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.

What is lost.

We lose stuff.

A lot of it is small, miniscule. An earring (though i’m still wearing silver hoops i bought on the street in San Francisco some, um, 34 years ago), an address, even the occasional old friend (via Facebook most recently). Once left my cherished Pivetta Ventana hiking boots in a rental car, overhead bin or cab trunk in the early ‘90s. That was tough. And there’s gotta be more than that, but it’s mostly not worth recollecting.

Then there’s the loss that is always recollected, that never leaves. It’s personal.

Here’s my list.

My mom. She died of cancer at 73. That slow death gives the living time to prepare, mentally, for what’s to come. But painful for the one dying. I knew my mom didn’t know me when i showed up in ugly thick-framed black glasses and she didn’t chew me out for it. It wasn’t just that, even at 39, i realized 73 was young to die, but that i still feel i never got close enough to her, asked her the questions i wanted to know the answers to. (But i also know there were questions she just wasn’t going to answer. I didn’t get the open-book persona from her.)

Chris and Catherine. Each of them, there one day, joking around, laughing, then gone the next, in bolts of lightening separated by a few years, a thousand miles and some 14,000 feet in altitude.

The Rocky. Not an individual but a collection of some of the most talented, dedicated and innovative individual journalists i’ve known. Like my mom, you kind of knew the end was near. Unlike her, however, i don’t think the Rocky suffered from a fatal malady. Indeed, corporate suits praised the staff for some of the best journalistic storytelling in the nation. But those guys weren’t in it for good journalism that will keep citizens in a democracy informed about their world. They’re in it for the money. And where the money comes from is the rub that faces journalism today.

The Rocky’s demise isn’t just a tragedy for the journalism community. Rocky Editor John Temple noted in Friday’s talk to the Colorado Press Association that losing 200 workers has an exponential ripple effect. One friend realized she no longer needs a babysitter three days a week. Another will lose the landline. Those are the tiny impacts. Then there are these questions: How will they pay for their children’s college tuition? The mortgage? In this economy, where will they find another job?

The biggest losers, though, are the citizens who will lose a key source of information about their community. What citizen journalist would devote the time and expertise to produce work such as the Pulitzer-Prize winning Final Salute or Beyond the Boom, the 2008 series on Colorado’s oil business or Laura Frank’s Deadly Denial?

I only worked at the Rocky’s presentation desk one or two nights a week since last June. But i had many friends there when i took that part-time job and made many, many more friends.

So this loss is personal, too.

Just wondering...

Where is some of this coming from? i mean, these Rocky death sites...

On this one, i have some ideas. Good idea on the selling stuff front!

What is this Matt Hunt person who really is trying to make money on this?? IMHO, bad idea on the selling stuff front. RT KnowNewspapers@savetheRMN Looking forward to helping just as soon as we see that you've registered as a proper 501(c)3 non-profit. It's an important step.

Some week 7 observations

Why i fail:

• i refuse to wake up early. i want to keep sleeping.
• i want to start my day reading the three newspapers, listening to NPR and drinking coffee.
• if there's socializing to be done at the end of the day, i'm always going to choose that option over even a 30-minute stroll.

So, that's why fail No. 2 occurred. On the other hand, today i managed to arise shortly after 6:30 a.m., read, listen and drink (coffee!) for an hour then go for a run.

Details of the week:

Thursday, Feb. 12: FAIL!!! Didn't want to wake up, went to Poynter all day, then got in the car and drove to Gainesville, and wanted to hang out with the kids i was visiting.

Friday, Feb. 13: Stopped in downtown O'do on the way to the airport. Walked around Lake Eola and the Thornton neighborhood for a lovely 30 minutes.

Saturday, Feb. 14: Went on a lovely Valentine's Day stroll with my sweetie to Amante and back, about 40 minutes roundtrip.

Sunday, Feb. 15: Ran for 33 minutes or so, did Wii Fit for 35 or so.

Monday, Feb. 16: Walked around campus for 30 minutes after class on the way to Hapa and before going to see Tom Friedman.

Tuesday, Feb. 17: A lame 30 minutes of Wii strength and balance exercise. Really lame. But it felt good later.

Wednesday, Feb. 18: 30 minute run near Wonderland Lake. A great feeling to get it out of the way in the morning!

About Florida...

From February 1985 to January 1994, i lived in Florida: Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando. And i saw most of the state, from Pensacola and the Redneck Riviera to Fort Meyers (where the Gannett newspaper had heavy security in 1986!), Miami, Sarasota, Tampa, Clearwater and St. Pete and, well, other places.

Flying into Orlando a week ago Friday, the large bodies of water everywhere surprised me. Never much of a water person, me, but i didn't recall that many lakes and swamps. They're here, but so are tons of developments surrounding them - even more than when i left 15 years ago.

