This post: 'Tis a silly rant!

This blog shall be a silly blog, because right now I rather just feel like spewing my emotions onto this page.

If it is not well known already, I really would like to implement graphic news plan. Where to start, when to start, who to start with -- I know none of these answers.

But the reason I have such a strong desire to deliver and consumer graphic news is because it would be fun. I don't know if I would ever be known as its creator or if anyone would really care. Rather, the purpose is because it would be enjoyable. It would be a more enjoyable way of consuming the news than the regular morning broadcasts, the ink stained papers, the twitter feed.

I just want something different.

Which also sounds silly because news is always different, isn't it? It's always shape-shifting and becoming unrecognizable for a time.

I hope one day, graphic news exists, even if I am not the creator. I hope it becomes well-done, widely-used, and informative. I hope it's fair. I hope it can convey journalism in a good form. I hope it sheds light on truth and extracts details from scenes and stories that journalists don't have the time to convey and photographers don't have the will to capture.

5 things I wish I knew before...

Before I realized what I wanted to do with my life--write--I looked at news as a necessary but boring component of everyday life. I figured that when I was older, I might actually appreciate it. Until that day, though, it was just a way to bond with mom in the morning before the bus came.

When I finally realized I wanted to write, I was a senior in high school. I finally could admit to myself that science was not my foretold forte despite my family's predictions. 

I had some friends in journalism, and they seemed to really like it. Though I cared about English classes for the first time, I could never see myself rushing to deadlines, interviewing strangers, or being in a noisy newsroom. I still can't, really, and yet I'm immersed in its reality. 

There are five things I wish I knew before becoming a journalism student in college, regardless of my somewhat true ideas of what it entailed beforehand.

1) I wish I knew that journalism would only take over your life if you let it. There are plenty of journalists who do it for the love and hobby of it. There are others who want thousands of people to know their journalistic ways. Finding a middle ground is possible.

2) Talking to strangers isn't as scary as it sounds. With emails, phones, and internet, interviewing people can be fun and easy. And people love talking about themselves and their projects.

3) Journalism classes and books really will prepare you. 

4) Reading is the only way to be good at writing. That's what I learned when I read Stephen King's book on writing. That guy reads 80 novels a year. Some are on audio so that when he travels, he can listen. And almost all his books have been on the New York Time's Bestseller list. So yeah. I should probably start reading 80 novels a year. 

5) It's as hard as it looks. It's scary. It takes a great deal of time management and patience, even as a staff writer for a university paper. It's a challenge, but it has given me some of the best skills, intra- and interpersonal, that I could ask for.

*This blog idea was stolen from Corinne. 

When business and journalism merge

Last class, we had a visitor. A visitor who bought a magazine and then proceeded to teach about business. 

Now, needless to say, I am a journalist, which means I am mathematically challenged (this is not true for all journalists, but let's be honest). 

Mr. Burke came into our class and talked about accounts receivables, checks, balances, moneymoneymoney. 

I enjoyed Mr. Burke's presence. I enjoy learning things I do not understand so that I can better understand them. 

However much I wanted to learn about what Mr. Burke was teaching, it would not stick. We did not formally practice his principles of business. He talked to us, quizzed us on terms, and now all I know is how little I understand of the working world. 

If anything, Mr. Burke's presentation enlightens me of the fact that I never want to run a business. How could any one person know and do all of those things? Could I have an accountant do it? Sure. But I need to be able to check over things to make sure there are no problems, and how can I do that if I don't understand what I'm supposed to be doing?

I think next time I try to learn about business and finance, I should either be tutored from a finance major or buy a Dummies book. Otherwise, I am lost in a sea of numbers and numbness without even a hope of drowning. 

The concept of Goodwill

Goodwill, the business, is very different than the Goodwill in business.

It is not:

But rather a theory:

"Goodwill reflects a firm’s ability to retain customers based on prior performance. Essentially, if a business does a good job providing a product or service, its customers are likely to be repeat customers."

Again, I face a bit of a moral dilemma. Why is it called goodwill? I understand why the clothing Goodwill is called that. It meets a need. But goodwill within a business because it provides a dependable service...?

I guess I just don't understand. I have this mentality that businesses are more so for their own profit than for your gain. Most businesses are trying to survive, right? And not only to survive, but to really thrive in their respective economies and times. 

