Twitter Great Tool for Following Favorite Bloggers

I've been hearing about Twitter since I began following big-name bloggers like Howard Owens and Ryan Sholin, but only yesterday did I check it out for the first time. Basically, it's like Facebook stripped to the bare minimum. And it's pretty cool.

Twitter works like this: 

• First, you visit twitter.com and sign up for an account.
  
• Then, you write a 140-or-fewer-word status update. This is a lot like the status updates on Facebook, but you can be a little more in-depth.
• If you want, you can find friends, family, or colleagues to "follow" on Twitter. When you "follow" someone, you will be alerted whenever his/her status changes.

That's pretty much all there is to it. The "follow" feature is the coolest part. You can even set up your cell phone or certain IM services to receive text updates when the status of someone you're following changes. And -- even cooler -- you can change your own status from anywhere using your phone!

Right now I'm following Ryan Sholin, Howard Owens, and Sean Blanda, so I can keep up with their blogs. Feel free to follow me too (I know, it's kinda presumptuous of me to think anyone wants to know what I'm doing 24/7). Point is, Twitter's a great tool. 

For Those of You Who Have Terrible Grammar

For those of you who have terrible grammar -- and don't mind being corrected on it -- here's a post by none other than my little brother, Ethan. I almost fell on the floor laughing. Enjoy.

Tales of a Canadian Hitchhiker

In my last post, I expressed my desire to get out in the real world and find real stories. Recently I'd begun to doubt if other journalism students shared my aspirations. Then I met Drew.

When Drew showed up at random on the Grace campus, I assumed he was a prospective student or a friend of a friend. Later I learned that he is a Canadian university student hitchhiking across the U.S. before going back to school in the fall.

Like myself, Drew is majoring in journalism. Makes sense. Journalists write stories, and Drew will have one heckuva story by the time he arrives in California.

Since leaving Toronto, Drew has slept outside and scrounged for food. He's gone a week without a shower and waited eight hours straight to be picked up. He's bummed rides in an ice cream truck and a shiny Lincoln.

People go entire lifetimes and never end up with stories like these. And these are just the ones he told me over popcorn chicken at Arby's.

Later that night, I was talking with my roommate Ryan. "I want to do that someday," I said. "Well," replied Ryan, "You'll never do it if you keep saying 'someday.'"

He's probably right. But I still dream of doing it -- for the sake of the stories.

Class Assignments or Real Life?

I'm in journalism because I like to write and I love a good story. Good stories are all over the place -- too bad school makes it tough to get out and find them. 

I mean, I'm learning great stuff in class. But if I spend lots of time on assignments, I feel like I'm missing out on the real stories -- the kind that happen in the real world. So I have to choose. And given the choice between real stories and class assignments, I'd choose...real stories.

Like Sean Blanda says in his post "Confessions of a Journalism Student," employers in the journalism trade seem not to care much about GPA. It's all about the work you've done. Of course, I'm not saying journalism students should simply ignore their assignments for real stories. Mostly, I just try to combine them.

However, it takes a lot of work and time-budgeting to kill these two birds with one stone. It's easy to write a story on some campus event and turn it in for class. It's more difficult to get out in the community, do research, and report real news -- even harder when you've waited until the last minute and you've got exams to study for. But man, it's worth it.

Can't wait till summer, when I can dig up some great stories without those pesky class assignments breathing down my neck.