clap your hands, clap your hands
Dec. 7th, 2005 03:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aruanMy regularly scheduled Stargate Atlantis binging has been interrupted this week by Nip/Tuck, a show I've been told would take a single episode to hook me and yeah, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xalxuffasch was right. It's the guiltiest, dirtiest pleasure, that Christian Troy (who, by the way, is Brian Kinney. As a matter of fact, the entire show is Queer As Folk but [mostly] straight.)
So, I helped put together my last edition of the Alligator tonight. I've been walking around kind of mopey for the past week, saying goodbye to staffers one by one, griping at Mike whenever he gleefully mentioned the countdown to our last Fall edition, not wanting things to end and change. But with my curved 60 on the last microeconomics test, I'm officially going to walk across the O'Connell Center stage Dec. 17. Tonight I did my job like any other night, reading a stringer story, copy editing flats, changing headlines last-minute, arguing with Mike about ledes - except I did it for the last time.
This isn't going to be some maudlin retrospective because I'm not sad about it anymore. I've learned a lot. Delegation is a necessary evil. You have no idea what you're getting into until you're actually there. Any boundaries you feel exist only because you think they do. Most people are stupid and overly earnest, on both sides. Professional skills, dealing with recalcitrant sources, developing stories, coordinating a staff, the importance of process and what gets sacrificed when deadline looms.
And I'll miss a lot. The camaraderie of the newsroom, the immense amount of control over all facets of content, the intimacy of everyone knowing each member of all the departments, late-night editorial meetings, the stress and adrenalin rush of last-minute rebudgeting, cigarettes on the back porch, Gainesville politics, Student Government and drinking in the office.
But I've had a good run. I've gotten to do everything I've wanted to since walking into the office in January 2004. I've covered an execution, attended a space shuttle almost-launch, coordinated coverage of a city commission election, learned an immense amount about grammar, earned the respect and deference of my coworkers, did about everything there is to do on a news staff, made difficult decisions and stuck by their consequences - I can look at my time and say, I made the most of what I had. It's time for someone else to have fun dealing with the insanity.
Speaking of which, Friday we chose the Alligator's new executive staff (I was gonna go with Bridget based on the applications alone, but the interviews made me think about what their jobs would be and who was better equipped for which, and mumbled something about idealism and practicality and Bridget having been in the trenches and therefore knowing how to make things happen and I'm still not sure I made the right decision (I was the last one on the board to vote and didn't know what I was going to say until I said it.) Basically, it was 2-1 when it came to me, and without a consensus, god only knows when we'd be able to convene again. The paper needs definite leadership as quickly and smoothly as possible before the end of the semester was my logic. They'll make a good team.
At the end though, we were all friends and went to the Swamp to celebrate over pitchers of beer and a party at Emily's later that night. We played a whole lot of Mafia, during which I was always a townsperson but heavily suspected every round. Steph said it's because I looked smug. Mostly, after yet more beer and my first cigarette in about a month, I was just feeling playful.
I don't know if there are ten things to know about me. Maybe ten things about me right now. Anyway, let's find out.
Though my addictive personality manifests mostly mentally, I am not above physical vices. During the holiday season, it's Gingerbread Lattes, but Toffee Nut does the job well enough year-round, chocolate (currently in the form of Pillsbury's new ultimate break-n-bake cookies), alcohol (preferably Margaritas, but like a good college student, I've developed a taste for beer), Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide ice cream (among most other ice creams), and really, food. Just good food.
For the past two years, I have worked at The Independent Florida Alligator, the largest student-run newspaper in the United States. This is a fact that has constituted the high, low, dramatic, mundane, depressing, exhilarating and generally Dickensian points of my life in that time. And made me realize that journalism is what I want to do.
I can't write if someone is standing over my shoulder. It's like all thought is stoppered at my awareness that someone is looking at my unfinished work. Also, if I begin writing something, unless I keep going until it's done, the chances of my finishing it drop to almost zero. Writing fic is therefore an exercise in the special kind of self-imposed torture that shuns nourishment, sleep, and every other basic life function. It's fun.
While I love the series dearly, I haven't yet read Half-Blood Prince and threaten physical violence against those who would spoil it. On a more general note, I hate spoilers.
I possess incredible input-filtering capabilities. If I'm doing something other than actively listening to you, you could be revealing the meaning of life and I'd miss it completely. Empires could fall, and I'd only look up if the dust made me sneeze. Relatedly, exactly two and a half big things can hold my interest in any real way at one time. Currently, those are Stargate Atlantis, journalism, and Harry Potter, and I'm not doing right by that last one.
I talk to characters in movies and TV shows. Fair warning if we're ever watching something together.
I took French all four years of high school and two semesters of college, and studied abroad in Paris last summer, living in a small sixth-floor apartment (no elevator) and romping through its streets with a fellow Harry Potter buff eating pastries, smoking indoors, drinking cheap wine and studying with a certifiably insane woman with gravity-defying red hair and four children. I did not have a single mediocre, much less bad, meal. It was one of the hardest and best months of my life.
I believe in free speech. A lot. Also public-records laws, open meetings, Florida's Sunshine laws, citizen comment, accountability, the Internet and generally anything politicians hate. I don't believe in censorship, not saying exactly what you mean, withholding criticism and political correctness.
My music collection ranges from Marilyn Manson to *NSYNC to Sarah Vaughn, with a big gaping hole where indie rock should be - the weird instrumental arrangements just never struck me as innovative rather than grating. [shrug] It's a lot Top 40, but the staples are '80s pop and early '90s R&B.
