It's A Rant...But Read Anyway

I'm getting somewhat tired of people asking me what I'm going to do with my life. I guess there is nothing I can do about that, but it has become the default question whenever I am talking to someone. After they find out that I am a senior in college, the very next thing out of people's mouths is, "What are you going to do after graduation?" I usually answer with, "I don't know" and then follow that with what direction I am going in. I have a preset answer in my mind. But it just gets repetitive after the 500th time.

Again, it is not anyone's fault. I guess it is the natural question to ask a senior in college, and I understand that. I am just ranting for the sake of ranting. I do that every-once and a while.

So no offense to you if you have asked me this question in the past, again this is just a rant.
Plus, I have been accused of neglecting my blog for the past week, so I thought I'd better write something to satisfy the masses.

Also, if you'd like to see the direction I'm headed in life check out this post as well as some of my other previous posts. Just a hint, it relates to media in church.

Don't worry, there will be more posts to come in the next week before the new year.

P.S. I'm home until January 8th, so if anyone wants to grab coffee and catch up just give me a call, shoot me an email (jkburns@gmail.com) or facebook me (http://facebook.com/jburns).

Weekend Update 9/19

It's quite obvious, but I haven't written a post in a couple months. Part of that is just craziness of life, the other part is that whenever I think about writing a post I just question the value of what I have to say. Is it really necessary to write a blog post about whatever I am thinking? Sometimes I think not, but most of the time I think it is necessary, I just need to dedicate the time to doing it.

So here I sit.

So since the title of this whole blog is "Updates in the life of...Josh" I thought I would give you some updates in my life.

I had a great summer where I worked as the "Media Consultant" at my church back home in Covington, Kentucky, Calvary Baptist Church. I absolutely loved that, and learned a ton about many different ares in life. Media, Print Design, administration, decision making, among other things. So it proved to be a profitable summer.

Now I am back at school at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, IL. The bad part about that statement is the part about school. The good part of that statement is that means that I am back at college. I've said this several times but college would be awesome if it weren't for the school part. So as you can tell, I'm not a big fan of school. But it has been awesome to back with friends, and playing soccer again.

Speaking of soccer, we now have a 6-2 record, which is the best record that we've had in my 4 years here, so it poses to be an exciting season for our team.

Also, me and my roommate Nate and our neighbor Alan are back in action with producing "Wheel Seat" episodes. We have put out 3 more episodes since being back at school and they are all great, especially the most recent episode entitled "'I Am T-Pain' - Taylor Swift" where we address some recent happenings in the entertainment world, and we have some fun with autotune. So you all should check it out below.

And be assured that I will begin to post more frequently. Enjoy!

The Internet's Influence on Education Part 2

In the first part of this post series I talked about the large influence that I think the internet is having and is going to have on education. I talked specifically about the area of graphic/web design because that is what a couple of my friends have alot of experience in. My friends have had no formal education and training in this area and yet they have jobs in the "real world" in these areas.

Where did they learn everything?

The internet!

So what does this mean for us?

Well when I say "us" I'm referring to myself as a student who has 1 more year in college and then is going to be released into the "real world." So I guess I could better phrase that question, what does this mean for me? But you could apply the question to yourself.

For me I think it means that I must use the internet as a resource. Notice I said, resource, not the ultimate source. The internet offers a multitude of great things to be learned but sometimes it doesn't cut it. Sometimes a book is a great resource. But either way, I cannot ignore the fact that the internet is one of the biggest sources of information available.

Also, I think it means that I must remember the old adage "all things in moderation." The internet is a great thing, and I'll be the first to tell you that social media and social networking are very great things. But I have learned in the past year that social networking cannot and hopefully never will be a substitute for face2face interaction. I'm a huge advocate of facebook, twitter, blogging, etc. but it will always come down to getting away from your computer and meeting those people in person and sharing your passions and goals with them. (Sorry that was a bit of a social media tangent, but I think it applies here).

So I think for students in college or even high school and lower ages I would say this, learn everything you can from the internet. Figure out what your passions in life are and study whatever that is in college. If you have an opportunity to get a job that could be a career then go for it. Notice I'm not telling you to not go to college and not get a degree but sometimes or maybe alot of times you can learn more from researching the internet than you can from sitting in a classroom using outdated methods and outdated equipment. (I mean that last paragraph in the most positive way possible).

What does this mean for those who are teachers or professors?

