About a month ago, I stumbled upon this Web site, The Great American Book Giveaway.

The basic premise is each week they pick five random (but often) popular/best-selling books. You choose which one you’d most like to receive, type in your e-mail address, and if you’re chosen, they send you the book.

They send an e-mail when you submit your entry each week and then, if you don’t win, a reminder at the end of the week to check out the new crop and enter this week.

So, this has been going on for several weeks. I figured there was no harm in entering. I love reading, and I spend entirely too much money on books. (One day I will take a photo of just the two dozen or so books in my backlog. And yes, I am aware that it’s cheaper to go to the library. Thank you to the dozen co-workers and friends who’ve told me that. One of these days, I’ll get around to signing up with the Tippecanoe County Library or West Lafayette Library. But for now, I kind of like being able to see my personal stacks and reading a good book that I can then pass along to someone else who might enjoy it.)

So, the idea that I might actually win one of these books seemed impossible, or at least highly improbable. I’ve only ever won one thing over the Internet. Incidentally, it was a book also, and it was for correctly identifying the author of some quote on a quote-a-day listserv I subscribed to. But that was way back in high school. Therefore, when I got an e-mail tonight from the site, I figured it was the weekly “you didn’t win, but enter this week’s contest.” Instead, it said, Congratulations! You’ve been randomly selected to win …

Apparently the book I chose last week when I entered was “How Do You Work This Life Thing?” by Lizzie Post. Sounds like it could be interesting, though I’d never heard of it before the contest. I think that’s part of the point, to expose you to good books you might never hear about. If you want to see a list of the books they’ve featured in the past, they keep an archive with links to book/author information.

We’ll see if the book actually arrives. And when it does, it’ll go in the stack — right next to the books I bought at Border’s tonight. Yeah. I know. I need to stop going to Border’s/Barnes & Noble/Used Bookstores/Amazon.com. I can’t read the books as fast as I buy them. Some people buy shoes. I buy books. (OK, I have a lot of shoes, too. But a lot more books.)

“Live to the point of tears.”
— Albert Camus

I saw this quote on the wall in one of the classrooms I was in today. It pretty quickly sums up how I think you should approach life. No use holding back anything, no point having reservations. Give it everything you’ve got and be willing to take all the emotions, triumphs and disappointments that are inherent in doing so.

I decided this is the quote I’m going to have engraved on the next iPod I buy. My current iPod has Gandhi’s words along the same theme, as a reminder of how I want to live: “My life is my message.” My 4th generation iPod had, “For some moments in life, there are no words.” enscribed on the back.

Some people put funny quips. For me? I figure any device that’s going to hold my life’s soundtrack ought to bear a message about how I want the years to unfold.

“Be prepared to adapt. Be willing to risk. Be eager to dream. If you are, your dreams will surely come true.”
— Bill Frist

J&C staffers rotate writing a weekly column called “The View From Here.” My first column ran in today’s paper. I talked about my weird eating habits. And yes, I know they are weird. Anyway, here’s a link to the column, and here’s the text:

Picky eating habits weird to some

By MERANDA WATLING
mwatling@journalandcourier.com

I’m weird. At least when it comes to food.

That’s what Brian, the Purdue reporter who sits across the aisle from me, says every time he brings in a new food I don’t like.

It’s not that he’s adventurous and I’m not. I’m just picky.

First it was the dark chocolate M&Ms he offered me. But lots of people don’t like dark chocolate. I’m more of a peanut M&M girl.

On that note, I like peanuts but not peanut butter, which given the recent salmonella outbreak is probably a good thing.

I also don’t like popcorn, my mother’s favorite food. It has the consistency of Styrofoam when you bite into it, and the kernels have a tendency to get stuck in my teeth.

Brian says that’s the best part. I think he’s weird.

Other “normal” foods you’re unlikely to find me ingesting include fried chicken, lunch meat and pizza. Yeah, pizza.

