A.M. Student Session

Right now I’m sitting in the student session (feeling like a bit of a freeloader since I technically graduated in May, but Kim Elam’s and Josh Williams? Yes, please!). Kim, a teacher at Ringling in Sarasota, went first and her students’ work was amazing. Makes me want to move down to Sarasota to take her classes.

Now, Josh Williams from the Las Vegas Sun is talking about his super-powered Web site/ multimedia team. So fabulous. When they started operating jointly with the Review-Journal, they got to tear down their CMS and make it do what they wanted it to do. Josh says the role of their designers is to “Make it usable. Make it dynamic.” They “design the experience and translate it into XHTML and CSS.”

As he describes it, their designers know that:
Semantic XHTML describes the content.
CSS defines how the content looks.
And basic web development and (Ellington) Django templates define the variables, conditionals and loops that dynamically change the content. For example, it might change out the artist who is playing at Ceasar’s Palace.

And, multimedia, of course:
Huge, huge videos that I know would make my multimedia colleagues at the St. Pete Times drool: over 900 pixels wide. And photo slide shows can go as big as 1600 pixels, full screen. They design templates for these to be reused over and over, so a producer’s role is just plugging in new content. Most of the interactive maps are driven with XML, including a cool flight delay tracker, one of their many uber-useful city guides.

The history of Las Vegas, a project that Josh says took nine months to build, is navigable geographically, through timelines or video themes. Each element is context aware of where it in time or space- so there’s history of the Frontier casino, then a video of its implosion The role of the designers was, again, making it visual and dynamic. Making infographics visible in multiple layers- adding different types of data and storytelling tools. Josh says it requires nothing more than basic Flash skills. Other projects, like a focus on Nevada’s drought and water shortage which launches next week (we got a sneak peek!) were built mostly in After Effects.

Josh says it’s all combination of technical and creative skill sets in a partnership between production, editorial and programming staff. Some of his language was a bit jargony if you’re not familiar with coding, but he presented it in a design-focused way that makes it seem more attainable. More to come from the afternoon sessions!

BASEBALL!! baseballbaseballbaseballbaseball

So I finally finished 36. “Moneyball” by Michael Lewis! And it was fabulous! Anyone who likes baseball AT ALL should read this book, because it explains a lot of interesting things about the game.

Moneyball is about the Oakland A’s general manager, Billy Beane, who reinvented the team with statistics in the late 90s. The francise’s budget was/is really small, but by buying players who are good according to a few undervalued stats, he builds playoff-contending teams, season after season. The A’s pick and play baseball players differently, and this book was a great description of their whole process, including chapters about a few players in particular who have really great stories.

Mostly fabulous because… the Tampa Bay Rays play by stats, too! And they rock this year! And they have one of the pitchers in the book – Chad Bradford. He throws “submarine,” which is manly baseballspeak for underhand and he’s pretty awesome to watch. Batters are very confused by his pitches- they’re slow, but since his release point is closer to the plate, they seem fast. AWESOME. Now I understand why the Rays rock!

Kidnapping and circus elephants

34. “Deep End of the Ocean” by Jacquelyn Michard
I’ve always seen tons of copies of this in used bookstores, so I bought one in December and just now read it. There’s a reason it’s in used bookstores. It’s not bad, but not terribly good either. Basically, this (not very attentive) mother loses her 3-year-old in a hotel lobby and it rips her family apart. Very sad, but the way the mom reacts is kinda difficult to understand- she freaks out, bites her husband, etc. A mystery of finding out what happens to the kid keeps the book interesting, though.

35. “Wonder when you’ll miss me” by Amanda Davis
The only novel by a talented author who died young, this is the really interesting and well-written. A messed-up, lonely teenage girl is sexually assaulted by some guys at her school, goes crazy and joins the circus. Dark but very, very interesting.

33/K.C.

33. Blue Monday by Harper Barnes

In the 1930s, Kansas City was the home of fabulous jazz musicians and clubs. A young reporter (he went to KU… boo) in this novel is curious after one famous band leader dies during routine surgery, so he checks it out and finds instead a ring of drug dealers who feed on the musicians. This was written by a Post-Dispatch writer and it’s full of cool references to Kansas City and Missouri back in the day- really engrossing and awesome read.

31 and 32, and changes.

31. “Life with Picasso” by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake.

I really like books about artists, so this used bookstore find was perfect. Francoise was Picasso’s mistress for 10 years, starting when she was in her 20s and he in is 60s, but that’s less awkward than it sounds. He basically treated her really badly- flighty, rude, bossy, etc. I was glad when she left him, but it was still a really interesting portrait of his life. For some reason, this book took me forever to get through. I thought I’d have more time to read/relax now that I’m only working 40+ hours a week at the Times instead of 80+ hours a week at Poynter, but that hasn’t been the case yet. I love what I’m doing, though.

