I’m just getting started into my freelance journalism career. I’ve gotten advice to take a class at college or community outreach program, read articles in Writer’s Market, and contact my local newpaper. I’ve contacted my local newspaper, that’s why I posted my stringer question, and read Writer’s Market. For most markets, they said to start with fillers or department columns, esp. for magazines. But as for classes, I don’t have the money right now, unless it’s free. Any advice for professional freelance journalists out there?

WTH is wrong with this world? Lady Gaga is getting a Rock Band? opinions?

http://www.spin.com/articles/lady-gaga-headed-rock-band

This article has confused me.

Raging Narcissists

These past months have been bad ones for campus shootings, killings, and other proposed mayhem by “students.” A teenager’s “arsenal” confiscated in one such incident was large enough to arm an entire school. A black-dominated school in Philadelphia became a shooting gallery.

But we should stop explaining killers on their terms. It’s not about guns or culture. It’s narcissism, and my life’s long odyssey has provided plenty of examples for my inquiring mind.

Think back from the chill dawn outside the Florida prison where serial killer Ted Bundy met his end, to the charred façade of a New York nightclub where Julio Gonzalez incinerated 87 people. Go on to a muddy Colorado hillside overlooking the Columbine High School where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wrought their own brand of mayhem. Along the way, I’ve come to believe that we’re looking for "why" in all the wrong places.

I’ve lost interest in the cracks, chips, holes, and broken places in the lives of men like Cho Seung-Hui, the mass murderer of Virginia Tech. The pain, grievances, and self-pity of mass killers are only symptoms of the real explanation. Those who do those things have one common trait. They are all raging narcissists. "I died–like Jesus Christ," Cho said in a video sent to NBC.

Psychologists from South Africa to Chicago have begun to recognize that extreme self-centeredness is the forest in these stories, and all the other things–guns, games, lyrics, pornography, bullying, ridicule–are just trees. To list the traits of the narcissist is enough to prove the point: grandiosity, numbness to the needs and pain of others, emotional isolation, resentment, and envy.

In interviews with Ted Bundy taped a quarter-century ago, two investigative reporters captured the essence of homicidal narcissism. Through hour after tedious hour, a man who killed 30 or more women and girls preened for his audience. He spoke of himself as an actor, of life as a series of roles, and of other people as props and scenery. His desires were simple: "control" and "mastery." He took whatever he wanted, from shoplifted tube socks to human lives, because nothing mattered beyond his desires. Bundy said he was always surprised that anyone noticed his victims had vanished. "I mean, there are so many people," he explained. The only death he regretted was his own.

Criminologists distinguish between serial killers like Bundy, whose crimes occur one at a time and who try hard to avoid capture, and mass killers like Cho. But the central role of narcissism plainly connects them. Only a narcissist could decide that his alienation should be underlined in the blood of strangers.

The flamboyant nature of these crimes is like a neon sign pointing to the truth. Charles Whitman playing God in his Texas clock tower, James Huberty spraying bullets in a California restaurant, Columbine’s Harris and Klebold in their theatrical trench coats–they’re all stars in the movie of their self-absorbed minds.

Freud explained narcissism as a failure to grow up. All infants are narcissists, he pointed out, but as we grow, we ought to learn that other people have lives independent of our own. It’s not their job to please us, applaud for us, or even notice us–let alone die because we’re unhappy.

A generation ago, social critics diagnosed narcissism as the signal disorder of contemporary American culture. The cult of celebrity, the marketing of instant gratification, skepticism toward moral codes, and the politics of victimhood were signs of a society regressing toward the infant stage.

You don’t have to buy Freud or the social critic’s indictments, however, to see an immediate danger in the way we examine the lives of mass killers and campus murderers. In the days after Columbine for example, Harris and Klebold emerged as alienated misfits in the jock culture of their suburban high school. We learned about their morbid taste in music and their violent video games. Missing though, was the frame around the picture: the extreme narcissism that licensed these boys, in their minds, to murder their high school teachers and classmates.

Something similar was going on with Virginia Tech’s Cho, whose florid writings and videos were an almanac of gripes. "I’m so lonely," he moped to a teacher, failing to mention that he often refused to answer even when people said hello. Of course he was lonely.

In Holocaust studies, I’m told, there is a school of thought that says to explain is to forgive. I won’t go that far. But we must stop explaining campus killers on their terms. Minus the clear context of narcissism, the biographical details of these men and boys can begin to look like a plausible chain of cause and effect–especially to other narcissists. And they don’t need any more encouragement.
So what does it mean by " we should stop explaining killers on their terms. It’s not about guns or culture. It’s narcissism."

"the pain, grievances and self- pity of mass killers are symptoms of the real explanation. They are raging narcissists." What does this imply?

Main confusion is in finding thesis itself. What is the thesis of this article? What i think is "**** I don’t know"

Any direct or indirect thesis you find there?

This article has confused me.

