I found another interesting article today; this time it was from the New York Times. This particular article was absorbing to me since I'm a student at my community college where the elevators in one or two buildings on campus were broken most of the time. Right now, the matter has been settled, but it could happen again later.
Normally, I look at strange articles from Yahoo or MSN, but I decided to do something a little different. It started when I looked up on the Princeton Review a few days ago because I was interested in finding internships that would pay for the summer. I found an internship from the Washington Post for 20 to 30 applicants. Compensation was about $430 per week. Today, I thought I'd visit their website to check out what kind of skills they were looking for in an intern- what would be impressive to show as a future writer. Unfortunately, I couldn't read any of the articles on the site because I would have to register or log in to the site. So out of curiosity, I went to the New York Times, one of the biggest and best publications in the nation, which was just as good as the one with an internship listing.
Luckily, I didn't have to sign in to read today's front page articles. And I found a perplexing one that was at the very top.
"$1 Billion Later, New York's Subway Elevators Still Fail" was the headline. I skimmed through the article and noticed how the mass transit areas in New York were still falling apart, even after a billion dollars was spent on fixing it. In the Times article, the Transit has installed close to 200 new elevators and escalators for citizens to get around and get where they needed to go. (New York is one of the largest cities in the world, after all.) But they're still breaking down. "One of every six elevators and escalators in the subway system was out of service for more than a month last year, according to the transit agency’s data," said William Neuman, Times writer, "The 169 escalators in the subway averaged 68 breakdowns or repair calls each last year, with the worst machines logging more than double that number... Two-thirds of the subway elevators — many of which travel all of 15 feet — had at least one breakdown last year in which passengers were trapped inside."
Unbelievable. Normally, that doesn't happen around here at my college or in Baltimore City. But I don't live in New York City and I'm glad that I don't.
What is happening with our local transportation? All of a sudden they're in need of maintenance, even when some new ones have been installed.
It sounds like those new cars with GPS systems and other gadgets built in. From what I heard from a teacher at school years ago, these new cars are breaking down because of malfunctions. They can't seem to handle all this extra work that they have to carry out. MP3 players, GPS, cell phones, On Star- it's all very convenient, but they use up so much battery power.
It gets worse. Apparently, a couple hundred mechanics working on elevator repairs in New York have had a minimum of four months training and they barely spend enough time working on the machines. That leads to more mechanical disruptions. What a mess.
I'm pretty sure that might happen to cities everywhere else.
Well, it's right what they say that the Times is the best publication in the US- it gives great, thorough coverage. The writers craft words and use thesauruses frequently for all articles and stories written. Diligent, articulate, dignified, and explanatory writers.
How can I get into something like that?
At least I'm at the starting gate. I just need to go back and look up more stories from newspapers and get an idea of what I'm after.
Though I'm not sure what I want to write about. I have different interests. I go to SGA meetings, or I did before classes ended. Last week was final exams and it was the very last spring semester I had before transfering. Miraculous how it's coming so fast. I also cover other events around college and I wrote an editorial on gun control. Those are some of my political and news interests. Then, I'm also into music. I'm a total moviegoer, so I might be interested in being a critic. I'm also great at giving advice. Some of my friends have had problems in the past with their love lifes, friendships, work, or other things concerning them. And I've helped them out. I'm a hopeless romantic, too. I have an infatuation with celebrations and weddings. I love weddings. Perhaps I could be a columnist writing about those things every week, like James Marsden's character Kevin in "27 Dresses".
I just need to figure out what is my major strength.
over here in maryland, it's around quarter of 7 at night. the banned book reviews are due by tomorrow at midnight, but that's at PDT, according to what the progressive people say. so, what's the deal? at what time would i have to send it in my eastern time?
3:49pm PDT- only three hours behind. so, it would have to be by 3am in my time. i got it. pay no attention to this.