Grammar, faith, communication...

So, i'll probably write more about my weekend trip to New York City soon, but first a brief message about grammar.

We took the vertical tour of The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side on Saturday, where there are spectacular stained glass works. It's a huge cathedral, with several bays of windows denoting various professions.

We began on the ground at the medical bay, denoting various healers through the ages (including modern times). i cracked to my girlfriends, all former Orlando Sentinel co-workers, "Where's the journalism bay?"

Well, the communication bay was next to the medical bay! And it even included linotype and broadcasting!

Even more exciting/hilarious was when we arrived at the top of the education bay. There, the seven liberal arts were depicted. And guess what? Grammar is one of the seven! And it's depicted with a whip and a sword!

Start at the bottom right of this photo and go up one - there they are! i'm sure my students are feeling the sting, too!

School starts, daily blogging, well, takes a dive!

But i have been getting up early! And the sunrises have been lovely, with the waning moon.

Excited!

My first byline in a while (OK, i do have a full-time job teaching!) appeared today in Politics Daily: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/08/colorado-u-s-senate-race-awfully-expensive-awfully-nasty/

Hopefully there will be more!!

On growing up...

Every fall and spring, i interact with 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds. Their parents are often younger than me. 

These kids are often immature. They've got crazy excuses (ultimate Frisbee, debutante balls, family reunions) to get out of tests. They e-mail begging for Ds. They send me goofy e-mails. They'll grow up eventually, i know.


But right now, millions are watching a kid like them grow up on national television. Garrett Gilbert appeared to have no chance. But he's coming on strong in the fourth quarter, replacing Texas senior QB Colt McCoy, injured in the opening drive of the national championship game.


Sure this Gilbert kid has an NFL dad, but he's still 18 years old. And no matter the outcome (as i type, Texas is trailing 24-21), Garrett Gilbert is managing to mature in the space of a few hours. 

This happens with my students over the course of a semester, or maybe three or four. Either way, it's a delight to watch.


 

Happy birthday to my mom...

On a snowy, cold day like this, Betty Fish would've been sitting on the marble slab atop the radiator in our ancient house in Collins, Iowa, reading a book, looking out the window, keeping her butt warm!

And i guess not a lot else would have happened. i don't recall ever making a huge fuss about her birthday, turning 40 (i'd have been 5) or 50 (me, 15). Today, she'd be 86 (me, 51, tho that'll change in a couple of months). If you're reading this, take note that i was my mom's oldest of three children. Back in the day.


Betty Fish was a stitch. She had great sayings for her kids. "Kiss my feet" was an all-around slam. "People in jail are wantin' out" was the response to "i want....". 


She was the only one of four children in her Gordonsville, Tenn., family to graduate from high school, then she went to Nashville to attend business school. She was working as a keypunch operator at General Shoe Co. when she met my dad and eventually married him. i was born, someone had to go to work, so they moved back to my dad's family farm in Iowa. It was colder there, for sure.


Mom was a great reader, a liberal in the Al Gore mold (his family is from the same county she's from) and a feminist, encouraging me to work and get a career. i know from the clothes she kept and the pictures i've seen that she always looked lovely and dressed wonderfully in her working days. 


i owe my mother more than i can say here. i know i disappointed her in some ways, marrying at 20 (tho she later saw the good in this), dressing like a slob most of the time. But i think she liked following my journalism career and adventures (except for maybe the motorcycles). 


Mom died too young, at 73, in 1997, of cancer. Every day, i wish she were still here.

Latest knitting achievement!

It's cold in my basement! Especially when typing! So i made these fingerless gloves! Very easy, free pattern. i didn't use the two yarns mentioned in the pattern, instead used beautifully soft Suri Merino alpaca blend from Plymouth Yarn. (And i gotta get that scary polish of my fingers!)

Tablets, e-readers and content, oh my!

This should be a big week (and maybe month) for new reading/watching technology.

At least two new e-readers will be announced to compete with Amazon's Kindle, Barnes and Noble's Nook and Sony's Reader at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. 

Plastic Logic is introducing the long-awaited Que. The Skiff will be sold (and wired) by Sprint with content cooperation from Hearst Corp. Both are billed as larger and sleeker than the other e-readers, with touchscreens.


Meanwhile, Apple plans an announcement later this month that many believe will be a new tablet computer that will include a touchscreen and video. As David Carr mentions in his New York Times column today, Microsoft and HTC also appear to be developing tablets. But Freescale apparently will get there first this week with its $200 tablet device.


Ironically, back in the early and mid-90s, the late newspaper company Knight-Ridder funded a Boulder laboratory that predicted the tablet and its use for news (check out the vid above! priceless!). The technology just wasn't there at the time.


