The Emmys were on again this weekend, and being a huge fan of television, I of course watched them. Now, I should know better. They always get me all worked up, and I get so tired of the same people winning year after year.
There were, however several things I liked about this year’s award show. In no particular order, they are:
1. Ricky Gervais. The British actor won for his work in “Extras” last year and wasn’t at the ceremony to accept his award, so presenters Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert “gave” it to Steve Carrell. This year, Gervais repeatedly appealed to Carrell to return the award, saying “I bet you haven’t even seen ‘Ghost Town.’ I sat through ‘Evan Almighty’; give me my Emmy.” Will the Academy please hire Gervais to host next year? Read more
Check out this hilarious sketch from the season premiere of Saturday night live. Now, I loves me some Tina Fey – and her Sarah Palin is definitely the better impression — but it’s Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton that really makes me giggle here. Well, at least until “Palin” starts posing. Probably the best bit of the whole thing. And isn’t it just amazing how much like Sarah Palin Tina Fey looks?
Leading up to today, I had been a little nervous about attending the Society of Professional Journalists conference. I tend to feel somewhat out of place at these things, and you know I get stressed out when I don’t know what to expect or exactly what I’m supposed to do.
Now that I’m here though I’m having a lovely time. I went to three seminars in this afternoon, and have at least two more to attend tomorrow. Weirdly, the one I’ve found most interesting was all about copyright law and the internet. Fascinating right? But the thing is, it really was. The time just flew by and I feel like I have a much better handle on how copyrights work, specifically with Web content.
The other two seminars I attended were about blogs — probably a little basic but I got some good ideas for blogs for our paper — and new technologies in journalism. At the beginning of that one, I was skeptical about how useful it wold be, but there was one idea I got that was probably worth the whole hour. I think we may be able to use Twitter in a good way, so I’m excited about that.
In a way, I wish I could stay through Sunday, but the budget just doesn’t allow that many nights in a fancy schmancy hotel. So I’m planning to get as much as possible out of my two days here.
So Steve and I celebrated our 10th anniversary this week. It trips me out to think we’ve been together for a full third of my life. But he makes me laugh, and really that’s the ideal isn’t it?
It also helps that he bought me a pink Blackberry for our anniversary. Where he got the money, I have no idea. See, I’m the one who balances the checkbook and looks at statements, etc., and I didn’t see any mysterious charges show up. He really surprised the heck out of me.
Now I’m completely addicted to the thing. I’ve already got a few applications on it, and I can’t stop messing with it. There’s just so many customizations that can be made; it’s pretty much the polar opposite of the Jitterbug.
Sidenote: If you haven’t yet, check out Myxer for ringtones, along with wallpapers, games, etc. The default Blackberry ringtone drove me crazy; Johnny Cash’s “Get Rhythm” is much more my speed.
As far as features go, I’m especially fond of the fact that everything gets synced up with the computer, instead of having to enter contacts and calendar items manually through the phone. I also like being able to check my e-mail on the go.
I am still having a few problems because I have to use a third party app to sync with the Mac, but Steve thinks we’ll get that all worked out.
I worked on MagnoliaWoman.com, a Web site for a new woman’s magazine, for several weeks. One of the last things I did was design a page for the “She Said” feature, which uses quotes and photos of local women. My editor wanted to use all the quotes and all the pictures on the Web site, so I had to find a way to package them attractively.
I think this CSS styling worked nicely. It’s very customizable for colors, etc., and the empty div at the end ensures that it will work even if you have a short quote that doesn’t take up the whole box.
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