Well, We are at the week before Thanksgiving but there is no rest for the weary... yet.
Monday: Today I came into the office a bit early to get some work done on a paper I had due for a class, but I ended up working on updating blog bios and working with our expert bloggers and trying to smooth out some kinks. Mondays have also become my day of brainstorming what slideshows or photo galleries I am going to tackle for the week. This week, I decided to keep working on this idea about newcomer spouses and a piece on the Kennedys. I also prepared a piece for the upcoming two days before thanksgiving.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today was simply a lecture by Terry about campaigns and the message that people must use. He talked about primary campaigns and the message that people must use to define their candidates. It reminded me of a West Wing episode. After class, I went downstairs and chatted with the NJ family. I worked some more on this piece we began about the spouses of Congressional newcomers. We found some interesting women and men. One guy, Marco Rubio, married a Florida Dolphins cheerleader.
Wednesday: Things are going pretty smoothly at NJ and Wednesday was no exception. I started on my Kennedys piece and I also learned a new way to present photos. It is called photo peach and it animates the photos by adding movement to the clips. It makes it pretty ineresting because then it is not just a slideshow, but you can still put in the captions that you want underneath the photos. THen you simply take the embed code that is provided and past that iframe into the body of the story. It was actually the perfect solution to some of the multimedia problems I had been having with our new gallery.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We continued our discussion about general election campaigns on Thursday and talked about what the role of conventions are. He said we use them to define our candidates and then direct a message. I again thought back to the West Wing because in the 7th season one of the complaints Joshua Lyman makes is that he did not have a full convention for his candidate to define himself. It is amazing how much that show is accurate for television... that rarely happens. I headed by down to NJ and I spent the day finishing up my Kennedy series and getting ready to put together my Thanksgiving slide show. I am really lucky because besides helping out with photos and things of that nature, I get the chance to do my own projects and the sky is pretty much the limit. I guess they figured they would rather have to reel me in then force me to do things.
Friday: Last day at work before a week-long hiatus while I go home for Thanksgiving. Today in the newsroom we did one of our first television spots with the new camera equipment in the office. Our editor Ron Fournier was on Andrea Mitchell's show and he did really well. It reminded me of the times on OU NIghtly, however this was a more efficient system than what we have at OU NIghtly. I finished the Thanksgiving slide show and that was pretty much all I took care of that day. I was excited to get out of there and head home to Oklahoma.
We will see how the break goes!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sooners in Washington
My last post on the subject described a bar full of Sooner fans, but this time it is all about one man: my coworker Mike Fox.
Mike is a managing editor at National Journal who works with the environment and energy team.
Most days he is huddled at his cubicle in the corner running ideas with the likes of Coral Davenport or Amy Harder.
The latest Mike Fox moment was when our deputy editor Patsy Wilson realized that he had been operating without a Blackberry. She was shocked that he could do his job without one.
My how the times changed.
My opinion of Mike also changed when I discovered he was a Sooner fan.
And I mean big time Sooner fan. As I write this column, he is currently on a plane back from Norman, Ok., where he flew out for the weekend to catch Senior Night 2010.
I now feel like I cannot go a day without checking in with him about the latest Sooner scoop or figuring out how long he is really going to be in mourning after an OU football loss.
You can tell if we lost that weekend because he just looks sour. I am not even kidding, he looks like the kid who had his candy stolen from him.
Sooner fans are everywhere, and this one was right under my nose.
It took me about two months to figure out we were both such big fans and we worked not 50 feet away from one another. But that is the thing about Sooner fans, once you find each other, they make for the best comrades.
He will stand by my desk for 15 minutes just telling me stories about when he was in school at OU and the kind of shenanigans that went down.
Most interns are not so lucky. It makes the experience of being low on the totem pole pretty rewarding when a managing editor wants to sit and chat.
So while my internship had been once of the most exciting times in my life, I must say it got that much better when I met a fellow OU Sooner.
They say sports are too divisive and too competitive, but on the other hand maybe they are just what we need to bring people together?
Mike is a managing editor at National Journal who works with the environment and energy team.
Most days he is huddled at his cubicle in the corner running ideas with the likes of Coral Davenport or Amy Harder.
The latest Mike Fox moment was when our deputy editor Patsy Wilson realized that he had been operating without a Blackberry. She was shocked that he could do his job without one.
My how the times changed.
My opinion of Mike also changed when I discovered he was a Sooner fan.
And I mean big time Sooner fan. As I write this column, he is currently on a plane back from Norman, Ok., where he flew out for the weekend to catch Senior Night 2010.
I now feel like I cannot go a day without checking in with him about the latest Sooner scoop or figuring out how long he is really going to be in mourning after an OU football loss.
You can tell if we lost that weekend because he just looks sour. I am not even kidding, he looks like the kid who had his candy stolen from him.
Sooner fans are everywhere, and this one was right under my nose.