OK, hating pizza is kind of weird. But I have my reasons. It’s greasy. Plus pepperoni, sausage and whatever else all kind of mix and sit in my stomach.

And if you ever invite me over for breakfast, you should know I don’t do bacon or scrambled eggs either.

My picky eating habits haven’t stopped me from trying new foods. As with everything in life, I have to try something at least once before I’ll write it off.

I’ve forced myself to put the idea of raw fish out of my mind and tried sushi. It was OK, but not an experience I’d go out of my way to repeat.

I’ve crunched my way through dried seaweed that went down like salted toothpicks. I’m not quite sure what ever prompted me to try that delicacy.

But those aren’t the types of things you eat every day.

So, that leaves the question Brian always asks and which my mom tried to answer every night as I echoed the sentiments of the little girl in the Pediasure commercial, “I don’t like broccoli.” That is, “What do you like?”

My favorite food is hard shell tacos, but Mexican of any variety is usually a good bet.

I also love Italian food. My grandma’s spaghetti and meatballs rank a close second on my favorites list.

My mom’s spaghetti isn’t bad either, and it’s the only thing I’ve ever had that actually tasted better as a leftover.

I also love vegetables, but mostly in the raw form. Cooked carrots or string beans, no thanks. But please pass the celery and raw broccoli.

I haven’t found an incarnation of potato I don’t like, yet. But mashed potatoes must be homemade, don’t waste my time on flakes from a box.

Likewise, I love mac and cheese. But if the cheese started the meal out as a powder, leave it off my plate.

This isn’t to say I’m a snob for home cooked meals. Ask my roommates; they use my pans more in one day than I do in a week.

I got through college on half-hour commutes home, Chipotle burritos, Southwest chicken wraps from the cafeteria, cinnamon dolce lattes at Starbucks and ramen noodles — lots of ramen.

Now that I’m six hours away from my parents’ home cooking, and God only knows when the next time I’ll get to sample grandma’s meatballs will be, I may have to take up cooking myself.

In the meantime, where can a girl find good Mexican or Italian food in this town?

Following this, I was made fun of for a good five minutes for not liking popcorn. Apparently, I just haven’t had it made right. Though, as I told them, I didn’t know there was a wrong way to make popcorn.

My editor says he has a pan dedicated solely to popping popcorn, and it’s pretty amazing. He said the microwave stuff is all junk. To which I replied, “Didn’t you read to the end of the column? I don’t cook.”

I used to work at a bowling alley. Part of my job on Saturday nights was to make popcorn. We had this huge popcorn machine — it actually electrocuted me once, which is funny in hindsight but at the time seriously freaked me out as my right arm was numb for several minutes — and I had to you know measure the kernels, measure the oil, put in the right amount of butter. It wasn’t an exact science, but I made pretty good popcorn. I never ate it, but we always sold out, and everybody loved it. I can’t imagine it would have been the “wrong way” if so many people really liked it.

It really is less about the taste of the popcorn and more about the texture, and the fact that it gets stuck in my teeth. Please. Give me some chips and salsa, and I’m more than happy.

Sparse updates on here usually means one thing: crazy week. It has been, and I’ve been drained by the time I came home. But it’s good crazy.

It’s a busy news week in Lafayette. The biggest news being, of course, they found the body of the missing Purdue student Monday. Between getting the story and getting it online followed with second day coverage, it was pretty much go-go-go. And I only played a small part. (Imagine how tired my editor must feel.)

I’m not going to talk about any of the content in the coverage itself for obvious reasons. But I will say, I was totally impressed with how it came together and how we quickly got the news out there and followed with impact coverage. The first story confirming the body’s identity was posted about 15 minutes after the press conference began (while it was still going on), with steady updates throughout the day.

No doubt people wanted the news, and they were looking for it at the J&C. Both Monday and subsequently Tuesday set new records for page views on the site. What impressed me most was how there was no question of holding anything back. It was every body and every resource. Photo galleries, video, half a dozen reporters (on a dozen reporter staff). And as soon as we had it, or part of it, it was online, right then.

