The Sentine (Issue 4)

So here is Issue 4, finally.

Old Photos

I was looking through my photos and I found these from my India trip. Thought I'd post them.


Madurai...


... people watching a parade in Cochin...


...apartments in Cochin...


... a man taking photos of the parade.

Catch Up

So, it's been a while since I've written. I'll just do a quick recap of everything that has gone on.

The Sentinel

Issue 3 of The Sentinel came out on Nov. 16. It was a crazy issue. At 11:00 pm on Saturday night the server that all of the work is held on disappeared. We could no longer access the pages we had designed, the articles we had written etc.

I did what I could but it quickly became apparent there was nothing I could do. I called our emergency tech support guy and he told us that the server was down for routine maintenance. We weren't notified. He said that it may or may not be up and running by Sunday afternoon.

It sucked. So, after running around the NIC campus trying to find the guy who was (supposedly) doing all the work, I decided to send all the editors home and just come in early to see what could be worked out.

I left NIC at 1:30 am. I slept until 5:00 and then drove on back. The Server wasn't up, so I went to sleep for 30 minutes. Woke up, checked the Server. Still not there. Went back to sleep. This cycle continued for about 3 hours.

Finally, that little gray globe of hope popped up.

Almost immediately my tech support friend called telling me we had an hour to get everything we needed off the server.

Well, to make a long story short, the paper got done. It involved a lot of flash drives and a lot of waiting around for things to transfer.

Possibly the most frustrating thing about this all was that the server stayed up the whole time we were using the flash drives. Yet, I didn't dare use the server, for fear that it would disappear.

But the important thing was the the paper got out on time, with no major mistakes. There were some minor ones, unfortunately. It certainly won't win any design awards but at least it's respectable.

Arizona

So on Nov. 16 (Monday) I got on a plane headed for Prescott, Arizona. The trip was a combination Yoga adventure/friend visit. I did a Yoga workshop there and also got to spend some quality time with some good friends of mine. It was a great trip, full of sun and natural beauty.

I was planning on bringing my camera to document the trip, however, at the last minute I decided to forget. I have this thing about cameras. I love taking photos, I love looking at photos. Yet I hate taking photos and looking at them.

Yeah, confusing.

I think what it comes down to is that I find it hard to really concentrate on what is going on if I'm always trying to take a cool looking photo.

I know that really good photographers don't have this problem. They actually focus more and experience more. Me, I just get frustrated. I want to convey the beauty or whatever it is in a photo, yet I always find my photography lacking. So, often I simply won't take photos. Which, isn't the way that you get better at taking photos. It's a dilemma.

So, that is why there are no photos of my trip.

So, yup that basically recaps the last week or two. Right now it's thanksgiving. My grandma is here from LA.

Starting tomorrow I will begin working on the upcoming issue of The Sentinel. It's the last one of the semester and it's going to be a big one (and good). So I'm getting a jump on that.

Well, that about sums it up.

Have a great thanksgiving.

Approaching Arizona

Well, I've been very busy with The Sentinel and other commitments. I don't really have much to say in this post, except a new issue of The Sentinel is out (more on that later) and I'm going to Arizona for a week.

I'm going to visit some friends that live there and just generally have a nice time. It won't be significantly warmer there, however, I'm sure it will be milder than it has been around here lately (try 30 degrees, in the day).

So, I'm excited for that. I love traveling and seeing new places and people. I'm looking forward to it.

I will bring my camera, so hopefully I have some photos to share when I return. We will see.

ACP Best of Show

Well, I just found out today that the most recent edition of The Sentinel won Best of Show at the national Associated Collegiate Press convention in Austin, Texas (ACP).

It was pretty awesome to learn that we won that award. We've won it the last couple of years in a row, so I was glad to continue that tradition.

As happy as I am with that, I'm even happier knowing that we have so much to improve on. This last issue was by far the best issue we've produced this year, however, there is plenty to get better at. Jake Donahue (basically a media genius) critiqued our paper, right before it went to the convention, and I'm confident that our next issue will be even better than the last, due in large part to his merciless and brutally accurate observations (to put it nicely).

So, yahoo. We won. But we can do a lot better and I'm confident we will. We have the staff, the adviser and, most importantly, the desire.

Speaking of desire, as much as I love winning awards myself, the real reason that I feel driven to succeed at this job of journalism at NIC is because of the tradition of success. Recently The Sentinel featured an article entitled "Decades of Dominance" (it was about the wrestling team). Well, the same could be said for the newspaper. The Sentinel has been known to be one of the best college newspapers in the country for years. This is because of the incredible knowledge and dedication of Nils Rosdahl (the adviser).

As the managing editor I feel responsible for keeping this tradition alive. Like I said, personally I love winning shit (who doesn't?) but the main motivator is continuing the tradition.
And the truth is, I couldn't do it without the tradition. I'm good at what I do, but I'm not a maverick genius... I rely on the knowledge of those that have come before me... quite heavily in fact.

So, here is to continued success.