The Future of News, Media and Writing

I learned in the past week or two that newspapers had lost tens of thousands of jobs in the past few years. Which may not seem like a huge number, yet since 2001 about 25% of newspaper jobs have been lost. It is really not surprising that newspapers are closing. With the rise of the internet news is available to billions of people, free. Whereas a newspaper is limited by distribution, printing and journalist travel, the internet is not.

I feel that the recession has helped most of us in the developed world reevaluate how we spend our money. Eating in and saving money is as rewarding as eating out. Canceling a newspaper subscription is one way to save money. After all, most of the news is available on the internet as well. Is anyone really going to cancel their internet service to save money anyway?

This also provides an opportunity. A young person interested in writing can start at a very early age with a free blog and progress to more complicated traditional expensive writing outlets. Which is to say it is easier to get started as a writer. The barrier to entry is about twenty minutes of your time, probably less. Every industry can be categorized according to it's barrier to entry. Manufacturing cars has a high barrier to entry and writing used to have a high barrier to entry. However, an aspiring writer no longer needs a printing press or traditional publishing company to inform 100 or 10,000 people of an idea or event. Of course, this is assuming that success as a writer is defined as having a following and not the size of your paycheck.

YouTube has done a similar thing for videos. iTunes, Pandora, MySpace, and others have done a similar thing for music. Facebook has just accelerated the whole process for all sorts of media. The growing trend of amateur competitions to find the best performers such as American Idol will continue in one form or another in every media industry.

While it is not explicitly said, YouTube is where the next actors and film makers are now. Instead of film makers starting with a still camera at a young age and progressing to traditional film cameras when they can afford it, we are handing nine year olds video cameras.

Going back to the news, specifically newspapers, I can envision a time when there are no salaried writers, simply editors, fact checkers, and a slew of free lance writers that jump on a story and pump it out as quick as they can in the hope of getting the free lance fee first. At the extreme end of this imagine a Twitter feed scrolling continuously on CNN. Of course there could be an anchor reading the feed so that people don't have to read. There would also be pictures and videos, taken by more free lance people. Lest I paint an incomplete picture do not forget all of the advertising.

I think we are still years from having CNN be a continuous Twitter feed yet I feel that change is inevitable. We will still continue to consume media and information, probably many times more than we do now, and it will be different.

(On a side note, I jump around on topics in this blog. I do not intend to seem unfocused. I simply have many different interests and I am constantly learning different things. I am constantly learning how to function in this world. From create a documentary to write a book to be an engineer. I am constantly learning how to do.)

The Mongol Rally 2010

This story begins in June of 2005. I was a 19 year old kid who was to be a conservationist at Pueblano at Philmont Scout Ranch. One of the program counselors (the assistant camp director) was a man named Andrew Bass. He had just graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and was enjoying his "last" free summer before the working world.

We staying in mild contact through Facebook for several years while he worked at places around the world saving his pennies until I noticed that he was riding his bicycle from Vancouver to Tierra del Fuego. From September 2008 until April 2010 he rode and lived in many different cultural places. His next adventure is the Mongol Rally 2010.

Basically the Mongol Rally is a a group of people that drive cars with less than 1.2 liter engines from Great Britain to Mongolia and then donate their cars to the people of Mongolia. Along the way they raise money for charity. The charity his brother and him are raising money for is the Mercy Corp.

He has a website, Steppe on it!. They will be blogging about their progress and inevitable breakdowns and hiccups along the way to Mongolia over six months. If you have the ability give their charity a donation (they are covering their own costs). They also have a Facebook page: Steppe on it! Mongol Rally 2010.

Below is a picture of him riding through Ecuador. I am sure this adventure will be pretty crazy. The one statistic that was most interesting to me was roughly the following from Andrew, "One team set the record for the longest tow. A team broke down in France, like on day three and was towed all the way to Mongolia. There was an old retired couple with a Land Rover that started towing them and took them most of the way. Then in like Russia or something sold them the Land Rover for whatever they had in their pockets, like seven dollars. Then they finished towing themselves to Mongolia."

