Welcome to the Humiliating World of Professional Writing!!!!!

Alpha Report

The shell is complete-content-wise. To add the France section would be masochistic-I don't have the time.

Other than pointing out the few spelling errors the stories contained, Christina said my project needed style-sheet work, and I agree-I just wanted to get the hard part over with. Now the tweaking begins. She also suggested I maybe reformat the family tree page into an actual "tree", but I don't know yet. That's a Beta-Release issue.

Alex thought the linking strategy was great-the documents flowed into each other smoother. My linking strategy is that the first word of every document links back to the previous page. Every word that is a link includes a story related to the meaning of that word. One of them was a stretch-I made "wife beater"link to a story on cigarettes.

Christina also suggested to not overkill each page with pictures-some don't need as many. The stories where I describe the landscape and architecture need to have a visual aid, but the little-vignettes about the dogs and cigarettes do not.

Both suggested changing the font, and I am in the process of doing so.

The storm has been weathered. Now its time to clean up the debris and organize. I hope I can get the majority of this over and done with before Thanksgiving. And I hope my mother mails me the pictures, otherwise I'm using placeholders.

This is the *unedited first draft: I have since made changes to the documents on my USB drive. If you have any further suggestions, feel free to post them.

*so I changed the header size to reduce the grain, but the rest is unchanged* 

Alpha testing

Well, I spent all Saturday, sans the four and a half hours I was at the theater, on this project. The hardest part was typing up all the stories, as well as trying to remember them. Then the linking plan began. I actually printed out the stories, which I created in my blog, and spread them out on the floor and gave them numbers. I then wrote the numbers on the chart which I uploaded to my previous blog. That made it easier for me to keep track of which stories link to each other.

The shell is done

Originally, I was going to include a section on France and have the two intersect at the conclusions, but that really it too ambitious. That would require 20 more stories, pages, stylesheets, and pictures....I have other final projects for other classes.

I have all the pictures for this project. They're sitting in my bedroom in a scrapbook I made about 7 years. Guess what I'm doing over Thanksgiving...and I may have to pull some from the internet, as I don't have many of Portovenere.

Design won't be insanely complicated. I just have to intersperse the pictures now. And They're at home. Maybe I'll have mom ship them up ASAP.

I honestly thought just the plan was due today.

For my term project, I will be creating a hyper-text memoir, called "my europe," loosely borrowing the concept of my body.

I lived in Italy for 6 summers, and spent this past summer in France. There will be two branches-my France and My Italy, which will include linked stories from my childhood (Italy) and a few months ago (France). As the reader goes deeper and deeper, the number of links to other stories will increase by page.

There will be 18 stories per sub-category, plus an introduction and conclusion, which will tie the two branches together, 38 stories total. I do have a complicated branch chart drawn out.

The first word of the page will link to the previous page, so the reader does not have to hit the back button. I don't think I will include a home page link because part of the project's purpose is to have the reader explore. I want them to get lost and try and find their way. I will not provide a map, here or within the project.

This stories consist of my fondest childhood memories. I don't want to forget any of them, and I'm hoping that this project will jog some more memories.

I have decided every specific story that I will include. I will then type them up and decide where the best link locations are. Once I see the words on the screen, I can better observe which words have some kind of relationship to the next.

For instance, my story about Mass at the mountain church will link to an anecdote about the first time I went in it and saw the gruesome bloody Jesus corpse in the glass coffin (bet that got your attention, didn't it) and visiting St Peter's for the first time. All the stories have a similar underlying tone.

1 page-2 links-which have two links of their own-each of those links has three links to other pages, within which will be the link to the conclusion page. Here is the sample chart. hopefully, you can see what I'm getting at. The point at the bottom of the chart is the conclusion.

.

Well, my slideshow works. Not only does it work, but I finished it thursday. What I hated most about Flash was not the diffculty level-it's not rocket science. However, i will reiterate the tedious issue. If I'm telling a 5 minute story with pictures, people are going to want them to change often, much like tv. I had to resize and enter all 40 (give or take) pictures and then sync them up to the exact points in the MP3 I created. I had a chart that beared a striking resemblance to an Excel spreadsheet-if a bomb hit it. This class may not have a lot of assigned readings but it sure is lab intensive.  I think I would have gone insane if we had regular readings in addition to the heavy lab time.

And we visited my old friend Audacity. Nostalgia for my first media lab-not really. Quite frankly, I didn't really get anything out of that class, or so I thought. As I recall, there was a problem every week that course with the files: they wouldn't play, how to we upload, etc...Some of it must have stuck, because I had virtually no problems creating a useable MP3. But again, it sure was tedious, considering I spliced in 3 sections of myself speaking between interviews.

And now it's over, thank you Jesus. back to the semi-creative writing world of Inform 7.

Technology angers me. I belong back in Victorian times.

I looked at the blog tally on the home portal, and it said that I have written 200 entries. That means in the past two 1/2 months, I've written more entries than I did the entire last school year. I suddenly feel very tired.

