I have to extend my apologies for not updating this site in so long. I’ve been adjusting to a move to New York and a new job. Both are wonderful, and I really should get around to posting some pictures and stuff…

Santa Anna surrenders to Sam Houston at San Jacinto. (Painting by William Henry Huddle, 1890)

I’m a Texan by birth.

It was nearly 22 years ago that I was born in a hospital in Conroe (although I didn’t grow up there). If I’ve learned anything since then, it’s that the State of Texas has the rare quality to inspire diehard loyalty among its citizens. Loyalty to such an extreme that it perhaps overshadows loyalty to the United States as a whole.

I once heard that most American tourists in overseas countries say  “The United States” when they’re asked from where they hail. Everyone except Texans, that is. We tend to say “Texas,” as if the average European would surely be more interested in that than our national citizenship. That’s how we get into random discussions with strangers about whether all Texans really get around by horseback and whether everyone wears a ten-gallon hat and by golly, you mean the place that that TV show Dallas was set in?

The answers to those questions being, of course: No, we don’t travel around by horseback. No, not everyone owns a ten-gallon hat, much less wears one. And yes, Dallas was set in Texas, but we don’t all have such big hair.

Although now that I think about it, the hair thing might just be true. I never know if my hair is simply flat, or if I only think it’s flat because I’m from Texas.

For 22 years, I’ve lived in this amazing state. I wouldn’t always say that I’ve been a fan–it is dreadfully hot during the summer. But my appreciation for the state has grown over the years. Yes, we have our eccentrics and the pesky secessionists. Yes, we tend to be somewhat more conservative (unless you’re in Houston or Dallas or the ever-weird Austin).

“I concluded my speech by telling them that I was done with politics for the present, and they might all go to hell, and I would go to Texas.”

–Davy Crockett, as told in his autobiography “Col. Crockett’ Exploits and Adventures in Texas” (1836)

But Texas has a grand history. What other state can claim to be a former Republic? What other state has a monument that  Ozzy Osbourne urinated on (10 points if you can name it)?

And Texas has an amazing number of climates within state lines. Are there any other states where you can start off in the Piney Woods in the morning and end up in the desert by night? I don’t think so. Apparently so, but what other U.S. state is so wide it takes 13 hours to drive from the western border to the east? Only one: Alaska. But you don’t drive through four different geographic regions like a Texan would.

Destination: Texas

I’m planning to leave Texas soon, if I can get a job out of state after graduating in May from SMU. It’s mostly because I’d like to try something new (and colder). But I figure I’ll end up back here in Texas eventually. Texas has a way of pulling you back home.

But before I leave, I figure I should get to know my state on an intimate level.

Texas Monthly put together a list of 175 sites in Texas history for it’s special issue on Texas’ 175th anniversary. I probably won’t make it through the entire “Greatest Texas Road Trip of All Time” (the thing’s 6,000 miles long). But I’m going to try to visit as many sites as I can. And I’ll be documenting my efforts on my website (I needed to update my blog anways, and my senioritis is becoming full-blown).

Because what’s the point of living in a great state like Texas without exploring some of its history?

The first painting to get loaned to SMU from the Prado.

I used to round up links for my EIC blog (before I apparently forgot how to post to it). I figure this could be a good thing to do on this blog, since I’m still getting Google Alerts about SMU. I can’t wait for graduation and the day I can turn them off. So without further ado, here’s what you should know in recent SMU news:

Donald Andrew Bess is on trial for the murder of an SMU student in 1984:

• Dallas County death penalty trial delayed after defendant accused of killing SMU student has massive heart attack [Dallas Morning News]
• Defendant’s heart attack delays SMU murder trial [Associated Press]
• Rapist was also SMU student’s killer in ’84 slaying, two testify [Dallas Morning News]
• Dallas County prosecution rests in trial over killing of SMU student in ’84 [Dallas Morning News]

SMU Research is trying to help women practice assertiveness skills with virtual reality so that they can prevent rape (Editor’s note: But what we really need to be doing is teaching people to not rape other people. I mean, that’s the problem with our rape culture. But I digress.): Practicing assertiveness skills on virtual-reality “dates” may help women prevent sexual victimization [SMU Research]

The Meadows Museum announced a three-year partnership with the Prado Museum, which further cements the Meadows Museum’s association with Spanish Art:

• Meadows ties the knot with the Prado [Daily Campus]
• Prado and Meadows Museum announce three-year partnership [SMU Public Affairs]
• Prado and Meadows Museum Announce Three-Year Partnership [Dallas Art News]
• Prado has U.S. alliance [New York Times]

Summer Senate doled out approximately $5,400 to various organizations at their first Summer Senate meeting.

Sports News:

Conference realignment could mean a big shakeup for SMU Athletics. Right now, all we’ve got is speculation.

• How does conference movement affect SMU?_updated with Orsini statement [Dallas Morning News]
• C-USA hires consultant to assist as conference realignment unfolds [Dallas Morning News]

The NCAA sanctioned USC for a host of violations, bringing up memories of the Death Penalty and the death of SMU Football. Naturally. Sometimes I think SMU is the Jennifer Anniston to the NCAA’s sanctions’ Brad Pitt. No matter what the story, we’re going to be brought up:

• NCAA Slaps U. of Southern California With Stiff Penalties in Closely Watched Case [Chronicle of Higher Education]
• USC Football: Sanctions Worst Since SMU Death Penalty? [Bleacher Report]
• USC Trojans: They’re Different From 1980s SMU How, Exactly? [Houston Press]

Former SMU Director of Athletics Jim Copeland dies at the age of 65 from cancer: [SMU Public Affairs]

For starters, I changed my header. Now you’ll notice the lovely cursive scrawl across the top. The “S” is a little weird, I realize. But then again, you’d need to know my name to spell out the URL. So what’s the harm?