When i first moved to the "Sunshine State" (really, i think Colorado may have more actual sunny days), i read the book "Up for Grabs: A Trip Through Time and Space in the Sunshine State." (Looks like a newer edition was published in 2000 - need to check it out.) John Rothchild tells the tale of the crazy land scams that subdivided, populated and spoiled plenty of wilderness - and still do. From early on, developers destroyed wetlands, building up land with fill dirt to create building space on coastal properties as well as farther inland. They marketed lots in barren, unpopulated areas (often sans roads) to frigid northeasterners.

Those platted subdivisions (and others like them) are still making news - and providing huge fuel for the foreclosure crisis. My pals Mary and Vicki wrote last May about how subprime mortgages were fueling suburban sprawl in Orlando. The Miami Herald wrote about shady lending practices last year too. And the St. Pete Times wrote about

Now that this country is in a world of hurt because of such practices, national media is catching on that Florida is a leader in real estate fraud. The New Yorker wrote about "The Ponzi State," in its most recent issue. The New York Times followed up last weekend with a photo of the same subdivision. (My charming other argues that the print newspaper's lede photo is of a house with hurricane damage, however, not just a foreclosed upon home.)

The thing is, those lots in Lehigh Acres were platted in the 1950s. They sat dormant through other tough economic times, then sold for big prices to people with silly mortgages decades later. And you can bet when the economy recovers (and it will) Floridians will continue the development game, because it's the only one in town - drawing more snowbirds looking for a warm retirement home at a relatively cheap price with no income taxes.

In the meantime, the state continues to pave paradise to put up the cheap subdivisions, as Matt Waite of the St. Pete Times wrote about in a series and now in a new co-authored book, "Paving Paradise."

Florida is supposed to have a "growth management" system, but it really hasn't had much of an impact in the time i lived here or since i left. To save the natural world typically takes what the developers have here: cold cash.

A prime example is the river i kayaked last weekend, pictured above. Development was slated for the heavily treed banks, but the state moved in to buy the shores around the Econ.

Unfortunately, it's a rare example.

Catching up, admitting failure! But still having some fun!

Let's catch up here... last i checked in, i still had it going on. Since then, well, here are the details:

Jan. 22: 30 minute run, 30 minutes of Wii Fit, a beautiful day!

Jan. 23: An all-day retreat followed by working from 5 to midnight. Walked around downtown Denver (and the newsroom) for only 25 minutes. But close.

Jan. 24: Great skiing in Winter Park and a super ride on the train!

Jan. 25: A walk with my sweetie pie for 35 minutes in cold and snow, then 20 minutes of Wii Fit.

Jan. 26: 40 minutes of Wii Fit (way too dependent on this!)

Jan. 27: An hour with the trainer at the gym, 40 minutes of Wii...

Jan. 28: The big campus adventure day! In between classes, i quickly walked to Macky, went to the basement and climbed the stairs, came back down, went to old Main, went up and down the stairs there twice, headed to Humanities to walk up and down, then to Norlin, up and down on the west side, then up and down on the east side, then over to the poli sci building to go up and down the stairs then to ATLAS and up and down the stairs at which point i hit 30 minutes and headed to the UMC for food!

Jan. 29: Ran 30 minutes, then Wii strength and balance for 35 minutes.

Jan. 30: Weights at the gym for 40 minutes, Wii for 40 minutes.

Jan. 31: Breckenridge! Skied at the Nordic center a bit more than an hour with Jim Charlier, then another 30 minutes or so later with Katy, talking all the way!

Feb. 1: Downhill, baby! A couple of runs on Peak 8 with Katy and her board, five runs alone as fast as possible, another couple with Katy and the so-cute Miles on his skis, then one last one alone. A great day! But why do children beat me at Uno!?!?

Feb. 2: Walked from the Armory for 30 minutes, managing to end up at the Hungry Toad for food!

Feb. 3: An hour at the gym with Chris, 35 minutes on Wii Fit.

Feb. 4: As i write this, it seems so, so long ago! But according to my notes on Mad's site (and now i remember it well!), i walked for 35 minutes from the Armory, to Ninth Street, up to Baseline, down Grant to the cemetery to Ninth and back to my car. A lovely walk, really....

Feb. 5: A solid, hard 50 minutes of weights at the gym by myself.

Feb. 6: OK, left home at 5:30 a.m. for a plane to Charlotte, where i made the last row of the reduced-size plane to O'do, which was then late and arrived downtown just as people were getting off work. So this was the day of total failure in which i went drinking instead. LOSER!!!

