Well, minus the sports anyhow. Journalist? Check. Chicago? Check. SUN-TIMES? Double check. Now I just need to polish up my poker skills and dye my hair blonde.
"My Boys" is my new favorite Netflix guilty pleasure (thanks, Mom). So what do you guys think? Interesting? Boring? What's it like to have a female lead in a show who doesn't care about what she wears or which girlfriend she's most jealous of? Also, the "Sex in the City" episode is HILARIOUS.
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My favorite #NHdebate tweets
(Blah blah long excuse about not posting in forever. I figure if I just get back into the swing of things, we can all ignore my seven-month absence from the blogosphere.)
So I watched my first presidential debate yesterday FROM START TO FINISH. While I am pretty stoked about staying awake through the whole thing, what made the whole even worthwhile (as you'll see from my column tomorrow), was posting on Twitter throughout the live event. Here are my favorites, both of my own and from other tweeps:
@LOLGOP: "Imagine if Mitt Romney were running against actual candidates."
@arielfab (that's me!): Santorum: "We don't put people on classes unless they are in the middle class." did he really just say that?#NHdebate
@tcallinan: "#NHdebate hair rankings: Huntsman wins, Mitt shows, Perry places. Callista Gingrich ineligible or she would have kicked ass there."
@Dawn_KJ: Honey badger Huntsman don't care. He'll speak Chinese. He don't give a shit!#NHDebate
@arielfab: I'm surprised Newt Gingrich has time for the#NHdebate while he's also starring in "Up" playing on ABC Family. #commercialbreak
@LOLGOP: Mitt Romney is so confident that he's going to win Tuesday that he's already thinking about who in New Hampshire he's going to lay off.
@LOLGOP: Rick Perry. Reminding you why you love President Obama since September 2011.
@FranktheDoorman: In honor of tonight's GOP debate in New Hampshire, the state has changed it's motto to "Live Free or Die Laughing"#GOPDebate #NHDebate
@arielfab: Hard-hitting journalism at its best. RT@GStephanopoulos: The debate is two hours away- what tie should I wear? #NHdebate
@arielfab: You know who else speaks gobbledegook, JHunt? ALBUS EFFING DUMBLEDORE.#NHdebate
Anyway, you can read my TNR column about experiencing the Republican debate here. What did you think about the debate? Comment here or tweet @arielfab!
So I watched my first presidential debate yesterday FROM START TO FINISH. While I am pretty stoked about staying awake through the whole thing, what made the whole even worthwhile (as you'll see from my column tomorrow), was posting on Twitter throughout the live event. Here are my favorites, both of my own and from other tweeps:
@LOLGOP: "Imagine if Mitt Romney were running against actual candidates."
@arielfab (that's me!): Santorum: "We don't put people on classes unless they are in the middle class." did he really just say that?
@tcallinan: "
@Dawn_KJ: Honey badger Huntsman don't care. He'll speak Chinese. He don't give a shit!
@arielfab: I'm surprised Newt Gingrich has time for the
@LOLGOP: Mitt Romney is so confident that he's going to win Tuesday that he's already thinking about who in New Hampshire he's going to lay off.
@LOLGOP: Rick Perry. Reminding you why you love President Obama since September 2011.
@FranktheDoorman: In honor of tonight's GOP debate in New Hampshire, the state has changed it's motto to "Live Free or Die Laughing"
@arielfab: Hard-hitting journalism at its best. RT
@arielfab: You know who else speaks gobbledegook, JHunt? ALBUS EFFING DUMBLEDORE.
Anyway, you can read my TNR column about experiencing the Republican debate here. What did you think about the debate? Comment here or tweet @arielfab!
On the hunt
I just submitted my first application for a post-graduation job. I spent a day tidying up my website (took me 20 tries to get the logo to have the right color background!), updating my resume and getting all my ducks in a row. Tomorrow, I'll be getting some fancy schmancy paper at Office Max to start printing out my resume to send to newspapers across the Midwest (and who knows where else).