Now, the technology is beyond what Knight-Ridder imagined - millions interact with friends known and unknown via facebook, twitter, etc. We post and view videos on everything from guitar instruction to humor on youtube. The ability of consumers to create their own product now competes with newsrooms, which once experienced a bit of a content monopoly. The music moguls, too, suffered when Apple's iPod and iTunes took over.


David Bennahum tweeted yesterday that the new technology may threaten television most of all. He makes a great point, as does Bono in his Sunday Times op-ed, where he questions whether consumers will be willing to continue paying for video content as it becomes more easily downloadable.

Meanwhile, advertising remains a question in the world of media. Warren Berger posits that the era of advertising is ending in his great book on design, Glimmer. Instead, businesses are looking for ways to interact with consumers, instead of simply broadcast one-way messages to them.



What does all this mean for content and content producers? 


One of my questions as a journalist and one interesting in politics is this: Who will provide content that brings community together instead of polarizing different sides, that answers difficult, complex questions, that points out potentially unpopular concepts/ideas? 


Other questions: Are consumers willing to settle for mediocre content as long as it's free? Will creators be willing to produce quality content for free or for goodwill offerings?



As always, i don't have answers. Just questions i'm mulling.

About that sprawl...

My grandmother liked to recall that when she and my grandfather bought this house, it was on the north edge of Tucson with a view of the Catalina Mountains. But unlike Boulder, which adopted a "blue line"  in 1959 to prevent development in the foothills, Tucson and Pima County have allowed plenty of development at the base of the Catalinas and in other mountain areas.

Still, this neighborhood is close-in these days. The University of Arizona Medical Center is just a block away (my grandparents liked to eat in the cafeteria!), and the rest of the city stretches out every which way. (i remember sleeping in the front room, behind the car, with the window open one autumn and hearing the sounds of the Wildcats playing football.)

It's cool to see their home, sold in 1996 (i think) after my grandmother died. The fence in front is new - my grandfather had a Midwestern-type hedge out front that one of his neighbors mocked, i believe. Despite the fence, i took a little not-great picture over it:

A toast to Aunt Anne...

from the Arizona Inn. She knit the teal, chenille jacket i'm wearing here for my mother, maybe 40 years ago. It's still lovely.

And without her, we likely wouldn't be in Tucson. My grandparents bought a house here in the '40s (yes, the 20th century!) because she was getting her master's degree in math at Arizona. From the late '80s to mid '90s, we visited here for Christmas with the extended Fish-Charlier family.

When i talked with her today, Anne said she'd still love to stay at the Arizona Inn, which is a few blocks east of the family home. We had dinner in the lounge there. And earlier today, hiked partway up Ventana Canyon. There, a man can find his cactus. Is it more prickly than others?

Today in the desert...

OK, unlike my girlfriend, Sexy Mary from Florida, i am not riding my bike 100 miles a day for seven days straight.

Instead, we hiked to Bridal Wreath Falls in Saguaro National Park, the east side. It's about 5.5 miles (depending on who's counting) and maybe 1,100 feet of vertical (see prev parens).

Continue to mull the decade thing. Ten years ago, i didn't contemplate mortality. But a close friend, barely 30, died in 2001. Many friends (oh, and i) had cancer. Family grew older (oh, me too!).

Will i be here in another 10? If not, i plan to have a good time before then.

And really, they should have put more hot fudge on this ice cream that i ordered!!

Oh, then there's sunset from last year:

A whole new decade?!?

OK, technically, maybe not... but it's good enough for me.

On this evening in 1999, i was stuck in the Daily Camera newsroom waiting for the end of the world or some such. Six years ago, i was about Boulder Community Hospital, watching college football with Dixie-cup covered needles through my boobs, waiting for what turned out to be the first of my cancer surgeries. (Yes, there were more... but i recommend lumpectomy on a good sports day if that's what you like to watch on the TV.)

This weekend, we're in Tucson. We love the desert. We realized flying in (bumped to first class, thanks United!) that we hadn't been here together since the early '90s, when my family used to come for Christmas to visit my grandmother.

Soon, we'll go for a hike to watch the blue moon rise, then come back, shower and go for dinner. We're fortunate to be here and to have the means to do such lovely things. i feel a little guilty about that.

Like many, i'm looking forward to putting parts of the past 10 years behind us, especially the cancer part. Other, more global things - war, contentious elections, economic disparities - are not so easily dispensed with.

So for 2010 and the decade to come, i'm thankful for my good family, my good friends and my good fortune. And i hope to do more to make sure the disparities between those of us who have such things and those of us who don't become far narrower in the next decade.

Happy New Year and Happy New Decade!

Martha Stewart is trying to kill us all!

And, by extension, i tried to kill my graduate students and myself at a Thursday night party. 

That bowl in the middle is this squash dip that i loved when i visited a friend's knitting night last month. So i thought i'd make it and test it out on the 17 students in my fall newsgathering class. i laughed when my friend sent me the Martha Stewart link. 