Feb. 7: Does this make up for things? Went on a great bike ride on the West Orange Trail, from Winter Garden to Clermont. My friend Mary Anne Koos helped create this rail-trail sometime after i left Florida in 1994 and she's always raved about it. It was a great time, with great friends, about a three-hour ride out and back. There was lovely scenery and, as is the case in Florida, some amazing sprawl. The conclusion: Beers for all!

Feb. 8: Lovely Mary from Florida, my friend who set up Saturday's bike ride with old friends, loaded her kayaks (OK, i helped!) on the SUV Sunday a.m. and we headed for the Econ (see photo above from Mary!), the shores of which were barely saved from development by a state purchase around the time i left. What a great journey! Three hours of maneuvering through narrow water with canopy overhead, great birds and at least one huge gator - the one i saw, there had to be others... Three hours of paddling. And that doesn't include boat loading and unloading (tho we did find some guys to hoist them up when we got out of the water!).

Feb. 9: Bicycled 15 minutes to Starbucks and 15 minutes back for coffee with Mary, visited the newsroom, tried to talk a ffiend out of writing a moronic column, which i refuse to link to, then drove to St. Pete for a Poynter workshop. Walked to Poynter from the hotel, 20 minutes.

Feb. 10: Managed to wake up early enough (different time zone, folks!!) to get on the elliptical trainer - loudest device ever! - and do 30 minutes, then walked 20 minutes to Poynter and walked another 20 minutes in the evening looking for a place to eat.

Feb. 11: A lame day. Walked 20 minutes to Poynter, then did 15 minutes of floor/strength stuff in the evening. Then blogged.

Week 3, come and gone!

Wow, that was quick! Still on the bandwagon, too!

The details:
Jan. 15: 45 minutes climbing, 45 minutes lifting weights
Jan. 16: 30+ minute jog
Jan. 17: cardio pilates on Exercise TV for 30 minutes... eek!
Jan. 18: 40 minute run
Jan. 19: 55 minute, 13-mile bike ride
Jan. 20: 40 minutes weight lifting and lots of inaugural TV (OK, that isn't exercise)
Jan. 21: 30 minutes of Wii Fit. Exercise? maybe kinda.

Cleaning the basement links...

to remember as i recycle the issues from whence they came:

New York Times mag piece on advertising and marketing in the post-TV, i.e. 'net, world. Illustrates the problems with the traditional media business model.

Great geeky story from the same issue about the competition to improve the Netflix algorithm.

A story about iGoogle themes and graphic design from the Times mag.

A New Yorker article about Colorado and the Democratic Party.

Times article on downloading textbooks.

Times article on Many Eyes.

Still another Times article, this one on the use of nanotechnology in skin care products. If it doesn't say it'll make me look 35 again at a cost of $15 a month in the lede, i really can't finish the story.

Recollecting a few things...

in the by the numbers fashion...

30 years ago this spring that i graduated from undergrad at Iowa State (and then took a year off to hang out and, well, party.

15 years ago that i moved from Orlando to Boulder, with a stop in Austin.

18 hours it took to drive from Austin to Boulder, making a decision at 8 p.m. that, hey, i'm near New Mexico, it can't be that far! When i rolled into Boulder at 1 a.m., KBCO was playing the Beatles "Two of Us" with the chorus, "On our way back home, We're going home." And i was.

9 girlfriends who came out 15 years ago for a chix on stix ski weekend in Breckenridge. Great fun!!

5 years ago i spent maybe 6 or 7 hours in some pretty major surgery, watching the Iowa caucuses the first night (Howard Dean's scream didn't seem all that odd if you had a lot of morphine in you!) and the Bush state of the union the second (great way to drive away guests!).

Week 2 a success!

Thanks to exercise TV, frankly!

The rundown:
Jan. 8: Ran to the fire area near Wonderland Lake, stopping a few times to shoot video. Gone almost an hour, ran probably 42 minutes of that.

Jan. 9: Walked 30 minutes in downtown Denver.

Jan. 10: Butt and thigh yoga for 20 minutes and pilates abs for 10 on my fave, exercise TV...

Jan. 11: Cardio yoga on exercise TV for 30 minutes.

Jan. 12: Cardio balance ball (again, exercise TV) for 30 minutes.

Jan. 13: 45 minutes climbing, one hour working out with trainer.

Jan. 14: 30 minutes on stationary bike at the rec.

so there you have it!

Video workshop

Pretty rough here - shot while taking breaks in between running, thus some shaking and, um, heavy breathing. i'd add some other spoken audio too and something different music wise at the end - may redo later!

Week 1, successful so far!

Tho let me confess, i did resort to "pilates core challenge" and "thighs and buns yoga" on TV tonight! Wednesdays may be difficult because i have two classes and many tasks to do...

