Editor’s note: This is an advice column written by in-house know-it-all Riley Brands. All answers are based on personal experience. Brands is not a licensed professional. Questions for Brands can be sent to dtadvice@gmail.com.

Dear Riley,
I did it. I defied the odds and nabbed a job right out of school with a degree that is marked by its legacy for turning out people who eventually go crazy. (Suffice to say it is of a liberal arts-y, non-useful and not business or science or technologically persuasion.)

And it seemed like a great gig, too: I would ostensibly be doing exactly the kind of work I've always wanted to be (paid) to do. But three months in, I am drowning — I hate this job and everything it involves.

I'm a monkey, doing the work of a well-paid intern, slowly schlepping through the menial, maddening, and mind-melting. I so desperately want to quit. I've asked around — to my parents, mentors, and close friends — about my situation, and I am now fraught with a whole other anxious problem: Am I just being a whiny, entitled twit?

I should be so lucky to even have a job (especially considering my field and my degree), right? And I can't expect to be doing all the career-making, fabulous things right out the gate, right? I have to put my time in and earn my stripes, so to speak, right?

I am aware of these facets and also deeply aware that I spend most of every day bitterly chugging away and then spend all of my free time dreading ever having to go back. I no longer sleep to dream — only nightmares where I have to go back to work. Despite everything I've tried to do to make my internal relationship to the Job from Hell a better one, it ends up ruining my mood, my mind, and my life.

What kind of working life hell do I have to go through before I'm allowed to want better? Am I just typifying every Millenial cliche by wanting at least some small sliver of fulfillment in the work that I do?

Sig(h)ned,
Seeking enlightenment

-------------------------------------------------

Dear Enlightenment,
Congratulations on snagging a job right out of college! That’s no small feat. Now, what to do about your situation there?

Assuming you like your new work environment (meaning where you work and who you work with), your problem seems to me to all boil down to your prospects for advancement. Are there any paths you can take from here, or are you stuck in a “dead-end” job? Talk to your boss and see if you can work out a timeline for advancement. Having a goal to strive toward can be motivation enough to get you through the monotony of the intervening months.

If, however, there’s no way to move up the ladder, it still might not hurt to stick it out a few more months and build up some experience. To make the day-to-day drudgery at least somewhat bearable, ask your boss about taking on slightly different responsibilities. A change of pace should be enough to power you through the remaining months. If your boss demurs, then you’ll have to carefully consider your options. Jumping ship at this point would be a drastic move, but it may be one you need to make.

Finally, as a postscript of sorts, I’d like to address the point you make about fulfilling every Generation Y stereotype by quitting. Don’t let this weigh too heavily on your decision; the older generation has been complaining about its progeny from time immemorial, as can be seen in the following remark by Plato: “What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?” Some things never change.

Editor’s Note: To accompany our Pulitzer Prize for Fiction package which ran on April 15, 2013, The Daily Texan has compiled a list of the Pulitzer Prizes awarded for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize. All winners can be found at www.pulitzer.org/awards/2013

Public Service: Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Breaking News Reporting: Staff of The Denver Post

Investigative Reporting: David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab of The New York Times

Explanatory Reporting: Staff of The New York Times

Local Reporting: Brad Schrade, Jeremy Olson and Glenn Howatt of Star Tribune, Minneapolis

National Reporting: Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer of InsideClimate News, Brooklyn, NY

International Reporting: David Barboza of The New York Times

Feature Writing: John Branch of The New York Times

Commentary: Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal

Criticism: Philip Kennicott of The Washington Post

Editorial Writing: Tim Nickens and Daniel Ruth of Tampa Bay Times

Editorial Cartooning: Steve Sack of Star Tribune, Minneapolis

Breaking News Photography: Rodrigo Abd, Manu Brabo, Narciso Contreras, Khalil Hamra and Muhammed Muheisen of Associated Press

Feature Photography: Javier Manzano, free-lance photographer

Fiction: “The Orphan Master’s Son” by Adam Johnson

Finalists: “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” by Nathan Englander and “The Snow Child” by Eowyn Ivey

Drama: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar

History: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (Random House)

Biography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss (Crown)

Poetry: Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds (Alfred A. Knopf)

Non-Fiction: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys by Gilbert King (Harper)

Music: Partita for 8 Voices by Caroline Shaw (New Amsterdam Records)

Editor’s Note: Tabs on Technology is a weekly update on the latest news in the tech world.