It took me about two months to figure out we were both such big fans and we worked not 50 feet away from one another. But that is the thing about Sooner fans, once you find each other, they make for the best comrades.
He will stand by my desk for 15 minutes just telling me stories about when he was in school at OU and the kind of shenanigans that went down.
Most interns are not so lucky. It makes the experience of being low on the totem pole pretty rewarding when a managing editor wants to sit and chat.
So while my internship had been once of the most exciting times in my life, I must say it got that much better when I met a fellow OU Sooner.
They say sports are too divisive and too competitive, but on the other hand maybe they are just what we need to bring people together?
Another Week at NJ
Monday: This was the first week in quite sometime that something huge was not looming. The relaunch is over and for the first time election stuff had died down. I now had to figure out a routine. It has gotten to the point now where I come in and I will be working on a slideshow or doing any task that I am assigned. I was told I needed to take more initiative, so that was the theme for this week. I started working in our new slideshow format and figuring out the kinks on that took up quite a bit of my time this week.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today we had Curtis Gans come and speak to us about who votes and why they vote. He talked about how to figure out who stays home on election day and what peeked his interest about this election. He has been doing this for decades and you could tell that he was well versed in the subject of elections and polling. After I made it back downstairs, I proceeded to work on a slideshow for the day about Michelle Obama's outfits while she is on the road in Asia. It was the first thing I had a chance to do that was not wrapped around another persons story and it was my first byline. It wasn't my initial idea, but I was allowed to run with it and work with the photos which I really enjoyed doing.
Wednesday: Today, I updated the Michelle Obama slide show, but I was also challenged to take more initiative and come up with some projects on my own. On the one hand I felt bad that maybe I was being a bad intern, but on the other hand I figured it was just their way of motivating me because there was more that I could be doing. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with ideas for future slide shows and I got one ready for Thursday.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today, we had a meeting with two journalists about how they are using the media and the internet to reach out to people. they talked about how candidates use the media to interact with potential voters. After I left the class, I headed downstairs to show the bosses what I had planned for my slideshow for that day. I had taken all the newcomers to Congress that we had collected and put a slideshow together of all the ones with a military background. It was veterans days and I figured it would be an appropriate slideshow. Turns out it was a good idea and they ran with it. I also spent the afternoon coming up with a new slide show where I tracked the Top 10 congressmen as far as who had the most followers on Twitter. It was a hit and I good a kudos from the editor. That always makes your day. I also turned in my honors research paper... thank goodness.
Friday: This day was a little more lax because it was Friday and people were just ready for the weekend to start. I tied up a few loose ends and did some more slideshow brainstorming. I picked up on a rather youthful topic for the day's slideshow... no shave November. I picked up a list of ten of Washington's bearded individuals and did a slide show on facial hair. It was fairly strange, but it was soo much fun to do and was something out of the ordinary for national journal. It made for a lively friday.
Tuesday: Terry Michael Day! Today we had Curtis Gans come and speak to us about who votes and why they vote. He talked about how to figure out who stays home on election day and what peeked his interest about this election. He has been doing this for decades and you could tell that he was well versed in the subject of elections and polling. After I made it back downstairs, I proceeded to work on a slideshow for the day about Michelle Obama's outfits while she is on the road in Asia. It was the first thing I had a chance to do that was not wrapped around another persons story and it was my first byline. It wasn't my initial idea, but I was allowed to run with it and work with the photos which I really enjoyed doing.
Wednesday: Today, I updated the Michelle Obama slide show, but I was also challenged to take more initiative and come up with some projects on my own. On the one hand I felt bad that maybe I was being a bad intern, but on the other hand I figured it was just their way of motivating me because there was more that I could be doing. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with ideas for future slide shows and I got one ready for Thursday.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! Today, we had a meeting with two journalists about how they are using the media and the internet to reach out to people. they talked about how candidates use the media to interact with potential voters. After I left the class, I headed downstairs to show the bosses what I had planned for my slideshow for that day. I had taken all the newcomers to Congress that we had collected and put a slideshow together of all the ones with a military background. It was veterans days and I figured it would be an appropriate slideshow. Turns out it was a good idea and they ran with it. I also spent the afternoon coming up with a new slide show where I tracked the Top 10 congressmen as far as who had the most followers on Twitter. It was a hit and I good a kudos from the editor. That always makes your day. I also turned in my honors research paper... thank goodness.
Friday: This day was a little more lax because it was Friday and people were just ready for the weekend to start. I tied up a few loose ends and did some more slideshow brainstorming. I picked up on a rather youthful topic for the day's slideshow... no shave November. I picked up a list of ten of Washington's bearded individuals and did a slide show on facial hair. It was fairly strange, but it was soo much fun to do and was something out of the ordinary for national journal. It made for a lively friday.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Election Week Post-Mortum
So this week was insane due to the midterm elections and lets not waste any time getting into it.