Nonetheless, here's the week one rundown:
Jan. 1: Bailed on crosscountry skiing on no snow in the wind and instead walked to Amante and back (25 minutes each way with a latte in between) then lifted weights for 30 minutes.
Jan. 2: Skied at Winter Park with Chuck, Wendy & Andrew.
Jan. 3: Ran out to Lee Hill Road and back in the late afternoon for 39 minutes. Need to remember that the light is really wonderful at that time of day.
Jan. 4: Climbed at the rock gym with Michelle.
Jan. 5: Ran 30 minutes near the lake.
Jan. 6: Climbed at the gym for 45 minutes in the a.m. with Anne, then lifted weights at the gym for 45 minutes in the afternoon (extra credit because Chris my trainer saw me!).
Jan. 7: OK, couldn't go outdoors, too windy. Saving a secret sinister strategy for a moment of total desperation this month. Wanted to stay home because of the fires near here. So, it's exercise from Comcast OnDemand. First, did the Gaiam Pilates Core Challenge for probably 25 minutes (it can't be the entire thing). Then did the Exercise TV "Thighs and Buns Yoga" for 20 minutes. Much preferred the woman in the pilates vid, but the other was probably more challenging.

So i've got week 1 going for me!

What i didn't do in 2008...

was eat at Taco Bell. i really only ate there about once a month before. Combined with the fact that i haven't eaten at McDonald's or Burger King in years, i'm doing pretty well compared to most Americans... except for that occasional chocolate chips/Gatorade obsession...

This year's deal, for as long as i can keep it up, is my friend Mad's blog/quest:

http://blindinsight.blogs.com/365/

i've got it going on in Day 3. But it's still only Day 3. We'll see how far we get!

Happy New Year!!

i want my Rocky!

Journalism is essential to inform citizens and keep our democracy alive.

Every semester, that's what I emphasize to my journalism students at the University of Colorado. It certainly isn't an original thought - it's a premise that's been around since the founding of this country or before.

And it's what I believe.

It's also one of the reasons I'm proud to work at the Rocky - even if it's only once or twice a week editing copy and writing headlines, which I've been doing since June of this year. Before going to CU as a journalism instructor, I worked for Scripps at the Camera in Boulder, where I was a reporter and editor for 11 years. Before that I worked at newspapers in Iowa and Florida.

Clearly, the Web has revolutionized how we get news. There's video, audio, wonderful photos and, most of all, up-to-the minute reports of key happenings. Readers can now have conversations with each other - and with journalists - on message and comment boards. And non-journalists can get in on reporting the news, too. Certainly the recent DIA plane crash, in which a passenger twittered the crash, is a great example of that last feature.

Another advantage is that readers can seek out what they're interested in. I'm a huge advocate of that. The more information we can find about a topic, the better our decisions will be.

But one reason I love newspapers - and especially the Rocky - is the surprises I can find in the news I might not seek out on my own. How many of us would have searched the Web for a story such as "Final Salute," the moving story of families being notified of the war deaths of their loved ones? Who out there on the Internet pressed federal officials, dug throug documents and tracked down former Rocky Flats nuclear plant workers to report on feds' failure to compensate the workers for their health problems? Rocky reporter Laura Frank did just that in her series "Deadly Denial."

I could cite many more great examples - Drew Litton's great sports cartoons, the excellent political coverage from M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Lynn Bartels and Ed Sealover, and the great workouts from Lisa Ryckman, just to name a few.

Then there are the different viewpoints - something we don't often seek out on the Internet. From Tina Griego's reports on Border Street and rebuilding Windsor to Vincent Carroll's incisive editorial columns.

When we seek out only what we want to know or hear, we miss out on valuable information that can inform the decisions we make in our democracy - or information that also entertains, amuses or even enrages us.

Without a broad, well-rounded publication like the Rocky, readers may get what they want from the Web but they probably won't get what they need.

Cross-posted from http://www.iwantmyrocky.com/.

Thoughts on finding work in tough times

First, let me confess: i was kind of a slacker as an undergraduate student. i focused heavily on working at restaurants and bars in order to have 1) cash to pay tuition and 2) friends to party with.

Also: i'm probably the last person my Iowa State University j-school classmates expected to ever be a newspaper reporter or editor, let alone still be working in the business (for the next few months at least) almost 30 years later. It's rarely been an easy road and it still isn't.

After graduating in three years and three months, i took a year off to continue to pursue cash, friends, etc. At some point, my husband and i looked at buying a house. We needed at least 20 percent of the $55,000 asking price to put down, plus interest rates were like 15 percent back then. No deal on that deal. It was the recession of the early '80s: stagflation, energy crisis, etc. etc. We did buy a Mazda GLC (great little car!), tho, brand new. It got about 30 mpg, is my recollection.