Executive director behind Wikipedia decides to step down 
Sue Gardner, one of the galvanizing leaders behind the nonprofit Internet database Wikipedia, announced in an interview Wednesday that she will step down from her position in the organization. Citing Wikipedia’s increasing success and self-reliance, Gardner explained that her job is largely over and she hopes to turn her attention toward combating anti-piracy legislation and advocating an open, free Internet. 

As executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Gardner helped transform Wikipedia from a small nonprofit into one of the Internet’s largest compiled resources for information. Wikipedia is currently the fifth most visited site on the Internet, after Facebook and Google. 

Exoskeletons allow paraplegics to walk again 
Companies such as Ekso Bionics are vying for new ways to market their exoskeleton suits. For paraplegics around the world, this carbon fiber assistance structure means not only walking again, but also running, jumping and carrying heavier weight than before. Because exoskeleton technology is still rather pricey at about $150,000 up front, it may not be marketable for general consumers for some time to come. 

Instead, this robogear made its debut in the military and in hospitals. For soldiers who need to haul large amounts of equipment over miles of rocky terrain, exoskeletons make foot travel almost effortless and minimize long-term damage to the spine. Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company that has licensed the technology from Ekso Bionics, is currently developing the Human Universal Load Carrier, which is an exoskeleton that can actively anticipate a soldier’s movements to create the walking motion.

Windows Phones outsell iPhones 
According to Frank Shaw, head of public relations at Microsoft, Windows Phone 8 has been outselling the Apple iPhone in the last quarter — but only in seven international markets. Although this news may be an encouraging accomplishment for Microsoft, Apple Inc. has a long-standing choke hold on the mobile device market and is only being outshipped in countries such as Croatia, India, Argentina and Poland. Windows Phone comprises 10 percent of all mobile devices market share in these countries. Because the iPhone only contracts with a handful of wireless providers, Windows Phone 8 has had a leg up in locations where Nokia is popular. In addition, Microsoft sells its mobile device at half the price of an iPhone. 

Mark Zuckerberg makes plans to enter political realm 
Teaming up with his college roommate, Joe Green, and a number of other close associates, Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is in the process of forming a political action group that will be officially announced in the next two weeks. By raising and investing more than $50 million, the young executive hopes to advocate immigration reform and promote scientific research. Many technology moguls have pushed for immigration reform in the past to help encourage foreign-born entrepreneurs to come to the U.S. Since founding Facebook in 2004, Zuckerberg has largely stayed out of the political arena and focused more on the financial well-being of the company. But over the last couple of years Zuckerberg has taken a more noticeable role in the realm of politics. Having met with President Obama a number of times and even fundraised for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Zuckerberg’s bold step into the spotlight will likely draw comparison to activists such as Bill Gates. 

'Battlefield 4' reveal trailer released 
As promised by a teaser trailer last week, Dice Game Studios released a 17-minute gameplay reveal for “Battlefield 4” on Wednesday. Using the Frostbite 3 graphics engine, “Battlefield 4” features a very apparent upgrade in photorealism from its predecessor and features the familiar combination of first-person action, vehicles and incredibly intense cut scenes. Although the game was announced for PC, it has yet to be confirmed for either the PS4 or the next-generation Xbox. More likely than not, DICE is required to keep its lips sealed until Microsoft announces its next console in April. No release date for the game has been announced, but it is anticipated to ship before the 2013 holiday season.

Editor’s Note: We have selected ten pieces from the Cohen New Works Festival that you can still catch until March 29. This is only a sampling of the many works presented, and the full schedule is available at http://www.newworksfestival.org/2013-schedule.

What: Play

Title: Priceless Slave: A Workshop Production

When: March 28 at 8 p.m., March 29 at 6 p.m.

Where: Sinclair Suite, Texas Union 3.128 

. . .

What: Play

Title: The Women of Juarez

When: March 28 5:30 p.m. 

Where: Payne Theatre, Winship Building 

. . .

What: Installation

Title: Good Girl/Bad Girl

When: March 28 and 29 10 a.m. - 10 p.m., talkback at 12:30 p.m. on March 28 

Where: Winship Drama Building 2.120 

. . .

What: Festival Filament Project

Title: Safe

When: March 29 at 5 p.m.

Where: Winship Drama Building 1.134 

. . .

What: Festival Filament Project

Title: Cancun

When: March 29 at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Winship Drama Building 2.136 

. . .

What: Dance

Title: Handcuffs are Not a Metaphor

When: March 28 2:00 p.m., March 29 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. 

Where: Blanton Museum of Art 

. . .

What: Musical

Title: Almost Invincible

When: March 28 at 8:30 p.m.

Where: UT Tower 

. . .

