[tweetmeme style="compact" only_single="false"] My entire convergence news package about Fleet Week is up on the WJI Times Observer (the video was posted here yesterday). Be sure to check out the slide show for some nice photos (if I do say so myself). :) My previous projects have been about immigrants overcoming the language barrier and a new pedestrian-friendly design for 34th Street right here in front of the Empire State Building. (Those also have slideshows and an audio piece.) And tomorrow? Well, we’ll see when we get there, but another package will be completed Wednesday night. Then we’ll be working on a radio piece, 60-90 seconds, and I have something rather interesting in mind for that, I think. We’ll see how everything pans out. Tonight, though, I’m going to try to do something non-journalistic and quite touristy—I’m going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Pictures will be forthcoming provided I get somebody to go with me! (I think I have two apart

Here’s the promised video!

Today, I learned why I’d seen so many uniformed military men passing through Manhattan: This weekend is the height of New York City’s Fleet Week, when members of the Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy descend on the city for a sort of shore leave. There is a ton of stuff going on in Times Square, including the Navy Band Northeast (which was this evening) and some drilling from the Coast Guard’s Silent Drill Team (which was fantastically fun). Coming tomorrow: a video about the drill team! I got some interviews with members of the drill team after they were done drilling, and one explained to me the process of becoming a part of the drill team. Look for it!

In the last few days, I’ve gotten drummed into my psyche one important journalistic item: Get the name and contact information of everyone, absolutely everyone , that you talk to. Including the receptionist at the organization, or the passerby you videotape commenting on the mayor’s latest initiative. I’ve learned this by forgetting to do it. So far it hasn’t hurt me too much—but I know it might in the future. That’s why I’m trying to make it a habit to ask people for their names and e-mails, at least, and often phone numbers as well (if I don’t already have it—I’ve been calling organizations on the phone lately).

So I just downloaded Windows Live Writer—the Microsoft blogging software. We’ll see if I really want to keep this.

I was up way too late last night. (Don't tell my mom. *wink* ) First of all, I was out covering my current story until quite late, then I stayed up even later to get laundry done. I'd have done the laundry Sunday night but the little laundry card machine was out of laundry cards. *sigh* So I was up till 1:30 waiting for the dryer to get done. And I take the elevator four floors down... and walk around the corner to the laundry room... and find the door securely locked. The large sign in one of the windows to the laundry room proclaimed the room's hours: OPEN DAILY 7AM -- 1AM You'd think I'd have seen that sign earlier. The laundry waited until this morning to be removed from the dryer.

I discovered Blogger in Draft ( draft.blogger.com ) today. And I like it. So what about this look?

Miracle for alternative transit on 34th Street I couldn't resist the allusion. EDIT: The website was slightly reworked, so the old link no longer works. Please follow the new one.

I never would have thought to combine the words "papaya" and "dog." As in, a fruity hot dog or something. But somebody had a demented enough mind to do so....

1. Tell the story. Find the story. Make it a story. Personalize the story. It's a story that needs to be told, and it needs to be coherent and compelling. 2. Show the story. Use a little color. Don't say that "she was happy." Say that "she smiled widely when I told her the news." 3. Work together. ("Work, work together...") It's a lot easier to do your job if someone's helping you, and then you can help out your partner. You play off each other's strengths. 4. Windows Live Movie Maker is the least capable video maker possible. 5. New York streets make sense, and it takes half an hour to walk to the Hudson River from the Empire State building. 6. Don't talk while you're trying to take video. That's your natural sound you're obliterating! 7. Get some variety in your photos and videos, both in composition and in content. Don't take all your pictures of the same two things. 8. Waking up at 5:40 A.M. can be

I hardly have time to write anything--I'm spending a solid 12 hours a day solely on class and homework. (As in, I have to be in the classroom before 8:30 in the morning and I don't get back to my room until after 8:30 at night.) But I don't care. The WJI program is amazing. It's the biggest challenge I've had in journalism--definitely on the level with my challenge in my Spanish major of being plopped into a Spanish-speaking household when barely able to string two sentences together in Spanish.... if not even more challenging. I'm learning from Russ Pulliam today, who's a senior editor at the Indianapolis Star (woohoo Indiana!) and whose family has been in newspapers for a few generations. From reading a collection of his editorials and features in preparation for this course, I thought he'd be in-your-face and blunt. I couldn't have been farther from the truth. He's very Midwestern, as he said himself, where people are polite and nice--at

How many times have I used that as a post title, I wonder? But anyways--I really am here, just, I've not been posting in the last several days. (Or the last couple weeks, it appears.) I've been busily working on several final projects/papers, plus I went home for Mother's Day this past weekend (and conspired with my sister to royally surprise my mom), and I'm leaving for New York in... five short days. That said, I'll soon have a music video of a Tom Lehrer song up on YouTube. (It's one of those final projects I've been burying myself in.) I finished editing over half of it today, so if all goes well, I'll have it uploaded on Thursday morning. In the meantime, I'll be working on a porfolio that I've had to put off until tonight/tomorrow.... it shouldn't be that big of a deal. And then.... New York! That's for the World Journalism Institute's New York course in backpack journalism , for which I'll spend three weeks in Manh