laurenspuhler.com

I just got in an invite to tagged.com.

It was from a friend I don’t hear from often, so I figured I check it out. I’m always down for more time-wasting, social networking sites after all.

I would have clicked “sign me up” until I read the “About Us” section:

Tagged provides a fun, safe, and exciting environment for people to showcase their personalities and talents, and to connect with friends and meet new ones.

Fair enough, but then the kicker:

Tagged is experiencing dramatic growth Advertisers love Tagged because they get clear, uncomplicated access to our audience. Our team is dedicated to making every advertiser successful and can develop and support any type of ad campaign.

I don’t know about you, but I hate giving advertisers “clear, uncomplicated access” to me. I get enough SPAM and junk mail as it is.

And here’s the Wikipedia criticism:

There have been several critical articles[3][4][5][6] written about tagged.com’s policy toward their users’ email address books. These policies have been described at best as spamming, and at worst as phishing attacks.

Eeek!

Today I assigned the first blog assignment to my students in JEM222.

They’ll be pretty green with it, as only a few have their own blogs. I encourage you all to check out the blog and share some comments with them. They’re a quick bunch, so I’m looking forward to some good commentary and thoughts about the multimedia industry.

We’re busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You’ve no idea what we have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy
Much, much too busy for you.

-Veggie Tales

I’m sure I wouldn’t be too busy for you, but 2008 has already been a hectic year. Some things I anticipated going in and others happened unexpectedly. On a side note, my friend has a 5-year-old, hence the inspirational song lyrics.

I’ve gotten behind again on updating my blog, so for starters, how about a candidate video? Or 34? Or 50? The number keeps growing and I lose track.

And here’s a white chicken chili recipe I’ve definitely got to try next time I attempt the dish. My flaming version from several weeks ago still has my throat fearing of my combo of chili powder and cumin.

And since I love chocolate and coffee, I took on Coffee and Chocolate, a new shop in downtown K-town.

$10,000 is at stake. Check it out:

Since 1953 the Scripps Howard Foundation has honored the best work in journalism through its National Journalism Awards program. The awards honor excellence in 17 categories, including one that you will find of interest. The Web Reporting Award carries a cash prize of $10,000. The postmark deadline is Jan. 31; winners will be announced March 7 and honored at an awards presentation April 18 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Here are details:

WEB REPORTING AWARD

Honors the news organization that demonstrates the best use of new media technologies and innovative techniques to report on a news story or news event while maintaining the highest journalistic standards.

Open to any news organization whose primary function is the gathering and disseminating of news information to the general public. The news story or event must have been originally published online in 2007. Also open to organizations that combine their traditional field with new media efforts or organizations that focus solely on online formats. No college news organization work is eligible.

Entries must provide a URL(s) for judges to view the news story or event. Entry must include a written narrative describing the organization’s efforts, a description of the news story or event and its components, original date published online, as well as justification of why the entry should be presented an award. $50 entry fee. Prize is $10,000 and a trophy. Entry form available at: http://foundation.scripps.com/foundation/programs/nja/nja.html Questions: Sue Porter at 513-977-3030.

For anyone who follows what I do at work, my posts have been pretty slim. Between going home for the holidays (note beautiful family tree) and some pretty large endeavors at work, I’ve been keeping busy.

I’m currently hard at work on a new online series that will launch at the end of the month on knoxnews.com. Since it’s prep time for the first installment, there’s a lot of extra work to get finished. I’ll be sure to announce the official launch when it happens, so stay tuned!

And I’m about to launch my professional career in education. This semester I’ll be teaching Journalism and Electronic Media 222 at the University of Tennessee. It’s basically an introduction course in online journalism.

After having spent so many years as a student, I’m anxious about being on the other side of the desk. I went Northwestern for grad school partly so I’d have my Master’s in the bag in case I ever wanted to teach. The time for that has come. I’ve been craving a new challenge, and this will be it!