32. “A Walk Across America” by Peter Jenkins

My mom talks about this book allllll the time, in part because some of his stories appeared in national Geographic and she really loves the magazine- my parents have had a subscription since the 70s. Basically, this recent college grad was really disillusioned with the state of post-Vietnam America, so he decides to walk across the country with his Malmute, Cooper. Of course, he ends up learning more about himself. This is the first book he wrote about the journey, and it covers his walk from upstate New York to New Orleans, but he went all the way to the Pacific later on. It’s not the best-written story ever, but it’s really interesting and quick.

As I said above- I’m really busy working at the Times but totally loving it, despite the initial post-Poynter, real-world shock. I don’t think I’ve written about the fellowship yet, but it was the most amazing experience. I’m really excited about the future/potential of multimedia storytelling, and I’m making the transition from a print design to more Web work so I can be part of that. Unfortunately, Poynter doesn’t have enough money to do the 30-year-old fellowship in the same way next year… :’(. It’s one of many signs of tough times for the Times/Poynter/newspapers. Hoping we can tough it out. The fellows program is too fabulous and too important to not exist at all.

Here are some related links about that…
My new portfolio site, darladesign.com.
The Fellows site, 2008.poyntersummerfellows.org. My team was Bayfront, and here’s more about the changing program.

In my real-life-away-from-journalism, I’m doing great. The Times interns left today, and we had a great time while they were here, esp. with the Daytona daytrip crew . Tomorrow, I’m going to D.C. for Lee’s birthday and to see Derek and Jack the Dog (!!!!). Super excited for the mini-vacation, especially since I got an AWESOME deal at the Capitol Hilton on Hotwire and I’ll be doing a little networking while I’m there. Yesssss.

Some more books, in Florida.

27. “No One Belongs Here More Than You,” by Miranda July.
I heard about this collection of short stories when Joy Mayer linked to the promo-ish Web site, here. The site is pretty awesome – she’s a conceptual artist and her work is so straightforward and conversational. The stories are interesting, and really haunting in that way that only short stories can be. I read it on an airplane trip, which I somehow always manage to accidentally do with short story collections, and then I can’t get them out of my head.

28. “Tender is the Night,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
This is supposedly his masterpiece, but I still like Gatsby better. It felt a little too long.

29. “The Complete Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi.
The short version of this awesome graphic novel was the somewhat-mystery book 23 (clearing that up soon). This is the long version, which follows the rest of her life outside Iran.

30. “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.*
A man and his son are wandering around the U.S. after a nuclear holocaust of some sort. It’s super haunting and scary, but that’s why I couldn’t put it down.
*Nearly done, but I was a bad reader and figured out the end. So I’ll be done 20 pages from now.

In other news, I am now living in FLORIDA. And it rocks. There isn’t much time to enjoy the beach or other typical Floridian sights and sounds because Poynter is intense/amazing/stressful/incredible, etc., etc., but of course I am loving it here. My group’s beat is the “Bayfront” area which isn’t really a unified geographic region, but it’s still really interesting to explore. Check out our work at this summer’s site; the first round of stories comes out this Friday-ish.

Now I have time to read, and it’s great.

21. “Pandora” by Ann Rice. I’d always been a bit wary of Rice’s vampire novels, and that wariness was right. This is the 2000-year history of one of the original vampires, Pandora, and it’s pretty dramatic.

22. “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” by Alexander McCall Smith. An independent-minded Botswanese woman decides to start up a private eye business.

23. —

(Apparently, I graduated and left my brain in college. The week/end before finals week, when I was almost done, I know I read another book, but I don’t remember what it was. And I sold lots of books to a used bookstore before I moved out of my Columbia apartment so there’s no way to check. I’ll remember and update later.)

24. “The Door” by some French novelist: This was a book I found at the Columbia Public Library sale. Since I read it, I already sold it to a used bookstores and I can’t recall the author, or find him on google… oops. This is probably because the book was just so-so good. The premise is: This guy who lost both of his hands in World War II lives with his wife in a Paris apartment. He paints lampshades with hooks that he wears on his stumps, and stays at home cooking and cleaning all day while she works in the city. They have a great relationship, but he is insanely jealous that she gets to go out in the real world and he doesn’t, so he suspects that she’s having an affair with her friend’s brother, who lives downstairs. I won’t give away the ending , but pretty mysterious, eh?

25. “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith. This is a complete must-read for everyone who has relatives. Which means you, and everyone you know. It follows three generations of three London families, some immigrants, some not, as they struggle with the modern world. It’s so well written and structured- I loves me a novel with a nice, solid conclusion. My favorite part was seeing the families’ struggles through each character’s eyes.

26. “Olive Kitteridge” by Elizabeth Strout. I heard about this on NPR the other day, and although it was a bit over-hyped in on the program, it is still a really interesting book. In ways similar to Winesburg, Ohio, this series of short stories tells the story of one woman through the eyes of everyone in the small Maine coastal town where she lives. I picked it up, in part, because the main character is a math teacher and her husband is a pharmacist (like my parents), but it’s also a great piece of storytelling. Even though I hated Olive, the main character, much of the time because she’s more than a little pushy and mean, I also found myself crying for her so many times throughout the book. And now that I’m done reading I miss Olive, although not as much as I miss all the characters in White Teeth. I love books that are complicated like that.