Raging Narcissists

These past months have been bad ones for campus shootings, killings, and other proposed mayhem by “students.” A teenager’s “arsenal” confiscated in one such incident was large enough to arm an entire school. A black-dominated school in Philadelphia became a shooting gallery.

But we should stop explaining killers on their terms. It’s not about guns or culture. It’s narcissism, and my life’s long odyssey has provided plenty of examples for my inquiring mind.

Think back from the chill dawn outside the Florida prison where serial killer Ted Bundy met his end, to the charred façade of a New York nightclub where Julio Gonzalez incinerated 87 people. Go on to a muddy Colorado hillside overlooking the Columbine High School where Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wrought their own brand of mayhem. Along the way, I’ve come to believe that we’re looking for "why" in all the wrong places.

I’ve lost interest in the cracks, chips, holes, and broken places in the lives of men like Cho Seung-Hui, the mass murderer of Virginia Tech. The pain, grievances, and self-pity of mass killers are only symptoms of the real explanation. Those who do those things have one common trait. They are all raging narcissists. "I died–like Jesus Christ," Cho said in a video sent to NBC.

Psychologists from South Africa to Chicago have begun to recognize that extreme self-centeredness is the forest in these stories, and all the other things–guns, games, lyrics, pornography, bullying, ridicule–are just trees. To list the traits of the narcissist is enough to prove the point: grandiosity, numbness to the needs and pain of others, emotional isolation, resentment, and envy.

In interviews with Ted Bundy taped a quarter-century ago, two investigative reporters captured the essence of homicidal narcissism. Through hour after tedious hour, a man who killed 30 or more women and girls preened for his audience. He spoke of himself as an actor, of life as a series of roles, and of other people as props and scenery. His desires were simple: "control" and "mastery." He took whatever he wanted, from shoplifted tube socks to human lives, because nothing mattered beyond his desires. Bundy said he was always surprised that anyone noticed his victims had vanished. "I mean, there are so many people," he explained. The only death he regretted was his own.

Criminologists distinguish between serial killers like Bundy, whose crimes occur one at a time and who try hard to avoid capture, and mass killers like Cho. But the central role of narcissism plainly connects them. Only a narcissist could decide that his alienation should be underlined in the blood of strangers.

The flamboyant nature of these crimes is like a neon sign pointing to the truth. Charles Whitman playing God in his Texas clock tower, James Huberty spraying bullets in a California restaurant, Columbine’s Harris and Klebold in their theatrical trench coats–they’re all stars in the movie of their self-absorbed minds.

Freud explained narcissism as a failure to grow up. All infants are narcissists, he pointed out, but as we grow, we ought to learn that other people have lives independent of our own. It’s not their job to please us, applaud for us, or even notice us–let alone die because we’re unhappy.

A generation ago, social critics diagnosed narcissism as the signal disorder of contemporary American culture. The cult of celebrity, the marketing of instant gratification, skepticism toward moral codes, and the politics of victimhood were signs of a society regressing toward the infant stage.

You don’t have to buy Freud or the social critic’s indictments, however, to see an immediate danger in the way we examine the lives of mass killers and campus murderers. In the days after Columbine for example, Harris and Klebold emerged as alienated misfits in the jock culture of their suburban high school. We learned about their morbid taste in music and their violent video games. Missing though, was the frame around the picture: the extreme narcissism that licensed these boys, in their minds, to murder their high school teachers and classmates.

Something similar was going on with Virginia Tech’s Cho, whose florid writings and videos were an almanac of gripes. "I’m so lonely," he moped to a teacher, failing to mention that he often refused to answer even when people said hello. Of course he was lonely.

In Holocaust studies, I’m told, there is a school of thought that says to explain is to forgive. I won’t go that far. But we must stop explaining campus killers on their terms. Minus the clear context of narcissism, the biographical details of these men and boys can begin to look like a plausible chain of cause and effect–especially to other narcissists. And they don’t need any more encouragement.

So what does it mean by " we should stop explaining killers on their terms. It’s not about guns or culture. It’s narcissism."

"the

Stats

In the fall of 2003, a magazine article reported that about 87% of adults drink milk. A
local dairy farmers’ association is planning a new marketing campaign for the tri-county
area they represent. They randomly polled 800 people in the area. In this sample, 654
people said that they drink milk. If 87% is the correct percentage of adults who drink
milk, what is the probability that the association would observe 654 or less people who
drink milk in the sample?
A) 0.000005
B) 0.000033
C) 0.0119
D) 0.8175

How would you figure out this problem? Thank You!

A poll to see which one appeals more. Pretty similar question if I’ll ask: A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out or Pretty.Odd.?

