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TMI: 7 Things You Don’t Really Need to Know About Me

Last week, Lauren Vargas tagged me in a meme going around Twitter, where people are asked to share seven things that people probably don’t know about them. She shared her zany list, so now here’s my mine: 

  1. Though I consider myself a bit of a techy now, when my husband bought a computer with a 20MB hard drive in the mid-’80s, I thought he was crazy. What on earth would we ever do with all that storage? (My latest purchase for our home office was a 1TB MyBook external hard drive. We figured out what to do with all that storage.)
  2. I’m kind of a foodie. I worked as a chef at Club Med in Copper Mountain, CO, for a winter season in the early ’80s. (I also was a cook at Dr. Johnson’s Camp in Maine and a pizza wench at Domino’s Pizza.) I also edited four community cookbooks and wrote (and self-published) two of my own.
  3. It’s still “tin foil” to me. You’ll almost never hear me call it “aluminum foil.”
  4. When I was in high school in Atlanta, I found a tattered copy of The Fountainhead on a MARTA bus seat. Reading that book helped me to crystallize my political point of view.
  5. Timothy Leary held a meeting with the press after a speech at Georgia Tech. Since I had a press pass from my high school newspaper, I was able to go backstage and meet him. We sat in a circle on the floor, pretzel-legs style. I sat next to him. He had on white athletic socks. One of the socks was inside out.
  6. Just like the mom in Dexter’s Laboratory, I can’t bear to wash dishes or even load the dishwasher without wearing gloves. (I am not a mysophobe; I’m just a little vain about my nails.) 
  7. Between my hubby and me, over the last 25 or so years, we’ve owned 10 Fords:
  • ’66 Mustang coupe (bought as a present for my hubby when he returned from Operation Desert Shield/Storm – we still have this one)
  • ’74 Mustang II
  • ’74 F150
  • ’90 Explorer
  • ’92 Tempo (shhh, don’t tell anyone about this one)
  • ’96 Windstar
  • ’98 Expedition
  • ’00 Windstar
  • ’02 Expedition
  • ’06 Mustang convertible (this is what I drive now)
So, that was a list of seven things you probably didn’t need to know about me.  Now, it’s your turn. Here are seven people who I’d like to learn seven more things about:
  1. Urkovia Andrews @uandrews
  2. Kathy Lovin @lovinkat
  3. Marc Pitman @marcapitman
  4. Rodd Lucier @thecleversheep
  5. Todd Sanders @tsand
  6. Jim Bonewald @jbonewald
  7. Thomas Clifford @thomasclifford
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PRCA 3339 Newsletters in Review

The final project in PRCA 3339 (PR Publications) was a four-page newsletter for a non-profit organization, accompanied by a paper. The newsletter itself was worth 50% of the grade, with the paper worth the remaining 50%. A rubric was provided so that students could know exactly how the assignment would be graded. Though many students produced stellar newsletters, there were some common errors.

Common Errors in the Paper

  • Not including all the elements required
  • Having one-sentence descriptions for the sections
  • Not including how your newsletter will help the organization achieve its goals
  • Design Principles: When describing the four design principles of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity, leaving out one or more of the principles, and often providing no specific example of where I should look in the newsletter for application of the principle.
  • Costs: Not including the vendor. Not including a total for one run of the newsletter.
  • Publication Schedule: Being vague with your descriptions of what it takes to put one newsletter together, complete with dates. This section should contain all the deadlines (internal and external) another person would need to complete a newsletter like this. For example, when do you need to determine what the articles will be? Assign writers? Take photos? You get the picture, right?
  • Editorial Calendar: This is quite different from the publication schedule. In this section, I was expecting to see what the themes are for each issue for a year, along with when the issue will be produced. If the May issue is dedicated to graduation, then when do you need articles/photos on this topic?
  • Distribution Method: Most people did fine in this section.
  • Skills & Knowledge: Not being specific. Saying “I learned how hard it is to put together a newsletter” does not describe what you learned.

Common Errors/Problems in the Newsletter

  • Leaving out required elements (like the pull quote and masthead)
  • Having a mailing panel that does not conform to USPS regulations
  • Not using all available lab time to create the newsletter. When you create the newsletter on your own with the free download trial of Adobe InDesign or use the computers in the library, you don’t have the benefit of having others around you to help troubleshoot when you can’t figure something out.
  • Using too many fonts. Aim for two to four fonts, max. More than that, and it will look like a scrapbook page rather than a newsletter.
  • Headline and body text fonts too close in size.
  • Body text font too large
  • Pixellated photos and clipart
  • Photos and clipart that are stretched or squished (not proportional)
  • Color combinations that were hard to read (for example, red text on a green background)
  • Not using InDesign’s built in feature that allows you to flow text from one text box to another, complete with jumplines and continuation heads.
  • Not using InDesign’s built-in feature that helps you align elements on the page
  • Putting a pull quote or image in the middle of a block of text, then having the text wrap around it. Okay to do if you are using columns, but very hard to read when it’s smack-dab in the center, and text from one line is on the left and right of the image.
  • Not allowing enough white space between text and borders
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Deep Breath In . . . Long Exhale Out

Exhale by Photochiel.Since it hasn’t been so long since I was a student myself, I can definitely relate to the stress involved during finals week. My best advice? Not “take a deep breath.” It’s exhale.