It was the first time i'd ever cooked squash (go ahead, laugh), and that seems healthy enough. The chipotle chilis add a great kick. But then there's the 10 tablespoons of butter, the 8 ounces of cream cheese, the 2 cups of sour cream (i only used 1 cup and it was lite). This isn't the first time i've cooked with Martha - her mac and cheese is also great tasting, but potentially heart stopping.

That morning's New York Times inspired my other new party dish (past students know i always test out a couple of new things on them):  Chex Mix, the new contest winning Buffalo mix to be specific. This was not the greatest success, but it was OK. Guess i need more Chex Mix practice, and that's entirely possible since i have all these leftover ingredients.


There was some healthy food: Indian peanut butter dip and salmon mousse from a Jane Brody book. Plenty of veggies (they ate them all!). The prosciutto rolls in the foreground, well, maybe not so healthy. There's also chocolate fudge (with marshmallows adding to the richness) and chocolate truffle cookies - and strawberries!


And i'm still munching on that leftover squash dip. The recipe makes way too much.

Text-messaging word cloud...

So i thought i would quantify the text messaging during a week of vacation with a particular nephew. As you can see, there's a theme here. i used Wordle, and the asparagus color theme seemed apropos (tho i can never get these kids to actually eat asparagus, even tho i emphasize the green pee). i find this hilarious. Keep in mind, half these texts are from me to him.

Fashion backward....

It's cold here.

And yesterday, a young student (OK, they're all young!!) mentioned that her winter clothes are all in storage and the only jacket she had was a jeans jacket. She'd gotten it out to wear to an '80s party.

Meanwhile, i too am wearing a jeans jacket. From the '80s. Started out with a button that read, "Thought i'd be dead by the time i was 30, but things didn't work out." Lost that one and replaced it with "Middle-Aged and Proud of it."

Probably should replace that one at this point. Thinking something like "Grannies for Health Care Reform!"

Living vicariously...

As part of my "touch-em-all" tour this year, i've dropped in on lots of old friends - and their kids!

i love their kids!! i love it when their kids drop in on me!! i've been to the Hersheypark and ridden the thrill rides with them, i've helped them with their homework (geez, hope i was right on that crossword puzzle!!), i've watched them run around at the pool, i've taken them hiking to the top of Green Mountain where ladybugs abound, i've played Guitar Hero Metallica (and failed miserably!) and went to Disney World with the nephews, all a blast!

Last week, i was invited to speak about social media to the Capital Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (thanks folks!!). In the process, i visited my old friend (we worked together at the Florida Insurance Department a long time ago in a Tallahasee galaxy far, far away) Michelle.

Michelle and Matt have quite the family. i used to "perform" (be wrapped in toilet paper) at oldest daughter Caroline's birthday parties. She now has an 8-year-old daughter. Josh is a sophomore at the University of Florida and spent the summer riding across the country on Bike & Build, stopping along the way to build Habitat for Humanity homes. What a wonderful, articulate kid!

Then there are the kids at home - younger Caroline (hope i'm spelling that right!) is a popular senior at Leon High School. i had the honor of proofreading her UF application, which confirmed what a special young woman she is.  i got to watch some sports on TV with young Matthew, a Leon sophomore who's a big Miami fan.

Grace met me at the door Wednesday night, showed me my room, helped bake three different chocolate desserts Saturday afternoon and took me on a walk around the neighborhood. When she went for a sleepover Friday night, she took along her "binkie" - one i wove for her some 11 years ago. Jack, the youngest, was thrilled Saturday when mom brought home the new Beatles Rock Band - and he knew so many of the songs!!

As you can imagine, Matt and Michelle lead busy, busy lives - and they also watch after her sweet 89-year-old mom, who's still living on her own. Really, i can barely keep it together working my little teaching job some days. i can't imagine what it would be like to keep track of even one kid in addition.

But it's always fun to drop in and visit - and i'll have to find time to do that again next summer, when i can spend more time corrupting these children with biking, canoeing and the IMAX!

In the meantime, to Michelle, Matt and all the friends and families who've hosted me thus far this year - thanks tons!! You're the best!

A much-belated thank you to Mrs. Bailey

Mrs. Bailey was my seventh and eighth grade teacher at Collins Community School in the early 1970s. Yes, she taught two grades, with one grade typically out of the room for classes such as science, art and P.E. She handled the basics, such as English, history and math.

I don't even remember her first name, and i'm not sure i ever knew it. She seemed old (who knows what that really was back then!) and was definitely old-school. It was the era when girls were first allowed to wear blue jeans to school, and she once hauled all the female students into the cloak room, closed the door and told us to stop wearing pants so tight that our butt cracks showed. Another time, a tampon dropped from someone's purse and landed on the floor. Off to the cloak room for another lecture, in which some of us had to confess that, um, we're unfamiliar with that product. Or related products even.

