“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”
— Christopher Morley

I just laughed out loud for several minutes at this: Visiting Miranda.

Abbey’s brother posted it on my Facebook wall with this comment:

selected descrptions of MIRANDA– bizarre world, tempestuous past, surprise, unique, bewildering variety, famous “chevron” feature, wild juxtapositions, shadowy….

coincidences? i think not!

This brings up a painful memory. Though the pain only lasted about half a school day until I got home and told my Odyssey of the Mind team and we laughed the whole two-hour meeting. I don’t think we got any work done that night, because everytime I’d try to change the topic, someone would remind me: “Miranda is a moon around Uranus.”

I first learned this tidbit in 8th grade science class. I remember the moment I learned it.

I hadn’t been paying attention in class, and I’m pretty sure I was in the process of passing a note to a friend across the aisle when my classmates collectively started laughing. I mean, of all the planets to be associated with, this is the one I’d probably like to stray away from.

My teacher, of course, was mad not just at their immaturity but at the fact that he didn’t understand why they were laughing. See, despite my protests, my attendance and tests, and my straight A’s in science, for some reason, my 8th grade science teacher never learned my name. He called me Amanda until the day I left middle school for the hallowed halls of high school. Another sore point for me.

I only share this tidbit because I know a few of you — Abbey, Jaclyn, Jessica — are going to think it’s funny. And I wouldn’t deprive you of a good laugh.

Remember last week when I said there are still stories that can make me click through and read every word?

Well, I came across one tonight. It’s not some earth shattering insightful article. But it was something I could totaly relate to: the pressure high schoolers feel to be perfect. The NYTimes article is called “For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too. It’s long — six pages, plus some interesting multimedia and leftovers — but it struck a chord with me.

I was reading the article thinking, “oh my God, I was that girl.” I saw myself in a lot of these kids. But they’re more grounded about it. Still, I saw the same struggles I faced, the same pressures and worries. But it wasn’t society telling me how smart or involved I should be. It was me — bearer of unrealistic expectations.

(I should warn you, this is really not journalism related. It’s pretty off-topic, except that it was sparked by reading that story. So go read that, and leave me to muse to no audience.) (more…)

OK. I haven’t seen much video coming out of the Beacon. I haven’t been watching as closely lately because I’m not around as much and primarily just skim the front page online and in the RSS feed. But, today a little video icon caught my eye so I clicked on this story: “Middle school student charged with groping teacher”

My first impression when I clicked was, wait, where’s the video?! Then I realized it was there. It was just a text link. No screen capture. No images. Just the text link just below the byline. Did you see it? I probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t looking for it.

Then, I was kind of confused by the video itself. It’s surveillance with some guy (he’s never identified!) talking about it at the end. OK. But it has commentary in a voiceover on it. Whoever is talking (the omnipresent narrator is never identified), it sounds like something I’d hear on, like, Real TV or something.

It’s different. I’m not sure how the approach worked. I mean, it was helpful to have an explanation of what was going on in the video. And it was professionally recorded and edited, I suppose. But I’m kind of left scratching my head at a number of things: why the video link was just text, who the guy talking at the end is and how he’s relevant and who the person narrating is, why he was randomly talking about the kid’s past at the end without any context around it, to name a few.

:shrug: Still. It’s good to see them doing some video work. I know that was an area they wanted to move into, and were training staff members for. This seems atypical newspaper video though, and maybe that’s a good thing. Or maybe it’s completely normal and I’ve just been looking at the wrong news sites. Either way, something to watch.

I like that the Indiana BMV is asking Hoosiers to vote on their favorite of four license plate designs. The most popular plate will be chosen as the standard plate beginning next year. (Full story here.)

I don’t like that they’re not letting us see which ones are leading the pack. I don’t want to wait until May to see which wins.

When I voted yesterday (which was around 4 p.m. according to my twitter update about it) it told me more than 14,000 people had already voted. But I want to know how many have voted so far and what other residents are leaning toward. My man-on-the-street interviewing for the story at the J&C revealed that many were favoring the solid blue one with the torch on it. It was “simple.” But it reminds me too much of Michigan, and isn’t Michigan changing its plate because it’s more difficult to read light text on a dark background? My favorite design is the one I have displayed with this post.

Still, the greenish license plates in Indiana currently are pretty ugly. But then, Ohio’s license plate is straight-up boring.

