe there is a ton of examples of that contractdict that statement.  I have known geniuses working on the line at GM and I believe that far too many corporations are ran by idiots, which is something my current job reminds me of daily.  While there may be many expectations to the rule, they are still expectations.  I just have a feeling that in it would still average out that way.  I still don’t look down on any of them as people, expect those corporate bastards.

I used to work for the small business administration.  I can’t begin to tell you how many people came in with no idea what was involved in running a business.  They came in and asked for a hand out or just assumed someone would give them a bunch of free money. I usually didn’t get too far into explaining what was involved in starting a business before they were headed for the door.  I also saw many people manage to get a business going only to see it closed a few months later.  I think most of these people could have really benefited from some training.  Of course, there are always bad classes.  About 2 years ago I decide I was going to go back to school and enrolled in a community college to take some classes in graphic design, something I was decent at but need a little more training before I thought I could land a full time job with.  I was an Oakland Community College student for exactly 1 day.  I sat through my first class and realized it wasn’t going to help me find a job, and if the other classes were anything like this, they weren’t going to help either.  I dropped out the next day.  However, I also found many great classes full of exciting debate and great hands on experience.  I think the problem is with the professor, not with the idea of college.  I am starting grad in a few months with the hope of some day being a professor, I want to be the type of prof I learned the most from so more students can have a good experience instead of a cookie cutter “do the work” experience. The higher education system does need to be improved. 

I don’t think a degree is a golden ticket to a good job.  I graduate from a great school (Go Green!) with good grades.  For the past three years have I tried everything to land a recent job and ended up with nothing.  In fact, sometimes my degree has kept me out of some of the lower paying jobs, which I would have gladly accepted.  I still believe in college and in no way regret going. I think college is a way to get a great education.  I love knowledge and learning.  Call me a hopeless idealist, but the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom is a noble one.  It is worth doing even if sometimes it costs more money than it brings in.

When I started writing on my site I knew I was going to say some controversial things that were going to piss some people off.  I decide early on that I was okay with that.  I just hope that it would make them think a little and maybe revisit their long held beliefs.  However, I just want to make sure that people are disagreeing with my opinions and not because I failed to word my statement properly.  Another problem I seem to have is that some of my posts are kind of a response to something I have just read and sometimes that effects the direction the post takes.  In this case I was responding to an article about how people shouldn’t go to college.  I think the post was more pro-college than if I was doing an unbiased research essay on the topic.  Which given the nature of the internet I am also okay with. But if you ever think I am wrong or missed something, let me know.  You can contact me on twitter or email.  Or if you know of another way, feel free to use that.

College=education

I have to say I am a little shocked at the backlash against a college education I am see on the web lately.  Although I do understand the points they make, especially by the people saying why they never went to college.  The basic idea is that you could focus your education, learn more on a subject, quicker and cheaper on your own by reading books and traveling than you could sitting in a class room.  I have to say that a lot of that is true.  They also argue against the idea that a degree is a guarantee to a better job.  I 100% agree.  But I believe they are over simplifying college.

The best thing is that college is what you make of it.  You can either focus one one subject or 20 subjects.  You can take classes that are based on facts or on debates or on hands on projects.  You can go to a big state university with a huge amount of diversity or you can go to a smaller school that specializes on a narrow range.  You can party til you drop or you can spend all your time in the library.  It is totally up to you.  I sure you can name 10 people that didn’t learn hardly anything in college, that is not because the system failed, it is because they did.  Even if they were able to cram and past the test, they still fail themselves by not learning as much as they could.  And just think what would those people would have learned without college, probably not much.  I took a drawing class one time.  I wasn’t very good, but I remembered another student that I thought was good.  For the next semester I learned everything I could.  I talked with my prof and asked for criticism on how to make it better.  For a finally project we had to recreate a famous artists work, I choose a drawing by Salvidor Dali. Other than one small eraser mark, it was a fantastic recreation.  I had become very good at drawing.  The other student spent the whole semester doing things his way, he dismissed anything our prof said and assumed he was better than everyone else.  By the end of the semester his work looked exactly the same.  As I got better at recreating things with my pencil, I realized that he stuff started to look a little cartoony. Not in a stylized artistic way, but because he never learned the difference between drawing what you actually see, and what you think you see.  He learned nothing and now I was better than him.  College is a chance to learn.  Maybe a 4 year state university isn’t the right place, but an art school might be. 

Here is another secret that I don’t think anyone has told you.  College doesn’t consume your life.  Seriously, you are only in class a few hours a week.  If you want to work a certain job, you can do it while in college.  If you want to start doing freelance work writing or doing art, you can still do that in college.  If you want to spend all day reading books one subject, go ahead.  The good thing is that not only can you read the books, you can go and talk to or study with some of the leading experts in the field.  Think about it, the entire faculty is a group of people that have devoted their life to becoming experts in a field and then teaching others about it.  USE THEM.  I never once had a prof tell me they didn’t want to answer a question or help me.  One time I ever wrote an email to a prof at another college with a question, he wrote back almost immediately with the answer, plus a bunch of other relevant info.  Yes, the school of hard knocks will always teach you more about life then you can inside a classroom.  But there is not reason you can’t learn both.  If you talk 14 credits a semester for both fall and spring and study an average of  14 hours a week (which is way higher than I actually did) it would take about 784 hours of your year.  That works about to about 9% of your time.  saving you 91% of your time to do whatever the hell you want.

