Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Intern Log: June 27 – July 4

Date Posted Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 at 12:07 am

Friday, July 2

I went into work today – and saw some interesting fireworks. (more…)

Kicking myself over Katie Couric

Date Posted Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 7:27 pm

If you’re a college student, you’ve been there – an internship interview. I had one a couple months ago over the phone with CBS News. I had applied to their internship program in NYC a few days prior to receiving a phone call from their intern coordinator. (more…)

Journalism: Degradation or Transformation?

Date Posted Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 2:00 am

This was forwarded to me by one of my professors regarding ABC News’ recent decision to lay off a number of employees and move toward the use of multi-functioning journalists. The following was written to my professor by Stephen Coon, a former coordinator of the Electronic Media Studies department of the Greenlee School of Journalism: (more…)

Leadership and Motivation

Date Posted Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 2:45 am

Editor’s Note: I originally posted this article in the Winter 2009 edition of the Midwest Notes, a publication serving the Midwest district of the national honorary band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi.

Within every organization, there tends to be driving force for member participation. Whether it’s a common goal or a set of beliefs, each group has a set of factors that inspire its members to work together and accomplish something. Though different, each organization tends to share one thing in particular: a leader charged with inspiring his or her members to do their part. As a brother of the Iota Omega chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, a brother of a social fraternity (Beta Theta Pi), and a member of other student organizations, I’ve noticed a number of positive and negative leadership traits that impact motivation within a group. The following are a few traits in particular – I hope you can apply these to your own life, wherever you may go: (more…)

WCTV at ITEC

Date Posted Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 1:18 am

In high school, I participated in a class called WCTV. I served as technical director during my senior year and really enjoyed the experience. The program continues to grow, more noticeably on the technical side of things.

WCTV is a student-produced television program operated out of a studio at Webster City High School in Webster City, Iowa. The class recently visited the ITEC conference in Des Moines and broadcasted (tape-to-live) a show in front of a live audience to celebrate their 10th season. They did a great job!

How it all began

Date Posted Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 1:36 am

So this is it. The first real post using WordPress. Since it is 1:25 a.m. and I have class at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, I’ll spare you the time and energy and write a short post.

I live in a dorm room. During the freshman year of my Spring semester at ISU I became quite bored and decided I’d launch an endeavor to learn a little bit more about technology. I decided to purchase a cheap (but new) desktop computer from BestBuy, specifically and e-Machine. I then attained a copy of Windows Server 2003 through the ISU Computer Science department (they offer software to students enrolled in ComSci classes). I then went through the process of installing the server software connecting to the network. All went well, and I purchased the jplhomer.org domain name from GoDaddy.com.

Next, I configured the web server. Of course, I’ve been using IIS for the duration of this site’s existence, and I’d like to port over to Apache as soon as possible. It sounds like I’d get a better appreciation for the file system and structure of a server using the Apache software.
Either way, all went well, again.

I designed a rough draft of a website, using PHP and MySQL. I played around with a blog using AJAX and a back-end administration interface, but found that to be too much work. Early this semester, I discovered the magic of WordPress. I was browsing the Internet for fancy CSS designs when I ran across http://www.webdesignerwall.com and learned that they ran their site completely with WordPress. I hope to do the same.

I plan to publish my resume and written works on other pages of this site. Hopefully, I’ll continue to publish blog entries pertaining to my opinions and other matters of public dispute for which I insist I have a voice. That’s all for now!