And that story was only part of the news going on this week. We still covered a lot of other big news events for the community.

I think if I wasn’t a convert already, this week would totally have won me over to the brillance of immediate news online. I’m not even one of those reporters who got into journalism for the adrenaline rush. Hardly. But it’s hard not to get caught up in something that big. If there was anyone in the newsroom holding back — I don’t really think there was; it’s a forward-looking paper that emphasizes and is expanding Web coverage, which was part of its appeal to me — they can’t possibly have reservations any longer. (Disclosure: It’s a Gannett paper, so that whole info center thing, say what you will, it worked.)

I know it might seem like I’m blown away, but take into consideration that this is the first major story I’ve worked on outside of college. (Remember, I graduated about three months ago. The student went missing the same weekend I moved here to start this job.) I got to work on some major stories at Kent State and even direct coverage of some, but this is different. It’s the first real-world test I think we’ve gotten to see of how it all comes together. It’s one thing to talk about immediately posting things online, getting video and photo galleries, setting up forums and letting the communication flow. It’s entirely different to see it, to watch it and be part of it from the front line. And the audience gobbled it up.

All right. Here’s to a few slow news days for the rest of this week, at least until this county can catch its breath. ;)

You’ll remember my previous post about the wrong way to do polls.

In it, I lamented newspapers tendancies to put polls at the bottom of the homepage and to not include any context or link to the story. Those are major pet peeves of mine. I also mentioned any publication of the results needs a disclaimer about how unscientific the poll is.

I just noticed the IndyStar does polls right. Usually, I enter the Star through my RSS reader and bypass the homepage. Today, after reading an article I decided to click over and take a look at the front page.

What I like:

• Location: The poll is on the second full screen down on the page. It is in the middle of the main content area. Granted it’s under an ad, but it’s still located with the other news headlines and content.

• Topic: This is a controversial issue in Indiana. Just the 104 comments on the story already and the near 50/50 split on the poll should tip off even those who couldn’t care less that lots of people do in fact care. Lots of interest means lots of readers with strong opinions to take the poll.
• Context: Notice that blue in the image? It’s a link to, get this, the story that prompted this poll. Now that you got my attention, I want to know more about where the bypass stands. I don’t have to go search through your clunky archive to find it. (I’ve never actually used their archive, but news site archives are by very nature hard to work with.)

I still would like to see a link to the poll on the story itself, but I’ll settle for this as a good example of polls for newspapers to follow.

I want one of these:

New Products: Flash IMs to fellow drivers

DEBORAH PORTERFIELD, Gannett News Service

Want to flash a message to the tailgating car behind you? With Roadmaster’s Scrolling Rear Deck Message System, you can tell the car to “Slow Down,” or one of nearly 10 other messages. by Roadmaster

Want to flash a message to the tailgating car behind you? With Roadmaster’s Scrolling Rear Deck Message System, you can tell the offending driver to “Slow Down.” With more than 99 preset words and phrases, you also can ask for “Help,” tell drivers you’re “Turning Left” or create your own message to share. Using the included remote control, you can adjust the message’s speed and brightness as it scrolls across the LED display. Just be careful where you drive as not all states allow scrolling displays in moving vehicles. Roadmaster also makes a Scrolling Digital License Plate Frame. Both items cost about $60 each.

www.roadmasterusa.com

Of course mine would probably include a few phrases like “WTF? Back off” or “That was a stop sign, moron.” I could have so much fun with that. Genius.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche

“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.”
— Isaac Newton

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”
— G. K. Chesterton

Otherwise known as, the entire point of ethics class summed up in one succinct sentence.

OK, so maybe ethics class was to teach us how to tell the difference.

I miss that class. It was actually one of my favorite journalism classes (ranking just behind print beat reporting and just before feature writing and news design). It was also one of the most challenging because, as Jan would always tell us, there was “no fence sitting.” It definitely prepared me to situations I later ran into and will surely run into in the future.