Mrs. Bailey did have a huge influence on me in one area: reading. Or maybe i should say literature.

Junior high was definitely not a highlight for me, a scrawny kid with glasses, braces and stringy brown hair. Hated the social interaction. Loved the books.

And Mrs. Bailey had her own private shelf of books in a corner of the large room. It was there i found Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun" and John Hersey's "Hiroshima."

Trumbo's story of a World War I soldier who'd lost all his limbs, but not his mind, was then about 35 years old. This story, based in a brutally, but not fatally, wounded soldier's hospital bed, was pretty disturbing for a 12- or 13-year-old.

As was "Hiroshima." It was a slim book (probably part of the attraction), originally a long piece in the New Yorker. Hersey told the story of a group of atomic bomb survivors, the horrors they witnessed and their struggles to survive the radioactive aftereffects of the bombing.

I already possessed a fairly strong anti-war sentiment, the result of watching the Vietnam War on the evening news, and probably of listening to may parents' conversations about the war. I have no idea what Mrs. Bailey's take on pacifism was - were these books a clue? I don't remember her discussing the issue.

Clue or no, those two books stayed with me. I read them again. I've given them as gifts to nieces. "Hiroshima" tops the list of books one of my classes may choose from for a book review.

To Mrs. Bailey, i say thanks.

And peace.

Finding a Job: Some tactics that worked

Back to some posts on finding a job - tho i'm happy to learn that several former students and current friends have been successful in landing various cool gigs in recent weeks!

First two words, OK, three or four: Be positive and proactive! Keep going, even in the face of rejection (and when hundreds of folks apply for a job, there's a lot of that out there).

For those still looking and even for those who just landed, here are some proactive tactics that worked for me and others i know. Feel free to add more in the comments!

Offer to stop by for a chat! Whether you've applied for a job that's advertised or you're targeting a company you want to work for, after you've sent your resume and work samples, call them up and ask if you can stop in for coffee. The worst they can say is no thanks. But oftentimes, they'll say sure. My interviews in Jacksonville and Orlando resulted from me calling the hiring editor (not the recruiter), saying, "Hey, i'll be in town on (day here), can i stop by and chat?" OK, the real reason i was coming to town was to chat with them! But it worked! Each time, i ended up with a day of interviews, and, eventually, great jobs!

Followup! A few years ago, i was hiring for two presentation desk jobs. One Friday afternoon, i picked up the phone and it was one of the applicants i'd set aside. He asked what was up with the process and i told him that it seemed to me he was working at a considerably larger newspaper and we couldn't really afford him. He told me that he'd be moving to Boulder and if he didn't work for me, he'd be working at a restaurant - and that it was possible that we could afford him. i'm glad he called - he's a great guy, wonderful to work with!

Really, followup! Most jobs being advertised in the Denver/Boulder area are receiving up to 300 applicants. i'm told of a recent job search in which the hiring manager was overwhelmed - and apparently ended up hiring the person (with considerable experience) who called the day before the manager was scheduled for vacation. Fair to the other hundreds of applicants? Maybe not. But it worked for the successful applicant.

Use your contacts! From LinkedIn to Facebook friends, from college profs to fellow students or coworkers, figure out if you know people in the company or region where you're looking for work. Can someone send an e-mail extolling your virtues to the hiring manager (i often will, for what it's worth)? Can a friend refer you to a contact who can answer your questions and give you some beta before an interview - or before sending the cover letter/resume/clips?

Do your homework! Before you interview, check out the company and the people you're interviewing with. Do your Web research, ask your contacts for info. A friend who interviewed one of my grad students noted that even tho he didn't have an internship for her, she knew a ton about his agency and even about him.

Be prepared for the interview questions - and prepare your own! A friend says he recently blanked when asked in an interview "Tell us about yourself." That's why it's important to prepare your answers to potential questions as i mentioned in a previous post. And come prepared with questions of your own about the job and the company.

Always be on the lookout! One of my friends at the Sentinel told me that she was always looking for the next job - and the one after that. She kept in contact with friends at other publications, with former editors and college profs, so when there was an opening she'd be interested in, she'd know. She ended up at BusinessWeek in D.C. after Orlando.

Next time, i'll share some bad examples - don't try this in your career!

Finding a Job: Following up, the interview, following up

Once you've sent your cover letter, resume and work samples to a prospective employer, don't just sit there. Follow up!

Give them a call and ask if they received your materials. Ask if they have time for a cup of coffee, just to chat. Figure out if you have any mutual acquaintances with the hiring manager and ask that person to send an e-mail and ask what's up or make a recommendation for you.

If you're applying for jobs from a distance, it really helps to arrange a trip and go there. Tell prospective employers when you'll be in town and ask if they have time to meet with you, however briefly.

If you get that coffee date - or an actual interview - prepare yourself! Research the company - know what they do, who their clients are, what successes they've had, what challenges they face. Research the person you're meeting with - where have they worked in the past, what's the role they have now, what might you have in common.

