I've always thought of myself as a storyteller instead of a writer. I love telling the story about how I was at Clay Bucholz's no-hitter or the funny old man that copied my movements at the grocery store. I like to tell stories all the time through pictures, video, and obviously through my writing. It's been fascinating throughout the evolution of social media and Facebook. People started out thinking it was kind of a cool thing and today major corporations breakdown every single one of their movements on the site. But while my photography style and advancement has certainly changed, …

Last night I attended an event put on by the Ball State Creative Writing Department. It was the first in this year’s series of visiting writers, and the star of the night was published author Michael Martone. I had read some of Martone’s work, but never actually seen him in person, and the impression I got from his appearance when I first walked into the room was one of an older professor-type who would be very likely to call out anyone in the room he may catch using a cell phone or iPod during his presentation. I was wrong. Before …

I sat on the plane with my notebook in front of me writing diligently about the stories I heard while visiting my family in Maryland. “Looks like your writing the next novel there” the business man sitting to my right said. I explained to him that I am an English major and that over the summer I like to read and write so I don’t get rusty. It turns out the business man was in the publishing industry; the industry I want to be a part of. A couple of weeks before I found myself on the plane, …

I'm nothing special. I don't have a photographic memory—I can't memorize a website's URL if I find something cool or interesting online. An easy solution is to bookmark that page. Simple enough. As a college student, I'm always on the move and I don't always have my laptop with me. If bookmarked an item on my web browser, I wouldn't be able to access it from the computer lab. As a work-around, I would copy URLs, paste them into an email, and send it to myself. It was ugly and unorganized, but it worked. Last fall, …

FaceBook is now in the top ten for devices used in makinga decision to divorce and was used as a form of evidence in 46% of all divorcesacross the country last year. Just know that whatever you say, can, and will beused against in you in a court of law when you are dumb enough to post itonline. Every day I watch news stories about police finding a culprit becauseof tips derived from reading FaceBook postings. I must say, when I was 18-23like most of my college …

Social media is an aspect of our lives that most of us would have no idea what to do without. But is there too much social media around us? Is everything turning into social media? My brother told me about Spotify, which I was told would be "the better version of Pandora" because I can choose specific artists and listen to them all day long. On his fancy iPhone, he connects to Spotify and listens to only and all John Mayer while making an hour commute to work. This sounds like the perfect free application on the surface. I downloaded …

When a professor mentioned the underdog search engine Duck Duck Go in class, I decided to abandon Google search for a week to test it out. The site was created by a MIT graduate in Pennsylvania and known for its simplicity, little advertising, and user privacy. One week later, I have no intention of returning to Google. And here is why: Google search saves all your information, your past searches, and your identity. Everything you do online is bound to show up again, in advertisements mostly. This can be kind of annoying when your spout of frantic searching for …

I am an avid Facebook user. To be honest, I don’t think I have made it through an entire day without at least checking my notifications or news feed in almost 2 years. That being said, I still get as frustrated as anyone every time the social networking giant changes its layout. Usually this only lasts about a week, though, and then I see the changes as improvements and can go on as if nothing is different at all. But this time, I think Zuckerberg’s team took the wrong approach to the problem. I’ve been told that the latest Facebook …

Interesting dilemma I had today. I needed new hearing aid molds that go from the unit to your ear canal. Depending on where you live, you can walk into a drug store and just buy them but oh no... I am in the middle of a corn field... a lovely corn field but still a corn field. I went to an audiologist (not my audiologist) and he would not sell me a temporary mold without testing, diagnosis, transfer of charts, blah, blah, blah. That is so ridiculous. They are temporary for a reason. I already have an audiologist 2 hours …

I have a confession to make. I paid more money than I make in a year to see The Lion King in IMAX/3D. I’m aware that this is a tech blog, so don’t worry, it’s headed in that direction. But instead of starting from the straight technological path, let me guide you from my starting point. As a young boy at the age of 8, yet another Disney movie headed to theaters. This meant one thing for my mother and Aunt: dragging about 10 children under 13 to watch their animated masterpiece. I was already fascinated with the Ninja Turtles …