What: Dance

Title: Synthesis

When: March 29 at 7 p.m.

Where: Harry Ransom Center

. . .

What: Installation

Title: Perceiving Campus

When: March 28 and 29 from 10 a.m.- 10 p.m. 

Where: Goldsmith Hall

. . .

What: Closing Event

Title: Festival Farewell 

When: March 29, 2013 at 8 p.m. 

Where: F. Loren Winship Drama Building

Editor’s note: This is an advice column written by in-house know-it-all Riley Brands. All answers are based on personal experience. Brands is not a licensed professional. Questions for Brands can be sent to dtadvice@gmail.com.

Dearest Riley,

I have NO IDEA what I want to do. I don’t enjoy my major at all, and now I’m so close to graduating that it doesn’t make sense to change it. I’ve been trying to get experience through internships in other fields, but I’m struggling. How else can I find my passion?

Love,
Hard to Please

Dear Hard to Please,

I think you’ve already made two wise decisions. You realize that it probably isn’t prudent to start over with a new major, but you also aren’t letting that stop you from finding your true passion.

A good place to start is with the things that make you wonder. In your free time, when you feel relaxed and aren’t thinking about anything, what thoughts does your mind drift toward? What questions do you have to know the answer to before you can go to sleep at night? If this exploration doesn’t turn up any results that can be translated into a passion, ask yourself what things in the world worry you or rile you up.

A degree in a subject you love won’t give you all the tools you need to change the world single-handedly, but it will give you the knowledge and ability to play a small part in affecting this change and contribute to a greater sense of self-worth.

Dearest Riley,

My two roommates, both of whom I am friends with, do not get along. One of them — the sane one — has secretly decided to move out next year and asked me to go with her. How can I indirectly say “You are crazy and neither of us can live with you again” without completely ruining our friendship?

Help a sister out,
Avoids Confrontation at All Costs

Dear Avoids Confrontation,

It is always difficult to be stuck in the middle. Since you consider both of them to be your friends, I’m sure you feel conflicted and don’t want to betray either of them. However, it’s good that you’re thinking about your own sanity first. You need a place to come home to every night where you don’t have to walk on eggshells to keep the calm.

If you don’t want to ruin your friendship with the “crazy” one, I’d suggest that you couch your explanation to her in terms of incompatibility as roommates rather than focusing entirely on her faults or your suffering. Sometimes people who get along well on the occasional outing simply have different personal habits or tics at home that make living together a nightmare, like leaving wet towels on the floor or eating in bed and not returning the dirty dishes to the kitchen. Put it to her in these terms and make it abundantly clear that you want to remain friends with her.

Of course, she may feel that you’re picking favorites once she finds out you’re going to be living with your other friend, so it may be best for all three of you to sit down together. If you do this, make sure you and your “sane” friend sit apart so the conversation doesn’t seem like an attack.

Published on March 6, 2013 as "Ask Riley: on passions, roommates". 

Editor’s note: Per the TSM election code Section 7.45B, Daily Texan editor-in-chief candidates have the opportunity to publish two columns during their campaigns. The candidates were asked to write one column on the topic specified below and another on a topic of their choice. The columns had to be between 580-620 words. The candidates were responsible for writing their own headlines. For their first columns below, the candidates were asked to answer the following questions: The Daily Texan and Texas Student Media confront financial challenges due in part to major, uncharted changes in the publishing industry with the growth of the web. How should The Daily Texan address the changing habits of its readers? How will you, as editor-in-chief, ensure it remains a relevant platform for student voices?  

I will be honest — that feels strange to say. But it is true. Newspapers do not exist anymore in the traditional sense. Instead, The Daily Texan is a media organization that publishes on multiple platforms. We publish in print and we publish online. We write articles and we shoot video. We record podcasts and we review movies. We investigate corruption and we blog about Ryan Gosling. 

If we are to stay relevant to students and if we are to continue expressing the voices of the entire student body, then we must treat our digital and print enterprises with equal dedication. We must remember that we are living in the year 2013, a time when the best media organizations have newspapers and websites that tango together and not alone.

It would be foolish to treat our website as a supplement to the print product. We must treat the two as equals. At the same time, it would be equally foolish to reduce our respect and regard for the print product. The paper represents our image, our credibility and our history. 

If we are to remain relevant to students then we have to keep our print product a priority. Some would argue that our print production is a diseased appendage that we need to sever off before it destroys the rest of our enterprise. But reductions in print may be detrimental to our image, credibility and advertising revenue. The print product is crucial to our future.

