Monthly update

So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing. My last update was on May 18th, which means I did not post once during the month of June. I know I’m bad at updating things, but going more than a month without blogging is a record for me.

So what has happened in the past month and a half? The short answer is: many different things.

The long answer is:

1. Graduation— For the first time in 17 years, I am not a student and will not be anytime in the forseeable future. I have plans for Grad school, but those are a long way off. For now, I want to establish mysef financially, as a professional and as a person.

2. Catching up with family— After being away from them for a couple of months, I am now fully caught up on the lives of my mother, father, brother and two sisters as well as some of my uncles, aunts and cousins. I chatted with my Dad’s brother last night and I’ll call his father today. In addition, my mother’s side of the family will be holding a family reunion, so I’ll know more about the Caves and the Moores by the end of this weekend.

3. Trying to find a job— Because I’m planning on teaching abroad after the summer, I’m looking for work in Klamath Falls to keep me busy and to save up some money. But I’m only looking for part time work. I want to have most of my time devoted to being with my family before I leave them for a year. So far, I haven’t had much luck, mostly because the local economy is hurting. But persistance is the key when looking for employment, and I know if I search hard enough, I’ll find something.

4. Preparing to leave for South Korea— I didn’t realize how much paperwork I had to do before I accepted a position until this summer. I need my university degree, my university transcrips and a criminal background check apostalized. In addition, I needed to apply for a passport (which will come in 4-6 weeks) and prepare for a trip to Seattle upon getting a position to be interviewed for an E-2 visa.

Paperwork aside, I’ve been spending my spare time learning elementry Korean. I’m pretty good at typing Hangul and I can say some pretty basic phrases, but that’s all I can do right now.

5. Reading— I’ve completed reading Naked Economics (an excellent book if you want an easy to understand crash course in economics) and am in the process of thumbing through Team of Rivals (a book that documents president Lincoln and his most prominent cabinent members). I plan to pick up Freakonomics from my local library and then delve into books about the Iraq war. The war is the conflict of our times, but I know shockingly little about the conflict.

6. Reconnecting with old friends— Some of my tennis buddies from Klamath are still here, and I’ve been having a blast playing with them. Some of my other friends have forced me to get involved with other projects, such as a street drumming performance that my cousin is composing and conducting. It’s good to catch up with these people and see where life has taken them. Time really does change people, and in many cases, it has changed them for the better.

7. Missing my college friends— There is a not-so-famous quote in Dune that says “Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is only a place.” How true that is. A tiny part of me misses Eugene, but an even larger part of me misses the people that made Eugene one of my favorite cities to live in. In Eugene, I forged three of the strongest friendships I’ve ever had in my life, but life has torn us apart and set us on our own paths. Inevitably, time will change us and therefore the dynamic that existed between us if we ever meet again, but our relationships with each other over the last couple of years (or at least mine with them) was unforgettable. We spent the majority of our Friday nights together, we traveled together and we created a nice little niche for ourselves.

In addition, I’m going to miss all my other friends and coworkers who helped shape and mold my college career. The last four years has provided me with a network of friends who are littered all across the world, so no matter where I go, I feel like I have a personal connection to me nearby.

‘Tis Better to Retweet Than Be Retweeted

You have thousands of followers, which means thousands of people are seeing what you are saying. But traffic to your blog has not significantly increased, your messages are never retweeted, and your Klout score is in the dumpster.

Do you want to build a stronger network on twitter?  Do you want to increase the number  of people who follow you? Do you want to increase the number of people who retweet you?

Try helping out your followers. The more you help your followers, the more they’ll help you. It’s as easy as that. If you keep 3 basic ideas in mind while tweeting, your twitter network will grow stronger.The concept may sound a little Zen at first, but trust me, it works.

“WTF? I can’t retweet that!”

Recently, via twitter, I discovered that our incoming University of Oregon president Richard Lariviere has set up a blog. Because our outgoing president hasn’t been the epitome of transparency, I think this is pretty exciting.

So I decided to retweet that to all my friends, just in case someone missed it. Here was the original message:

Incoming UO president Richard Lariviere’s got a blog — check out his latest dispatch: http://tinyurl.com/UOnewpre….