But to call it goodwill when customers keep coming back doesn't seem right to me. Does anyone else feel that way? 

If not, that's okay. I am not offended. If I could call it something else, I might call it just "quality services" from the business. Or returning customers. Goodwill makes it sound like they are doing something so great for the community at large, when in reality a lot of business try to change their stores around a lot, always have new products so that you feel like you absolutely have to keep coming back to get what you need. It almost creates a dependency in a spending culture. 

I don't know. I think I would just prefer it if businesses would provide high quality items at a good price, and keep those items around long enough so that customers do not feel they have to indulge in the consumerist society we have created. 

Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable

Is there even a point to accounts receivable and payable?

I don't think I understand the point. I think it's more a moral dilemma than anything, really, though.

Think about it. For accounts receivable, a customer promises to pay for the services provided. So what -- loans? Mortgages? Tabs at the bar?

And then accounts payable is when the business promises to pay the customer.

So then I wonder, why? Why do we have this system. It seems like its beyond the barter system, doesn't it? Maybe that's just my sleepy brain talking. But really, you promise to pay for something?

Is this part of the I-want-it-right-now generation? All of this business talk has just gotten me wondering why our system is so complicated. I get it -- it's hard work to run a business. It takes money to make money.

But what happened when it wasn't like this? Did systems fall? Or was is just not creating enough money? Or did things change when we went from local bartering to international trade?

I obviously don't understand the system, and I admire that it is so complex. Who thought of all this? One night, someone was laying in their bed and couldn't fall asleep. They tossed and they turned, they tossed and they turned! To overcome their sleep depravity, they came up with complex algorithms that would one day be the spine of every business in the world! After the algorithm, they had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and went to bed.

Does it just get you wondering, who invented this stuff!?

At least I can say that I have a refreshed appreciation for all of those souls who understand this practice.

Is life like a business?

Today we have a guest who will be visiting our class to speak about what it was like for him to purchase a magazine. My professor, Sandy, has given us a bunch of overview business sheets to look at it in order to prepare.

While I don't understand most of the business-jargon, I will say this: Life begins to look like a business once you've read over some of the principles Sandy sent us.

Life probably looks like a business because our lives are surrounded by business.

Even the way I conduct some of my finances (ahem, or try to...) looks like a business.

"A balance sheet reports what a business owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities) and what remains for the owners (equity) as of a certain date. This equation must always be in balance. Always keep in mind the teeter totter  illustration shown above." 

When I try to organize my bills and my finances, I set up a spreadsheet and hope everything balances out in the end. Is it the same? Of course not. A business must be exact, precise, and functioning. My finances spreadsheets can be a little bit more slack since they will never be published or used for anything. 

Oh, and if you say something like this to me: 

Equity = Assets - Liabilities

This is my face:

But a business person will understand what those words actually mean. So even though life is surrounded by business, I am so thrilled that there are smarter people out there than me who can translate those principles into the working world.

When John Herman came to visit

John Herman came to visit our class.

John Herman added something to my life, I think. Because at first, John Herman has a mature face that somehow looks young. He has brown hair without any gray flecks in it yet. And at first, when we were introducing ourselves around the classroom, I predicted that this famous John Herman guy would be bored with what we were saying. I predicted that he wouldn't really care what we were doing, whether we were listening.

To be honest, I predicted he would come to our class and lecture at us about how to be better journalists.

But then he didn't. Instead, he talked about his own life. His eyes were alive with his adventures. He turned his instruction into a story, and went through examples of how he got followers over the Internet, lost them, and then regained an audience. He explained that he's made a name for himself not because he's advertised his products. Instead, he's advertised himself apart from any product.

He's John Herman. He's an actor, writer, teacher, almost went to space, husband, father, and yet he's John Herman. Just John Herman.

Now that you know more about what I remember when I met John Herman, you can also know that I really liked listening to him. He had good stories to tell, and amidst his stories, he looked for feedback.

And he said that the college students in the room had the blankest expressions, and he just had no idea what we were thinking. The whole class laughed.

In a very sincere way, John Herman taught me a lot about himself and myself. By showing me all the things he was doing, had done, and even some of the things he wanted to do, I learned about the things I'm not willing to do and some of the things that I could maybe do but scare me.

Could I really put myself out there the same way that John Herman has? I don't know. But now I know there is a way.