I'm back...Cue the resolutions

Whew! Why that was a lovely break. Why did I need one? Well I was getting really obsessed with feeling the need to blog about every little thing that I see on the nets and feeling guilty when I do no have the time or energy to do so. I also needed time to remake this blog into what I want it to be: A voice on journalism and a young journalist's place in it.

I am sorry if I scared anyone with my last post. I'm never leaving journalism! I'm just unsure what my specific path in said career will be. I am currently enjoying my growing responsibilities at the Daily Press. I have quickly learned that being tasked with one specific job throughout the night makes for a very boring eight (or nine or 10) hours. But when I have many jobs (editing, designing, etc.) the night seems to fly and I am able to just enjoy working, instead of thinking about all the things that are worrying me.

So, I'm sure you're waiting eagerly for my conclusion. Well, to be honest I have finally made peace with the fact that I will not know where my path lies until I trip over it (Literally. I'm quite clumsy, you know). I can only try to prepare as best as I can. With that in mind, I am working on a few things:

• Online Journalism: For Christmas I was given Adobe CS3 Design Suite and a couple of manuals for learning the programs within this package. I am working to become a pro at Dreamweaver CS3 and have a good handle on HTML and CSS so that I can then market those talents. In a side note, The Missing Manual series is really good. It manages to be succinct yet in depth, as well as serious yet, at times, amusing.
  My goal? To build an online resume of my work that I could then use in my job search as well as an example of my expertise.


• Design: My version of CS3 includes InDesign. While this is the best program (in my opinion) for design, the industry is definitely using a few other programs. I have a version of Quark (basically the off-brand version of InDesign) that I hope to begin learning on soon. The Tribune company uses CCI (basically a publishing/linking system) that has its own program called LayoutChamp. My job has been letting me get more and more experience with this program and I can pretty much do everything necessary to function as a full-time page designer elsewhere.
  My goal? To begin building up my design clips so that I will be able to prove that I am qualified for such a position.


• Teaching: The first step before I can become a professor is to get into and complete graduate school. Preferably I'd like to get all the way up to a Ph.D. in one fell swoop, but I know that may not be possible. So, right now I am trying to come up with alternative education routes that will take me closer to becoming a professor. My goal? Retake my GRE. I know I said I never wanted to take it again after I took it once and got a great score. But I barely studied for the first try and I'm curious to see how much my scores will improve if I actually buckled down to study. I'd also like to decide on a grad school now so I can plan my job search around places near the schools I'm interested in.


• Photograpy: I'd like to return to my roots and get back into photography. I have so much around me to be inspired by. It's time I gave myself a chance to receive that inspiration. I'm also looking at building my skill in Photoshop so I can also edit my digital photos and eventually market those skills.

So I guess we can look at this list as a list of journalism-related resolutions. Good luck to me! And stay tuned for how I will soon be organizing this blog better and getting it in shape to be a good example of my work.