Anyway, i went to grad school in 1980 to avoid lunch shifts at the restaurant. Grad school is a great response to a recession (just watch enrollment soar next fall - it happened in 2002 and 2003, too, from my anecdotal experience).

Two years later, with the recession yet to run its course, i started looking for a real job. First, i passed the state exam to become a statistician - according to my stat profs, no easy task. i interviewed for a job with the Iowa public safety department, a job that would have paid pretty well by my standards in those days ($18,000 a year is what sticks in my mind). Then the state instituted a hiring freeze.

That was OK. Because i really, really wanted to be a newspaper reporter. Back in those days, there was no Internet, thus no j-jobs Web site or craigslist. i sent out resumes and clips everywhere i thought i might want to work. i checked the job postings at the j-school and sent resumes to those places. Let me add that this was a time when the news industry wasn't looking so great: afternoon newspapers like the Des Moines Tribune were shutting down, conglomorates were buying up family owned businesses.

Another confession: my internship experience was all across the board and not necessarily that relevant to a newspaper job. i was a press-aide intern, aka fourth in pingpong, for GOP Gov. Robert Ray, a wonderful guy who played pingpong with press secretary Dave Oman, a state trooper and - hey, you need a fourth - whoever else was available each time he arrived at or left the capitol. i did a radio internship with the university news service. i did some stringing for a couple of local newspapers and worked two quarters at the Iowa State Daily. The cash was better at the restaurant.

Anyway, i did manage to get a couple of interviews at newspapers in west central Iowa. At one, the publisher made some comment about my "nice dress" with what i interpreted as a leer. Scratch that place. Did they offer me a job? Maybe, but i can't remember. Because instead, i landed at the Carroll Daily Times-Herald, a family owned afternoon newspaper that's still got it going on today.

The pay: $205 a week, less than the clerks i hung out with in the afternoon at magistrate court - and they only had high school diplomas. But that was OK. i loved my job. i covered the county supervisors on Monday (and had open meetings and other showdowns with them, what fun!). Every morning, i stopped by the city police department, the county sheriff's and the clerk of court to see what was going on crime wise. In 1984, i met Rueben Askew, George McGovern, Alan Cranston and other Democratic candidates for president. i even started a weekly feature with recipes from local cooks. It was a blast.

i gave up that job when we moved to Florida, where i worked 20 months as a flack for an elected official, then moved back into newspapers, first at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, then at the Orlando Sentinel. More great times.

In 1994, we made a "lifestyle refugee" move to Boulder, Colo., a great place to live, tho not nearly the journalism mecca that Florida was. Still, i loved my 11 years at the Daily Camera in Boulder, where like my first job, i could do everything - edit, write about a variety of subjects, even learn to design pages and write headlines.

These days, in addition to teaching, i work part-time on the copy desk at the Rocky Mountain News, which Scripps announced this week is for sale. More sad times and perhaps the last job i'll have at a newspaper.

But back to that first job. It took me months to get that gig - nothing happens quickly on the job-search front, especially in a recession. It took persistence in mailing out resumes all over, calling people up, interviewing, following up with thank-you notes.

It took desire, which i'm sure showed up in the enthusiasm i expressed in interviews.

And it took sacrifice to work for less money than i'd been making waitressing and to live 70 miles away from my husband during the week.

My Times-Herald editor (he's still there!) once told me the j-school prof i listed as a reference mentioned described me as a "free spirit." Merriam-Webster defines it as a synonym for nonconformist. i'm good with that. Still.

That whole free-spirit thing may be what journalism needs more of today. For many of my students, they may find success through nonconforming - at least when it comes to conforming to the tradition of newspapers, which appears to be dying off.

And the right cheers...

As the news industry implodes (and make that 2,000 Gannett employees out of work) there seems to be a common thread in the comments on the stories i've seen.

It popped up first yesterday, when i checked the Tallahassee Democrat, where my former co-worker Bruce Ritchie lost his job. The comments on that story are highly political - and even racist.

From Nascardad:

"Yep, now everyone knows that the left-wing media is just a, could it be, just a big corporate entity. As much as they whine and cry about other corporations, they are just as heartless. Is your CEO going to work for one dollar this year? Didn't think so. Hope you die."

Then there's this, probably the worst:

"All they do is lament and complain and be suggestive and parley their race into not being CUT! I guess when the business manager has a name of Africa you can be sure you are stayin!"

The theme continued at the Gannett-owned Des Moines Register:

"This has more to do with the growing liberal slant/rants of the editorial staff than a troubled economy."