(Side rant: I still reject the state nickname Hoosier. It sounds silly. And not that Ohio buckeyes are any better, but at least a buckeye is a real thing. As far as I can tell, a Hoosier is nothing except someone from Indiana. What’s up with that?)

OK. So I was quick to dismiss Twitter as another fad, another waste of my precious time.

But tonight, I had an epiphany. I’ve decided it’s worth at least trying before I dismiss it. That’s my philosophy on life. Why shouldn’t it apply not just to foods or hobbies, but to social networking as well? Though, I’ll have to recruit other friends to do the same or its pretty much pointless, and none of my friends is on it now. (This is an open invite to all your readers out there to add me as your friend.)

What brought about this realization? Facebook.

See, a friend commented on my wall about my status. For those not in the know (i.e. the few not on facebook — which you should be, I’ve been over this), on your Facebook wall there is a spot for your status. It says… “Meranda is…” and then whatever it is I’m doing, thinking, whatever.

Usually mine is filled with random updates: “Meranda is wondering when someone’s gonna come visit her in Lafayette.” “Meranda is __not__ on spring break.” “Meranda is enjoying a beautiful day off.”

Sometimes I get slightly more detailed, “Meranda is seriously not happy about working an 8 a.m. Sunday shift. And incredibly creeped out by the idea of being alone at the J&C and in charge of updating jconline.” or “Meranda is feeling like crap and not feeling like going to work tonight. :(.” There is a character limit, though I don’t know exactly what it is.

Often it’s pretty vague. Sometimes, it’s pretty funny: “Meranda is learning whether finding the bones of Jesus Christ would be a good thing… Gotta love the Discovery Channel.” or “Meranda is surfing facebook and myspace… for work purposes. seriously.” or my personal favorite Meranda is laughing at the use of the phrase “tricked out” on the scanner.”

All of these are actual status updates culled from my own Facebook account in the past month. Yeah, I usually update once or twice a week. (For those who care and aren’t privvy to my facebook account, my current status is: “Meranda is got a hair cut. uh oh.” So much for the grammar, but you can’t change the first two words.)

As you can see, I update it pretty regularly. And people respond to it. Personally, I read my other friends status updates like it’s my job, especially now that I don’t see half of them 10 hours a day like I used to. Then, there are the compulsive AIM away message checkers. The people who keep a running commentary on their life through AIM away messages. Come now, you know you’re one of them. I used to be. But it’s been so long since I logged on to iChat anyway. I should dust off my screen name. Anyway, it dawned on me tonight, Oh… that’s what Twitter is good for. So, I’m going to give it a try. I’ll keep you all posted.

If you haven’t the slightest idea what Twitter is, other than go to the Web site, I’m going to recommend this video (as stolen from Mindy McAdams who found it somewhere else… you get the idea.)

I’m still not seeing the “point” except that it’s a fun little tool I can see myself becoming addicted to if I can get enough people to join. Other than that, this post did lay some pretty good ideas of the potential. My favorite was “friendsourcing” — think phone a friend on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, only you phone your whole friends list instead of having to pick.

My URL for anyone interested is http://twitter.com/meranduh. Find out what I’m up to now. Chances are it’s work or sleep or perhaps trying to fall alseep but worrying about work or trying to work but thinking about sleep. Those are the two dominant forces in my life right now. And I’m about to succumb to one of them extremely early tonight.

“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.”
— Chuck Palahniuk

I am very much a jokester. Always have been. I was just reading the hilarious pranks pulled on members of my community as pulled together into our April Fools Day package.

My personal favorite is this one:

Ed Bumbleburg of Lafayette swears by this prank:

“Write the following on the front of an envelope and place under the windshield wiper of a friend’s car: ‘Sorry I scratched and dented your car. You should be able to get it fixed for very little.’

“Inside place a piece of paper with the words, ‘April Fool!’ “

That is one of the best jokes I’ve heard. So simple, yet I can totally see the person picking up the envelope and then circling his or her car several times before opening it. I would seriously laugh. Plus, it doesn’t hurt anything or take a lot of planning. I’m definitly filing this away for future April Fools jokes.