One of the problems with the internet is that it can create an echo chamber.  It is very easy to have an opinion and then find people online that share your ideas, which can be great.  However, that is not real education.  College forces you to study things you might not choose for yourself.  This gets you to learn more things.  Sometimes you find things you are interested in that you never knew about before.  It also forces you to interact with people of different opinions.  Yes, I could probably learn a lot more facts about a subjects by simply reading a bunch of books, but I wouldn’t have nearly the education I have now.  I know science, art, philosophy, history, technology, and a bunch of other things.  I am a lover of wisdom and knowledge if you are too there is no way you can be against college.

I don’t believe college is for everyone.  The sad factor is that many people are not smart enough or at least lack the mental focus to survive college and any job that their degree would lead them too.  These people usually end up in factories or building things.  They would be much better off getting right to work making money.  Then there are the people that love a certain craft and want to spend their life doing that.  Maybe its being a carpenter or whatever.  Again as long as you have the hands on experience to start working, go for it.  However, if you not one of these people I think you should give higher education some consider, even if a four year degree isn’t for you.  Let’s say you are an artist.  A Bachelors degree isn’t going to do you a lot of good.  However, you could greatly benefit for working with someone who has mastered the craft.  If you are lucky enough to stumble on to an apprenticeship with a master take it.  But usually the best way to study with some one is to take a class.  Do you need to spend $100,000 getting an MBA, no.  But you do need to make sure you understand your field and basics of business.  Trust no one is going to give a loan to some entrepreneur who doesn’t know the difference between a DBA and a LLC. 

A college degree doesn’t guarantee you anything anymore. And classroom experience is not as good as hands on experience, but it does show future employers you can be taught, you are dedicated, and you can finish what you start.  If you can get your dream job right out of high school good for you, but 99.99% of all employers with talk the applicant with the degree over the drop out or the guy who’s only other job was McDonald’s every time.  That other .01% you are probably relate to.

Another fun fact, most of my student debt and a big chunk of any “cost of attendance” is living expenses.  Which you have to pay any where you plan on living.  Whenever I hear people talking about $50,000-$100,00 in debt, they either went to a super expensive school or they took out loans to cover their rent and food for four years.  Most people can get some sort of help for school especially if they are low income and stay in state.

In addition to all these other things, I have to say college was the best time of my life.  I love the freedom.  I love learning, trying new things, meeting new people, and being around some of the best friends I have ever known.  And if you happen to be a sports fan, there is nothing like being in college. I am a HUGE Tigers fan; but I am a Spartan.  Catch the difference?  I have even worked for two pro sports team, including the Pistons.  But you will never feel as connected to any pro team as much as you do your college, especially if you happen to go to a big time sports school.  Being in the student section for MSU football games as such as amazing experience.  And being anywhere in East Lansing when we go to the Final Four is incredible.  My love of sports will have to wait for a different post though. 

If you decide college isn’t for you, that fine.  But be open minded, and don’t base your decision off what you think it will be like.  And don’t try to convince people to do something that you have never even tried.  Seriously,  that is ignorant.  Maybe you don’t think it is right for you, but why judge other people that want to learn?  That is like me saying you shouldn’t visit France because I heard from someone it is dirty and the people are rude.   I truly believe that if you really want to be educated college is that single best thing you can do.

The future of communication

This is my first post every from my phone, my new android phone. I haven’t had a smart phone in almost 18 months. And that one was almost two years old. And even though my phone has a physical keyboard I am typing with swype, because I am amazed by it. anyway back to communications, the thing I am really excited about is my ability to merge with the internet more directly, we are becoming cyborgs and the smartphone is the first step. Hopefully posts will come with greater regularity now, Godspeed B¬ rad

In Touch

Soon I will be face with the sad realization that it has been a decade since I graduate high school. Which has me thinking about my high school reunion.  A friend of mine, Nicole, and I are seem to different views.  She is excite and I am not even sure I will go.  She can’t wait to catch with old friends and find out what everyone looks like now and what they have been up to.  I have a facebook account.  My thoughts are this, more of the people I was close with in high school, I still see.  At least that is that is true for the people in my grade.  And most of the people I can kind of friends with, I am friends with on facebook.  I figure if we really had much to say to each other, we would have done so already.  When I think about my high school class and who I want to see from it, there are two girls that serve as good examples.  One is Nicole, who I see about once every two weeks.  The other is a girl I had a crush on since elementary.  A couple of summers ago that girl found me a myspace we chatted a little, eventually became facebook friends and now just occasionally make comments on each others posts.  At one point I reached out and said we some meet up and was given a swishy wash “yeah sure maybe.”  I think she might have been dating someone else. 

However, I think Nicole is right, she usually is.  I should go.  Facebook and even to some extent the cell phone has given us this idea of constantly being in touch with the people we know, but never talking to them.  Seriosuly, when is the last time you had a serious conversation with some of these people.  Sure you wish them happy birthday and they say Congrats when you got into grad school but that is about it.  A good example is my friend Melissa.  In college her and I were very close and she was one of the first people I would go to if I ever had a problem I needed to talk over.  Since college we have moved away and lost touch a little, which is the natural flow of life.  For the most part are entire communication with each other is “poking” back and forth on facebook.  It is stupid and pointless, but it does remind each other that the other person is still there.  2 weeks ago we went to Chicago together and it made me realize that hit the silly “poke” button was not nearly as good as talking to her face to face. 

The moral of the story is that we mistake connection or communication.  Just because someone is accessible at all times, doesn’t mine you have a good relationship.  Maybe it is time to meet up with an old buddy for coffee or a beer.  Pick up the cell phone, call your mother. Or don’t, maybe you never really like some guy who is now your buddy on facebook.  That fine, but make sure you know the difference.