I should probably be terrified; after all, 90 percent of what you hear about the status of the journalism industry is pretty bleak. Honestly, though, I'm just thrilled to be finally taking this step. I was talking to my friend the other day about what it's going to be like once I graduate in June, and that was when I realized that I can go ... anywhere. These are the few years ahead of me when I have virtually no strings attached -- I'm free as a bird to go wherever I please. I've started referring to them as my Adventure Years, and I must say, I'm just tickled pink to stand on this precipice.
Meanwhile, 2011 is drawing to a close. It's been quite the tumultuous year, and I have to say, it's been a pretty great one. Of course, this blog hasn't seen much of it, and for that I am very, very sorry. But along with eating healthy and keeping my bedroom clean (ahem), I have one more resolution: to get back into the swing of blogging. I noticed just about all my photos on here have broken links, and I'm assuming it's because newsrecord.org switched domains in November. Once the archives get put back online, I'll go through and update my blog's photos ... until then, just imagine the stunning images that should be in place of the blank rectangles.
This could aptly be called the most exciting time of my life. I have no idea (literally, not a single clue) where I'll be six months from now, but I'm stoked to have you all along for the ride.
I hope your holidays are merry and bright, and I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of each other as we round the corner into 2012.
I should probably be terrified; after all, 90 percent of what you hear about the status of the journalism industry is pretty bleak. Honestly, though, I'm just thrilled to be finally taking this step. I was talking to my friend the other day about what it's going to be like once I graduate in June, and that was when I realized that I can go ... anywhere. These are the few years ahead of me when I have virtually no strings attached -- I'm free as a bird to go wherever I please. I've started referring to them as my Adventure Years, and I must say, I'm just tickled pink to stand on this precipice.
Meanwhile, 2011 is drawing to a close. It's been quite the tumultuous year, and I have to say, it's been a pretty great one. Of course, this blog hasn't seen much of it, and for that I am very, very sorry. But along with eating healthy and keeping my bedroom clean (ahem), I have one more resolution: to get back into the swing of blogging. I noticed just about all my photos on here have broken links, and I'm assuming it's because newsrecord.org switched domains in November. Once the archives get put back online, I'll go through and update my blog's photos ... until then, just imagine the stunning images that should be in place of the blank rectangles.
This could aptly be called the most exciting time of my life. I have no idea (literally, not a single clue) where I'll be six months from now, but I'm stoked to have you all along for the ride.
I hope your holidays are merry and bright, and I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of each other as we round the corner into 2012.
Decisions
Making a decision about the newspaper's integrity, etc. is hard enough.
Making it at 2 a.m. with the printer on hold when your phone is dead? Nearly impossible.
Thanks to Sam and Eamon (and Odessie) for the advice, and a huge thanks to Gayle for the support.
Sigh. It's 3 a.m. What a night. What a paper.
It's a good thing I love what I do.
Making it at 2 a.m. with the printer on hold when your phone is dead? Nearly impossible.
Thanks to Sam and Eamon (and Odessie) for the advice, and a huge thanks to Gayle for the support.
Sigh. It's 3 a.m. What a night. What a paper.
It's a good thing I love what I do.
HvZ: Let the games begin!
(Note: I know this blog has been so dead it's six-feet under, and I'm really sorry about that. The start of the school year has hit me like a freight train hits a bunny, and it's been about all I can handle to do school/TNR/life stuff since September. But I know I need to wrap up my Chicago Sun-Times stuff and give you an update -- it will come soon! Promise!)
Yesterday, I passed by my pal Marc in a curious get up -- his attire was normal, except for strip of bright yellow caution tape wrapped around his waist. When he saw me, he pointed at his impromptu belt and asked, "Why aren't you playing?!" I had no idea what he was talking about, of course, and said so, at which point he began to explain Humans vs. Zombies.
Humans vs. Zombies, or HvZ, is a week-long, campus-wide game at UC (and at other campuses, I suppose). Players are assigned roles as either humans or (duh) zombies and given yellow caution tape (humans) or red danger tape (zombies). During the week, zombies will hunt down the humans, tagging them and turning them into the undead. As a defense, the humans can throw balled-up socks and temporarily "freeze" the zombie. Which is awesome.