The best “prank” anyone pulled on me was not on April Fools day. It was last November. I almost had a heart attack because of it. Although at first I was a little upset, in the end it really was a hilarious prank. In the spirit of the day and because it’s journalism-related, I’ll relay it here:

In November, my top editors, reporters and I headed to Detroit for a job fair. I was nervous as it was leaving the paper without any top editors in town, even if it was just one night. We even had a morning meeting at 5 a.m. before making the drive to Detroit.

So that night, we were all hanging out in different rooms figuring out what we wanted to do that night. It was around 9 p.m. when my phone rang. I didn’t hear it at first. When I checked my message, it was from one of my professors saying the former (by about five months) president of the university had been in a car accident — and it may be life threatening. Note that this is a professor. I stood bolt upright and told everyone in the room to shut up.

I called the newsroom to find out what they knew. One of the copyeditors picked up the phone. I wanted to talk to one of the supervising editors (two of the few editors still in town and the people in charge!) but “they went to go grab dinner, now that you mention it, they’ve been gone awhile.” I start freaking out. I ask if anyone’s heard anything about the accident, and the copyeditor doesn’t know anything. So, I hang up and call the most senior reporter still in town and tell her what I know and to get to the office and find out what’s going on. She sounds freaked out like me.

Then, I call the professor back. Meanwhile I walk out of the hotel room to the hall where, from all different directions and rooms, my top editors are heading toward me and converging. Each of them has just been on the phone with someone, either a professor or another staff member, and we’ve all heard the same thing: life-threatening crash, Cartwright.

Finally, I get a hold of the newspaper adviser, who apparently had been the one to call the M.E. while I got the call from a different prof. He confirms what we’ve heard. I keep him on the phone while all the top eds in the middle of this bustling hotel try and hash out a plan of attack for covering the story and ripping apart the paper on deadline. (Keep in mind, we still haven’t established contact with the supervising editors.)

I tell Rachel, the news editor and former administration reporter, to put a call in to the university spokesman and another editor to call Cartwright’s house and cell. And that’s when Carl can’t stand it any more. He tells me it’s all a joke. I can’t believe it, and for a few minutes I’m seriously pissed. Carl is not a joking person, so his confirming the story was part of the reason we went into crisis mode. He apologizes profusely. I hang up, and stand in disbelief. Then, I call the newsroom and demand to talk to the sports editor (who was supervising that night and the person who planned the joke, which included the entire newsroom, several other staff members and professors).

When I tell him I know it’s a joke, he just laughs. And I turn the joke on him. “Well, Cartwright didn’t think it was funny when we called her house to ask about her condition.” And his laughing drops immediately. At this point, I’ve already resigned that they did get us pretty well, and in hindsight, it was kind of funny. Carl pulled the plug just in time to stop us from making a complete fool of ourselves and our organization. Then, to the sports editor I throw in a joking, “That was not funny. You’re fired.” But then Carl calls back on the other line, so I quickly let the editor go and say I’ll talk to him later.

About three hours later, I get a call from the sports editor. They sent the last page and got the all-clear from the printer. But he wants to know if he’s seriously fired. I had completely forgotten about saying that and had been entirely joking. But apparently, as the assistant news editor (who was supervising with the sports ed that night) told me later, as soon as I said that his face dropped and he went into my office and kind of sat there worried until he eventually called me. I felt kind of bad, until I remembered how much he had almost caused a heart attack for me. And then, I figured we were about even.

There you have it. :) Hope it makes you laugh as much as it made me laugh in hindsight. But then, I laugh at everything.

Both Mindy McAdams and Howard Owens have great posts about what it means to be entrepreneurial in journalism and why it’s important.

Howard has a list of traits he sees as being entrepreneurial and explanations about what he means. Among them:

• Be resourceful
• Think forward
• Take initiative
• Be an optimist
• Have a sense of urgency
• Be goal oriented
• Don’t let the bastards get you down
• … and about a half dozen more

My personal favorite:

Be a self-learner. You should never stop learning, and the most efficient way to learn is to teach yourself. Try new things, read lots of books, be curious, ask questions, read blogs, set learning goals, be resourceful about what you learn and how you learn it. Among the things you should be learning, even if you’re purely a content person, is business, especially strategy. It will help you come up with better ideas.

His whole list is worth reading. But I think in particular being self-motivated is absolutely essential in today’s world. Nobody else is going to take responsibility for teaching you everything you should know, and nothing will more impress your employer, future employers or even yourself more than learning a new skill on your own just because you were curious or wanted to better yourself.