1. To avoid the staggered half-apologetic posting schedule of some of my closest blogging friends (I’m looking at you, Derek) I have been busy for the past week doing what I do best: thinking about writing.

I can’t begin to guess how many leads I’ve written in my head in advance of even transcribing my notes and how many Tweets, headlines, blog posts or chapters of my memoirs I’ve composed in my head only to forget them before I could chronicle them.

But beyond remembering deja vu-like phrases and strung together sentences, the biggest deterrent to me blogging over the past week has been you: the reader.

When I was at Technician, and even now at The Garner Citizen, it’s fairly easy to pick out what stories are newsworthy. Anything an average student would need/want to know belongs in the Technician and anything concerning sports in the Garner area probably deserves a mention in the Citizen’s sports pages.

And that brings me to the articles (and a video) that first dragged me into this pit of overanalysis concerning my web presence from The New York Times Magazine.

NYTMag’s most recent series of stories has been concerned with “The Way We Live Now” and has had an increased focus on social networking and how it has changed…well everything.

Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail I wrote to Daniel and Jessica concerning the articles:
“Even when we write in our personal blogs or Tweets or whatever, often we have to think twice about how others will perceive us. How many times have you done something and immediately thought, “Wow, I can’t wait to write about this on our travel blog” or began thinking about how to write it while you were still experiencing it. … If you’re constantly chronicling your present, are you ever truly experiencing it?”

And so, NYTMag gave me a writer’s block that I couldn’t shake. If I blogged, was I really benefitting myself since my posts would be tid bits about my life packaged in a way that you, the reader, may find entertaining? If I discuss the strangest class I’ve ever enrolled in (see below) in a story-telling manner am I sapping myself of my ability to appreciate it by trying to convince you to as well?

(Yes. Overanalysis. But that’s typically what I do. I search for motives and reasons and I just really like the question why…especially when I feel like I have a hunch it will lead to someone asking why not. I don’t really look for meanings in absolutely everything, but I have this divining rod within me that feels poetic justice wins out in the end. I guess I’m still convinced this life is just a novel I’m living and that each event and happening foreshadows something else. Yeah that sounds a lot like fate, but I like using lots of words to describe concepts…it’s good for the vocabulary and prevents me from falling victim to Orwell’s dreaded Newspeak).

And so I’ve decided to break down a few events I wanted to write about in shorter forms below. These are my thoughts of the past week. Enjoy:

2. So I’m a history major and at N.C. State, the jewel in the crown that is your useless History B.A. is a senior seminar known as HI 491. (Derek will remember this as well).

There are different sections and they’re all very specifically tailored to minute details in history. I wanted to take the one about the Jimmy Carter administration (My mentor’s favorite president) but ended up in one about NOLA and Katrina. Not bad, right? It’s exciting, it’s current, it’s history I lived through.

But then I received a rather disappointing letter from a former professor of mine. It was a D. I deserved it, but this did mean I needed to add a new class to graduate on time. After a few tweaks to my schedule, I was set to graduate, though I was now enrolled in a different seminar: Rule of law from a historical perspective.

Let’s recap: Need to pass difficult class. Enrolled in exciting class. Need to pass additional class. Enrolled in another class, plus a class that’s title draws me to sleep.

But then, amazingness struck! This class began when the head of the history department was talking to a colleague about blah blah blah…and then the TEAGL foundation (a derivative of Exxon-Mobil, somehow) sponsored the class.

So this is an experimental class of 11 with two professors who have some cash to burn. This means the hummus in my refrigerator was paid for by a grant. It also means the dinners we’re having later this semester (including travel) will be paid for by this grant, but that may not even be the best part.

This course, which is all about philosophy and deep-thinking overanalysis (see above for why this makes me excited), will include a final paper that may be published in a book my professors are writing about their experiment.

So I get free hummus, dinners, a degree and a chance to be published in a real academic book? Saddle up and ride!

3. I feel like this article is an essential read for anyone in any of my shoes right now. That is, in college, in your 20s, concerned about when it’s time to grow up, unsure about any career paths or goals, wondering if moving back home is a pathway toward a career goal, unsure about graduate school, Americorps, Peace Corps, the Armed Forces, considering studying abroad or taking a year off, contemplating what religion is, means or should be…pretty much any normal thought of a college student/20-something. Which is exactly what the article is about.

Take a look at it (it’s very long, though) and let me know what you think…I would like to devote a lecture to it…or at least find out if someone else was as encouraged and discouraged by it at the same time.

4. I love Ferris Bueller’s day off.

To learn a bit more about what you consider news (at least, the type of news content I can create), allow me to attempt a funneling of your comments. Post 1 was on blogging itself as I contrasted my views and experiences with that of some articles found in a recent periodical. Post 2 was a hyperlocal focus on a class I’m in. Post 3 is similar to Post 1, though I’d like to expand it in a way that focuses on how I feel like the article affects society as a whole. Post 4, well that’s just because that movie could be considered among my cinematic building blocks of life along with Anchorman.

