There is a distinct difference between elegant and gaudy, and that difference is very important to the plot of The Great Gatsby and what makes it a classic.

This new film completely misses that point.

‘Hello’ finds its roots in the French holá (meaning “whoa there”) and the German halâ, used chiefly in hailing ferrymen, but its contemporary use as a salutation traces its origins back to the beginnings of the telephone.

The legend goes that Alexander Graham Bell was looking for a good word to serve as the greeting for telephone users. He chose ‘Ahoy,’ a greeting popular among sailors, but Thomas Edison later suggested the use of the word ‘Hello’ because of its clarity over the telephone. Until then it was used mainly as an expression of surprise (as in “Well, hello there!”).

After ‘Hello’ became popular on the telephone, its use as a greeting spread, and beat out words like ‘hullo’ and ‘hallo.’

It’s graduation season, and that means millions of graduates are about to enter “the real world.” So to help the transition, I’ve gathered a few useful sources the budding young professional.

Extracurricular Education:

As you’re sorting through job ads, you may find that the positions you’re looking for require skills you don’t yet have. Sometimes a course isn’t offered at your school, or you may prefer a more informal learning environment. Luckily, there are plenty of skills you can learn online without worrying about prerequisites.

• Codecademy
• Lynda.com

Codecademy will teach the complete novice programing and web design for free! HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP. Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

Lynda.com provides video tutorials for pretty much every computer program you can think of, but you do have to pay for a subscription.

Social Networking:

Many employers look for people with social networking skills. Knowing how to use Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pintrest, etc. puts you ahead of the curve with some older employees who are unfamiliar with this new phenomenon. This doesn’t just mean knowing how to post a picture or tweet about a sandwich you had, but knowing how to use these media as marketing tools.

Also consider starting a blog, and update it consistently (that’s why I have this blog). This shows employers dedication to your craft, and that you can maintain a project punctually and consistently.

Finding Internships:

• InternMatch

As I said in my post about graduate school, I find internships to be an extremely important college experience, and I found InternMatch to be the best database for finding one.

It will help you find internships and in a particular industry, and you can narrow results by location, field, paid vs. unpaid, and summer/fall/winter/spring internships.

It also has a good-looking and easy-to-use interface. It functions as an online community where employers can find you based on your interests, it includes tips on resume and cover letter writing, and will update you if internships pop up in your chosen field.

Portfolio Advice:

Putting together a portfolio is a necessity for any creative person. Whether it means getting hired, applying to school, or just building a showcase, having a portfolio to show off you’re work is essential.

These are the sites I found most helpful when putting together my own portfolio:

• Creating The Perfect Portfolio (Digital Web)
• 10 Steps To The Perfect Portfolio Website (Smashing Magazine)
• Creating A Successful Online Portfolio (Smashing Magazine)
• Showcasing Your Work, in an Online Portfolio (NY Times)
• 12 Essential Tools to Build Your Online Portfolio (Vandelay Design)
• Legalities: Portfolio Rights (AIGA San Fransisco)
• Portfolio Hosting Services (IWantMyName.com)

I also suggest wandering around the Web and looking at what sorts of portfolios others in your field have produced. How do they format their about page? What forms of contact do they allow? What sorts of social networking are included (or not included)?

You’ll want to consider what level of professionalism your portfolio conveys and what skills you portray. Remember that a portfolio is not about you, but about what you can offer the viewer.

With the increasing prevalence of bachelor’s degrees, grad school is becoming a popular way to sort oneself from the crowd, but it certainly isn’t for everyone. If you’re thinking about applying to grad school, you should consider a few things first:

1. Ask yourself what you want from graduate school

Grad school is a lot of money to spend and a lot of time to waste “just because.” Make sure your reasons for going to grad school are ones that will fit in with your life plan.

Also, there are much more fulfilling ways to postpone adulthood than more schooling. Travel somewhere. Study a new religion. Pursue a love interest. School isn’t the only way to learn, and it certainly isn’t the only way to live.

If you plan to pursue a doctorate, look at doctorate programs along with master’s programs. A lot of doctorate programs include graduate level work, so pursuing a masters degree may be redundant.

2. Seriously pursue work in your chosen field

If you can skip grad school, do it. There is no reason to add more education to your résumé if you can start adding experience. There are some things you can only learn through experience, and grad school isn’t going to teach you those things.

Speaking of résumés, do you have one? If not, get one. Put together a smart, well researched, well edited, peer-reviewed résumé, and use that résumé to look for a job. See what skills the job requires, and if those skills match up with the skills you have. You might be able to learn some for free online or in a course at a community college.

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It’s graduation season, and all of the fresh-faced high school graduates are eager to start the college experience, but here are a few things to consider before applying:

Think about taking a year off.

I highly recommend taking a year off between high school and college. Personally, I feel it should even be federally encouraged. For many, college is just a continuation of high school, but college is most useful when you know exactly what you want from it.

It’s easiest to get somewhere when you know where you’re going. If you have a goal set in place for when you plan to graduate, then college can take you anywhere. But if you wander through college with no direction, then college can very really take you nowhere.

Before jumping into higher education, design your college experience so that it fits in with your life plan, or so that it fulfills those goals you hope to accomplish before you enter the job market.

As I said in my post about grad school, there are much more fulfilling ways to postpone adulthood than more expensive schooling. Travel somewhere, learn a new religion, pursue a love interest. School isn’t the only place to learn, but when you do enter college, use your time wisely. It’ll pass quicker than you think.

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“Fuck bottle tops.  We’ll stack ‘em anyway,” trainer says
with an autumn smile.  And warm milk bukkake’s the truck walls,
as down streets on half-century repavement schedules
the truck goes, tale swinging jollily,
flicking flies away from the milk’s sweet smell.

“If I got as much tail as the movies say,” he says,
“There’d be kids all over town with eyes like the milkman.”
But entering someone’s home is not always pretty,
idiosyncrasies crated up reek rancid through opened doors.

Crusted eyes old bottles rattling raccoons crusted eyes,
but home by three o’clock makes milk and cookies worth it.

Anyone who’s studied design or digital image making has seen CMYK before. And you probably know that CMYK is an acronym for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. But do you know why black is represented with a k?

Some think the “K” is carried over from the last letter in black (because “B” already means blue), but actually the “K” stands for key or key plate. Because mixing cyan, magenta and yellow ink does not create the same richness that black ink does, black must be used as a key plate to provide detail and contrast.