Scott Bush

I admit it. I’m a Facebook fan.

If you’re not on Facebook, you’re one of the few. But, I can’t get too sanctimonious though; I’ve had my account for all of a week now. But I’m impressed.

MySpace may be the older, more well-known social networking site but it’s crap. Since Newscorp bought it, MySpace has been changing for the better but it still sucks—from a development standpoint, of course: Nested tables, no API, and basically a horrible interface. It’s like anarchy.

Facebook occupies the other side of the social-networking coin: it’s like a well-run democracy. What struck me most was the ease and fluidity with which new accounts are made. Enter your name and you’re off. Want friends quickly? Import them from any of the major sites: AOL IM, Google, etc. and Facebook’ll bring them in. Enter your company and/or school and the year you graduated (FB even auto-completes your entries)… bam, you’re staring at the avatars of your work- and classmates. Click them and they’re invited to be your friend. All this is done with such web grace (thanks to graphic embellishments from a script.aculo.us-style framework) that it’s a joy to use.

There are security/privacy issues to be aware of. And the huge advertising dollars at stake. I could go on, but I’ll leave it at that for now. I need to get over to my page and change my status… it’s addictive!

Went for a walk around Greenlake this past weekend and came across something I had to photograph. Some idiot from the city put up no parking signs right on the most travelled path in all of Seattle! (See the orange circle in the photo.) Uh, hello… who would park there? Nobody! You can’t even get a car there unless you drive over a curb. But I see their reasoning: the last guy who tried to park there knocked over that tree.

Then, as I downloaded the photo from my camera for this post, I realized I’d unintentionally captured another stupid mistake! Some lady looked out her window in the morning and thought, “wow, look at all the sunshine and blue sky. Forecast is for a rare gorgeous day in April. Guess I’ll bring along my umbrella in case it rains!” Sheesh! I love this town, but seriously people!

Oh, and lest you think I’m the one being stupid, I’m joking. Clearly the sign was there just to support the yellow tape around a downed tree. And the woman is carrying a parasol to keep the sun off her fair skin. But it sure is fun to write like a blowhard once in a while ;-)

I don’t often write about politics, as evidenced by this post’s classification under “life” and “misc.” But I’ve heard too much on the radio and net today about a political topic not to comment. It’s the 6-3 Supreme Court decision that ruled Indiana’s requirement of a photo ID was not unconstitutional.

Well duh.

Sure, there are objections that it places an undue burden on the elderly or minority populations. They don’t hold water for me for the simple reason that to vote you need to prove who you are. That proof comes in the form of photo ID. Indiana may be strict in that it requires state-issued ID and on those grounds may attract more lawsuits. (Six other states with photo-ID laws accept student IDs.) An excerpt from the NYT article:

It requires a voter to present a photograph as part of an unexpired document issued either by Indiana or the federal government, a requirement that in most cases can be satisfied only by a current driver’s license or a passport. The state’s motor vehicle agency provides a free photo ID card for people who do not drive, but obtaining it requires a “primary document” like an original birth certificate or a passport.

So non-drivers and those without passports are also covered. And there’s even a provisional ballot option that gives the ID-less 10 days to bring documentation of their identity after voting–that covers just about every circumstance I can think of.

I am a proponent of personal freedoms and government non-interference but this issue seems blown out of proportion. Want to vote? Show ID to prove your identity. Seems simple to me. But, if you disagree let me know.

Sunday morning we all piled into the Mariott’s ballroom eager to hear the results of individual write-off competitions. Before we did, though, we were treated to an array of pre-annoucements announcements. They included a slideshow of student photography submitted to the competition (and there were some amazing shots); the student journalist of the year and the runners-up; and a video enticing us to attend the fall JEA convention in St. Louis.

Again, many the Washington schools grouped together (though this time much more loosely) to cheer one another on. We were so boisterous that the announcer (H.L. Hall, who’s been announcing individual award-winners since I was a student!) paused after each Washingtonian was announced. Given the rapidity with which H.L. reads these names (there were 714 winners from 1869 participants to get through) that’s pretty impressive. In my years attending and chaperoning these conventions, I’ve never seen such an impressive display of solidarity among the schools from any state. I counted 17 separate schools from Washington whose students took home awards in the write-offs.

Among them were many Hawkeye students, I’m proud to say. Vince has compiled a complete list in a press release that I’ll get and post soon. I was pleased to learn that a student from Wenatchee’s Apple Leaf, where my friend Jeff Nusser advises, whom I talked to about the Newspaper Layout competition, received an honorable mention. Good for her!