And when the Rocky Mountain News ran a story that its corporate parent, Scripps, was selling the Denver newspaper, more of the same:

"Liberal drivel finally caught up with ya, huh?"

And:

"They just don't get it. Liberalism in the media and a liberal biased media loses every time. I got so tired of the junk and trash they were calling reporting I also canceled my subscription."

You gotta wonder about these folks. Where will they/do they get their news? And where will they post these comments when these news sites go away?

Slicing beyond the bone and into the brand...

Happy holidays journalists, from Gannett Corp., which is slicing and dicing almost 1,800 jobs, from CNN, which is cutting its entire science/enviro/tech team, from Cox Newspapers, which is closing its D.C. bureau, and from others seemingly too numerous to mention.

All of these cuts are tragic. But one that touches me and illustrates the sheer stupidity of some of this is the Des Moines Register getting rid of front-page cartoonist Brian Duffy. For decades, the Register has run editorial cartoons on the front page, by Duffy since 1983 and before that by Frank Miller and Ding Darling. It makes me cry to type these words.

By letting Duffy go, the Register tosses away a significant portion of its brand. Those cartoons MADE the front page of the Register. They told a story about Iowa. They poked fun at the powerful and at the little people. They followed the folks in my homestate as they rode their bicycles across Iowa every summer, as they shoveled snow and shivered every winter, as they followed their favorite hoops or football team through the legendary high school playoffs.

Newspapers wonder why they're losing readers. Well, this is one of the reasons. When readers can't come to you for something unique, why bother?

In defense of the desk.

Everyone needs editing.

But copy or presentation desks seem to be one area where publishers are looking to cut back. At my last full-time newspaper job, a former co-worker recently recalled, three of us often put out 30 pages of copy on a Saturday - that's three people to choose wire, design pages, edit copy and write headlines. That presentation desk is even smaller since i left, tho in fairness, so is the print edition of the newspaper.

Now some publishers are talking about getting rid of that function altogether or shipping it offshore.

That would be a mistake. Because everyone needs editing.

As an example, i'd cite my most recent published "charticle" in which a grad student found a wording issue (and actually, i found and corrected a second one while looking through it at work). In my part-time gig on the copy desk at the Rocky Mountain News, i routinely find misspelled words, names spelled a couple of different ways and the occasional errant field goal in the wrong direction.

That said, the role of copy/presentation desks does need to change. Editors need to be able to do everything, rather than specialize in design or writing heds. Just like reporters must shoot video, blog and twitter, editors need to be able to edit and upload breaking news quickly for the Web, design some print pages and carefully read the longer investigative piece.

Steve Outing makes that point effectively in today's E&P column. Just as the rest of the news biz is changing, so is editing. That doesn't make editing any less important.

But those resisting the changes - especially the movement to doing more work on the Web - will be left behind.

Having the conversation...

i mean the one between the news folks and the readers, silly! Although that conversation may be just as difficult as the one between parents and their adolescents.

Believe me, i've heard some of the conversations between reporters/editors and their readers in newsrooms. Frankly, in many instances, they'd be more appropriately characterized as arguments. There's often not a whole lot of listening going on by the news folks.

This is one of the big problems with the so-called mainstream media adapting to the landscape of today.

Amy Gahran said this on Twitter recently: "Yet another print-media person asks me which class or book will help them learn social media.Sigh... " As Mediamum (disclosure: One of my teaching assistants) says, "Trad Js need to understand social media community as well as the tool."

Understanding that community is a difficult step for folks in traditional newsrooms, because they often aren't accustomed to interacting with readers in much the same way they interact with other journalists. In his E&P column today, Steve Outing suggests that newspapers create a vice president of social media.

Good idea, but first, journalists - all of us - need to get out there and look around. Try Twitter and Facebook. Make some friends, follow some people, lurk around the conversations, then start having your own conversations.

As Outing says, journalists are bound to make mistakes along the way; mistakes that can be learning tools for the next bold move.

At other times, we'll find success and even a whole new audience. A great example is what Ron Sylvester, courts reporter for the Wichita Eagle, does with his blog and Twitter. Twittering court cases live is a great example of offering up-to-the-minute news reports, and with some of those cases Sylvester has found readers beyond the traditional newspaper audience.

That's the sort of creativity the media needs to be employing.

Homing in on an issue...

It's the economy, stupid!

That's the No. 1 issue on people's minds and will be for some time to come.

So if i were a Colorado newspaper editor, i'd devote more resources to covering this issue online, with most of the goodies on the Web, but spillover into the print product.

Imagine applying the FiveThiryEight model to the state budget, for instance. (OK, i write what i know and i've been known in the past to be obsessed with the state budget.) Yes, it seems obscure, but it has an impact on many real people. And if you listen, Coloradans probably have plenty of questions.

