I’ve had an exciting week.
Talking to profs and students at the AEJMC convention really lit the proverbial fire under my ass, and I’ve been able to get started on a database (Okay, so it’s just a spreadsheet at the moment.) that will be the kernel of my thesis data.
Meanwhile, I put together a pair of stories at my internship, and things are going well there.
The whole time, this post by Bryan Murley at Reinventing College Media keeps popping up in my mind:
“But in the midst of these moments of panic, I re-learned something that would serve us all as we plot our courses into the future of news: If you can just do one thing … do one thing, and do it well.”
He’s talking about how to reinvent your student newspaper, one element at a time, but the same holds true for a 300,000 circulation metropolitan daily, or an aspiring online journalist.
Or me.
So with so much out there that I want to learn and do and practice — Flash, CSS, PHP, Django, podcasting, video editing, maps mashups, hyperlocal community site management, etc. — I’ve decided to stop trying to figure it all out at once and concentrate on one thing at a time.
For now, that thing is Web design.
So I’m practicing. I’ve got a complete redesign (and a re-branding of sorts) in the works here. Here’s a taste:
And when that’s done, I’m going to try my hand at putting together a healthy little blog template for one of my employers, hoping to weasel my way into the online department there. 😉
And of course, none of this will get my full attention until I hand in my thesis proposal on August 30th.
What’s the one thing you want to learn, do, or reinvent this fall?
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[…] Reinvent one thing at a time. Choose your passion, your poison, your niche, your specialty, and become an expert in it as fast as you can. Then move on to your next passion. Keep learning. […]