Biography Building

Long ago "resume building" kind of went out the window for me. Hundreds of hours of volunteer work, short term work, organization affiliations, club officer positions, and the like were just too small in scope to include on my resume. Even with a two page resume there is so much that is left off.

I also considered the term "character building" to describe activities that did not qualify for my resume. Unfortunately, much of my character building did not come from even mildly significant stuff I have done professionally but from recreationally like going to Pakistan or Mezcal or running Extended Lost Boys.

So the new term is "biography building". I have worked the past three weeks for my uncle at Janzen's Greenhouse a 56 year old business. A few more weeks will be all that I am here. It's too short for a resume, it's not really building any character. Everything I've learned socially (character) I've known so I haven't changed at all. I also used biography instead of autobiography because it's more general, and I'm a dreamer...

Everybody that I know has biography building experiences. Times when you are out of your preferred element, but not so far out of your element that your character changes. Things that are significant, but only significant to people who know and care about you. Biography building is doing those things you enjoy to make your life more interesting and are not profitable. Things you do with your menugas. Although those may be character building as much as they are biography building.

A relative said to me last week "I'll be curious to read your biography to know what it was like to live with two deaf people." A short preview of living with two nearly deaf people, it's loud. The other inspiration he gave me was the idea of having a biography. A way to pass of stories and information to future generations. The point being, write it down, tell someone, keep a journal, strive to pass on something that might help people in the future. I heard a line in a movie once, "history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes a lot." I think that we make many mistakes similar to mistakes others have made. We can learn from others mistakes and make wise decisions in our life. If 16 and Pregnant on MTV isn't a lesson in safe sex or abstinence then I don't know what is.

So pass on your knowledge and experience. Even if it's not interesting now, in 50 or 100 years just about everything from today will seem interesting.

Book Review: Beyond the Mountain by Steve House

This is a solid mountaineering book. Steve describes the process of him going from a naive teenager to that of an experienced, one of the world's best, alpinists. He covers everything from being terrified on a 5.9 route (relatively easy) and using ancient climbing gear to getting divorced and his friends dying.

Much of the book reads like a journal or a conversation. He takes snippets of his life that were the more dramatic and puts them together in Beyond the Mountain. That is to say that much of the book can stand alone. Several of the chapters are short eulogies to alpinists died in the mountains. Others are trip reports of first ascents. Together it is an accurate description of what he gave to get to that level both on a physical and emotional level.

Beyond the Mountain struck me not for the descriptions of difficult climbing, which I promptly forgot, but for the emotional aspect. He tries several times to describe the connection between people after completing a very difficult and dangerous route. He describes the connection as one that might even be stronger than between a married couple. His descriptions reminded me of war veterans that often say they were closer to the people they served with than anyone else in their life. Veterans shared with each other in a way that people who weren't there don't understand. From my limited experience in that type of stressful situation I have an inkling of what they mean. Steve House, in my opinion, really centers his book around trying to describe those emotions.

It is a very insightful book into the life of one of the best alpinists. I will not say you need to go out and read it now. However, if you have a loved one who ventures into the mountains this is the book I would recommend most so that you might better understand your loved one. Beyond the Mountain describes the emotional effects of mountaineering, beyond the mountains.

The Unemployment Chronicles: Week 8

This week was kind of anticlimactic... and antiproductive. Don't let the somewhat negative tone of this post affect you. Sometimes moving forward is not easy or full of roses.

In the world of job searching: I applied for eight jobs between online forms and emailing people directly. The stories from the companies who are hiring is pretty much the same everywhere, "We didn't expect so many people to apply online. We had over 150 people apply for this position..." Ok hr, take a hint, the internet is kind of a big thing and it is really easy to apply to most places. Second, have you heard that unemployment is about 10%? Underemployment is over 17% as well. Thats more than one in four people in the US that aren't working as much as they would like. With those numbers in mind I am searching out other sources of income.