Sure, the Rocky Mountain News' Ed Sealover has been writing some good stuff about the budget. And now is the time to get on it, because the Joint Budget Committee, which has the real control over the purse strings in Colorado, is meeting almost daily going over spending by various state agencies. (Disclosure: i work part-time on the News copy desk.)

But it's pretty hard to find the centrally located page with those stories. And it's darned near impossible to find any coverage at the Denver Post.

But what if you devoted an entry page, heavily promoted on the front of your Web site, that pointed to all things budget - and carried on a conversation with readers, government workers, lawmakers and anyone else who wanted to get into the act?

Some features to consider:

• Data. Especially data that compares what various agencies are spending, what they're spending it on, how many people they're employing compared to the years of the last recession, 2002-03. (More disclosure: i was a JBC stalker, i mean, reporter who covered the JBC during the last recession. And there was plenty to do.)
  
• Employee pay. This is always a hot issue - the Des Moines Register has been looking at this since i was a kid. The Post has had this info online since about June, but they've never actually written about it that i've seen. And their CU database doesn't appear to be all that accurate (i have yet to hit the $50K mark, unless you include summer school and i'm not sure that's what's in there - others in my department aren't even on the list). This is what some would call a data ghetto (tho unfortunately, the link to this great Matt Waite post no longer works).
  
• Highlights of JBC documents. These things provide tons of info - info that would fuel news stories if folks took the time to look at them. At least hit the high points, so the public doesn't have to download every 120-page PDF the committee staff tosses out.
• Twitter feeds of meetings. If you're going to go to a JBC meeting, you might as well twitter instead of taking notes. It'll keep you awake, provide you with string for a print or Web story and attract an audience of people who actually are interested in what's going on in these meetings (because they want the money).
• Ask readers/viewers what they want to know. Solicit input from readers from the moms of disabled children on waiting lists for services to the harried dispatchers frustrated with turnover at the state patrol. Let them ask questions, then answer them!
• Let readers decide what they'd cut from the budget. Give them one of those nifty interfaces to make the calculations, like a cool game and let them play!
• Leave the capitol and get some real people in the picture. From lines at the DMV to the unemployment offices to students wondering if they can afford next semester, there are plenty of stories to be told.

OK, these are just a very few ideas. Interaction is the key here, tho. Ask readers for their questions and answer them, provide them with information that will spur further curiousity - and page views. One of Kovach and Rosenstiel's elements is to "make the significant interesting and relevant."

The state budget is an area where that's a real challenge. But one would think that political polling is pretty dry and geeky too - and Nate Silver made it more than that.

The new, new, new (but maybe a bit old) journalism

When i interviewed for a job at the Daily Camera almost 16 years ago, the editor asked me to come for the second day prepared to talk about "radical change." The heat was on from corporate execs at the late, great Knight-Ridder.

So i did what any good journalist should do. I looked up radical in the dictionary. Here's the first entry:

Of or from the root or roots; going to the foundation or source of something; fundamental; basic.

These days, i look to Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel and their book the Elements of Journalism to define those roots and fundamentals. Their principles:

• Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
• Its first loyalty is to citizens.
• Its essence is a discipline of verification.
• Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
• It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
• It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
• It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
• It must keep the news comprehensive and in proportion.
• Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.
• Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news.

Certainly the explosion of information on the Internet has created a dilemma for those practicing journalism, especially those at newspapers. Craigslist and others continue to erode the advertising base that provided the revenue stream for the business model. And there are tons of other media outlets competing for the news audience.

So how does journalism get back to the basics while competing in constantly changing landscape and platform?

Here are some examples i really like:

Graham Watson. Last week this young woman came to talk to my Principles of Journalism class - she's only a few years older than the students. She's worked on sports desks at the Dallas Morning News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; at the latter she started blogging about her beat, the Missouri Tigers. But earlier this year, she took a job as one of 15 bloggers for ESPN. She writes about non-BCS football teams (that's a ton o' teams!) and has done more than 1,900 posts since August (she wrote one in the car on the way to our class - yes, someone else was driving). Since ESPN is truly multimedia, she's also been on radio and even spent a Saturday in the TV studio last month. Yep, she's working her tail off now, but when the bowl games are done she'll have plenty of free time til spring practice, along with enough airline miles and hotel points for a sweet retreat!

Brian Crecente. Yep, he used to be a cops reporter at the Rocky Mountain News, then moved over to features to write about his real love, video gaming. Somewhere along the way, he started a Web site on video gaming. And when the News did some heavy cutbacks a year or so ago and wanted to move him back to metro, well, he had other ways to make a living at Kotaku. The site is owned by Gawker Media and is wildly popular. He still freelances gaming stories for the Rocky sometimes, tho.