Consider the questions you'll be asked and prepare some answers. Rehearse them - you don't want to sound rehearsed, but you don't want to appear dumbstruck either.

This site has some great examples of questions you might be asked, as well as other tips on preparing for an interview. You'll also want to come up with some questions about the job and the workplace to ask when the time comes. And the time will come when they'll ask for your questions, so you'd better have some!

When the day comes, dress appropriately, even conservatively. This is one time you'll want to stick to basics - a simple skirt and blouse, or basic dress (not too short!), slacks, shirt and tie for guys. Consider your accessories - i.e., pare down the piercings and make sure they're nothing too racy. You'll probably want to cover up the tattoos, too, i hate to say.

When the time comes to talk to a prospective employer, relax! Look them in the eye and talk with them as you would a good friend (tho not too casually!).

Keep track of everyone you meet or talk to at the interview - get their cards so you know their titles and the proper spelling of their names.

Then, follow up some more! Send e-mail or written thank-you notes to everyone you talked to. Mention something you enjoyed about the conversation, or expand on an answer you gave with more information or an example (like a link to work you didn't show them).

If you have enough work to hold back, this is a good time to send one more clip, link or example. If you're working, a good goal is to produce something each week or each month that will be a great sample to show prospective employers. (That's a way to stay motivated about your work, too.)

Keep track of those people you talk to and follow up with! The connection you've made may not come through this time, but you never know what will happen down the road!

Next up: Some pitfall examples!

Something that'll ruin your prospects

Each semester, in every class, i include a segment on syllabi that outlines what plagiarism is, why it is wrong and what the consequences are - in my class, at the university and, most importantly, in the real world. i talk about it in class and offer up examples of how people have made this deadly sin and what happened to them.

Still, each year, i find an instance or two when students lift from a Web site. They often seem confused when we discuss it, as if no one ever told them it was wrong.

i suspect these students think i'm being mean, harsh, a total bitch. Well, it's far worse in the real world. And here's the latest example.

A summer intern at the Gazette in Colorado Springs was found to have copied paragraphs in four stories from the past month. It's bad enough that she's lost her job (as she should).

But in this day and age, she's also been prominently featured on Gawker (complete with photo and quotes from past blog posts) and on Romenesko, one of the most highly trafficked sites for journalists.

Soon, those will be the top hits for this woman on a Google search, if they aren't already. Any employer looking at her will learn about this incident.

Let that be a lesson to you!

Finding a Job: Show your work!

So you've created a brand and targeted a job market, come up with a great resume and cover letter.

But a key feature of getting a job in journalism is showing potential employer examples of the work you've done.

How to do that? The Web makes it easy. Sure, you can post things on a LinkedIn account. But you're better off creating your own Web site.

First, buy a URL, preferably with your name in it. There are plenty of places to do this, i've used a Denver company called Name.com lately. Then get a hosting account (i'm not going to go into this, e-mail if you'd like info), someplace to host your Web site. Getting your brand out there on the Web via a URL is essential.

Next, create a site using WordPress. It's free software that you can use on your hosting site, and it's versatile because there are so many template options - most of them free. You may think of WordPress as blogging software, but it also serves static pages, where you can offer links to your work, a resume page and more. Believe me, having a Web presence will go a long way with potential employers.

How to display your work? Links to stories, videos or other materials are a good start. But if you can embed videos or soundslide presos, do so. And you might also consider uploading PDFs of stories, especially if they're well-designed. This gives folks the option of downloading and printing them out. (Clearly note that they're PDFs, however, and try to keep the size reasonable.)

How much of your work to display? Four or five of your most recent pieces is a good start. You may want to use your Web site as an archive of sorts for your work. But you'll also want to check the links fairly often to make sure they still work.

Here are a few examples. Check out the sort of work they highlight and how they highlight it. Keep in mind you already have this content ready; you just need to put it on the Web:

Lisa Marshall uses her middle name because the basic name was taken. She has PDFs of her work and JPGs of magazine covers. She isn't using WordPress, but you could accomplish the same thing with it.

Amanda Mascarelli is a Boulder freelancer; her site is also done independently but she has some good examples of the sort of things you'd want to display.

Staci Baird has a great WordPress site - no blog per se, but great examples of her work.

While the online presence is essential, there will still be those out there who want to receive paper copies of your letter, resume and work samples. When applying for an advertised job, do as the ad says - apply via e-mail or via snail mail. But if you apply via e-mail, ask if they'd also like to receive paper copies.

This is where those PDFs come in handy - when you have a story run, ask the designer or your editor to grab a PDF for you, it's typically pretty simple. If you're a photographer or videographer, you'll probably provide your work on a CD.

And what work should you show? Make it your best. Use entire stories or pieces. Make sure there weren't any errors published later - it's easy to find out about such things these days.