This time around I'm offering some constructive criticisms for Steve Krug. first off, congratulations Steve, for making a boring subject exciting to read about. I can say that this was the first non-theater related book I've read during college that I actually liked. It didn't feel like such a chore. The resevoir of goodwill section hit home the most-I swear at at least one web page a day.  I still think they secretly hate me.

However, desipte krug's personal and hip writing style, I felt his book got uber-redundant towards the end. He spends about 4 chapters speaking about usability testing, basically saying the same guidelines with different words. I felt a sense of deja-vu. Okay Steve, we get it: usability testing is important. Re-wording is not really teaching your reader anything new. And we understand that amazon.com is a fantastic website-I've mentioned it several times myself. But its not the President of good usability testing results: there are websites out there that are just as well-designed and implemented. Then again, amazon was in its heyday when Krug wrote the book.

Coverage/Timeliness-They were all in on time. it seems me and Jed are closely tied in the "who can post first" race :). I was shocked I actually missed a blog entry, but that was for another class. soooo many blogs-it was bound to happen sometime.

Oh God, here we go

Top 5

You Shouldn't Have to Think

Driving Around and Never Getting Anywhere

I Finished This Book

Grazie a Dio, sono libera finalmente

Slouching Towards Bedlam

Now It really is over

World Wide Web of Wikipedia

History, discussion, comparison

Editing Les Miserables

Spongebob Squarepants

Reflections on the Whole


Interaction: people reacted back to interesting things I said. I wasn't as long winded this time around-I got more comments, and the blogs that weren't heavily commented on still had thoughtful response(s). I guess its true what Krug wrote: "visitors will not want to read through endless blocks of text".

I Finished This Book Today

Grazia a Dio

Slouching Towards Bedlam

Now It's really over

Interaction: I left comments on people's entries...I think this time around, there were more interesting entries

Jed:

Wikipedia'(s Lack of) Rules

I'm Sad

Anne:

Creating a Welcoming Environment

Krug Intro

Denamarie:

Wikpedia Articles

I Loathe Interactive Fiction-so do I...but for some reason, I have little problem creating it

Andy:

Story Or Game

Usability, testing, Writing, and Hatred

Jackie:

What's good is bad and what's bad is good

Joe the Web user

Chelsea:

Not a Novel-it's a website

Kevin:

Bad Page, Naughty Homepage













Depth: I wrote a lot, but didn't blab as much as I have in the past -although it was relevant and coherent blabbing

Driving Around and Never Getting Anywhere

You Shouldn't Have to Think

Grazia a Dio, Sono Libera Finalmente

Slouching Towards Bedlam

World Wide Web of Wikipedia

History, Editing

Editing Les Miserables



 

BackBob TrackPants

*I love that I finally got to work Spongebob Squarepants into a class assignment*
**I am registered as Javertlover on Wikipedia**

Well, it seems that this Wikipedia exploration assignment has paid off for our school's article. Users have edited the page within the past two days to include information on our centers and added a complete list of undergraduate programs. Now, our site is even better than SVC's because it includes substantial information, and not just a traditional background. Universities and Colleges exist to educate, and I was kind of shocked that as of two days ago, neither site had much info in academic fields of study. Traditions and historical backgrounds are interesting bits of trivia, but what really matters is what the schools offer in terms of degrees. Thank you, whoever Chels337 and Dexter52 are.

Someone named Beemer69 has removed all the information I added to the Squidward section under "list of spongebob squarepants characters". Someone named Bill evidently didn't like me encroaching on his authority concerning spongebob-dom. Reading Bill's profile, I see that he spends a lot of time editing his favorite wikipedia articles. Well Bill, I love spongebob and all, but I'm not going to constantly remove everything that is not written by me(he has removed 3 edits done by users in the pat two days, even though the entries were informative). I care, but not that much. So you may go ahead and remove my Squidward paragraph, even though it was entirely factual. I have a life outside of wikipedia.

No one edited the section I added to the Les Miserables (musical) page. I just visited the history page, and recognize two of the names: they are some of the same people who edited the spongebob characters page. I think Beemer69 may have seen my name on the edit history page and went to check out what other pages I edited.

So what have I learned? There are people out there so passionate about a subject that they polce the wikipedia article concerning it, making sure the information stays pure. And sometimes they don't wany anyone else adding to what they wrote, because its "their work". I guess I might feel like that if I was a person who spent hours just roaming Wikpedia. But I'm not that person. So I'll check back in a week with squidward and Les Miserables and see of anything has changed. Unless something is obviously, deliberately false, I'll leave the pages as they are, because I know there are hundreds of wiki vigilantes.

That was an interesting assignment, but very tedious. Oh well, 3 more weeks.

original article

There are two things on which I can consider myself an authority on: Les Miserables and Spongebob Squarepants. I felt that there is not enough character description under the spongebob entry, so I decided that I was going to add some. Unfortunately, the wikipedia policy have cracked down upon the spongebob articles, which seem to have a very high vandalism rate. They are semi-protected, and since I just signed up for a wiki account yesterday, I cannot edit the spongebob page.

I can, however, edit the 'list of spongebob squarepants characters" page.