Nate Silver. OK, this guy has never claimed to be a journalist - he's a numbers cruncher, bean counter, statistician, baseball geek. But when he decided to start analyzing political polls and created FiveThirtyEight earlier this year, he provided a service that the public was clearly starving for. He ended up all over the media, and Silver & team are planning a life after the election, probably covering the new administration.

Could a newspaper Web site have created something like FiveThirtyEight? Sure - and there are plenty of journalists out there with an eye for numbers and data analysis. But i'm not sure newspapers are willing to go that basic - or micro. Silver's site employs basically three people (one of them a photographer!). In today's pared down newsrooms, it's rare to see three people devoted to a single mission full-time (unless it's in sports).

But i'd argue that newsrooms would gain audiences by homing in on micro-topics that are relevant and interesting to their readers - getting back to the basics of providing, interpreting and analyzing detailed information about government and the world as a public service to the viewers and readers. Using the Internet allows journalists to do an even better job of providing information to the public than words, graphics and pictures on a printed page can do.

Tomorrow, or later today, i'll offer up an example of one subject i'd tackle if i were a Colorado newspaper editor and how i'd go about it.

Things that make me go hmmm... political version...

Or maybe it's just huh?

Driving into Boulder from Denver Saturday on U.S. 36, there were tons of political signs for GOP Senate candidate Nancy Spence and CU Regent candidate Pat Hayes. All fine, except, um, no one in Boulder County can vote for either one of them. Spence represents the Centennial south of Denver in the state Senate and Hayes represents the 7th Congressional District. Maybe they thought there were a lot of folks from those districts attending the CU-KState game? (Go Buffs!) Oh, and nice touch, the handmade "No Socialism = No Obama" sign just before the overlook into the Boulder Valley.

Then last night, the phone rang. i decided to answer it. When the robocall voice revealed itself as former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. i decided to listen to the call, in which he cited his five non-negotiable issues: abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, stem-cell research and another that i wasn't quick enough to write down. He mentioned that as a Catholic, this was why he was supporting Republican Bob Schaffer for U.S. Senate over Democrat Mark Udall. i cannot for the life of me understand why such a call came to my number. No one in this household attends church, let alone is Catholic. And the people here are registered as Democrats.

Was it all just for my amusement? Or is the GOP targeting really that far off?

My fave tailgate recipes

These go over pretty well. And you can get them baked up relatively quickly.

Dessert first, of course. This Truffle Cookies recipe is from Gourmet Mag and Cookbook.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

melt unsweetened chocolate, butter and 1 cup chips in 1 quart heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Cool. Really, i microwave on medium for 5 or 6 minutes and stir it up.

Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl. i stir it with a small spoon in a mixing cup.

Beat sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and frothy, about 2 minutes. i do this while the chocolate is in the zapper. Mix in the chocolate, the mix in the flower at low speed until well combined. Stir in remaining 1 cup chips. Refrigerate, covered, until dough is firm, about 2 hours. Lick the leftover bowl and utensils clean of chocolate before washing.

Put a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

With dampened hands, roll heaping teaspoons of dough into 1-inch balls and arrange 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake in batches until puffed and set, 10 to 12 minutes (more like 9.5 at altitude) cookies will still be soft in center.

Cool on a baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

This is from The Feast of Sante Fe by Huntley Dent, tho it's been modified (he calls for swiss, i use cheddar)

Chile-cheese puffs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

8 tablespoons (1 stick) lightly salted butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unbleached white flour (frankly, i use regular flour)

4 eggs (the larger the eggs, the puffier the puffs)

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons (or more) diced green chiles (canned)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat water, milk, salt and butter in a saucepan, bringing to full rolling boil over medium heat - make sure the butter is entirely melted. Remove pan from heat and add flour all at once. Stir for a few seconds to incorporate it, and return the pan to medium heat, stirring constantly, until the dough draws together in one mass and begins to coat the bottom of the pan with a thin film as you stir. (This doesn't take long.)

Remove from heat and all to cool for a minute or two (so the eggs don't cook!). Break an egg and stir it in, one at at a time, working vigorously with a wooden spoon. Don't add the next egg until the first is thoroughly incorporated. After all four eggs are blended in, stir in the cheese and chiles.

Drop the still-warm dough by tablesspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch between each. Sprinkle a bit more of grated cheddar on top of each. Place in oven, turn the heat down to 375. Bake about 15 to 20 minutes, until puffs are golden brown. Then reduce heat to 350 and let them dry out for another 5 minutes or so, but don't overbrown on bottom.