At the same time, we must also adapt to new technologies. These are tools students use and tools older generations are rapidly picking up as well. We cannot treat the website as a simple dumping site for the content we run in print. Reporters need to tweet first and then write. Articles need to have multiple components and mediums of storytelling. Written words are not enough by themselves.

We cannot dawdle our thumbs and hope readers will come flocking to us. We have to bring The Daily Texan to students. This means increasing our online presence, which translates to invading Twitter feeds. This means becoming more digital-savvy and reconsidering how we write our website’s headlines in order to take full advantage of search engine optimization (SEO). This means doing more with the multimedia tools that are available to us. This means more collaboration with our sisters and brothers in Texas Student Media.

We also have to remember that The Daily Texan is for students. We must stay as student-focused and student-oriented as possible. This is something we cannot achieve alone. With a staff that is composed of less than 200 people, The Daily Texan is trying the impossible task of representing and covering a student body of more than 50,000. The Daily Texan and its editor must focus on outreach and reaching more student groups and student leaders. We cannot remain in our basement-office forever. Not only is the lack of sunlight detrimental to our health, but a lack of correspondence to students outside The Daily Texan is harmful to our mission to maintain a medium for student voices.

The Daily Texan is a 113-year-old media organization that reports on student issues and concerns at this University unlike any other enterprise. We are a media organization that takes students seriously. This is student news and student opinion produced by students for students.

But The Daily Texan is not a newspaper. We are something much better. And if we are going to remain relevant to the student body, then we will have to remember this going forward.

Blanchard is a journalism sophomore from Pearland, Texas.

Editor’s note: Below find preliminary suggestions collected from The Daily Texan staff and readers to boost the Texan’s relevance and revenue. We encourage you to submit your own ideas before March 1 to editor@dailytexanonline.com and tweet them to @thedailytexan. With permission, we will publish ideas we receive.

 

THE DAILY TEXAN ON YOUR SCREEN

 

• Redesign and relaunch The Daily Texan website using WordPress. This will make our site more nimble, flexible and usable to more editors and staff members at the Texan. Wordpress has a built-in developers’ community to help, so we no longer will be reliant on an in-house expert.

 

• Build and launch a free Daily Texan mobile application. The free Daily Texan app will offer different guides to campus life and dining, access to reader-authored event listings and push Texan news alerts. It will allow mobile readers to engage with the stories they read, posting comments and responding to polls.

 

• Develop event listings where UT students can access and post information about meetings and events happening on and off campus.

 

• Develop a student-to-student classified ads section online, accessible only to UT students.

 

• Create a network of writers from groups all across campus. Host blogs by UT students and professors on The Daily Texan website. 

 

THE DAILY TEXAN IN YOUR HAND

 

• Redesign the newspaper so it reflects fewer strictures of traditional newspaper layout and presents the most compelling image and headline visible from the box. This includes changing our traditional notion of what belongs on the front page. As part of the staffwide redesign effort, we will aim to develop compelling features that draw readers back and allow them to interact with the print product.

 

• Militantly scrutinize our distribution methods, evaluating the placement of each newspaper box on and off campus to increase efficiency and make it easier to get a paper.

 

• Hand out the paper at strategic locations such as Jester, Gregory Gymnasium and the West Mall.

 

THE DAILY TEXAN’S BOTTOM LINE

 

• Conduct an in-depth study of The Daily Texan readers to determine who they are and what they’re looking for when they open a paper or browse our website.

 

 • Use the business school as a resource. The Daily Texan’s current problems offer a real-world learning experience not only for us, but also for enterprising business students. 

 

• Develop new print products to engage readers and provide more opportunities for advertising revenue, such as a Back-to-Campus guide, a Greek Life guide, a Best-Of guide. 

 

• Publish Daily Texan photographs on wall-sized posters which include advertisements, distribute to freshmen looking to decorate spare dorm room walls. Sell artfully-designed graduation posters drawn and customized by The Daily Texan comics department.

 

• Host Daily Texan-sponsored debates and events and charge admission. Film these events and post the video footage on our website.

Editor’s note: Below find preliminary suggestions collected from The Daily Texan staff and readers to boost the Texan’s relevance and revenue. We encourage you to submit your own ideas before March 1 to editor@dailytexanonline.com and tweet them to @thedailytexan. With permission, we will publish ideas we receive.

THE DAILY TEXAN ON YOUR SCREEN

• Redesign and relaunch The Daily Texan website using WordPress. This will make our site more nimble, flexible and usable to more editors and staff members at the Texan. Wordpress has a built-in developers’ community to help, so we no longer will be reliant on an in-house expert.