I opened up my coaching services to the world. My direct coaching experience is somewhat small but I've read more about running than a lot of coaches. I've also run more miles consistently than a number of coaches. While mileage is in itself not an indicator of ability to run fast, it does show how to set up a sustainable schedule for long term development.

I pulled the plug on the licensing deal with the Italian company. I'm going into production myself by outsourcing through mfg.com. I want to get it certified by the UIAA, and sell them. As far as incorporation and business law I've decided that if it looks like I am about to make enough to get out of the poverty line ($10,830) then I'll worry about legal stuff. I mean I guess they could throw me in jail but what would that accomplish? I'm so low you can't take any money away from me. Having so little money right now I think is a really good thing. I am not very vulnerable to losing my Ferrari or retirement savings. I've cut back on eating out, coffee, and the "entertainment" I pay for so I'm spending less money. Also, and this is a continuation of many things that I have said the past half year, I'm really really incredibly lovingly thankful for who and what I have. Every second is a blessing and I am not wasting my life. My friends are so valuable, more valuable than all the money I can imagine.

I discovered that for eight days I had an extra preposition in my resume. So I don't intend on getting called from any position I applied for in the last eight days because of that. Great isn't it?

I finally put my resume on my website. I have been considering it for a long time it just seemed like a waste of time and potential for stolen identity. However, I am who I am and I am 100% convinced that there is no one in the world that can be Isaiah Janzen. My hope is that someone will read one of my Abaqus posts and look for some consulting services or something and see my resume and contact me. Perhaps a head hunter might also come looking while he surfs the internet at work. I doubt it but it's up there in gory detail for the world to see.

Something my dad always suggested in our family was having nothing to hide. No locks on inside doors, no secrets, etc. I didn't always agree but as I get older it's like why not? I will not share the secrets of my friends and family because many things are not appropriate for conversation. Other things will not help anybody by being spoken about so I don't share everything. You see information is power. The more I have the more power I have. CEOs know their companies better than anyone else and thus make the big bucks. So in a way by providing more information I have more power. Who knows maybe someone will write a biography about me before I write an autobiography, if I live that long and do anything interesting...

I am working on building or rebuilding three websites and that is going slowly because I know what I want, and I haven't been able to make it happen yet. All three are designed to be able to provide me some sort of income. We'll see how many I actually take live. We'll also see if any of them actually make enough money to cover the cost of hosting.

In other news after weeks of delaying and procrastinating I am working on my Broad Peak documentary again. My goal is to finish it this week before I go to Arizona. Well, maybe I'll finish it in Arizona. Then after I send free copies to everyone that's in it, I'm going to start selling them on this website. I think this little experiment will do better than my paperback. Maybe even well enough to cover my cell phone bill.

Except for being able to pay all of my bills, I'm in no huge rush to join the 9-to-5 working for work's sake. I've been thinking about it. If my running steps it up two notches or I decide to go try some crazy climbing I could totally be a professional athlete. Watch for a post later this week titled "Colder than the Girls."

In the social and entertainment part of my life: I ran 91 miles this week. I had two good workouts and a nice medium long run. It snowed Monday and Tuesday then I was sick the rest of the week. All of that conspired to keep me from doing a long run (18+ miles) and getting the mileage that I wanted (95+). Whatever, it happened now I'm moving on. In the world of running you have to just put in the work, even when most of the workouts are not awesome and satisfying.

I have been helping out with this robotics high school group and I went down twice this week and had fun. One of the interesting things about this group is that they cut aluminum on wood work working machines. They just change the blade before they cut metal. I screwed up twice in one night by supervising the kids cutting metal with wood tools and once using a machine they weren't even supposed to use.

I watched Norwand with four of my friends. Basically there is a push in 1936 to get the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger. Two teams of two, one German team and one Austrian team, go up and end up in one big team. They all die. But seriously? Have you watched any movie with mountaineering where someone didn't die? I haven't released my movie yet but there is a death. We all know the risk and that is part of the experience. Anyway, the movie was in German with subtitles. It was pretty good.

