Bus routes to the Texas State campus will be altered during the next two weeks to improve services and adjust to challenges posed by road construction.

Nancy Nusbaum, interim director of transportation services, said Texas State has contracted Capital Area Rural Transportation to provide two shuttle buses for use in the Campus Loop route. The business’ buses will be added April 1 to the Campus Loop. Additionally, starting April 8 buses will be rerouted away from Sessom Drive.

Paul Hamilton, Shuttle Service manager, said these changes are being made to avoid construction on Sessom Drive, which is difficult for Texas State’s buses to navigate around.

“The construction on Sessom has made it difficult for buses to come up that corridor,” Hamilton said. “The Campus Loop (route) doesn’t have an alternative road. So, we’ve contracted with C.A.R.T.S.”

Cheryl Brock, mass communication junior, backs out of a space March 25 at Woods Parking Garage. The original green permit fee for next fall has been lowered from the $575 to $485.

Parking at Texas State will still be more expensive next fall, but adjustments to the proposed permit prices could have on-campus residents experiencing less sticker-shock.

As parking becomes an increasingly hot commodity at Texas State, some students will have the option to purchase permits for a newly designated section of residential spaces on campus.

Nancy Nusbuam, interim director of transportation services, said 230 spaces on the top two floors of the newly constructed Edward Gary Street Parking Garage have been blocked out for residential permit holders. The permits will be sold on a first come first serve basis. Any residential or campus apartment permits that are unsold will be available for purchase on the 12th class day next fall.

Only 230 spaces will be available to students because there is a concern that not enough of people will be willing to pay the price for a residential permit, which has been renegotiated down from $575 to $485, Nusbaum said. The 230 spots were designed to be pay by the hours spaces like the rest of the garage before they were reallocated for student use.

With global attention focused on turmoil brewing in North Korea, a tech-savvy journalist is using social media to report her firsthand experience in the famously restrictive country.

Jean H. Lee, the Associated Press’ Pyongyang/Seoul bureau chief, is the only American reporter with permission to travel to North Korea regularly. She sent the first tweet and Instagram photo from the country’s new third-generation wireless network.

Lee provided a look into digital life beyond the DMZ, a strip of land acting as a buffer zone between North and South Korea, during a talk at South by Southwest Interactive.

Lee said it’s clear that North Korean officials have spent a lot of time trying to keep foreigner visitors separate from the locals.

“Their whole political philosophy is based on self reliance and doing everything their own way, and that extends to every part of their social structure, including the Internet,” Lee said.

Al Gore says the future holds severe environmental damage, major displacement in global power and farm animal/arachnid hybrids—but is confident the United States can provide the leadership the world needs “more than ever.”

The former vice president spoke at South by Southwest Interactive about his latest book, “The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change.” Gore’s book tackles issues facing the world that present both “peril and opportunity.” Walter Mossberg, technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, moderated the discussion and set the tone when he described the book as “scary.”

“Our country is in very serious trouble,” Gore said. “But that does not mean I am not optimistic.”

When the blogosphere started to gain momentum in 2005, David Karp needed a blogging platform that allowed him to have an online identity to be proud of — so he created Tumblr.

Karp, founder and CEO of Tumblr, spoke at South by Southwest Interactive for a fireside chat entitled “Building Tools for Creativity.” The talk focused on the evolution of Tumblr and its role in allowing users to both create and curate content for the Web.

Karp began entertaining the idea of creating Tumblr when the blogosphere had started to take shape and become a part of people’s digital identities.

Karp said he tried other blogging platforms like WordPress and Blogger, but was frustrated by the limitations imposed by them. Their formats were designed for writing and long-form editorials. Karp thought there might be other people like him who weren’t writers but wanted a space on the Internet that could represent them.

The closing keynote speaker at South By Southwest Interactive described his talk as one about “comics, creativity, crowdfunding and poop jokes.”

I’d say that was a pretty accurate description. Matthew Inman, creator of The Oatmeal, had a packed room at the Austin Convention Center laughing throughout his keynote address. Inman has used The Oatmeal as a platform for observing the evolution of words like “douchebag” in today’s vernacular and explaining how your cat may be plotting to kill you. Inman also headed two successful crowdfunding campaigns in 2012, one of which turned a nuisance lawsuit on its head by raising money for charity instead of paying damages to a rival website.

Before touching on his crowdfunding campaigns, Inman spoke about how he gets his inspiration.

“I’m not a cartoonist. I’m a stand-up comedian whose stage is the Web,” Inman said. “I write comics where I tell truths, anecdotes and observations.”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been told to be professional on social networking sites because future employers could be looking at my profiles, I’d have… a lot of nickels. However, professors and mentors hardly ever tell students how they can use social networking to help them get a job.

Luckily for you, I went to an awesome panel called “Using Your Online Network to Get a Job #IRL” at SXSW Interactive a few days ago, and I’m nice enough to share what I learned.

The panel was led by Jocelyn Lai and Justin Gignac, who offered two unique positions about the importance of peoples’ social media presences. Lai is a talent acquisitions manager in Austin who uses social networks as a tool to recruit and connect with people. Gignac is a freelance art director who founded a real-time network that connects freelance creatives with agencies and companies looking to hire them.

Unveiling the next cutting-edge startup, app or service promising to make waves in an industry is what SXSW Interactive is all about. During her keynote address Sunday, Julie Uhrman attempted to do just that by touting OUYA, her crowd-funded gaming console built on Android that will have a limited release at the end of this month.

The conversation, moderated by Joshua Topolsky, editor-in-chief of The Verge, covered the idea behind OUYA and its beginnings with Kickstarter, with Uhrman attempting to play down mistakes that she may have made along the way.

OUYA is a return to the traditional home-gaming approach, Uhrman said. She aims to recreate the childhood experience of playing video games with friends — hands cramping from gripping the controller too hard, sitting in front of the television for hours with the volume on max and all.

SXSW Interactive officially ended Tuesday, but it has taken until now for me to fully recover. However, I will say that life at Texas State prepared me for most of the South By chaos.

I feel that I would not have been able to expertly push my way through hoards of people in the Austin Convention Center had I not mastered the art of walking through the Quad. Years of ignoring outstretched hands clutching flyers for shady parties (“Come on, there will be trash can punch!!!”) prepared me well when it came to turning down weird freebies and avoiding unwanted conversations (“Donate to the Kickstarter for my super-secret new startup and I’ll give you a free XXL T-shirt!!!). That being said, SXSW still wore me out. Today I’ll catch up on blogging about all of the cool panels I went to.