Eagerly, I signed up -- the UC game has a website where you can register and get your code. Once a human gets tagged, they have to hand over their code, which the zombie enters on the site to get credit.
Today was the first day I played, and it's been pretty fun so far. I've gotten a few raised eyebrows at my yellow caution tape belt, but the big excitement came on my way back from Starbucks. I was walking up the steps next to Subway when I saw a guy with the telltale red tape sash walking by. At first, I froze, simply planning on hiding to avoid being tagged. But then I remembered the balled-up sock shoved in my sweater pocket. Did I dare?
Setting down my coffee and running toward the zombie, I decided I did dare. Pelting him with the sock ball, I exclaimed, "You're frozen!" He looked up and sighed. "Awww, man." I laughed and ran back to my coffee.
My day has been made. This game is awesome.
Humans vs. Zombies, or HvZ, is a week-long, campus-wide game at UC (and at other campuses, I suppose). Players are assigned roles as either humans or (duh) zombies and given yellow caution tape (humans) or red danger tape (zombies). During the week, zombies will hunt down the humans, tagging them and turning them into the undead. As a defense, the humans can throw balled-up socks and temporarily "freeze" the zombie. Which is awesome.
Eagerly, I signed up -- the UC game has a website where you can register and get your code. Once a human gets tagged, they have to hand over their code, which the zombie enters on the site to get credit.
Today was the first day I played, and it's been pretty fun so far. I've gotten a few raised eyebrows at my yellow caution tape belt, but the big excitement came on my way back from Starbucks. I was walking up the steps next to Subway when I saw a guy with the telltale red tape sash walking by. At first, I froze, simply planning on hiding to avoid being tagged. But then I remembered the balled-up sock shoved in my sweater pocket. Did I dare?
Setting down my coffee and running toward the zombie, I decided I did dare. Pelting him with the sock ball, I exclaimed, "You're frozen!" He looked up and sighed. "Awww, man." I laughed and ran back to my coffee.
My day has been made. This game is awesome.
Column: Google+ flops, despite potential
The awkward name. The former invite-only exclusivity. The fact that not even its creators use it anymore.
And that's only the tip of the iceberg of problems that is quickly sinking Google+.
When Google+ invites began slowly trickling out to the populace this summer, I was stoked. Frankly, I've been getting sick of Facebook's ever-changing layouts and puzzling privacy policies, and from what I'd read on Mashable.com, Google+ had a lot of new features with cute little names.
After a few days of pleading and obsessing, a friend finally sent me a hallowed invite, and I joined the ranks of the precious few who had access to Hangouts, Circles and Streams.
I set up my profile, added everyone from my aunt to my high school friend's sister and sorted them into Circles. I was optimistic, energized and thrilled to be on the cutting edge of the latest in social media.
And then I was bored. Really bored.
The problem with connecting with people on Google+ is simply that there wasn't anyone to connect with. The exclusivity meant that only a handful of people I knew were on Google+ — so what was the point in posting anything when I'd have to Tweet or Facebook in order to actually start a conversation?
I tried checking back on Google+ as often as I could, but my news feed lagged and my Circles were silent. After awhile, there just wasn't a point in visiting … before long, Google+ seemed like a distant dream of a website that could have been, but just didn't quite make it.
I had hoped that maybe the dwindling interest was just due to my busy start to Fall quarter, but it seems I'm not the only one who sees fault in the system.
Back in September, BusinessInsider.com commented on the fact that none of the Google executives seemed to be using their own social media website.
Friends who are also tired of Facebook will listen eagerly to my Google+ plugs and rant about how Facebook photo tagging has changed … but that's about as far as it goes.
The sad thing is, Google+ does have a lot of features that could make it great. I've tried Hangouts a few times, where users can video chat (and the new features introduced allow for a lot of extra Hangout fun). Circles make it easy to post to only specific groups of people.