Here is an oil painting I made this week titled: HACE and Frostbite

The story is that these two were the first two to come down from the summit push on Broad Peak when I was at camp three. The one on the right had really bad HACE and had a high altitude porter help her down and the one on the left had frostbitten toes and was helicoptered out two days later. To the best of my knowledge there are no photos of this because at the time there were only about five people at camp three. It's kind of an impressionist style but it was also snowing when this incident took place.

What does the future hold: I'm taking off to Arizona near the end of this week! My grandparents have a condo in Sedona Arizona and I've wanted to see it in the winter for some time. There is also one person out there I plan to search out and have a meeting.

Pakistan Video Sample: 10 of 10

Here is the last little bit of free video preview. I am still not done editing the full length film but I have a deadline of having something for the first WPI Outing Club meeting in B term in about two weeks. If you are in the area I'll announce when the meeting is and I suggest you come. It will be a food meeting with a movie probably around two hours long with so many things that I left out of this short series.

This video covers the day coming down from camp three, a visit to K2 base camp, and the trek out. I also put more effort into this short clip than any of the other clips. I tried to focus on the human aspect a little more. Ultimately it is about the humans and not the mountains.

Pakistan Video Sample: 9 of 10

Here it is, the one everyone has been waiting for, camp three at over 23,000 feet and 7000 meters! Keep in mind that This is all a sample. I have more footage that I will piece together to make my movie. In fact the movie has things which I prefer not to put on the internet as well as much higher quality. Additionally I have begun posting these videos on YouTube. One of my tent mates at camp three also posted his camp three video a few days ago. Watch it!

Pakistan Video Sample: 8 of 10

This movie snippet is titled Cabin Fever. After about five days of not climbing most people get restless. We were waiting around for our summit push on Broad Peak and actually avalanche watching. Imagine one step up from watching the grass grow and paint dry and one step down from watching a piece of paper get blown across the street. Then I put a little clip at the end with hair burgers because they were one of our favorite meals.

Sometimes it doesn't all make sense.

Pakistan Video Sample: 7 of 10

This is a sample of what a typical supper was like. Complete with jokes, mystery food, and discussing how to spell daal (or is it dahl or daahl?). Also, I have to say that there is a quote on there where my friend said, "Greatest Video of All Time", albeit sarcastically. Enjoy!

Pakistan Video Sample: 6 of 10

Ok this video was taken at 6600 meters about halfway between camp two and three. We had been heading from C2 to C3 on this acclimatization trip but it was not the best weather so we headed down soon after this was taken. I laughed about it at the time because I felt very safe then but watching it now makes me nervous. Once again this is a very authentic three minutes. There is a little swearing at the end beware.

Pakistan Video Sample: 5 of 10

This is part of a radio communication between some of the climbers that were descending from camp three on Broad Peak to us at basecamp. When I actually put the movie together it will have subtitles at certain parts so you know what people are saying.

Additionally, for those that missed it yesterday I posted a nine minute trailer for my upcoming movie. I was going to show it at a meeting last night but we couldn't get the sound to work. I deleted it this morning because several parts I do not feel comfortable leaving posted for the whole world to see.

Also, today is the eighth anniversary of 9/11. Out of curiosity I wondered where the hijackers were from. It turns out that according to Wikipedia none of them were from Afghanistan or Pakistan. Just some food for thought.

Pakistan Video Sample: 4 of 10

Here is another video that is not good enough to make the full length feature film. This is authentic camp two. That's what it's really like up there. People don't move fast. This was the first time I made it to camp two at 6200 meters or 20,300 feet. Watch, enjoy, and remember that September 10th at WPI I will be showing a 5-10 minute trailer during the WPI Outing Club meeting. So come watch and join the Outing Club!

Bring on the Muslims!

After spending the summer in an Islamic country I have decided I would like to know more about this culture. Fortunately I have a friend at WPI from Pakistan and I just found out that the new guy that sits behind me in the office is from Saudi Arabia.