By the way, here is a link of the 2 bands’ new single:
Change by The Young Veins
New Perspective by Panic! at The Disco

http://www.spin.com/articles/battle-panic-disco-bands

I am saving up to get a website which main marketing will be through written articles. I want a really nice and professional looking website, easily maneuverable, SEO for engines, with everything that says come here and stay a while : > Can you give me a ballpark of how much I am looking at paying from a freelance designer please? Thank you…

can somone summarize this article
using these words

Unemployment
Budget
Inflation
Recession
Depression
Deficit
Interest Rate
Deflation
Prosperity
Recovery
Surplus
National Debt
Standard of Living

"How many of you have jobs?" financial advisor Angela Dockum asked the marketing students at Columbia River High School.

A third raised their hands.

"All right. How many of you have money left over at the end of the month?"

Not a hand raised. They laughed sheepishly.

Dockum, a guest speaker in the class, smiled. Composed with a slight Southern lilt, she forged ahead to the nut of her lesson.

"A lot of Americans are in that rut," she said. She herself had once maxed out credit cards and had to pay them off. She didn’t want these 17- and 18-year-olds to make that same mistake. Not in this economy.

Embarrassed or not, many of the students seemed to understand. Not because it had been taught in school — personal finance classes are rare in schools — but because they live in this rut Dockum talks about, internalizing the tension their parents feel when layoffs are announced, wondering whether they’ll have the money to attend college next year, after all. Add to that news headlines about the economy collapsing, banks closing and corporate America going bankrupt, and there’s little left to inspire confidence in the future.

A new generation

James Gaynor, 17, who invited Dockum to his class, has been through two family recessions.

"Our financial situation has been shaky since 9/11," James said. In that time, his father, nearing retirement, got laid off. His mother had been attending college, so the family found itself with additional debt. Years later, his mom also got laid off, and the family has been patching together jobs to make ends meet.

Gaynor, a soccer player, coaches and referees up to 25 hours a week to pay for his playing costs. He wonders what his life might have been like if he’d been born 15 years earlier. Would he have been the middle class teenager his younger years seemed to promise?

Those questions aside, James knows these times have pushed him to be smarter about money, smarter about scrimping and saving. He doesn’t feel entitled to anything and knows he could lose everything in a matter of days.

"It’s taught me to grow up and mature a lot faster than other teenagers my age, given my circumstances," he said. "But I also see it as a positive, an advantage I have over other people."

That’s partly why he wants to be a civil engineer, a steady, intellectually appealing job, he says.

Karah Ambrose, 17, is another student who has become more money conscious. Her mother stays at home, and her stepfather works in the real estate market.

So Ambrose nannies to pay for gas and school lunch. She wears her uncle’s oversized green fleece, and she’s proud of that. It’s proof that she’s frugal, that she’s not wasting her money on frivolous shopping sprees.

Situated in a suburban part of Vancouver, Columbia River High students aren’t known to pride themselves on touting expensive brands or driving late model cars. But bragging about frugality is new.

"I love to go shopping, but it’s like a scavenger hunt," Ambrose said. "It’s like a competition. What can I get on sale?"

Ambrose said her generation of teens is somewhere between Depression-era pack rats and the current generation of 20- and 30-somethings that had vague dreams and entrepreneurial ambitions coming out of high school and college.

"We understand the need to save and the want to spend," she said. Gaynor agreed and pointed out that he, too, wears hand-me-downs.

When Ambrose and Gaynor talk, there’s no glimmer of American dream idealism. No discussion about grandiose plans of becoming an entrepreneur, a retiree at 35, a freelance writer living off fumes and the joys of life.

"My mom tells me, ‘Don’t worry about money, do what you want, God will provide,’"Ambrose said. "She says, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff.’ But I have to. How can I not think about money?"

At Clark College, Professor Gene Johnson said he senses that anxiety about the future from his personal finance students more so these days than five years ago.

"They recognize that corporate America is not a great generator of new and lasting jobs," Johnson said. "The job tenure has gone down. It used to be that people would go to work and retire, but that’s not the case anymore."

But Johnson isn’t too worried for his students. He says young people — those 40 and younger — should invest all their savings in stocks in a no load mutual fund account. He recommends financial services companies TIAA-CREF and Vanguard and socking away money — 10 percent of earnings, ideally.

"We thought our parents were leaving us with a terrible world," said Johnson, 62. "Inflation was raging, jobs weren’t so hot, especially in 1973 when I got out of the Air Force. But now our parents look pretty doggone good. Now we

Online marketing seems so complex. And, the more I read that is supposed to be helpful, the more confusing it gets. Tutorial cater to those who arleady know things in this area so they tend to be of little or no help.

All I’m asking is if you can tell me, in your opinion, how you would rank the following marketing services in order of importance and usefullness.

Any help would be great.

SEO
Link building
Directory submission
Article submission
Blog writing
Content writing
Thanks for your info guys and girls but it really seems just to confuse the issue more. It seems to complex for me and I don’t have the resources or time to do it myself, I need a service. So, based on a limited budget, I’m trying to figure which areas I should emphasize first. My websites are www.3riverscreative.com, www.jasongreiner.com, www.twistedangels.com .

According to the Wikipedia article, he composed only a few other piano pieces.
But when I hear only one work by a composer, I usually get curious.