So I retweeted the message:

RT @UOregonNewsIncoming UO president Richard Lariviere’s got a blog: http://tinyurl.com/UOnewpre…

Copied and pasted exactly from the original tweet. I did forget to add a space between “UOregonNews” and “Incoming,” and I did delete the unnecessary “–check out his latest dispatch,”  but other than that I copied and pasted it directly from the original message.

There was only one difference: the link that they posted worked. The link that I copied and pasted didn’t.

For a tweeter such as UOregonNews, I think it’s important to make sure each tweet is retweetable and fully functional. But I’m pretty sure most tweeters, who would normally retweet things, would think it’s worth it to get the original URL from UOregonNews, go to a URL shortener (such as http://bit.ly), fix it and RT the whole thing.

So instead of adding a fancy custom TinyURL that is impossible to fit into a tweet, go with something short. For example, we know the tweet is coming from @UOregonNews, so is it necessary to add UOnewspress into a tinyurl?

Bottom line: Function over form.

So THAT’S how you do a group project

Today, my PR Campaigns team members Amanda Ip, Gretchen Brandtjen, Melissa Erb and I were working on our public relations plan. We were sitting around a round table in the Dunaway Center in Allen Hall (it’s an excellent collaboration room for journalism students at the University of Oregon) staring at our laptops and repeating what we had come up with out loud. I’m not sure about them, but I have a hard time remembering the complexities of a PR plan when it is said out loud.

But that all changed when we started using Google Docs. I’ve used it to back up my documents, but this was the first time I’ve used it to collaborate instantaneously with my teammates. I was able to see changes the second that my teammates around me made them. It made collaboration easy, and for once, I felt like I was on the same page as anyone else.

Anybody else can do this; all you have to do is have a google docs account, create a new document, then share that document with other people by typing in their email address. I have had problems sharing the document with other users who did not have GMail accounts, so if someone has any feedback on how to fix that, it would be helpful.

How I almost won a MacBook air!

I created this presentation for my Advanced PR Writing class last year. I posted the slides on Slideshare so I could show my friends. Next thing I know, my slide show is featured on the front page and I’m in the running to win a free MacBook air. Turns out I didn’t win the competition, but I had a great time reading all the feedback that people left me.

The presentation was created for the International Student Association. I created it while being employed by them to do public relations work. Here’s the presentation:

Google Docs: Say goodbye to corrupted files

In addition to studying PR at the University of Oregon, I work part time at the library’s information technology center. One of my duties at the ITC is helping people with basic computer troubleshooting issues.

It seems as if not a day goes by without a patron asking us if we can recover a corrupted document that they either emailed to themselves or saved on their personal thumb drive. Unfortunately, a corrupted file is generally unrecoverable, and it is frustrating because it usually is not the patron’s fault.

There is a more reliable way to backup documents. GoogleDocs will make sure that you will never see a ‘corrupted file’ message… as long as Google’s servers hold up. How do you access Google Docs?

Step 1: Sign up for a GMail account
Step 2: Click ‘Documents’ on the top menu bar (when your email is open) OR visit http://docs.google.com

Step 3: Create a new document
Step 4: Either copy and paste what you’ve already written, or start typing your document on Google Docs
Step 5: That’s it! Google Docs automatically saves your document every couple of minutes (Just to be sure, make sure you click save before you close your browser).

Now all you need to do to access your document is to open Google docs, copy your text and paste it into your word processor. You will have to fix your document’s formatting (because copying and pasting from Google Docs is similar to copying and pasting raw text), but you will have a document that will never be corrupted. In addition, you will be able to access your document wherever you can access the internet!

Things Change

7 and a half weeks until graduation. Damn, time goes by fast.

While my future provides me with an exciting possibility on one front, the winds of change demand that I return what I have treasured so much before I grasp my future. I am excited by the prospects offered to me in South Korea, including the possibility to work in an industry that is badly in need of some good public relations work. I am also excited by the chance to get out of the country, spread my wings, explore a new culture and travel a part of the world that I have wanted to see for quite a while now.

And after four long years of studying (and only four!), I will also finally have my bachelor’s degree. I remember one point in high school where I thought this was never going to happen. It’s amazing to think how far I’ve come since then.

