Time to do some tweaking
Posted on April 17, 2008
I needed a break from “real” blogging while I adjusted to a new home and job, but I didn’t want to abandon my blog entirely, so I posted some del.icio.us links.
But I don’t like it — it’s boring and definitely not engaging. Time to go return to the old format. Back to writing about issues. I’ll look into what it means to market in and to the social networking world. And I’m still very interested in newspapers and what’s going on in the journalism industry, so I’ll share my perspective looking from the outside in.
One of the things I struggle with, though, is that all of this connectedness can get overwhelming. I finally added a data plan to my cellphone, so I’m mobile now. I’ve started using Twitter, am fully addicted to Facebook and keep finding new, fun tools to use for networking.
It’s like I’m experiencing a new version of information overload — social overload? Just when I adjusted to using the Web to consume news and was comfortable finding my sources and branching out to blogs, feed readers, etc., I feel swamped with information once again with social sites and micro-blogging. All these updates and keeping track of all of our communities, how do we find time to actually live life?
In the end, I think all this will make life easier: Instant contact with your network and access to information. A peek into what your real and virtual friends are up to. A steady stream of consciousness that makes you feel a part of something huge.
Last night, while watching the debates, I received several “tweets” from friends commenting on how the moderators and candidates were doing.
Watching TV makes you feel like you’re engaged with society. You’re sharing in an experience. But when you get a note from a friend during that experience, it makes it an even more interactive, intimate (and multimedia!) experience. There’s a lot of power here that individuals, companies and news organizations should embrace and take advantage of.
So I’ll do my best not to get overwhelmed. Blogging is an excellent learning tool for me, and it’s quite exciting when it generates conversation. I hope to continue to do more of that now. (I also hope to redesign/update the site, but I have to block off at least a weekend for that.)
Thanks for reading.
Relax, chill and maybe blog
Posted on April 7, 2008
It’s all about balance, right?
"If you drink too much coffee, you are going to have trouble sleeping. If you don’t sleep your heart works longer hours and has to pump more blood and is under stress. Problems get compounded when you are a smoker, are overweight, lead a sedentary life (phone/computer) and/or are on a plane constantly.”
In Web world of 24/7 stress, writers blog till they drop
Posted on April 7, 2008
In Web world of 24/7 stress, writers blog till they drop
“They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home.”
He’s baaaack!
Posted on March 15, 2008
Congrats to Richard Koci Hernandez for getting MultimediaShooter back up after being hacked. There are a few lingering kinks still, he says — the first one I found was that I couldn’t comment on a post.
It looks fabulous. And he put together an entertaining video (below) and a list of 10 things he learned.
How to fix a Hack from richard hernandez on Vimeo.
An X Degree facelift
Posted on July 4, 2007
Just changing a few things around here … moved to Wordpress because I like the widgets/add-on options (I think the new Moveable Type version will have something similar, but I couldn’t wait).
The new theme, I hope, will be easier to read. I’m also creating a library of books I’ve read and am reading (idea taken from Angela Grant over at News Videographer), and I’ll feature a video of the week about multimedia/the journalism industry.
More to come, including parts of my portfolio and other fun features and working out the kinks as I come across them.
UPDATE: First couple of kinks I’ve encountered: New RSS/feed URL is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/xdegree
And it looks like most of my links are the same, but some have changed — so links on other blogs may not work. Darn it. I’ll try to go back and fix as/if I can.
News videographer
Posted on May 1, 2007
Angela Grant has moved her blog from InTheCircle (via Blogger) to News Videographer (via WordPress).
“News Videographer is meant to fill the gap in training and provide a robust feedback forum. The main service of this blog is to provide honest critiques of online news videos and related multimedia content.”
Congrats, Angela. Looks great.
Stop and smell the non-journalism roses, too
Posted on April 19, 2007
Overwhelmed sometimes? Sigh … all of us feel it in this fast-paced, information-overload, competitive world.
Student Daniel Sato and journalist Ryan Sholin admit they have felt it plenty.
Blogging is a great learning tool for me, but I’m finding it also means that since this is an extension of my job (as professional development) I’m taking even more work home, and I’m ending up living, breathing, dreaming about multimedia and online journalism. This is so easy to do when you have a passion for something.
But one of my take-aways already from this blog: Sheduled breaks have to become a top priority. :)
On a short hiatus
Posted on April 7, 2007
I’m interrupting this lapse in posting to let you know that I’ve been up to my eyebrows in a project at work and haven’t had a chance to update the blog.
I figure that has to happen from time-to-time, but I have been reading and updating my delicious links (which I pull in at the bottom right of this page, but I think there’s a way to have them added as a blog entry when I need to take shortcuts. Not to self: Figure this out).
Anyway, I’m not only creating interactive stories for this project (via Flash, video, soundslides, etc.), but for the first time, I’m designing and building the pages from scratch using CSS. These resources have been a huge help:
>> Patrick’s list of CSS books (this link is worth a second plug — thanks again!)
>> Spring into HTML and CSS by Molly E. Holzschlag (this is a great book for a newbie transitioning over to CSS and was recommended to me long ago by Andrew Kantor)
>>O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online
>> A few tips from coworkers (and a couple of aforementioned books borrowed from heraldtribune.com übercoder Charlie Szymanski)
I feel a bit behind that CSS is a learning curve I’m trying to conquer (the past year I’ve been concentrating on building the interactive components — audio, podcasts, slideshows, flash interactives, etc.) I wrote earlier about the benefits of self-learning; I’m so proud already of my accomplishments. OK … enough sap … I’ll be sure to post a link to the project when we go live.
I’ve got some post ideas I’m kicking around and will get back on track soon.
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