I will try anything once. Really.
xalxuffasch was right. It's the guiltiest, dirtiest pleasure, that Christian Troy (who, by the way, is Brian Kinney. As a matter of fact, the entire show is Queer As Folk but [mostly] straight.)So, I helped put together my last edition of the Alligator tonight. I've been walking around kind of mopey for the past week, saying goodbye to staffers one by one, griping at Mike whenever he gleefully mentioned the countdown to our last Fall edition, not wanting things to end and change. But with my curved 60 on the last microeconomics test, I'm officially going to walk across the O'Connell Center stage Dec. 17. Tonight I did my job like any other night, reading a stringer story, copy editing flats, changing headlines last-minute, arguing with Mike about ledes - except I did it for the last time.
This isn't going to be some maudlin retrospective because I'm not sad about it anymore. I've learned a lot. Delegation is a necessary evil. You have no idea what you're getting into until you're actually there. Any boundaries you feel exist only because you think they do. Most people are stupid and overly earnest, on both sides. Professional skills, dealing with recalcitrant sources, developing stories, coordinating a staff, the importance of process and what gets sacrificed when deadline looms.
And I'll miss a lot. The camaraderie of the newsroom, the immense amount of control over all facets of content, the intimacy of everyone knowing each member of all the departments, late-night editorial meetings, the stress and adrenalin rush of last-minute rebudgeting, cigarettes on the back porch, Gainesville politics, Student Government and drinking in the office.
But I've had a good run. I've gotten to do everything I've wanted to since walking into the office in January 2004. I've covered an execution, attended a space shuttle almost-launch, coordinated coverage of a city commission election, learned an immense amount about grammar, earned the respect and deference of my coworkers, did about everything there is to do on a news staff, made difficult decisions and stuck by their consequences - I can look at my time and say, I made the most of what I had. It's time for someone else to have fun dealing with the insanity.
Speaking of which, Friday we chose the Alligator's new executive staff (I was gonna go with Bridget based on the applications alone, but the interviews made me think about what their jobs would be and who was better equipped for which, and mumbled something about idealism and practicality and Bridget having been in the trenches and therefore knowing how to make things happen and I'm still not sure I made the right decision (I was the last one on the board to vote and didn't know what I was going to say until I said it.) Basically, it was 2-1 when it came to me, and without a consensus, god only knows when we'd be able to convene again. The paper needs definite leadership as quickly and smoothly as possible before the end of the semester was my logic. They'll make a good team.
At the end though, we were all friends and went to the Swamp to celebrate over pitchers of beer and a party at Emily's later that night. We played a whole lot of Mafia, during which I was always a townsperson but heavily suspected every round. Steph said it's because I looked smug. Mostly, after yet more beer and my first cigarette in about a month, I was just feeling playful.
I don't know if there are ten things to know about me. Maybe ten things about me right now. Anyway, let's find out.
Though my addictive personality manifests mostly mentally, I am not above physical vices. During the holiday season, it's Gingerbread Lattes, but Toffee Nut does the job well enough year-round, chocolate (currently in the form of Pillsbury's new ultimate break-n-bake cookies), alcohol (preferably Margaritas, but like a good college student, I've developed a taste for beer), Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide ice cream (among most other ice creams), and really, food. Just good food.
For the past two years, I have worked at The Independent Florida Alligator, the largest student-run newspaper in the United States. This is a fact that has constituted the high, low, dramatic, mundane, depressing, exhilarating and generally Dickensian points of my life in that time. And made me realize that journalism is what I want to do.
I can't write if someone is standing over my shoulder. It's like all thought is stoppered at my awareness that someone is looking at my unfinished work. Also, if I begin writing something, unless I keep going until it's done, the chances of my finishing it drop to almost zero. Writing fic is therefore an exercise in the special kind of self-imposed torture that shuns nourishment, sleep, and every other basic life function. It's fun.
While I love the series dearly, I haven't yet read Half-Blood Prince and threaten physical violence against those who would spoil it. On a more general note, I hate spoilers.
I possess incredible input-filtering capabilities. If I'm doing something other than actively listening to you, you could be revealing the meaning of life and I'd miss it completely. Empires could fall, and I'd only look up if the dust made me sneeze. Relatedly, exactly two and a half big things can hold my interest in any real way at one time. Currently, those are Stargate Atlantis, journalism, and Harry Potter, and I'm not doing right by that last one.
I talk to characters in movies and TV shows. Fair warning if we're ever watching something together.
I took French all four years of high school and two semesters of college, and studied abroad in Paris last summer, living in a small sixth-floor apartment (no elevator) and romping through its streets with a fellow Harry Potter buff eating pastries, smoking indoors, drinking cheap wine and studying with a certifiably insane woman with gravity-defying red hair and four children. I did not have a single mediocre, much less bad, meal. It was one of the hardest and best months of my life.
I believe in free speech. A lot. Also public-records laws, open meetings, Florida's Sunshine laws, citizen comment, accountability, the Internet and generally anything politicians hate. I don't believe in censorship, not saying exactly what you mean, withholding criticism and political correctness.
My music collection ranges from Marilyn Manson to *NSYNC to Sarah Vaughn, with a big gaping hole where indie rock should be - the weird instrumental arrangements just never struck me as innovative rather than grating. [shrug] It's a lot Top 40, but the staples are '80s pop and early '90s R&B.
I will try anything once. Really.
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no subject
Date: December 7th, 2005 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: December 7th, 2005 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: December 7th, 2005 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: December 8th, 2005 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: December 8th, 2005 06:08 pm (UTC)Also, what's this about Chris having shows? And aren't we due a new JC album in a few months (I heard rumors about it last April-ish)? Or really, can't it be small-scale convention season? One probably shouldn't jump feet-first back into fandom with a good dose of wanderlust.