Perhaps the most annoying feature of Microsoft Office was that stupid paper clip. Although I realize the little Einstein guy and the dog were essentially the same program, somehow it was less annoyingly helpful when it wasn’t “clippy.”

A few weeks ago, I was in a computer lab where the teacher was attempting to teach the kids to compose a letter. The little paper clip kept popping up on them, and you could hear her frustration when she tried to explain to the fourth graders: “If a little paper clip comes up, just ignore him.” Haha.

The comic is from userfriendly.org, but I saw it linked from Journalistopia.

“We are the choices we have made.”
— Meryl Streep

So, I was just talking to Rachel and I learned the Stater blogs went live this week.

This was something on my “list” to roll out last semester, but because of technical difficulties and an MIA webmaster, we did as much as we could. (It was still a lot, we made a lot of changes including a redesign, teaming up with the campus TV station for more video, photo galleries almost daily, rolled out our first sports blog, etc.) But I had great plans that I never accomplished and which instead were relegated to me sitting down my last day at the office with the AME/Web telling him everything still left to do this semester when I was gone. lol.

I’m excited about the blogs. It’s a step in the right direction. They’re rough now and need some resituating (such as a submission form added to Overheard at KSU, which has been bumped over to the Stater for them to carry on… which was part of the plan all along.) I’m glad they’re doing the editor’s blog now. That was the blog I most wanted to roll out, so seeing it materialize, even after I’m gone, is nice.

Definitely a step in the right direction, guys. Now… play it up on the site, and don’t just bury them in the link list at the side, and you’ll have something.

This week, I experienced the first “blizzard” of my adult life. The only time I can remember receiving as much snow was when I was about 8 or 9 and our car got stuck coming home from an Odyssey of the Mind tournament. I was completely swallowed by a snow drift that day. I remember back then the snow seemed fun. This week, it was anything but.

To make a long story — and more stories about the weather than anyone should ever have to stomach — short, it sucked. Lafayette landed with about 17 inches of snow total. (It was really only about 14.5″ on top of the snow we already had.) But it was bitterly cold and windy. Tuesday driving home, I remember I couldn’t see 100 feet in front of me. I was so sure I’d get stuck or hit or something. Listening to the scanner all day we literally could not even begin to keep up with the injury accidents coming across. It shut down the interstate for several hours.

I know earlier this year I was complaining about how I wanted snow, but come on, a foot and a half of snow overnight is a bit much. PLUS, when weather is as bad as it was this week, they close the schools. Do you know how hard it is to be an education reporter when not one of the schools is open? Yeah. It complicates things, and I think I’ve killed just about any schools/weather/snow angle possible. I think if I do another weather story in the next year, it will be too soon. Too bad we’re expecting another 2 to 4 inches of the slippery stuff tomorrow. Good thing I’m not working.

The only real reason I’m bringing this up is that I think we handled the story pretty awesome. Obviously, the blizzard Tuesday literally shut the city, the county and several counties around it down. Nobody was unaffected. But as I told my roommate when she asked me if I “seriously have to go to work?” on Tuesday and Wednesday, the news doesn’t just stop happening.

I think we did a great job being the go-to source for news and updates. One day, we had more than 60 Web updates, probably half of them at least weather-related. Each day we overshot our average (which is probably about 30/day) by a lot. And probably the best part, for me, was there was no questioning it was “get this for the Web.”

For the first time I really felt like every single person working there got it. It wasn’t about the next day’s paper. It was about getting the news out asap. It was about telling people to avoid the interstate full of accidents, that these roads were closed from X to Y, such and such school was delayed or cancelled tomorrow, this county was in a state of emergency and here’s what that means, etc.

The last thing I did before I dug my car out to drive home on Tuesday was write a brief for the site telling subscribers: Your papers will come, but they may be late. In the meantime, news, weather and more is available up-to-the-minute at jconline.com. I don’t think anyone could have denied that was true. And, although it wasn’t about the next day’s paper, that paper was far from an afterthought. Somehow, taking everything we collected, all the sources we cultivated, all the snow drifts we waded through and all the details we could gather, we were able to craft solid second-day packages that told not only what happened but also why it mattered and what was next. We even got some of that community interaction going, with readers sending in photos, stories and tips throughout the week. In sum: I think we nailed it.

“All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you’re not good enough or strong enough or talented enough. They will say you’re the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no’s become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES.“
— Nike Ad

When I was in high school, I got out of taking the required typing class. I’m not sure it’s even a requirement now. Maybe they assume everyone already knows how to type? (Maybe — probably — it only seems that way from my vantage point?)

