thestoryofjory.com

This is Amy Zerba.

She is an associate producer for CNN.com, journalism professor at University of Florida, and all-around nice person.  She came to OSU SJB earlier this week to lead a workshop on multimedia journalism for SJB faculty. As a new faculty member, I was invited to participate in the workshops, and I am very grateful that I did.  I gained so much just hearing about her experience in the field as a working journalist.  She also gave me a lot of insight into the workings of a major news outlet that I can share with my students in the Fall.  Knowing what skills Amy has had to develop to create her stories, I’ll be able to better prepare my students for diverse careers in strategic communication.

I also gained a lot from hearing my professors-turned-coworkers argue about… pretty much everything.  Amy had to put up with her instructions getting derailed by debate on more than one occasion, but she was such a champ about it.  On the last day, we spent as much time debating production value and newsworthiness as we did working on the assignment.  The assignment was to edit something in FCP, and since I’m already adept at that, I just sat on the couch and soaked in the discussions. The most interesting part of these debates were the vastly different, but equally correct, perspectives each individual held given their specialty.  Public relations instructor Bill Handy had a different outlook on the presentation of some of the news stories than did Marc Krein, the broadcast production instructor, or Barbara Allen, print journalist and adviser to the student newspaper.  Miraculously, they all seem to really like each other despite these differences of opinion.

Barbara Allen & Amy Zerba

Marc Krein

Bill Handy

One of the other benefits of attending the workshop was that I started getting better, more defined ideas about lessons and teaching opportunities for my classroom in the fall.  Amy shared a lot of great resources, especially links to online learning and teaching tools like lynda.com.  My fellow instructors also gave me a lot of great advice and many different perspectives from which to view strategic communication.  I hope to take the experience of the workshop and use it to build excitement for new journalism in my students and myself.  I can’t wait for school to start.

Hi friends. It’s been a while (like a month).  You’re probably wondering if I’m dead (I’m not). I’ve just been getting exponentially busier than I expected to be!

First, a monthly recap :

• Graduation weekend, on the whole, was a blast.  The party Friday night was a great time, and aside from having to watch all three graduation ceremonies, Saturday was pretty fun, too.  Here’s the obligatory photo:

• Planning for IgniteOKC 2 is barreling forward.  We’re now about two weeks away from the event on June 10 (which, incidentally, is the fourth anniversary of my wedding to Tanner Burson).  I wrote a blog post earlier this week for IgniteOKC website; check it out to get yourself up-to-date!  I should also say that I’m excited to see Mikey’s talk about ridding the world of Comic Sans :)
• We launched a Facebook video contest for Eskimo Joe’s & Eskimo Joe’s Clothes.  It’s pretty exciting because the company has never tried anything like this before (in terms of relying on social media) and could be a great testing ground for future social media marketing endeavors.  I made a short video of Stan introducing the contest (see below) and Angie, Tanner & I have been monitoring impressions and engagement on Facebook.

• I took back my old job of managing Eskimo Joe’s Road Crew, but it’s only for the summer.  I’ve been given a special assignment, which I’ll be happy to tell more about once it’s all resolved.
• I finished three really good books this month: America, 1908 by Jim Rasenberger, Thunderstruck by Eric Larsen, and The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan.  For the past six months or so I’ve been on a serious historical non-fiction kick, and I hope to share some of what I’ve learned here soon.  Check out my Shelfari widget or profile to see what I’ve been reading & what I plan to read next!

So that’s a brief telling of what I’ve been doing for the past month.  Here’s what’s coming up:

• Turning in my last two chapters of my thesis sometime next week.  Finally.
• Doing a new training video for Joe’s Clothes. Woot!
• Hopefully working some magic with the Road Crew, but we’ll see about that.
• Helping Jack Hodgson with the OSU Alumni Association’s Grandparent University Broadcasting class.  Whew!
• IgniteOKC 2 is June 10!  I’ll be doing the videos once again.
• As previously mentioned, my story about my key art will be officially published June 10 as well!
• Mr. Burson & I will try to find time to celebrate 4 years of marriage.
• OSU Sports Media Camp starts in the middle of June.  I’ll be helping Friday with the sports anchoring exercise.  I really enjoy working with the campers.
• I might get brave enough to open my Google Reader for the first time in over a month to catch up on what the rest of the world is doing. Anyone want to start a pool on how many unread items I’ll have?

Truthfully, I doubt I’ll have much time for blogging in the next month, but I’m going to try for updating once a week until things (hopefully) slow down in July.

As promised, I’m posting my favorite photos from the Rattlesnake hunt.  I shot these on my Canon EOS 10S with a 35-135mm lens, and I have to say, I think I’m improving!

This warning sign is posted at various spots on the wall inside the Den of Death Snake Pit. It reads:

Warning! Snakehunt Fever. Very Contagious to a variety of humans. Symptoms: Continual complaint as to desire for sand, red-dirt, fresh air, and sunshine.  Patient has a blank expression; and at times appears deaf to all.  Has no taste for work of any kind, and can be found frequently pawing through camping gear and old Oklahoma maps.  Yes, also hands out around reptile displays at local zoo. Makes secret phone calls at all hours; to “Snake Hunt” pals.  Mumbles to self, repeating code words like – “Pit” “Beanfeed” & “Sahara”. There is no Known Cure…Medication is useless…Disease is not fatal… Treatment: Rush victim to “Waynoka Oklahoma Saddle Club” No later than noon the first Saturday – Right after Easter – Allow victim to feast on FREE ham, beans, cornbread and fix-uns, then let ‘em hunt them mean ole “Rattlesnakes” as their heart’s desire.

This was a big, fat rattlesnake.  I like how the handler is considering the snake like it’s no big deal, and all these little girls are snapping photos on their cell phones.  The dude is standing in a pit of snakes, by the way.

This is Floyd.  Floyd and I hung out for quite some time on Saturday afternoon while Peter filmed inside the snake pit.  Floyd said that the Waynoka Rattlesnake Hunt began way back in the 1940s, when a group of local ranchers decided to take up against the abundant Diamondback Rattlesnake population.  The snakes were over-populated in the area, and killing lots of cows (and kids). They called themselves the Waynoka Saddle Club, and they’ve been doing this ever since.  Floyd said that a company in Montana used to buy the snakes after the hunt for research & anti-venom creation.  Now, the ones that don’t get eaten or purchased at the snake hunt are bought by a company in Texas that makes snakeskin boots, among other things.

There is a large faction of bikers who come to the snake hunt. So many, in fact, that they sponsor a bike rodeo.  There were a lot of Harleys at the bike rodeo; even the bike rodeo emcee referenced the fact that there was probably a half million dollars’ worth of bikes there that day.

These bikers were characters! They were also very friendly; especially the guy in the above picture wearing a gentleman’s top hat.  One of the spectators told me that the money from the bike rodeo goes to the local ABATE chapter, which uses the money to educate the public about motorcycles and to lobby the Oklahoma Legislature to prevent mandatory helmet laws.

This little boy was helping his mom sell raffle tickets.  He’s not old enough to drive a motorcycle for several more years, but he’s already got his leather vest complete with USA & Confederate flag patches.

I parked my car here at the Waynoka Laundromat.  I liked the way the place looked, so I snapped a picture to see if I could capture the feeling of it.  I don’t think I succeeded to that end, unfortunately, but I still like the photo.

Edit: I changed the sizing of the photos to make them look less “squishy.”