• Build and launch a free Daily Texan mobile application. The free Daily Texan app will offer different guides to campus life and dining, access to reader-authored event listings and push Texan news alerts. It will allow mobile readers to engage with the stories they read, posting comments and responding to polls.

• Develop event listings where UT students can access and post information about meetings and events happening on and off campus.

• Develop a student-to-student classified ads section online, accessible only to UT students.

• Create a network of writers from groups all across campus. Host blogs by UT students and professors on The Daily Texan website. 

THE DAILY TEXAN IN YOUR HAND

• Redesign the newspaper so it reflects fewer strictures of traditional newspaper layout and presents the most compelling image and headline visible from the box. This includes changing our traditional notion of what belongs on the front page. As part of the staffwide redesign effort, we will aim to develop compelling features that draw readers back and allow them to interact with the print product.

• Militantly scrutinize our distribution methods, evaluating the placement of each newspaper box on and off campus to increase efficiency and make it easier to get a paper.

• Hand out the paper at strategic locations such as Jester, Gregory Gymnasium and the West Mall.

THE DAILY TEXAN’S BOTTOM LINE

• Conduct an in-depth study of The Daily Texan readers to determine who they are and what they’re looking for when they open a paper or browse our website.

 • Use the business school as a resource. The Daily Texan’s current problems offer a real-world learning experience not only for us, but also for enterprising business students. 

• Develop new print products to engage readers and provide more opportunities for advertising revenue, such as a Back-to-Campus guide, a Greek Life guide, a Best-Of guide. 

• Publish Daily Texan photographs on wall-sized posters which include advertisements, distribute to freshmen looking to decorate spare dorm room walls. Sell artfully-designed graduation posters drawn and customized by The Daily Texan comics department.

• Host Daily Texan-sponsored debates and events and charge admission. Film these events and post the video footage on our website.

Editor's note: A 30 column is a chance for departing permanent staff to say farewell and reflect on their time spent in The Daily Texan’s basement office. The term comes from the old typesetting mark (-30-) to denote the end of a line.

So after two years at the Texan, I’m on my way out.

My first two semesters at the paper were spent on the Life & Arts staff, writing weekly comic book reviews and the occasional entertainment feature. Under the wings of the gracious editors there, I learned how to write. My appreciation of formalism and the art of journalism blossomed under their tutelage. Thanks is especially owed to Amber Genuske — now over at the Huffington — who taught me what an em-dash is and was willing to argue with me for a straight hour whether our audience knew who Thomas Pynchon was. Here I learned ambition.  

I’ve held my current position over the last couple of semesters. I was brought over to the Page by the inimitable Carolynn Calabrese, who taught me how to manage a staff of artists (in her words, “like herding [fucking] cats“) and the methods to effectively impart criticism to myself and others. CC, as everyone knows her, and Victoria Grace Eliot after her, were the founders of the proud contemporary lineage and direction of the Page, the only full page of original, unsyndicated comics strips in American college media. From them, I learned the power of a committed vision and how to hew a workplace culture out of sheer rock. To all the artists who’ve ever worked under me, apologies for all the last-minute emails. You are indescribably brave, bringing your art and drawings to an editor and trusting them to feed your growth. They say that art is the excrement that comes with conscious living — thanks for bringing the goods with a respectable degree of regularity. You guys and gals on the Page are wonderful and you will continue to get better. 

Some words of advice to future editors, and those who aspire for positions working on the Page or the Texan at large: bring your vision, use every resource available to you and constantly reach out. My first contact with the paper was a handwritten letter to the comics page about how much it blew chunks. While I was in the office dropping it off, I stole some Texas Student Media-branded office letterhead and used it to bluff myself Press entry into the Alamo Drafthouse’s annual Fantastic Fest film festival. CC, the Comics Page editor at the time, was wise enough to reach out and engage with me. Through CC, I realized the power of seeing potential in people. When I was brought onboard to edit the page, I realized that people will only give you what you ask from them (by the way, you should ask for everything). We at the Texan, and print media at large, are in a transitory period. It’s a pretty safe assumption that the people here are among the most ambitious here at the University. We work in one of the most volatile industries that exist — you have to be crazy to work here. So collaborate and build bridges. Bring your backbone, and don’t be afraid to leap without a net.

Thanks are owed to the staff and management of TSM and The Daily Texan, and to everyone here that has considered my opinion and entertained my ideas. Allahu akbar, #Moneyteam.

-30-

Ao Meng started at The Daily Texan in fall 2010 as a life & arts staff writer. He has been an associate comics editor and is now comics editor.