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Jumper fun

Silly face

These photos are also about a month old, when Gabe first tried out his jumper. He liked it then, but he's improved his bouncing skills over the last four weeks.

Cute face

First food

This photo was made one month ago, when we celebrated Gabe's 4-month birthday with his first "solid" food, rice cereal. Mmmm!

Breaking the silence

Once again, I've been blog-mute. But it's not for lack of content. It's just that I've continued to be overwhelmed with big doings at work. After the redesign at the beginning of the month, we took a much-needed vacation. (I still hope to blog about the specifics of the redesign.)

Then it was back at it, preparing for a mass mailing last week. We tripled our print run and sent papers to almost the entire county in an effort to introduce people to the reinvented newspaper.

This was while I was short-handed and in the process of replacing some staff members who had moved on. I was doing the special projects and trying to cover for 60 hours of missing employees each week. Aside from our ad staff, it was myself, my sports guy, and a freelancer putting out the newspaper. And we got it done.

So, while I've had lots to blog about (including Gabe!), I haven't. But I've got a list of items I want to touch on as I make up for missed time.

On the lecture circuit

At the beginning of October, I put out my first redesigned issue of the newspaper and we promptly left for a much-needed vacation to SC. We spent time with grandparents, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and -uncles and all sorts of cousins. Amidst all that confusion, Darla and I slipped out for an overnight camping trip as just a couple.

Also while we were down, I had a couple speaking engagements. It was the first time in over 5 years that we were on campus while classes were in session. Normally we're there over Thanksgiving or Christmas breaks.

First I taped a segment here, talking about being a newspaper editor. I was reminded why I prefer asking the questions, not answering them. It was a pleasant time getting back to my old stomping grounds and seeing former coworkers.

That same evening, I spoke at the inaugural Writer's Forum of the school year at BJ. The forum was in the DC Red Room, and it was followed by a cookie "social." Pretty fancy stuff ... they never did that when I was a student. It also seemed like more students were at this forum than when I was attending them in GLC.

I spoke about our time serving as layworkers in NYC and the freelance work I did while we were there. Then I spoke about community journalism (weekly newspapers) and why journalism students should consider it as they start their careers. I rounded out my talk with discussion about the redesign I'd just finished. I brought samples of old and new. There were no new copies left at the end, but we had a small stack of old papers to take home. We wrapped up with a quality question and answer session.

By all accounts, I did a good job. And as one who's not fond of public speaking, I enjoyed it. I had an outline, which I followed loosely, but didn't really refer to. And I was able to use a little impromptu humor to keep it fun.

Hopefully I was able to plant a seed here or there that will benefit and inspire the students in attendance.

Teaser

I've just put this week's paper to bed, the first issue of our redesigned paper. What a relief! And if it comes off the press like it's supposed to, I'll be pretty happy with it.

Now for some much-needed time off. Guess I should hit the speaking circuit ... and those readers in Greenville might want to know that they might enjoy coming to hear the publishing professional who speaks Thursday night at Writers' Forum. Maybe.