I added the following to the "Squidward Tentacles" character description:

"While Squidward is annoyed by the two, he ends up missing the excitement Spongebob and Patrick bring to his life (whether he wants to admit it or not. Squidward once moved to a community of squids to get away from his bothersome neighbors, only to find life quickly boring and mundane. Squidward ends up reverting to Spongebob-esque antics("Tentacle Acres").

Despite his many claims to hate Spongebob, Squidward actually has a soft spot for the young boy. It appeared once that Squidward had given a pie to Spongebob that was a bomb. During what he perceived as Spongebob's last day on earth, Squidward spent the entire day with him as they did everything on his wish list. ("Dying for Pie"). During an attempt at an April Fool's Day prank that goes awry, Squidward, after unintentionally making Spongebob cry, confesses that he actually likes him ("Fools in April")."

The spongebob lexicon is so large that it has its own version of wikipedia

I've got a soft spot for the only being I know of that has failed the driver's test more times than I have (1,970,578).

*ClassBob BacktrackPants*

As much as I'd like to both deny and fight it, the reality is that journalism is no longer just a print medium. It seems that every couple of months, there is a new form of delivering a message available. I can barely remember life without youtube. That may seem really sad, but it is true. Youtube has become such an integral part of our lives now. I frequently have spanish homework that consists of listening to a song on youtube and deciphering the correct vocabulary words.

I never could figure out how the heck my uncle could afford to live in the house he does: beachfron property in Daytona. He is a web marketer (and one of the founders of the dreaded pop-up). Just clicking on a banner pays off for the host website, because it is assumed that clicking translates into buying. The host site directed customers toward a product, and based on the "turn-over", or # of clicks, the designer gets paid.

Print alone does not draw in readers. Photos capture frozen moments, and real reactions. Matching a facial expression with a quote makes the story resonate even more with the public. In order to obtain these jewel moments, use the utmost sensativity when approaching an irate/hurt/upset person. 

There is a difference between censoring and using editorial judgement. One of the functions of an editor is to protect the paper's reputation, and judge whether printing a potentially offensive story is worth the possible backlash. A school paper should adhere to the school's code of conduct. Private schools, being a smaller community, tend to have more conservative views.Large state schools are more liberal and must take into consideration the views of their large population. Diversity=less homogenization. The point is, editors and advisors exists to help prevent you, the student, from making a mistake that could get you in trouble. They're not here to silence you. No one cal really be silenced anymore, thanks to the "blogosphere". It's just that people are more likely to find the information you want them to in a school paper

Going Digital

"as a student myself, I can view the past through the lens of The Miscellany's coverage and see national events on a more recognizable scale than ever before"

"student editors must consider both uses of their papers: the present-day and the historical"

National newspapers tend to generalize large events. Local and school newspapers are less lofty, closer to the people. They are more likely to contain humanizing feature content. Plus, I'd like to be able to look back and review years from now what my generation thought about what was going on in our country. We've had a lot of great political articles written these past two years: it would be interesting to compare what was written now 20 years from now when our children are living through a campaign. How much would be similar/different? How much would the world have changed by then?

"all of these flaws are shocking when one realizes that Generation Y, the most tech-savvy ever born, maintains and codes these sights"

"reporters can contribute live blogs, attach videos and other multimedia to their articles"

Well, I can understand why, after taking New Media Projects. The amount of time one has to put into creating multi-media is sickening. Thank god we don't have heavy blogging in addition-I'd pull my hair out. But I've never been what they call "computer/tech-savvy"-I'll say it: I hate computers. I use them because I pretty much have to. AIM, and youtube are great convenience tools, and there is no longer a need for me to purchase cable when all the news shows are posted online within a few days of airing. But do I want to create electronic presentations, slideshows, and all that jazz?

No. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to journalism. I just want to write. I didn't pick this program because of the new media tag. But the world is changing, so we have to accomodate. And think about it: if we only did what we wanted, the world would never evolve. So this electronic stuff, this "new media", is necessary (as much as I hate to admit it).

But I will reiterate: heavy blogging may, quite frankly, suck at times, but it is a much more effective tool for learning than quizzes and tests. Instead of spitting back facts, we can discuss, and learn from our peers. It's just so tedious at times (can you tell I'm burnt out?)

The Setonian online should have a citizen reporter section where people can post additional photos and content to add to the story. We can't get all the viewpoints into an under 500 word article.

SNSG 15

"alternative newspapers specialize in things that mainstream papers do poorly" 141

My question is: Is Eye Contact our alternative newspaper? The Setonian is more of a general newspaper, whereas Contact focuses only on types of art. But it doesn't cover news, it just showcases student artwork, sort of like a gallery showing on paper.

The alternative newspaper is meant to bring a different perspective to campus issues. However, I think that considering the size of our campus, there would be a lot of redundant material. if we were a bigger school, there would obviously be a lot more content and more oppourtunities for different spins on issues.

My sister's college has a newspaper for several different departments. She writes for the theater newspaper, contributing occasionally to the A &E section of the principal paper. But she goes to a state school, so tens of thousands of students attend it.

Personally, I would love to see an Onion-esque humor publication on campus.

I don't have that much to say about advertising, except this: why don't we have a classified section where students could take out low-cost ads to sell books and find potential off-campus roomates? I bet students would be interested.