Really, the easiest way to show how effective Google+ features are is simply to notice how quickly Facebook copied and integrated many of the same features.
Messenger (formerly known as Huddles) allows for group chats — an idea Facebook has attempted to replicate (by updating their group format) without much success. Hangouts give users a way to video chat in a group — something that has yet to be replicated by the video chat king Skype.
Circles, which have also been mimicked by Facebook, lets people post their statuses, photos, links, etc. to a specific group of people, whether it be work friends, family, etc.
Overall, Google+ has a lot to offer, but it's not likely it's going to take off. First of all, it's just too similar to Facebook, which doesn't give people much impetus to make the switch. This also means that not too many people are joining (at least in my various circles) or interacting, which seriously damages Google+'s chance for success.
The reason Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr and Flickr are such successes are that they offer something completely different from the services already offered. While Google+ has some nice features, it doesn't really bring anything new to the game, which means it will likely fade and flop.
That's not to say there isn't hope. In late September, Google released a series of updates and tweaks to its social network — adding photo sharing to Messenger, setting up Hangouts to work on smartphones. All are smart additions, and if Google continues to tweak in order to attract a unique audience base, it could still find success.
Until then, however, I'll save my television quotes and pictures of cats for Facebook.
And that's only the tip of the iceberg of problems that is quickly sinking Google+.
When Google+ invites began slowly trickling out to the populace this summer, I was stoked. Frankly, I've been getting sick of Facebook's ever-changing layouts and puzzling privacy policies, and from what I'd read on Mashable.com, Google+ had a lot of new features with cute little names.
After a few days of pleading and obsessing, a friend finally sent me a hallowed invite, and I joined the ranks of the precious few who had access to Hangouts, Circles and Streams.
I set up my profile, added everyone from my aunt to my high school friend's sister and sorted them into Circles. I was optimistic, energized and thrilled to be on the cutting edge of the latest in social media.
And then I was bored. Really bored.
The problem with connecting with people on Google+ is simply that there wasn't anyone to connect with. The exclusivity meant that only a handful of people I knew were on Google+ — so what was the point in posting anything when I'd have to Tweet or Facebook in order to actually start a conversation?
I tried checking back on Google+ as often as I could, but my news feed lagged and my Circles were silent. After awhile, there just wasn't a point in visiting … before long, Google+ seemed like a distant dream of a website that could have been, but just didn't quite make it.
I had hoped that maybe the dwindling interest was just due to my busy start to Fall quarter, but it seems I'm not the only one who sees fault in the system.
Back in September, BusinessInsider.com commented on the fact that none of the Google executives seemed to be using their own social media website.
Friends who are also tired of Facebook will listen eagerly to my Google+ plugs and rant about how Facebook photo tagging has changed … but that's about as far as it goes.
The sad thing is, Google+ does have a lot of features that could make it great. I've tried Hangouts a few times, where users can video chat (and the new features introduced allow for a lot of extra Hangout fun). Circles make it easy to post to only specific groups of people.
Really, the easiest way to show how effective Google+ features are is simply to notice how quickly Facebook copied and integrated many of the same features.
Messenger (formerly known as Huddles) allows for group chats — an idea Facebook has attempted to replicate (by updating their group format) without much success. Hangouts give users a way to video chat in a group — something that has yet to be replicated by the video chat king Skype.
Circles, which have also been mimicked by Facebook, lets people post their statuses, photos, links, etc. to a specific group of people, whether it be work friends, family, etc.
Overall, Google+ has a lot to offer, but it's not likely it's going to take off. First of all, it's just too similar to Facebook, which doesn't give people much impetus to make the switch. This also means that not too many people are joining (at least in my various circles) or interacting, which seriously damages Google+'s chance for success.
The reason Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr and Flickr are such successes are that they offer something completely different from the services already offered. While Google+ has some nice features, it doesn't really bring anything new to the game, which means it will likely fade and flop.