I’ve also added separate pages for my portfolio—of which I will continue to update in the future:

• Writing will contain samples of my writing and links to find all of my work.
• Design will contain samples of layouts I created. This one will be updated as soon as I can get back to Dallas and the DC newsroom, where old PDFs are stored (since College Publisher ate our pre-2010 PDFs in the update).
• Multimedia will contain examples of random interactive, video, web stuff. It’s mostly a catch-all (but isn’t that what the “multi” part of the word means?).

But, as always, I am still keeping alive my project for the CHS class of 2007. We’re almost near our five-year mark (can you believe it?). My blog posts remain on the homepage.

After several weeks with the new blog theme, I must say it’s still got that brand-new-theme smell. Kudos to the designers who’ve made the Internet a better place aesthetically.

My brief stint as Editor in Chief of The Daily Campus has been wonderful. I set out with a few goals,  and thankfully we accomplished nearly all of them.

This was one of the best semesters we’ve had in quite a while. Our readership is up. Reader discussion on our website, the opinion page and in other places has increased. We redesigned the website (with more changes occurring on the summer). We did more hard-hitting stories about subjects that impact students.

Perhaps the only thing we didn’t do was change our newsroom production flow to a web-first mentality.

While we did break several stories online (more examples here, here, here, here and here), the print product was still first in the hierarchy.

That’s not a change you can make overnight, of course. And I still haven’t figured out how to make a web-first approach work without copy-editing stories to the point of mass redundancy. Hopefully our new EIC, Jessica Huseman, can figure out how to accomplish this goal.

I have great faith in her; she’s already on the ball and gearing up for our summer issues. She’s got next semester’s staff tied up; she’s hired a couple of freshmen apprentices; she’s looked at making changes to the website and the print product’s layout. Also new? A Monday, Wednesday, Friday print schedule. No longer will we have to suffer through a five-day wait betwixt Friday and Tuesday! It’s going to be marvelous.

What’s Next for Me?

I’m going to be a senior staff writer for the DC covering Student Senate (for the most part). I will also be interning at The Dallas Morning News during the fall semester.

Over the summer I will be working an in-depth story for next fall’s DC. It should be extremely interesting. I won’t give away the details, but I will express my appreciation for the IRS. Thank you, government-tax-agency-that-requires-disclosure-from-nonprofits.

You’ll have also noticed that I gave the ole’ blog a fresh new theme. Hope you like it.

Ok, ok. You’ve got me cornered.

I’ve been neglecting my blog. But it’s because I’ve been working for The Daily Campus, writing stories, blogging and working on the Web site.

And tweeting. But you guys should know that I’m pretty dedicated to Twitter (much more than this blog, apparently).

How amazing is that?

Oh sure, it’s still a work in progress. I’d like to tweak the design a little and add more content. But overall, I’m extremely happy with the outcome.

Let me know what you think.

I know, I know. The shame! The horror! Why are you even keeping this blog?!

I guess I should explain: The Internet… it had a conniption on my laptop. Therefore I couldn’t access my blog except via my brother’s computer. Which was painful. Mostly because the spacebar didn’t work properly. Sure, he doesn’t mind that hiswordsstick likethisontopof one another. But that kind of thing bothers me, you know?

But apparently, you guys just went nuts while I didn’t have 24/7 access to the Internet.

Michael Jackson? The scary-looking white woman who used to be a black man? Sold out concerts. Facebook? That whole Twitter-jealousy complex just took a “Marsha! Marsha! Marsha! turn” for the worse.

I sincerely wished that I could have blogged last week. There was that ill-fated Twitter twour. The feelings that I’ve outgrown Carthage for good. Or there could have been reviews of Push or He’s Just Not That Into You. 

All’s well that ends well, I guess. Thanks to Twitter, I wasn’t totally cut off. But it sucked when I couldn’t watch videos and follow some links from that. And I missed my Internet routine–the places I frequent on the Internet for which my browser has handy bookmarks.

So this is my apology post. I’ll be sure to update soon (and often) to make up for my hideousness last week.

But I want your thoughts. Which theme do you like better? I probably won’t change it back–but it’d be nice to hear some comments.

Did you guess Twitter? Then you would be not wrong. Unfortunately, those 10 points don’t mean anything (unless you’re at a taping of Who’s Line is It Anyways?).

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you already know that I’ve been a fervent follower of Twitter since September.

But now I’m happy to report that Twitter is spreading! Not as far as I’d like, but there’s hope.

Some twitter feeds you may want to follow:

• mshamburge (me)
• KiddTW (my friend Taylor)
• Shamburgesa (my twin sister Katie)
• [update] LindseyPerkins (my friend Lindsey)
• DailyMustang (SMU’s journalism sponsored news site–since I can’t convince the DC to get a feed)
• tweetpostsecret (PostSecret’s offical feed)
• jackgraycnn (CNN’s very funny associate producer Jack Gray)
• iheartquotes (Like quotes? I do)
• megcabot (the amazing author)
• andersonscooper (a fake Anderson–but funny)
• smithmag (six-word memoir people)

And if you’re a fan of The Office:

• RainnWilson
• FancyNewBeesly
• MichaelScott
• JimHalpert
• dwightkschrute