Thank You Eric LeGrand

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/magazine/sportsman/11/28/ericlegrand.sportsman/

"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up."

Ever since Eric LeGrand was injured on October 16, 2010, he's been a constant source of inspiration to everyone in the Rutgers community and beyond. It's amazing to see how much strength and courage someone my age can have when faced with everything that Eric has had to go through in the past year. And it's been just as amazing to see a community of thousands of students come together and support the efforts of one person. Every time an "Eric LeGrand" or "52" chant starts at a game, I get the chills. Seeing Eric lead the team out of the tunnel in the snow before the West Virginia game almost made me cry. Seeing his Twitter updates everyday and being able to see how far he's come on the road to recovery has truly been inspiring. Keep on Chopping Eric. We bELieve in you.

Ouch

It's been a rough week to be an NHL coach. Washington, Carolina and now Anaheim have all fired their head coaches this week. Is anyone safe? It'll be interesting to see how these teams fair under new leadership, especially Washington. Will Ovechkin finally be the player we all have grown to love? (or love to hate?)

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nhl/story/_/id/7301419/anaheim-ducks-fire-coach-randy-carlyle-hire-bruce-boudreau

Story

Check out my story on the Scarlet Scroll

http://scarletscroll.rutgers.edu/sports/38-sports/124-sports-rivalries-interesting-topic-in-new-jersey

NHL Hits to the Head

I found the first part of this article to be really interesting:
http://www.nj.com/devils/index.ssf/2011/11/around_the_nhl_former_devils_r.html

The NHL says the are trying to crack down on hits to the head, but I feel like there's been a lot of inconsistency with their rulings. Hockey is a rough game, and hard hitting is one of the highlights, but if the NHL is really trying to protect its players, should it consider making all his to the head illegal?

SoundSlides Project

Toward the end of the semester, we were assigned to create a SoundSlides project. I chose to do mine on the balloon inflation for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I took pictures, a sound bite and cutlines that my professor provided me and put them into the SoundSlides program. I edited the cutlines to make sure they were in AP Style and did some outside research to add information about the size and age of the balloons. Finally I made sure that each picture stayed on the screen long enough that the cutline could be read. The SoundSlides project was interesting because it gave me the opportunity to add audio to the pictures and cutlines in order to tell a more complete story.

Book Review

One of the more interesting assignments of the semester was writing a book review on a book about editing. We were supposed to analyze the book for criteria, including the author’s credentials and purpose of writing the book; the target audience of the book and how well the book is written. The book I chose to review was The Fact Checkers Bible by Sarah Harrison Smith. This assignment taught me how to write a book review, making sure that everything is written in AP Style. Click here to download the review.

Headlines

One week during the semester, we focused on writing headlines, both for print and online publication. For our Headapalooza assignment, we were given a list of stories to read and create print and web headlines for. The web headlines were supposed to be six to ten words long, and we were given specifications for each print headline. For the headline below, the specifications were that it should be two columns wide, 24 points in size, and two lines deep, in the plain, Times New Roman typeface. The Headapalooza assignment taught us how to create two different types of headlines for the same story. Below is a screen shot of my headlines; you can click on the image to enlarge it. Click here to download the story.

Print Design Project

For our final project of the semester, we had to design a newspaper front page on InDesign. We were expected to know how to place text, pictures and captions onto an InDesign page and design it using the four elements of design we learned in class: contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. I believe that creating a front page design was a very practical assignment because knowing how to do it could give me an advantage in the future. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Fact Box

Below is a fact box I created with the program Adobe InDesign. The goal of the assignment was to create a biographical fact box about a member of the United States Supreme Court or the Cabinet and type it in a way that it would appear in a newspaper. The assignment taught me how to research and fact check biographical information. It was also the first time I used InDesign, so the project taught me the basics of the program. Click on the image to enlarge it.

Google mash-up map

Below is the Google mash-up map that I created. Google maps allow users to create their own maps by plotting points around different locations. Our assignment was to create a map that would be useful to college students who attend Rutgers University. I chose to plot the points of the stadiums and arenas of the major sports teams that play in the area. Each point includes information about each team, including the distance from campus and how much tickets cost. You can view this information by clicking the push pins on the map.



View Professional Sports Teams Near Rutgers in a larger map