Use the internet to your advantage. Use it for all the reasons that I just talked about. It is a great, FREE resource. And in many times there are people out there that know more than you might know about a certain subject or can give a different view on a subject that will help your students understand the subject better. I think this can be applied to every grade, every subject, every age. Our kids need to learn how to use the internet the right way because if we don't teach them they're gonna try to learn on their own and sometimes that may not be the best thing.

So I'm gonna go ahead and say it...

If you are planning on studying some type of graphic design, video editing, web design, photography or any other type of media then I'm gonna assume you already know alot about these things. So if you just wanna get your degree just for the sake of getting a job that you could already have then go to a small school because its gonna be easy for you but you're not gonna learn much. But if you want to learn more and really get good training then you should probably spend the money and go to a top-of-the-line school that uses good equipment, and up-to-date methods. This way you are learning alot and getting a degree.

This post was obviously focused around students, but also I hope that it helped out those who are teachers as well. There may be more posts to come in this series, I haven't quite decided yet, but I think this will do for now.

Also, a reader commented on my last post and said that the content of the post was more biased toward the internet rather than education, and I'll admit that yes I am very biased toward the internet, but I hope this post was a little more balanced.

What do you think?

Should we be teaching our kids how to use the internet?

Do we even need to teach them how to use the internet...?

...or should we just let them figure it out on their own?

Growing Close

Well I am officially done with my Junior year of College, and only 1 more year to go. This post will not be a reflection on what I've learned this year, but rather a reflection on someone who I have grown really close to over the year.

This person has been one of my roommates this year, his name is Nate Nearpass or @natenearpass on twitter. I do have another roommate, his name is Kyle Isabelli, and I love him dearly, but I'd like to talk about Nate right now.

I did not realize it until the day that I was leaving, but I have grown really close to Nate over the past year. And most of this is due to the fact that we roomed together. We have spent measurably much more time together than we have in years past. It is also due in part to both of our break-ups this year, and we have each helped each other majorly through those. But I think the mere fact that we have spent so much time together has made a huge difference.

The day I was packing up and getting ready to leave, I was telling him goodbye, and I realized that I am going to be talking to him alot more this summer than I have in past summers. I have talked to him practically everyday for the past 2 semesters. We have talked about lives, school, everything. Not to mention our videoblog/internet TV show has taken off, and we have had a blast with that.

So even though he is going to be in Africa and California the whole summer, and I will be traveling coaching and running soccer camps, we will definitely still stay in contact with each other and keep each other update on what is happening in our lives.

I just want to encourage you to cherish those people who are close to you, and who understand you, and will listen to you, and will talk to you. Because they are very few and far between.

To all my other friends out there, I love you all greatly, and I could write a whole blog post about each one of you, but this has risen in my mind recently with leaving school, so I thought I'd write about it.

Love you all

Do you have someone in your life that you are close to, or that you will be leaving soon that you are going to miss extremely?

Also below you will find the latest episode The Wheel Seat, if your interested.

Get A Room!

I don't know about you, but here at my school, Moody Bible Institute, some of the students are seriously ridiculous. You know those dating high school couples that are so high on hormones and physical touch that its ridiculous? Yeah well I thought I was going to leave those people in high school, but when I came to Moody I realized I was wrong.

I just want to tell a quick story, and then conclude my rant.

So I was standing in line in our cafeteria today, waiting patiently to receive my food when I noticed that this couple in front of me are just all over each other. Immediately I'm just annoyed to death. Not that I'm bitter towards dating couples or anything, but its just disgusting sometimes when you see people that are just constantly all over each other.

Back to the story. So I'm just standing in line, waiting to get my food so I can get away from these lovebirds, (what you are about to read is completely true) when I see the guy stick his spoon up the sleeve of his girlfriend's short sleeve shirt and start rubbing her shoulder with it. NO LIE! I about gagged. The girl of course kept saying "Oh stop it" in her little squirrelly voice, and the guy pulled the spoon out of her shirt and then proceeded to use it.

I realize that the people that I saw doing this could be reading this post right now, and actually I'm hoping that you are reading. If you are reading this, take a lesson from the wise, either get your hormones under control or get a freaking room.

Ok, thats my rant for the day.

P.S. I realize this may seem like nothing to some of you. I know some of you go to or have gone to public or state colleges, and you probably see much worse than this everyday, but here at Moody we have strict rules about PDA and physical touch between couples. Because of these rules couples do everything else possible except kiss, therefore it gets pretty disgusting.

Do you feel the same way I do about this?

Have a nice day