Next: following up, interviewing, following up.

Finding a Job: Cover letters and resumes

So you've defined your brand and targeted your job search. Now it's time to spiff up your resume and write a kickass cover letter!

First, create a letterhead to use on both cover letter and resume. Use Illustrator or InDesign if you're really into design, or just create it in Word. Your name is the central feature - in 18 point or larger type. Keep it simple, find an elegant, readable font.

Put your Web site URL beneath your name in a smaller font (say 12), then beneath that your contact information (address, e-mail, phone number).

If you aren't a designer, check out some examples, like by googling!

On to the content of the resume! i highly recommend a single-page resume. More than that is too much for most folks to sift through.

Some folks state a job-search objective on their resume. i typically leave that for the cover letter, with an objective tailored to the employer.

Experience and work samples are the key elements in getting a job. So list your experience first. Don't bother with the bartending or nanny jobs unless they were long-term gigs and you really need them to fill things out. If you're looking to fill things out, explain the duties at your professional jobs/internships. Make sure you include dates, job titles, name of employer and location (city and state).

Next, education. Your university degree/s, year awarded, major, any special honors.

My resume typically includes an "activities" section that lists professional organizations i belong to (IRE, SPJ, etc.), as well as activities that give potential employers a sense of my personality - running, cycling, weaving, climbing, knitting. (Well, at least the resume i'd use for a non-academic job.)

If you're looking for a first job, i highly recommend listing three references: names, job titles, employer, phone number and e-mail address. Make sure you've asked them if it's OK to list them! If they hesitate when asked, take the hint and move on.

When you're done, print it out and take a close look. Fix the mistakes (there will be some!). Then ask someone else who has a good eye to look it over too!

Here's a good blog post from someone who recently did some communications hiring in the Denver area on resumes.

Then it's onto the cover letter.

While you'll likely send the same resume out to each employer (tho if you're using a job-search objective, you may need a different one depending on the type of job), each cover letter should be tailored to the job and the employer.

Do a little research first. Do you know anyone who's worked with the company or the manager you're writing to? Can you get a better idea of what their needs are than in the job description listed on a Web site?

The first sentence of your letter is the most important - you're marketing yourself, your brand in this sentence and telling someone why you're the one for this specific job. Make it count. This blog post has some great examples of good and bad cover letters.

Once you've got that first killer sentence/paragraph down, back it up. Give specific examples of how your experience will serve this employer.

Typically, for journalism and communications jobs, we offer up samples of our work in addition to resumes and cover letters. Mention one or two of those attached samples in your cover letter.

Finally, let them know how to contact you - that you're available by phone (and give them the number) or e-mail (and give them the address, even tho it's in your letterhead). Tell them you look forward to hearing from them.

Print the letter out. Proofread it. Have someone else proofread it. Then send it off!

Next week: Work samples.

Finding a Job: Define your brand, target your market

You might think the job search starts with getting a resume and standard cover letter together, but if you really want to succeed, there are other steps to take first.

First, define your brand. Yes, you're the brand, as former Rocky Mountain News Editor and Publisher John Temple noted in his spring 2009 commencement speech to the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Of course, your brand includes your name. And you should try to own your name on the Web - as a URL, on facebook, on Twitter, on LinkedIn and where ever else you might want to go online..

Then, ask yourself: What are my specialties, my strengths, my interests? Consider defining yourself in six words. Then define yourself in a complete sentence. Here's how i define myself: "Sandra Fish is a journalist and journalism instructor at the University of Colorado who specializes in politics, government, data analysis and interactive reporting."

Once you've defined your brand, use it! Put it on your twitter description, on your facebook page (mine says: "It's all about the learning."), on your Web site, on your resume and cover letter letterhead even.

Why go through this exercise? Because you want to be able to give potential employers as well as the outside world a clear idea of who you are and what you're all about.

Next, determine your job objectives so you can target your search.

What is your top priority? Do you want to live in a particular place and would you do any sort of job to live there? Or is your dream (as mine was) to be a news reporter and you're willing to do it no matter where you start?

Answering these questions - even writing out your search objective - will help you target your search. Consider this objective, for example: Searching for a communications job in the Denver metro area.

If that's your objective, you can begin to target your job search.

First, consider who you know who might help you. Never be afraid to ask friends, acquaintances, former employers, teachers and others for help. Most people love to give advice (i know i do!). The one instance where you shouldn't ask: If you've let someone down (and you know if that's the case). Take people to coffee, tell them what you're looking for, ask for their advice in your search.

Second, check out the Web sites to see what jobs are out there. Check out craigslist, no matter where you're looking. Search the listings on LinkedIn for key terms or locations. (Not on LinkedIn? Get on there, make connections with those folks you're asking for advice, maybe even ask for a recommendation or two.)