While most of my peers were relegated to the world of learning home keys and completing workbooks of mind-numbing typing exercises, I managed to convince my counselor (who probably didn’t care either way) that I did indeed know how to type. Fast. Faster than my peers who pecked out their name. Faster than him. Faster than the teacher.

In fact, I learned to type at the same time I learned to spell. On my mother’s brother word processor. The one with the bright orange text on the brown screen. I wrote stories. I made pictures out of spreadsheets. I loved the instant gratification of the typewriter function. I especially loved hearing the tick-tick-tick… ticktickticktcktcktickticktcktck… ticktick… tick… tickticktick… of the word processor spelling out line by line, letter by letter, the words I’d crafted.

Yes, my friends. I, who began my adventures in learning Web design at the ripe old age of 10, do indeed remember the world before the Internet. I also remember learning to program on Apple computers so old they had no hard drives and floppy disks that were, get this, actually floppy. Like many of my peers, I fondly remember playing Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on a screen that displayed maybe eight colors.

Heck. I even remember owning the original Nintendo, yeah the one with Duck Hunt and the power pad for that olympics game (Dance Dance Revolution has nothing on that game, which a decade ago had my siblings and I exercising to video games) — and being the first owner, not the dozenth. I remember my dad bringing home Mario 3 when it was first released.

So, why am I giving a brief history of Meranda’s involvement/evolution of technology? Because today, I came across this typing test. It has you type a portion of the Gettysburg Address and times you. Although I suspect it’s probably pretty inflated, it’s hard to argue with a speed of 117 words per minute. I’d probably have guessed my speed in the 95-100 word per minute range. I type fast, but not that fast. (My sister Brandi and my mom type *that* fast.) But, 117 words is pretty impressive.

On a related and more journalistic point… After a recent interview with an older woman, the woman commented on my notetaking. She was impressed that people still took notes by hand and asked me about my writing habits, etc. The basics, did I use short hand, did I take notes on the computer, and so forth. She seemed to think penmanship was a dying art form. I’d probably stop short of calling my notes any type of redemption for the dying art of penmanship — though in my defense, my handwriting even when scribbling notes, is far neater and more legible than most peoples, especially journalists. But it was funny to think how much is typed now that previously would have been written. When was the last time you or your child actually wrote a paper or a story or anything longer than a sentence out by hand? Think about that.

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
— Albert Einstein

Now, this is interesting: AP teams up with NowPublic.com.

The Associated Press and NowPublic.com announced Friday that they have agreed to an innovative initiative designed to bring citizen content into AP newsgathering, and to explore ways to involve NowPublic’s on-the-ground network of news contributors in AP’s breaking news coverage.

…

Contributions to the AP news report from NowPublic’s network of participants could take many forms over time, said AP Deputy Managing Editor for Multimedia Lou Ferrara. “They could range from simple eyewitness accounts to originally produced content.”

In the early stages of the relationship, AP bureaus will work with NowPublic communities in selected locations on ways to enhance regional news coverage. National AP news desks also may tap the network in breaking news situations where citizen contributors may capture critical information and images. NowPublic also will help AP extend its coverage of virtual communities, such as social networks and contributed content sites, Ferrara said.

See, if the behemoth of behemoths in world news can do it, local newspapers can and should too. Crowdsourcing? Citizen created content? Community bloggers and photo galleries? Yes!

I can’t wait to see what type of impact this has and how it gets implemented.

I’m hoping this works, but I’m not optimistic: It works now!

Ugh. I don’t know why the videos won’t load. Trust me they’re funny. They are clips from fall semester at the Stater. There’s one of Seth attempting a cartwheel, the infamous Driving Ben Bananas video and then another never-before-seen clip of Aman (then city editor) playing NBA Jams in the newsroom on election night. A hodgepodge glimpse of the “play hard” part of the Stater.

If it’s not working for you (and it’s not working properly for me), I uploaded here.

And if anyone knows why the videos won’t load here but they do on that page… I could use some help. My hunch is it has something to do with the paths to the movies being called. (As in, it’s trying to call them from the folder this post is in, not the one the flash movie is in.) But I could be and probably am way wrong. Either way, I don’t know how to fix it anyway. It’s working now! :)

Even so, I will say I am surprised I got it to work at all. And considering it’s pretty much my first foray into Flash, I’ve impressed myself.

With much thanks to Mindy McAdams whose handout helped me get as far as I did. And for the tip that helped me fix it.

“The purpose of life is to matter — to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that we lived at all.”
— Leo Rosten