Monday: They say there is always a calm before the storm and I would have to agree in general. Monday was a smooth day on the whole and I was able to get quite a bit of work done. There were a few problems with the candidate profiles I had been creating, but I was able to work those problems out as they presented themselves. I stayed around til about 8 p.m. so I bit late, but I knew the flood gates would open the next day.
Tuesday: I managed to sit through a lecture with Terry Michael, but then it was back downstairs to start my election day duties. It was prep time for my profiles so I spent the morning making sure that they were ready to go. I was not supposed to come into the office until three because I would be working til maybe 1 a.m. but I could not really get away. I took a break to watch an episode of a show I had missed, but that was all the excitement that I could afford. Once the election returns began coming in around 6 p.m. that is when the madness really began. What would happen is our digital editor would call out races that had been called and if it applied to me that is how I knew to start building a slide for the slide show that we were creating. We were creating a slide show for every new member that was elected to Congress. It doesn't seem that bad but when you get to number 100... you start to see lose your mind. I was able to keep up until around 9, then we began to get behind. I would write down names on a piece of paper and take them over to another editor who was editing the profiles before I could put them up online. It was quite the process, but we got it down to art around midnight. Looking at the way I was doing things, my process was not going to be easily replicated by anyone so it was up to me to finish the job. We were still going strong at 3 in the morning and we decided that at 4 we were going to take a 45 minute nap. I took this nap, but then afterwards it was back to putting in profiles. I saw the sun come up and the next round of employees enter the office for the next day (wednesday). I was still putting in profiles around 10:30, but then I finally made it out of the office around 10:45. I had been working or about 26 hours and had been in the office longer than any other person.
Wednesday: I will call this the lost day because all I did was sleep and recuperate.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We shared war stories from election night and then talked about the role of campaign managers. After this discussion, I headed back downstairs to see how things had gone on Wednesday and figure out what lose ends still needed to be tied up. Things were still kind of a blur from the frantic pace of the last two days, but I was able to clean up the profiles and start working on some new projects. My favorite thing I was able to start was a funny photo gallery of the random things that the new congressmen were doing before they were elected. I had some photo fun to say the very least.
Friday: Everybody in the office was ready for the weekend. Nobody was going to be able to make it much longer without a good nights sleep and some time away from work. I have been working on a thesis for school, so I was able to do that as well as work on a new slide show for a project that documents what people do when their families are gone to war. It is called While You Were Gone. It should be very compelling visually.
Well, thats about it for this week. Lets hope next week is not as frantic.
Monday: They say there is always a calm before the storm and I would have to agree in general. Monday was a smooth day on the whole and I was able to get quite a bit of work done. There were a few problems with the candidate profiles I had been creating, but I was able to work those problems out as they presented themselves. I stayed around til about 8 p.m. so I bit late, but I knew the flood gates would open the next day.
Tuesday: I managed to sit through a lecture with Terry Michael, but then it was back downstairs to start my election day duties. It was prep time for my profiles so I spent the morning making sure that they were ready to go. I was not supposed to come into the office until three because I would be working til maybe 1 a.m. but I could not really get away. I took a break to watch an episode of a show I had missed, but that was all the excitement that I could afford. Once the election returns began coming in around 6 p.m. that is when the madness really began. What would happen is our digital editor would call out races that had been called and if it applied to me that is how I knew to start building a slide for the slide show that we were creating. We were creating a slide show for every new member that was elected to Congress. It doesn't seem that bad but when you get to number 100... you start to see lose your mind. I was able to keep up until around 9, then we began to get behind. I would write down names on a piece of paper and take them over to another editor who was editing the profiles before I could put them up online. It was quite the process, but we got it down to art around midnight. Looking at the way I was doing things, my process was not going to be easily replicated by anyone so it was up to me to finish the job. We were still going strong at 3 in the morning and we decided that at 4 we were going to take a 45 minute nap. I took this nap, but then afterwards it was back to putting in profiles. I saw the sun come up and the next round of employees enter the office for the next day (wednesday). I was still putting in profiles around 10:30, but then I finally made it out of the office around 10:45. I had been working or about 26 hours and had been in the office longer than any other person.
Wednesday: I will call this the lost day because all I did was sleep and recuperate.
Thursday: Terry Michael Day! We shared war stories from election night and then talked about the role of campaign managers. After this discussion, I headed back downstairs to see how things had gone on Wednesday and figure out what lose ends still needed to be tied up. Things were still kind of a blur from the frantic pace of the last two days, but I was able to clean up the profiles and start working on some new projects. My favorite thing I was able to start was a funny photo gallery of the random things that the new congressmen were doing before they were elected. I had some photo fun to say the very least.
Friday: Everybody in the office was ready for the weekend. Nobody was going to be able to make it much longer without a good nights sleep and some time away from work. I have been working on a thesis for school, so I was able to do that as well as work on a new slide show for a project that documents what people do when their families are gone to war. It is called While You Were Gone. It should be very compelling visually.
Well, thats about it for this week. Lets hope next week is not as frantic.
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