But at the same time, I will be giving up some of the things I love. I have already completed my last assignment ever for the International Student Association as the director of International Week and Night, and only now am I beginning to realize how much ISA has shaped the way I approached college, friendships and the world around me.

Right now, I have three of the best friends a person could ever ask for; in a few short weeks, we will all be going our separate ways. I dreamed that I was about to go visit one of them for the first time in a year, and woke up realizing how good things are now, and also how much my state of contentness will be shaken up by our departures from each other.

I have been able to see my parents at least once every couple of months, but soon I may be wondering if I am able to see them once a year! I live in a world where everyone speaks my language and I take that for granted; soon, I will be communicating with everyone using limited English and however much Korean I can learn.

I stood outside today in the 80 degree weather, thinking about how content I was in my little paradise. The trees were coming back to life and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. But today had been prepared by countless days of rain, cold weather and unpleasantness, all of which today couldn’t have existed without. And days like today will give way to days that are less pleasant, because such slices of heaven cannot last forever.

These changes are cyclical, and these moments of pure content come and go. This holds true for the weather, as it does our lives. While our lives are linear, we go through cyclical progressions even as we advance in years. We treasure our moments of perfection and understand that these times are a result of times of hardship, and that without any hardship or discomfort, our states of content cannot exist.

And ths has caused me to understand that I cannot always stare ahead to the future. Right now, I need to live in the now, not worrying about the past or the future, because that’s the only way I can make the last days of my college career significant.

Thanks for the memories, everyone, and let’s make the next seven weeks kick ass!

My typeface

I have been working on designing a new typeface.

This is definitely not a finished product. I haven’t thought about kerning, x height or anything like that yet. But sketches like this will help me get an idea of what my typeface will look like. I’m doing all capital lettes now, and then I’ll move on to lower case letters.

I’ll post updates as I make progress.

NYT Image: Bad news for newspapers

My attention was drawn to a graphic published in the New York Times yesterday concerning the state of newspapers. Not only does it show a graphical representation of the declining circulation of newspapers, but the bottom also shows which newspaper companies are losing the most money in terms of advertising revenue (the Chicago Tribune company is really hurting). Check out Media Owners if you want to find out what companies own what newspapers.

The other thing that I saw was that the Tuscon-Citizen is probably going to close it’s doors on March 21st unless they can find a surprise buyer. It hasn’t been around as long as some other dailies that are threatened (like the San Fransisco Chronicle and the Seattle P.I.), but it’s still sad to see a news daily go under.

Again, the challenges newspapers face are getting money from readers who expect to get their news for free and the getting the same amount of money from advertisers for their online content as they do with print media.

20 Tips That Help Maintain Professionalism

My roomate Sho attended  a lecture the other day by Steven Asbury. Steven runs a design firm in Eugene, OR and specializes in print design, but also has valuable experience in maintaining professionalism in the office. Here are the 20 tips he shared with my roomate for remaining professional in the office (they’re aimed at designers, but anyone doing work in journalism can use these):

1. Drive can beat experience.
2. Smile – even when work/life sucks.
3. Be Switzerland (*1).
4. Double check everything.
5. Writers should get to know designers, and designers should get to know writers.
6. Pick your battles.
7. Designers and photographers… Read the stories before you begin.
8. Getting it right still beats getting it first.
9. Look beyond your own publication.
10. Keep a portfolio. Improve upon it constantly.
11. Never miss an opportunity to market yourself. Show your portfolio to anyone who will look.
12. Make contacts. Make contacts. Make contacts.
13. Be accountable for mistakes. Everyone makes them, and they’ll be forgotten much faster if you just admit that you screwed up and move on.
14. Don’t get caught in “the moat of suckiness (*2).”
15. Never bring dirty laundry to a job interview.
16. Know the industry. Read the blogs.
17. Keep track of job postings.
18. Be the answer person. Say “yes” a lot.
19. Solve any conflicts before you go home for the day.
20. Show enthusiasm at work by getting involved.

*1: Meaning: don’t take sides. If you take sides, it will later limit your work whether your side wins or loses.

*2: The moat of suckiness is where you and your fellows can freely enjoy criticizing other staff and the things you don’t like at the workplace. If you are stuck in there, you will be totally unproductive and losing lots of opportunities.