That's not to say there isn't hope. In late September, Google released a series of updates and tweaks to its social network — adding photo sharing to Messenger, setting up Hangouts to work on smartphones. All are smart additions, and if Google continues to tweak in order to attract a unique audience base, it could still find success.
Until then, however, I'll save my television quotes and pictures of cats for Facebook.
Column: Pottermore sparks new Muggle magic
This year, I've decided to focus my column on every and all things nerdy. As a lifelong nerd, I've come to celebrate this fascinating, unique community, so look forward to a year filled with Google+ plugs, geek apparel and lots and lots of Harry Potter.In fact, this first column is all about the wonderful wizarding world. The movies are over, the secrets and plot twists have been revealed — so what is left for fans? Will fan sites like Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron flail and whither away from lack of content? Will Muggles around the world be forced to leave the magical world behind, now that midnight releases are no more and any chance for a Harry/Hermione ‘ship has sailed?
Never fear, Potterheads, because J.K. Rowling's got us covered. Enter Pottermore.com, a web adventure like no other, where fans can participate in the ultimate Harry Potter experience. From potionsmaking to dueling to collecting Chocolate Frog cards, users have the chance to follow the books chapter by chapter and unlock exclusive content detailing everything from characters' backgrounds to unpublished plots.
Rowling began working on Pottermore in 2009, and the project was officially announced in June. Fans were able to sign up for early beta testing by answering seven Magical Quill challenge questions July 31 to Aug. 6, which ranged from "How many owls are on the Eeylops Owl Emporium sign?" to "How many Deathly Hallows are there?"
One million users were granted early admittance, and (thank Merlin), I managed to qualify with question four ("How many students take part in the Triwizard Tournament during Harry's fourth year?") Some of my fellow nerdettes got in as well, and from that point, Pottermore was dangled in front of us like a Chocolate Frog on a string. We all received the registration email and our randomly assigned usernames in mid-August (I scored AurorQuill85, which was way preferable to some other gems I've seen — BladeSun4, OakCloak51, etc.). After that, though, it was a lot of waiting around. The users were allowed access to the beta site in short waves, which mean I didn't get in until late September.
But once those pearly gates of awesome were opened — I was hooked.
The key-driving factor to Pottermore (at least at this point) is the exclusive content from Rowling. As users progress through a visualization of each chapter of the book, they can unlock new content, Rowling's thoughts about different parts of the book and more. We get to read about how Vernon and Petunia Dursley met, in-depth explanations about wand cores and woods and what they mean … it's everything you ever wondered about the books and never thought you'd get to know.
At first, the website seemed a little dry — several of the chapters are simply a moving picture from a single scene, while others have Easter eggs stashed in corners — and I didn't really get the point. Sure, the content is interesting, but clicking through each chapter just to unlock it was monotonous.
Once you get to Diagon Alley and, later, Hogwarts itself, however, the whole game improves. Getting your wand in Chapter 5 is great, and unlocking the content that explains what your wand means is pretty cool.
The next big moment is getting Sorted. Users answer a series of questions (and, unlike most Sorting quizzes, don't ask stupid giveaway questions like, "Are you brave, clever, hardworking or cunning?") and then are sorted into their house. I was placed in Ravenclaw, which was cool with me, but it seems like the Sorting needs some tweaking, as some of my diehard Hufflepuff friends were somehow put in Slytherin.
Eventually, other features are unlocked like learning spells, dueling and potionmaking (I make a mean Sleeping Draught). I haven't gotten to do much spell work, because the dueling part of the site is still under maintenance. But as you can duel friends and strangers for house points, I'm definitely looking forward to testing out this feature.
Pottermore is scheduled to open to the public at the end of October, and the creators have a lot of work to do. The site is down for maintenance or due to heavy traffic too often, and the next six books haven't been unlocked yet.
Still, Pottermore is a great addition to the ever-expanding world of Harry Potter, and I'm really looking forward to testing out my wizard skills when the site is fully launched. Until then, though, I'll just keep chugging away at perfecting my Wingardium Leviosa.
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