So what do you, the reader, prefer? Wanna know what I think about me, what’s going on in my life, what I think about you and society and how much you disappoint me, or more about Ferris?

Comment away! This blogging adventure is brand-new for me, and I want you guys to come along with me.

So as I begin my actual blogging career, I’d like to share with you how I’ve arrived at this particular site.

I got this WordPress site in the spring to build a Web portfolio on for a class, though I quickly realized WP doesn’t have an easy-to-use Issuu extension, so I moved my portfolio here. See how awesome that resume scrolling feature is? Why doesn’t WordPress allow that? If I can ever figure out how to make that work, I’ll integrate that portfolio until WordPress, but until then I prefer Issuu and Blogspot.

But as I blogged on this site this summer for yet another writing course, I realized I really wanted a site to vent about the frustrations and irony of life, so I decided I would convert my classblog into this, so I started looking around for ideas.

I particularly liked what my MSCNE friends Rikki and Kelsey used their blogs for. It was an additional writing medium where they provided commentary on politics and journalism and whatever they were doing. It was great because while we follow each other on Twitter and spent a rather blurry week together last year, their blogs gave me a concrete opportunity to learn more about what was going on in their lives as fellow journalists even though they’re in Michigan and Washington. Then I realized if their opinions on life entertained me, there must be billions of people that want to know what I think.

And so I’ve removed the class-related posts from this site and now this will be the chief site through which you can find out everything I think about anything in 140+ characters. (For less than 140 character updates on my life, follow @tyjohnson1)

But what about the other Ty Johnsons out there? What if I want to follow in Mr. Schnell’s footsteps and get a real domain? What if I’m not the coolest Ty Johnson on the Internet?Trust me, I looked around on Google for quite some time (0.32 seconds) to gauge the Ty Johnson competition and the market out there for me-related domains.

And so here are some of my Ty Johnson brethren:

3D Modeler Ty Johnson of Oregon: http://www.tyjohnson.net/
This Ty most likely was late to the domain party, as well, but that .net definitely lends some legitimacy to his site. Here’s a bit about him from his bio at tyjohnson.net:
“For over four years now, I’ve helped studios bring their ideas into the third dimension. Most recently I was “Modeler” for LAIKA Studios and created countless 3D assets for developing feature films.
I realize the life of a model doesn’t begin and end with me. Instead, I take it upon myself to understand the needs of riggers and texture artists and do what I can to make their jobs easier. Time has also taught me to channel my fine-arts background into every project with a haste that could only come from commercial experience.”

Artist Ty Johnson of Kansas: http://www.tyjohnsonart.com
This story is awesome. Apparently he has been missing for more than a decade and this site is run by the son of a friend. Here’s an excerpt from his bio:
“Ty was born in Kansas in 1941. He did 3 tours in Vietnam. He was a boxer in the marines. After Vietnam he came and stayed with us for one night ….“then he disappeared for over 10 years.”After being a missing person for over a decade Ty sent an intricately drawn card to my dad that just said, “Still Alive” signed Ty. My dad said of him, “I knew him better than anybody, and I didn’t know him.” He was a very mysterious guy. He had a large vocabulary and was very well educated but liked the excitement of being in the ghetto. My Dad said about him”He wasn’t afraid of anybody.” “

The real Ty Johnson?: http://www.tyjohnson.com/
This is evidence that having the definitive domain name doesn’t mean you necessarily have the best content.

Photographer Ty Johnson of Virginia: http://www.tyjohnsonphotography.com/
This Ty Johnson and his Nikon have found some beautiful angles on life. Just sit through his home page slideshow. I really like the colors. Here’s a bit about him from his bio:
“Over the past several years I have come to love photography. I am constantly trying to learn as much as I can and take every opportunity to do so. Though I love shooting almost anything, my favorite things to shoot are vivid colors, candid moments, and movement.”

And finally, here’s the Ty Johnson site that made me saddest, and not because it was a domain purchased by a father for his son that just went back on sale through godaddy.com this month: tyjohnsonblog.com

Here’s the cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:POmVReku89sJ:tyjohnsonblog.com/%3Fs%3D+tyjohnsonblog&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

So, looking for a Web site domain (during a week that already sucked) I’m met with this message:

“Wishing you the best Future,Promising you the Love that you deserve.”

The sentence, as much as I don’t understand its choice of capitalized words, was almost uplifting. A random Google search of myself brought me to a nice thought during a dark time. But, of course it was followed with this:

“Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn’t here.”

So…that best future and love I deserve…that doesn’t exist? Great.

And so this concludes my blog introduction to myself by showing you which Ty Johnsons I am not. If you have thoughts or if you’re a Ty Johnson that wants your site featured on this blog post (or a Ty Johnson that wants your site removed from this post) let me know!

Thanks for reading!