If you're looking for journalism jobs, this is the place to start. Poynter, the nonprofit journalism education center, also has a job list. Here's a great list from the Berkeley grad school. And there are plenty of others. Google around some, and ask your advisers what sites they recommend!

If you're looking for other types of communications jobs, figure out where those businesses might advertise outside of craigslist or LinkedIn. Here are a few sites i recommended to recent graduates:

Colorado public relations jobs: http://andrewhudsonsjobslist.com/

Colorado nonprofits: http://www.coloradononprofits.org/board.cfm

This is a national nonprofit job clearinghouse: http://idealist.org/

OK, that's the work you need to get done before you send out the cover letter and resume. More on that tomorrow!

I love Disney World!

We've been to the pool, dinner at China's Nine Dragons, the Norway ride (one of my faves), margaritas, a walk around the world with a stop in Canada (Andrew bought a Canadian flag, his dad said, "What's that?"), took a 20 minute break then convinced the kids they HAD to see the Epcot fireworks. They agreed we were right!

The touch 'em all tour

Yes, i may be headed your way. or i've already been there!

Really, the tour started in February, when i attended a Poynter workshop in Florida and decided to go early to visit friends in Orlando, taking a great bike ride in Lake County, kayaking in Orange and stopping in at the Orlando Sentinel, my former employer. i stayed late and visited a kid i used to babysit at her home in Gainesville - along with her husband and son!!

Later that month, i went to Palm Springs for a long weekend to visit my sister-in-law, who has a condo there. In April, i went to Minneapolis with my bro and nephew to a hockey tournamount, where we met up with my dad and i had breakfast with college friends - one from my sorority and the other from the student newspaper.

In May, i went to Chicago to help with a JAWS multimedia workshop, and spent an evening with friends from Sentinel days and their two kids. After a couple of nights with JAWS friends, i had brunch and went to an art gallery showing with a friend from my earliest newspaper days. Here in Colorado, i had dinner with several other Sigma Kappa sisters, chatting about the olden days.

As i type, i just returned from the Bay Area for another JAWS workshop, a visit to my aunt and getting together with a buddy from the Florida Times-Union. Plus, i caught up with many JAWS friends and met some great new folks!

Tomorrow, i hit the airways for two weeks. First, it's Disney World with the nephews! OMG, we are all sooooo excited! On Friday, i fly to DC for another JAWS workshop Saturday where i hope to see more old pals. Sunday, a train to Williamsburg to meet up with friends from the old newspapering days, Tuesday to Fredericksburg to visit a former intern (it kinda scares me when my former interns are over 40, tho...), Wednesday to Hershey, Pa., to visit another former Iowa pal and family, Friday to Baltimore to see more former Sentinel friends, Saturday back to DC to visit the Newseum with a former grad student now working for Voice of America.

On June 20th, we're going to a party in Carroll for our friends Laura and Jim. The weekend of the 27th, old friends from Tallahassee come to visit. July 3rd, we're going to see Wilco (and we'll have seen Punch Brothers the week before). July 10, it's the annual family camping excursion in the mountains! The following weekend, off to Omaha for a week of riding bikes across Iowa! There's the Folks Festival, Diana Krall, Bonnie Raitt and more in August!

As one of the nephews posted to facebook today:

it's summer!!!!!

p.s., if you want to see me in the next two weeks tweet me @fishnette, comment here or facebook message me. or use my e-mail!

Testing slideshow embed with blogger

The new Kindle...

Must admit, that i did spring for Kindle 2, as much out of a love of technology as a bit of a research project.

Some observations after a week and a half:

• Great portability. So lightweight and easy to use!
• Easy to read with.
• Convenient to buy stuff (actually bought something by accident yesterday, but it was a book i wanted).
• Nice search function.
• What's up with the numbering thing? It'd be nice if there were a way to coordinate with a book's page numbers for reference purposes.
  
• My first book was one i was already reading, and i wanted to compare print vs. Kindle. No photos that were included in this history of the Works Progress Administration! And the page number thing.
• Reading ahead, i.e., cheating, seems not as convenient as with a real book.
  
• The dictionary is great!
  
• Easy to look sophisticated while reading borderline trash!

Steven Berlin Johnson offers other insights here.

But mostly, i was interested in news presentation. i subscribed to the Washington Post for two weeks free. Thoughts:

• Compared to the Web, way too static. Sure it's more portable than the dead-tree version, but it took a while last Sunday for me to find the great magazine piece by Gene Weingarten. After searching several sections, i found it by searching his name.
• Not sure some folks know what they're doing this for. Showed the Kindle to a friend who works for the Austin American-Statesman (on the Web, no less) and she didn't realize they were on Kindle, and when she flipped through most of the first tier stories were from wires. What purpose does that serve? (This has always been an issue to my way of thinking - folks in newsrooms don't think enough about how they're reaching their audiences.)
  