Why does Islamic culture interest me? Well, unfortunately 95% of what Americans know about Muslims comes from the news. The news is great but it only reports the major events of the world. If NBC covers the Islamic world as well as it does long distance running then we are going to have an education problem. We only end up hearing about bombings and oil sheiks and terrorists. The thing is: it's not like that even in Pakistan. I never had to dodge suicide bombers or anything like that. However, I should explain that a little bit more. On the way out when I stayed in Islamabad they gave us newspapers (in English) at the hotel every morning. I learned that Pakistan has far more bombings than we ever hear about. Most are directed at military road blocks or places where westerners gather like expensive restaurants. Some bombings are even directed at mosques. So it is dangerous.

They also have a slew of political problems. From education and safe drinking water to the bureaucracy and tribal conflicts that we often hear about. In that part of the world, families and tribes often carry more clout then official governments. The nations, or at least Pakistan, is divided roughly into valleys. I spent most of my summer in Baltistan, where they speak Balti, as well as Urdu and a little English. There are other locations as well such as Waziristan, which is a very dangerous place and is a breeding ground for terrorists due to the extreme levels of poverty and education. I learned from Three Cups of Tea that some of the Muslim teachers that are pressuring boys into terrorism can not even read. Teachers that can not read!

We happened to be in Pakistan on July 25th which is a Shi'a (Shiite, spellings vary by source) holy day. We were stuck in a traffic jam for a religious self flagellation ceremony. We were with one of our Ismaeli cook staff and he said that Ismaelis never did that kind of thing. They were very peaceful, despite the fact that I learned recently that Ismaeli is a form of Shi'a so it might have been a Twelvers holy day and not a general Shi'a holy day... I asked the man from Saudi Arabia about this and he said that most 99% of the people in Saudi Arabia and most of the people in Egypt were Sunni and they never did that either. Another holy thing that caught my eye was the issue of prayer five times a day. The loud speakers could be heard whenever you were in a large enough town but I never once noticed a change in the people on the street. I saw only a handful of people pray the whole seven weeks. There was never a rush to the nearest mosque when the loud speaker came on. People didn't rush to their homes and the street never emptied around prayer time. However, Friday morning is their weekly holy day and you could easily tell that most stores were closed and there was far fewer people on the streets than normal. The point is: "Muslims" are just like "Christians" and "Jews" when it comes to practicing their faith, most don't practice too hard.

There is also the issue of the women covering themselves up. Which is not a bad thing at all. The thing is that for seven weeks in Pakistan besides the woman at the hotel desk in Islamabad and the women at customs in the airport the only females I talked to were a pair of nine year old girls in Hushe (the middle of nowhere). It seemed in general that the women worked in the fields and took care of the children and the men walked around main street. So I don't understand the whole male/female relationships thing yet.

Pakistan Video Sample: 3 of 10

Here is the third video in the series. This is in the tent the morning after I spent the night at camp one (5650 meters or 18,500 feet). Some of the other members of our expedition were headed from base camp to camp two and were taking a break at camp one with us. (A note on resolution: I'm going to use 240x320 and 15 fps for all of the clips on my blog but the actual video I have is 480x640 and 30 fps so it's at least four times as good.)

Pakistan Video Sample: 2 of 10

Here is an 18 second video from the last piece of dirt before the Baltoro Glacier. (By the way, the glacier has been there for thousands of years and nothing could live in that stream.) The video quality is better this time too.

Pakistan Video Sample 1 of 10

I'm going to show a new video clip here every week for the next ten weeks. Hopefully near the end of that time I will finish my edited movie and I will find a way for people to watch it. Here is a video clip that I will most likely not put in my movie but it is fairly interesting. The view is out the window of our bus as we drive into Skardu at the beginning of the expedition. I have eight hours of video and I'm aiming to make an hour film. Since I only have limited space on the Google server this video will only be available a limited time. I know the video quality is not that great, that's why you need to see my movie when it's finished.