etc

2009.

Everyone’s talking of their New Year’s resolutions. I don’t do resolutions because I know I won’t keep them.

I DO, however, set goals for myself each New Year. Most of them are attainable, but some are pretty tough for me to achieve. I’d definitely be lying if I said I get all of them each year, but I always try.

So here they are. These are my goals for the year 2009.

1. Get a new, full-time job in my field.
2. Save up and get a new MacBook.
3. Begin a morning workout routine.
4. Have a strong understanding of PHP in web design.

As I said, all of these will probably not be completed, but these continue to give me things to strive for each year. It always makes the year more interesting.

Now, time for me to print off my “goal posters.” I print these off and hang them in my room. When I complete a goal, I rip said goal off the wall. It gives me a more complete feeling when I get to do this.

So, for everyone, I hope your Christmas was great and your 2009 will be even greater.

the structural integrity of journalism.

Tomorrow is going to be one of those days where I learn about myself a bit. Having lunch with a friend before an appointment.

The thing about it is that this is a friend that I’ve begun to get to know more in the last month or so. But it’s not like we’ve had a ton of deep conversations, but it seems like we’ve had a lot to say to each other. I don’t know how to really describe it. It’s strange.

She and I are two very different people, but we have a deep passion for one simple thing - the survival of journalism. And it seems that’s one of those things that really creates a unique relationship between people. I work in the industry and she is graduating in a week to begin a career in the same field. Just like I am about my job security, she is nervous about the start of it.

We’re in a time where no one knows what’s going to happen. Journalism and newspapers are basically in a preverbial state of confusion, and need I say, puberty.

It needs to learn to grow up technologically, but it doesn’t know how to.

This is where I think a heavy load of our conversation will lead at lunch over hot soup and warm sandwiches. Neither of us know, but we seem to both have a strong ambition toward the same goal. I’m always interested to know what the younger minds of journalism want to do. As one myself, I have my ideas, but many are just from blind ambition and hope. I know they’d fail. But compile many, and you just might find a clue.

Some big wigs and “traditional” journalists need to understand this. The wave of technology hit newspapers and journalism like a tidal wave and destroyed its structure, but its foundation still stands.

That foundation are the things journalists want to achieve and the drive many have to keep that goal achievable. With that foundation, you can begin to build. And I hope to be a part of the construction crew.

As she does.

I hope lunch tomorrow gives me a new friend that can enjoy the company discussing these things. I respect her in what she does and how she does it. There is an ambition that I see that is exactly what journalism needs.

Maybe it’s the start of a new uprising. Who knows if it can start at a simple soup and sandwich lunch?