Category Archives: Personal

Personal topics.

Final Stretch of Break

Posted on by Josh Larson
Breanna and her dog

Breanna and her dog, Levi.

I made it back from Springfield just fine. It was a good time – I visited my girlfriend, saw Tron in a nice theater, and visited the Titanic museum in Branson, MO.

Looking ahead, I’m going to visit my roommate tomorrow in Cherokee, IA. He’s turning 21! Finally.

And even further ahead, I’m going to try to get the following done before school starts:

  • Prepare some stuff for fraternity happenings this spring
  • Make some ISUtv promotional material
  • Practice clarinet for my Symphonic Band audition
  • Everything that I’m forgetting about right now

I have my work cut out for me!

Musical Thoughts

As I was driving seven hours either way to Springfield, I listened to a TED talks podcast discussing Coca Cola’s marketing strategy.

In a nutshell, Coca Cola, Inc. does a hell of a good job with marketing. They came up with a way to distribute their product to communities throughout Africa in a non-traditional way. They also came up with a new song appealing to the market – “Waving Flag” (above).

Not only did the song sell Coca Cola – it promoted citizenship and unity. And made it to the top of the pop charts…in 17 countries.

A Larson Christmas (2010)

Posted on by Josh Larson

I’m going to take Journalism 310: Introduction to Photojournalism this spring at Iowa State, so I got a Canon Rebel T2i digital SLR camera over break.

I’ve been playing with it; as you can see from the photos above, it’s still a little rough! I’m really liking it, though, and I think I’m starting to get the hang of things.

The only problem I’ve run into is using the video mode (which was a big point of purchasing this model of camera). Though I’m using a 32GB Class-10 card, it’s starting to have buffer-overrun issues. It’s worked for the first 15 or so videos I shot, but now it’s starting to give me trouble.

Hopefully that’s the only issue I have – it’s a great camera!

The little shih tzu in the photos is one that we’re dog-sitting for some friends of ours, but it’s quite photogenic.

If you’re wondering, we have four dogs (plus the shih tzu) and a house cat.

Merry Christmas!

Journalism: Degradation or Transformation?

Posted on by Josh Larson

This was forwarded to me by one of my professors regarding ABC News’ recent decision to lay off a number of employees and move toward the use of multi-functioning journalists. The following was written to my professor by Stephen Coon, a former coordinator of the Electronic Media Studies department of the Greenlee School of Journalism: Continue reading →

Leadership and Motivation

Posted on by Josh Larson

Editor’s Note: I originally posted this article in the Winter 2009 edition of the Midwest Notes, a publication serving the Midwest district of the national honorary band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi.

Within every organization, there tends to be driving force for member participation. Whether it’s a common goal or a set of beliefs, each group has a set of factors that inspire its members to work together and accomplish something. Though different, each organization tends to share one thing in particular: a leader charged with inspiring his or her members to do their part. As a brother of the Iota Omega chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, a brother of a social fraternity (Beta Theta Pi), and a member of other student organizations, I’ve noticed a number of positive and negative leadership traits that impact motivation within a group. The following are a few traits in particular – I hope you can apply these to your own life, wherever you may go: Continue reading →

WCTV at ITEC

Posted on by Josh Larson

In high school, I participated in a class called WCTV. I served as technical director during my senior year and really enjoyed the experience. The program continues to grow, more noticeably on the technical side of things.

WCTV is a student-produced television program operated out of a studio at Webster City High School in Webster City, Iowa. The class recently visited the ITEC conference in Des Moines and broadcasted (tape-to-live) a show in front of a live audience to celebrate their 10th season. They did a great job!

How it all began

Posted on by Josh Larson

So this is it. The first real post using WordPress. Since it is 1:25 a.m. and I have class at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, I’ll spare you the time and energy and write a short post.

I live in a dorm room. During the freshman year of my Spring semester at ISU I became quite bored and decided I’d launch an endeavor to learn a little bit more about technology. I decided to purchase a cheap (but new) desktop computer from BestBuy, specifically and e-Machine. I then attained a copy of Windows Server 2003 through the ISU Computer Science department (they offer software to students enrolled in ComSci classes). I then went through the process of installing the server software connecting to the network. All went well, and I purchased the jplhomer.org domain name from GoDaddy.com.

Next, I configured the web server. Of course, I’ve been using IIS for the duration of this site’s existence, and I’d like to port over to Apache as soon as possible. It sounds like I’d get a better appreciation for the file system and structure of a server using the Apache software.
Either way, all went well, again.

I designed a rough draft of a website, using PHP and MySQL. I played around with a blog using AJAX and a back-end administration interface, but found that to be too much work. Early this semester, I discovered the magic of WordPress. I was browsing the Internet for fancy CSS designs when I ran across http://www.webdesignerwall.com and learned that they ran their site completely with WordPress. I hope to do the same.

I plan to publish my resume and written works on other pages of this site. Hopefully, I’ll continue to publish blog entries pertaining to my opinions and other matters of public dispute for which I insist I have a voice. That’s all for now!