Goodbye, Columbia. (almost)

<sappy post>

I am one paragraph away from finishing my design project and one day of Missourian work away from being done with my undergrad education. In one last, defiant act of college procrastination, I’ll list here the top seven places/things I’ll miss in my favorite college town. These are the thoughts that cross my mind when walking home late at night having just gotten one step closer to graduation — part elated, part sad.

7. Walking everywhere: Flat Branch, the Berg, Shakespeare’s, one of Columbia’s dozen fabulous coffee shops, etc., etc. And, the way Columbia has such fiercely independent places for me to walk. Be a localvore, y’all!

6. The way MU’s bright-all-night campus has birds so messed up, they sing at all hours. But I love seeing Jesse and Memorial lit up, so it’s a decent trade-off.

5. Knowing at least five people in every restaurant or campus building I walk into. (Although I am also looking forward to more anonymity.)

4. Knowing I’ll wake up to construction noises (well… just a little bit). And more than that, I’ll the north quad that I hardly remember and my slightly-younger peers never experienced.

3. The noisy 1 a.m. post-bar rush by the slums and Beverly, i.e., the irony of not being overly concerned about screaming people outside the apartment.2. How beautiful Columbia is on the (rare) sunny days.

2. How beautiful Columbia is on the (rare) sunny days.

1. The Maneater offices. This is a huge one, because they’re tearing down Brady (Insert: leftover rage about how students were deceived about the renovation/current rage about how the STUDENT newspaper is being left out of the new STUDENT center floorplans. Grr.) I don’t think I can come back and see the ‘eater somewhere else, although I know they’ll be fine wherever they are. You’ve been warned, right? Plus, we’ve snagged enough memorabilia that ye-old-home-away-from-home won’t soon be forgotten.

Columbia was the most amazing environment to go to college in, and I’ve never regretted my decision to come to MU. I’m part geographer, so place matters. Maybe I’ll post later about the people I’ll miss the most, but they know who they are, and I’ll probably be calling most of them at least weekly for the next few months/years/decades, so it’s all good ☺

</sappy post>

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go brace my liver for the next five nights of celebration.

YAY GRADUATION!

three more/the final countdown

18. Timbuktu by Paul Auster: Mr. Bones is the loveable pet of Willy G. Christmas, a hobo poet. When Willy dies, Mr. Bones has to make his way in the world alone. It’s told from the dog’s perspective, and interesting if a little weird.

19. Home Mortgage Lending by Joe Craven McGinty: A guide to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from Investigative Reporters and Editors. My life is thrilling, right? It’s for my GIS independent study project, I’m mapping the data. Wee

20. The Fourth Hand by John Irving: A TV reporter who lost his hand when a lion ate it gets a hand transplant – and the widow that comes along with it. Not my favorite John Irving book ever (Owen Meany is first my heart!), but pretty good. I didn’t like the main character and it’s always easy to predict what Irving will write next, but he’s still a good writer.

Also, my to-do-before-I-graduate list is dwindling.

In the next three weeks, all I have is two big projects, one little project, a bigish paper and two cover stories to design. Doable? I think so. And I’m definitely looking forward to reading a lot more once my to-do list doesn’t take up a whole sketchbook page. Oh yes. Goal: 25 books by graduation.

The prelim post-grad plans are also coming together, and I can’t wait. It looks like I’m going straight to Tulsa with Lee for a week of detox/hanging out. He doesn’t actually start working there until June but he already has the apartment lined up and we have nowhere else to live after subleasers kick us out. Then, it’s St. Louis for Matt and Sara’s wedding (yay yay), Colorado for Juco (quadruple yay), then back to T-town for a day before my drive to POYNTER AHHH SO EXCITED. Beachity-beach-beach-beach. Oh yeah and journalism. .

If only those projects were already out of the way…

Four cheers for spring break.

14. “Lasso the Wind” by Timothy Egan, again. Each chapter is about a different places in one of the large western states. It reintroduced places I know and places I didn’t in the “new west.” My favorite chapter was about copper mines in Butte, Montana which used to be the biggest town out there — who knew? A phenomenal book about the water, development and land issues that define the western U.S. It captured the bignness and beauty of the place.

15. A little more west with “Bless Me, Ultima,” by Rudolfo Anay, a Chicano author from New Mexico. It was a super-quick read about a Antonio Marez, a boy growing up in New Mexico He’s questioning and conflicted about the Roman Catholic Church vs. natural gods and his mixed heritage. His father’s family, wanderers and ranchers from the llano, fight with his mother’s farming brothers for possession of his future. Ultima, a respected medicine woman from his father’s community comes to live with them and teaches him the ways of his ancestors, but misunderstandings get her in trouble. An awesome, powerful book.

16. “A Study in Scarlet” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first Sherlock Holmes story introduces Dr. Watson and Holmes when they met and became roommates. Holmes is, of course, brilliant, and Watson follows along to document what his new companion does. The mystery genre started with Doyle, so it’s fun to see its beginnings.

17. “The Sign of the Four” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The second Sherlock Holmes Story.