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.

Four years have gone by
With lots of changes and state titles
Orange you glad it’s over now?

And there you have it. ;)

I find this extremely hilarious.

Top searches are always hilarious.

I bet you do. And I bet it involves a physical education and/or health class, right? Yes! Because these are classic Lifetime movies. Which I watched tonight.

Ok, so I finished ASBF and got partially into FtLoN. Personally, I am annoyed by Tracey Gold. She spells her name weird. In addition, I feel that FtLoN is subpar, classic old-school Lifetime-movie-wise. There’s no backstory. Just straight into the eating disorder.

ASBF is one of those great movies that Lifetime made sometime back in the 90s. Backstory? Check. Gradual decline in health? Check. Emotional Distress? Check. Dead main character? Check. Self-empowerment? Check.

ASBF also features a young, totally non-hot Ryan Reynolds. I don’t know what it is, but the whole 90s look just doesn’t cut it for him. But then again, it rarely makes anyone look good.

And we can’t even blame it on acid or ecstasy, like the 60s and 70s. Nope. We really looked that bad. And our hair was that greasy. Water conservation? That might work. The 90s were pretty environment gun-ho.

Have you forgotten Captain Planet? Or Ferngully? (Those are from the 90s, right?)

I’ve only got two weeks left! I’m excited and stressed and basically wishing I was on Christmas break right now. Strangely, I am more worried about this upcoming week than finals week. Finals week is easy. It’s just a bunch of tests. Tests, I can do moderately well on. Besides that, I’ve only got one test a day (as far as I can remember). The worst test will probably be Shakespeare. But only because it’s an essay test, and I won’t be able to bring along all these examples and excerpts from the plays to actually give enough supporting evidence for my thesis.

Which is actually stressing me out now, because I totally haven’t read the last two plays at all.

But that final isn’t until Friday. I think. I better go check on that.

But as I was saying, this week is going to be the worst. First, my news package is due in Basic. I’ve got all the interviews and such, but I need to research. (Haha, I totally did this in the wrong order. You’re supposed to research first!!)

The only problem is that human rights (my topic) is so broad–and there’s NOT statistics or research that talks about it all. Specific topics like the death penalty and genocide? Yeah sure, there’s stuff for that.

My topic is WAY too broad. And now I am kicking myself. Plus, I will be going to the DU every day next week. Because we need 22 DUs, and I’m pretty sure I have less than 15. I forgot to keep track, so I am unsure.

But I haven’t gone all that much since KC. That trip really messed me up. I was on schedule, and then I wasn’t. Oops. I’ll have to remember that for future reference. DO NOT under ANY circumstances take a trip during the middle of the semester, because it ABSOLUTELY makes you slip up and slack off.

Oh wait, Spring Break. Hmm… maybe I’m not thinking this through? Let’s rewrite that rule–DO NOT under ANY circumstances slack off on work BECAUSE YOU WILL GET BEHIND AND WANT TO CURL UP INTO A LITTLE BALL AND DIE WHEN IT FINALLY CATCHES UP ON YOU AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER WHEN ALL YOU WANT TO DO IS READ A MEG CABOT BOOK AND TAKE A NAP.

On top of that, there is absolutely nothing going on this week for the DC. I guess this means I’ll be digging through the bowels of SMU’s website hoping to find story ideas. I’m crossing my fingers for story submissions. Please, please, please let there be desperate students needing their stories published.

I hate having to use wire. Ironic then, because my dream used to be working for the Associated Press. Now, it’s pretty much just having a job at a major newspaper (preferably in D.C., i.e. The Post).

Also this week: cleaning my room. And figuring out a way to keep it clean, which seems to be a problem. I think I’ve traced it back to a lack of storage space for my clothing.

I also need to visit next semester’s teachers and explain that I’ll be away for the first day or two of classes.

Good news for this week: I am totally planning on skipping Geology and it won’t count against me! We took our 10th and final attendance the Thursday before the Tuesday before break. Normally I would go anyways, but we’ve got the dreaded sub Winkler coming again. And I DO NOT want to try to stay awake through that on the last week of classes. I will need to go on one day, because we’re having a test. But I’m not going to another one of his “we’re going to finish these chapters come Hell or high water” lectures. It’s really for my own sanity, don’t you see?