• Demographically, i suspect the Kindle reaches the same news audience that prefers print. Often, when my students search out news online, the first thing they do is click on video. None of that on the Kindle. And i question whether my students would be the least bit interested in this device, to read either news or books on. They have computers and iPhones for that.

Speaking of which, my nephew downloaded the iPhone software and his mom found it way too backlit/glaring for good reading. Of course, having just turned 11, this young man had some cash to spare. And after seeing my Kindle last Saturday, had his own by Tuesday. He's read one full chapter book and is on another. And he likes not having to touch the pages (tactile issues for him)... of course, he's a total techno-weenie, and i'll be promoting the heck out of his upcoming iPhone application when it's on the market!

Over the February fail!

Back to the important stuff: exercise, physical activity, wishing Jane Fonda would come up with a Wii Fit game!!

The fail continued in late February. Here's the tally:

Feb. 19: Flew to Palm Springs and went for a great two-hour desert hike. Love the desert!
Feb. 20: Rode a bicycle around Palm Springs for a little over an hour.
Feb. 21: Heh, here's a hilarious one: Walked around a golf course for 3:45 following friends in their cart. i don't play golf. So i twittered instead.
Feb. 22: Day of fail. Went on a celebrity bus tour, then flew home.
Feb. 23: Climbed at the gym for 90 mintes, a grand time!
Feb. 24: Lifted weights for 45 minutes at the gym.
Feb. 25: Walked for 30 minutes between classes.
Feb. 26: Fail - of a lot of stuff, including my part-time employer, the Rocky Mountain News. Wish i'd made it out in the early morning, before i heard the news.
Feb. 27: another day of fail. and drinking.
Feb. 28: End of the month of fail with a 40 minute roundtrip walk to Proto's for lunch.
March 1: At least an hour climbing at the gym.
March 2: A 30-minute walk around campus.
March 3: A 30-minute run followed by 20 minutes of strength on Wii Fit.
March 4: Walked from the Armory north on Broadway to Linden, took 38 minutes.

Geez, it's a good thing Mad is keeping track of all this - she's the real rockstar here!!

They say it better...

Mike Littwin and Vince Carroll weigh in on U.S. Rep. Jared Polis' glee at the Rocky going under and his apology "to anyone who was offended." (Hey, isn't that a righty tactic - and for those of you who are good with it, well, we're good with it too!)

Meanwhile, David Bennahum, the president and CEO of Center for Independent Media, which operates Colorado Confidential (now Colorado Independent) called today to say that the center decided to give back Polis' money once he announced he was entering the primary. That happened in May 2007, according to this post at the political news site. The event i described yesterday occurred in August 2007. i have great respect for David Bennahum, and believe it's possible he didn't realize what was going on in Colorado. But the ME of Colorado Confidential told me when repressing a negative post on Polis that she'd discussed it with Bennahum and others in the D.C. headquarters.

Again, the point here, made far better by Littwin and Carroll, is that Polis, a congressman (my congressman, in fact), would prefer a media that tells only his side of the story.

And that's not journalism, folks.

The left and right continue to gloat...

Let's see.

Rush Limbaugh says liberal bias caused the Rocky Mountain News to fail. Gee, Vince Carroll, what would you have to say about that?

Then Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis says it's the progressive (aka liberal) blogosphere responsible for the newspaper's demise.

Each of these - and plenty more out there in the blogosphere - would love nothing better than to preach only to the choir, presenting only their version of the world.

Believe me, i know. i once served as a consultant to a political news Web site funded in part by Polis. The idea was to pay bloggers to report and write more like journalists. But when it came right down to it, there was some news that wasn't news. Like when a Polis staffer/blogger slammed his two 2nd Congressional District opponents and was forced to resign. The managing editor for the site refused to allow a post on this subject for most of a day because, as she told me, A) Polis helped fund the site and B) the staffer in question was a friend of hers and C) Polis had paid to send the ME, the Polis staffer and others to Yearly Kos (aka Netroots Nation) the weekend before. After much debate among the staff, ME wrote her own brief post (after midnight).

And i resigned from the site. Because i didn't want to work for a political campaign. i wanted to work for a news site. And suppressing or ignoring the news isn't what journalism is about.

Sites from the other political perspective also report some stories and ignore others.

But preaching only to the choir certainly helps the cause of folks like Limbaugh and Polis. If traditional journalists aren't around (in print or on the Web) to offer complete stories, featuring all sides, all the better for the idealogues.

Citizens, too, need to understand that they're not always getting the complete picture from some - and they need to seek out the truth from less self-serving sources than Rush and Jared.

Some Rocky links with which to ROCK ON!

We definitely ROCK ON here.

And for you baseball buffs wanting more on your Rockies, Inside the Rockies is the place for you.

Meanwhile, former Rockster Jonathon Berlin writes about what he learned at the Rocky, design-wise.