Here's all the things that suck about the iPad, according to the New Yorker...

My favorites include, "upscaling makes porn unexpectedly upsetting," "When used as murder weapon, oleophobic coating does not completely eliminate incriminating fingerprints," and "too salty."

Even considering those significant limitations, I'm trying hard not to student charge an iPad, only to find I have no real need for it. 

And here's a sneak peak at the iPad's golfing game...

Original summer plans, see post below. Current summer plans, flip a coin.

Bike Mag's current intern situation is failing them. Their interns have caused problems and wasted time in the office. As a result, I was recently told they'd be stopping the intern program I would be left high and dry for the summer. Not wasting any time, I finished the e-mail and walked across the street to Newsy.com and asked for a job. Marketing jobs are full, damn. How about an office job? I need experience for my finance major too. Newsy is a great place to work, a great place to earn a buck, and an even better place to see what life in a real internet start-up is like. 

Enter Monday. Two people from Bike call, explaining their situation and offering the unpaid internship to me on the merits of the school I go to and a personal reputation, with an expectation that I can actually do journalism.

I've never been at such a crossroads before. I'll find out today or tomorrow if Newsy is hiring, if they aren't I think I'll head to California. If Newsy wants me, then I have no idea. It's a hell of a decision; earn roughly 3k with two jobs (Walt's bike shop and Newsy) staying in Missouri with my girlfriend, or spend roughly that living in southern California without my girlfriend, and with an uncertain experience to be had at Bike.

I seriously might have to flip a coin, 50/50 right?

I've been lucky enough to achieve a long-time goal, a summer internship at BIKE Magazine. To make things better, the internship is in one of the best parts of America, southern California. I'll be escaping Missouri, home, and the midwest in general and driving out to San Clemente, Ca to spend a couple of months working with some of the most popular and influential voices in mountain biking. 

Basic duties include fact checking and intern burrito runs, but I've been told that "depending on the skill and ambition of the intern, we've had people working side by side the senior staff by the end of the summer," so that's where I'd like to be. One thought is to focus on working with their web site, generating and pushing more content online, as well as popularizing it. 

Oh, ya and then there's the riding. California's wide variety of terrain is like a godsend to mountain bikers, and thankfully BIKE's offices sit at the foot of what I've been told are incredible trails. I'm setting some goals for riding now and for in the summer; I want to get every last ounce of riding squeezed from the California dirt. That dirt takes many forms in the Golden State, and photog/rider Patrick Branch has something to say about that... 

Golden State from Patrick Branch on Vimeo.

Oh yes, and then there's the surfing...

Recently I read a provocative article from Mashable.com addressing the inherent nature of the internet, is it a right or a privilege? In the United States most people accept the internet as an unabridged source of information, not subject to any censorship or regulation. This is part of why the internet is considered an aid to democracy. This is also why parents don't let teenage boys have computers in their room. 

According to a reader poll from the Mashable.com article, a majority of readers agreed that the internet is a fundamental right. Considering that Mashable.com is an English language web site focused on western social media trends, it's not surprising that freedom of information is held in high value. Looking at the votes from middle eastern and Asian countries, Mashable.com points out that the voting trend is much more conservative. For example only 16% of Chinese and 13% of Turkish people who voted said the internet should exist without regulation. I feel like it's common for Americans to think of those countries full of people waiting to break out from under oppressive rule, but a (supposedly) independent vote like this reveals a much different ideology. 

Ultimately I think the internet, like other mediums of information, is a political tool. Every country's government will have control over their internet, but governments will use that control differently. Democratic governments will use that control to implement policies protecting freedom of information, and more constrictive forms of government will use that power to withhold information from the public or provide disinformation. 

If that provides any insight into how one's own country will handle information access, then I am left wondering how access is handled across borders. Will an American be able to find things on a Chinese based server that isn't available to the Chinese public? Either way there is still a lot of free access to the internet, which means you can still see my blog posts, even if I turn into a communist. ...which probably won't happen.

I have been tasked this week with providing some information about my out of class activities in J4806, Convergence Editing. I am currently working at Newsy.com, billed as a multi-perspective online news source. It's based right here in Columbia, has some incredible staff at its helm, and affords j-students the opportunity to work in an online start-up environment. 

There I have been editing videos since the start of the semester, but will soon transition to the Columbia Missourian. Editing at Newsy has been a great intro into the depths of Final Cut Pro video editing software. The complex and powerful tool is used by filmmakers worldwide and requires a lot of skill to master.

I have grown comfortable with the workflow, editing three stories in the time it used to take me to do one. While already familiar with FCP's environment, there are many things I've learned since being there. The neatest is chroma keying, also known as green-screening. We use that in every video to superimpose the anchor onto Newsy backgrounds for anchor on camera (AOC) shots. The most practical tool I've learned is simple in and out cuts. I have been aware of this easy way to cut video into the story, but never fully understood how they fit into the workflow. 

Here is a sad story I edited about the death of a killer whale trainer at Sea-World.