According to the International Breath Institute, “‘Take a deep breath’ can [actually] be very bad advice to someone who is feeling anxious or is agitated.” To balance your CO2 levels, inhale, then make your exhale last twice as long. You’ll definitely feel a difference.

I keep a framed kanji of the word “exhale” on my wall. When I’m feeling out of sorts, a quick glance at the kanji reminds me to do what’s best for me, to exhale.

In closing, here’s a wonderful quote by Koichi Tohei: “Breathe out so your breath travels to heaven.” Keep this in mind the next time you are feeling stressed.

Exhale.

Photo Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/photochiel/2672476712/

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Key Learnings for Corporate PR Fall 2008

Bendable Pirate CharactersAs our fall semester is winding down in my Corporate PR class at Georgia Southern University, we had a fun way to wrap up the key learnings.

Each student chose a small character (ninja, pirate or rubber ducky) from a basket and named the character. Then they each came up with a word or phrase that started with each letter in the name. (Full directions to the assignment are at my Becoming Learner Centered blog.)

A few volunteers came to the front of the class and presented their key learnings to us by showing their list and character on the document projector.

You’ll see what the key learnings for my students were as comments to this blog post. By having them create their own mnemonics in class today, I’m hopeful that they’ll remember many of the key points of this class long after it is over.

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Key Learnings in PR Publications Fall 2008

Graduation Rubber DuckiesAs our fall semester is winding down in my Public Relations Publications class at Georgia Southern University, we had a fun way to wrap up the key learnings.

Each student chose a small character (ninja, pirate or rubber ducky) from a basket and named the character. Then they each came up with a word or phrase that started with each letter in the name. (Full directions to the assignment are at my Becoming Learner Centered blog.)

A few volunteers came to the front of the class and presented their key learnings to us by showing their list and character on the document projector.

You’ll see what the key learnings for my students were as comments to this blog post. By having them create their own mnemonics in class today, I’m hopeful that they’ll remember many of the key points of this class long after it is over.

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Key Learnings in Public Speaking Fall 2008

As our fall semester is winding down in my Public Speaking class at Georgia Southern University, we had a fun way to wrap up the key learnings.

Each student chose a small character (ninja, pirate or rubber ducky) from a basket and named the character. Then they each came up with a word or phrase that started with each letter in the name. (Full directions to the assignment are at my Becoming Learner Centered blog.)

A few volunteers came to the front of the class and presented their key learnings to us by showing their list and character on the document projector.

One of the characters, Bocephus the Pirate, even had a crush on me. It said so in the speech bubble near his head. Cute!

You’ll see what the key learnings for my students were as comments to this blog post. By having them create their own mnemonics in class today, I’m hopeful that they’ll remember many of the key points of this class long after it is over.

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Creating Our PRCA 3331 Final Exam

Together, we (the students and I) will create the final exam for the PRCA 3331 class at Georgia Southern. In class on Monday, students will choose which topic areas to write questions about. Each student will write at least five questions total, from at least three different topic areas.

Need some tips on writing multiple choice questions? HINT: Learning how to write good questions is likely to help you become a better test taker, too.

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PRCA 3331 Final Project :: Last Minute Reminders

For your final project in PRCA 3331, you are analyzing a Fortune 500 company. The project is due by midnight on Tuesday, December 2.

Here are some important last minute reminders:

  • Review the grading rubric to ensure that you’re doing everything you need to for the project. (And I’ll even provide 10 bonus points if you print and complete the rubric by circling how you’d grade yourself in each area and bring it to class on Monday, Dec. 1. You can assess the project based on its current, not final, state.)

If you are doing the blog version:

  • Respond to this blog post with a comment that includes the name of your Fortune 500 company and the URL to the “table of contents” page for your project. This is the ONLY way I will know where to look for your project.
  • Have a friend using a different computer check all the hyperlinks to be sure they work.
  • If you’ve pasted from Word into WordPress, ensure that no odd code came along with your words.
  • Proofread carefully. Use WordPress’ spell checker, but don’t rely on it exclusively.
  • Tags are required on each post.
  • Photos are a nice addition, but are not required.

If you’re doing the paper:

  • Remember to use APA style, especially for source citation.
  • Submit your paper via WebCT Vista.

Photo  Credit: String Finger Reminder on White, originally uploaded by Mike Dykstra