With checkout complete and bags secured in a hotel storeroom, the afternoon lay ahead of us. Vince, Tim, and Mark took a few students to watch the cumbersomely-named The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim do battle with—and lose 4 to 2—to the Seattle Mariners. Not being a baseball fan, I took a contingent of seven students on two short bus rides to end up at The Block at Orange, a big outdoor mall. Sure, sure—another mall. But it was something to do and the food options were much better (finally got some sushi).

The trip home felt short, but that may have been due to the fact most of us were sleeping on the bus to LAX or on the plane home. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the kind gifts the Hawkeye students chipped in to get each of us chaperones: I was given an excellent sand hackey sack and some Disney playing cards; Vince a Godfather quote book; and Tim a Japanese cookbook. All gifts showed generosity and a knowledge of what we enjoy. So thank you everyone.

I’m looking forward to St. Louis in the Fall and Phoenix next year! I’m also looking forward to a convention that provides free wifi access, as this one didn’t and that makes posting a blog for parents much harder!

My trite comment about the snow back home has backfired, as the beautiful SoCal weather has disappeared, replaced by grey clouds and cold breeze. In short, it’s like a normal April in Seattle today.

I thought it’d be a good time to explain what makes these conventions worth coming to. It’s not the hotel pools, though the number of swimsuited high schoolers there would make you think otherwise (none from the Hawkeye’s contingent, though). It’s the quality of thought and dedication of the educators and professionals here to teach these energetic and eager young journalists. I attended discussions of student press rights and responsible journalism, as well as more technical session on “new media” in journalism (slide shows with audio, video on websites, etc.) and Adobe Bridge and Camera RAW format. These are the sorts of educational experiences that make all the travel, late nights, junk food, and rambunctious—and often screaming—high schoolers worth while.

Saturday also brought the first of the two awards ceremonies: group honors. As usual, the crowd first listened to the NSPA presenter (Washington’s own Logan Aimone from Wenatchee, who replaced Tom Rolnicke) introduce the head table, which included the new head of the Student Press Law Center. The SPLC has been defending student journalists for decades, including the Hawkeye circa 1995 for some incident about photographers photographing an on-campus fight. The crowd chipped in and raised just over $2500 to support the important work of the SPLC.

I won’t keep you in the suspense as we were: the Hawkeye placed 10th in the Best of Show category for papers publishing 13-16 pages! Congratulations to all the staffers who contributed to this accomplishment!

Washington state was well represented. Schools from Gig Harbor, Puyallup, Mt. Si, Hanford, Wenatchee and many other locations also took honors in their categories. Advisors and editors from the schools had met during the convention and decided to all gather in the same corner of the ballroom, thereby giving us more concentrated volume when any of our massive group won. It was quite a fun experience and always an honor to be numbered among such quality publications.

The remainder of the evening was small group outings: some to dinners, others to shopping, and a sizable contingent to Disneyland. Tomorrow’s our last day. Saddened by this, Mark, Vince, and I drown our sadness in a donut.

Saturday brought the first set of sessions, write-off competitions, and more enjoyment of the Anaheim weather. (This was made more poignant by the news that back home was blanketed with 3-5 inches of snow. In April. Late April.)

I only attended one session on photography in a large ballroom, but not because I wasn’t interested in others. They were simply full. For the first time in over 15 conventions, they had “bouncers” refusing to allow students down hallways to get into overly-full session rooms. Definitely a problem, and really not fair to students who were shut of out not only of the “popular” sessions, but just about all of them.

The coolest part of my day was catching up with the other Washington-state journalism people I’ve come to know at state and national conventions. Included among these is my former high school classmate Jeff Nusser, now advisor of the Apple Leaf in Wenatchee. Another plus: spending time with two students–one Hawkeye, one Apple Leaf—preparing them for their first write-off competition in newspaper layout. I participated in that category as a student and have judged it many times since.

Vince DeMiero, the Hawkeye advisor, and I volunteered to judge write-offs; it’s another convention tradition. We had dinner on JEA in the banquet room that then became a hub of activity for the next three hours as journalism educators, professionals in the field, and I poured over student’s entries. Vince and I judged Literary Magazine Layout, Lit Mag Illustration, and Lit Mag Poetry—something of a departure from our usual categories but it was quite fun.

Meanwhile, fellow chaperons Mark Isakson and Tim Cashman took students to various locations for dinner. One destination was a sushi place “nearby,” only about three miles away. Not sure of the whole story, but no sushi was had but substitutes were found, I’m sure. Continuing another Hawkeye convention tradition, no students attended the dance.

Sessions again tomorrow as well as the first awards ceremony, this one for newspapers and yearbooks. Individual honors are awarded at Sunday’s ceremony. Following that is our evening group activities: Disneyland for some, and other less-animated fun for others.