Category: Personal Updates

My life

My Honors Thesis Web site: The Philadelphia Republican Party

Updated: My thesis has now moved to a subdomain here, as explained here.

CHECK OUT A (SEMI) COMPLETED WEB SITE I made for my year-long thesis project that I only finished now, having spent a couple months as a college graduate.

I graduated from Temple in May, with honors I might add, because of that thesis project on which I worked. Despite being a couple months removed from college, I only recently finished the final revisions offered to me by my paper’s adviser, the eminent Dr. Joseph McLaughlin.

Back in April, I announced I had the site running, but now have the final paper available. I hope to add some more features and supplemental info, but for now, it is a nice collection of the research and work I’ve done.

[www.phillypolitics.wordpress.com]

Google Image Search: The next frontier

Today’s journalists need a Web presence. No one is arguing that anymore.

Indeed, the brighter and more Web savvy, young journalists have already made the step and are looking to refine the quality and searchability of their product so that when an employer (or future, crazed romantic interest) runs their name in a search engine, the right product comes up.

You want your Web site, clips, appropriate photos, a mature, healthy online persona. Considering I’m part of a generation that will find answers through technology, for ourselves and broader issues, I’ve thought plenty of how to do that, including using online applications, most notably actually giving in and joining Facebook recently.

But, once you get that much figured out – No. 1 Google search for Christopher Wink and among the top for Chris Wink, damn you Blue Man Group founder with the same name – the next step becomes clear: image searches.

Continue reading Google Image Search: The next frontier

Downtheshore in Wildwood for the weekend

Me with my sister and mother on the Wildwood boardwalk in summer 1991.

Today and through the weekend I will be in familiar territory: downtheshore. Growing up in the rural northwest corner of New Jersey, My family spent each summer in the friendly confines of the Jersey Shore, the boardwalk of Wildwood and the the beaches of the nearby crest.

I fought the waves, played skeeball and wiffleball, ate pizza and funnel cake, and made about the best sand castles in history. I hope to recapture it all this weekend.

There is a 15 percent chance I could be killed in an ironic tram car death, having taunted the yellow trains my entire shore-going life.

Slow day in the newsroom: Cherry pit spitting contest

Today, fellow reporters and I had a cherry pit spitting contest and I won.

So, the Pennsylvania state budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year passed on Friday, so this week has been slow in the state Capitol newsroom. Sometimes you can find coverage, like the Pennsylvanians who are fighting California wildfires, as I reported yesterday, but other times you can’t.

The Capitol newsroom is shared by a host of reporters from various outlets, all members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association. When everyone is bored, I hear, sometimes someone finds a fun distraction – though surely more wholesome than the gambling and drinking of the past.

The Patriot-News ran a wire story about a Michigan man who topped some record by spitting a cherry pit more than 56 feet.

So, why wouldn’t we have our own cherry pit spitting contest right in the newsroom?

Continue reading Slow day in the newsroom: Cherry pit spitting contest

July 4 Fireworks in Harrisburg

After working on July 4, I missed out on the festivities – aside from a Yuengling at the Pub, a bar that wants to be a club that sits discreetly in the alleyway behind my apartment.

Fortunately, here in Harrisburg, they do July 4 right, and I got a repeat Sunday night, fireworks over the Susquehanna River. Fireworks, plenty of basketball, sun and no work over the weekend, a holiday indeed.

Below, see part of the show that went on Friday.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFEDDv5Q8pI]

Anyone have great July 4 excitement?

Photo of Harrisburg fireworks thanks to Bridget Lynn.

July 4 Celebration in Philadelphia: I'm not there

I had plans that if a state budget deal was finished in time, I would go back to Philadelphia to see their July 4 celebration outside of the Art Museum.

Being the home of the Declaration, Cradle of Liberty and birthplace of Democracy, Philadelphia has to throw the best Independence Day celebration. It’s in the Constitution, I think.

This year, right about now, John Legend is performing, I am in the State Capitol in Harrisburg, not even enjoying what the state capital has to celebrate our nation’s independence. Lame!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jQ4jO4AwFY]

Continue reading July 4 Celebration in Philadelphia: I'm not there

Sean Blanda launches Consumer Whore, changes the balance of commerce forever

It was sometime in the summer of 2008, history books will one day read, that media mogul, Internet Jesus and a hetero-life mate of mine, Sean Blanda launched another in a long line of his Web-savvy projects, Consumer Whore.net.

Every day the site features something strange and moderately accessible fiscally for you to buy. Already, I imagine, Blanda is being overrun with ideas and fodder.

Now if only he can turn a buck on the product. I suggested selling a spot on the blog to the highest bidder, but, you see, Blanda has far higher ethical standards than I realized even exist. Good for him and his dad.

He announced his role in Consumer Whore on his popular media blog on Saturday.

The Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association: a brief history

When I am done at the end of August, I will have reported with top-flight state political reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Allentown Morning-Call, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and the online-only subscription service Capitolwire.

What unites them all is that they are members of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association. The nearly 115-year-old organization doesn’t do much to promote itself because it is mostly an informal collection of members from a struggling industry, so I didn’t know much about it when I got here.

I have learned plenty and thought many might be interested, too.

Continue reading The Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association: a brief history

Sometimes you have to go into work with a mohawk

So, I have graduated and started a professional journalism career in Harrisburg, Pa.

I am totally working for the man.

I wear shirts and ties and work in a cubicle. I have a lap top and a voice mail – 717 705 8407 – and *responsibility.

It occurred to me that I can’t entirely give into conformity – all the time. Not yet.

Continue reading Sometimes you have to go into work with a mohawk

Academic honors during my Temple University career

Relevant academic honors

  • Honors Thesis, Two-Party Politics in Philadelphia, April 2008
  • Named among Top 100 young journalists in the country, UWire, May 2008
  • Commencement Speaker, Temple University’s 121st graduation, May 2008
  • First Place, Collegiate Keystone Press Award for Personality Profile, April 2008
  • Diamond Award, Temple University recognition for leadership, May 2008
  • Pi Sigma Alpha, political science honor society Delta Rho chapter, May 2008
  • Marks and Emma Kohn Memorial Award for excellence in social sciences, April 2008
  • Ted Von Ziekursch Scholarship for journalistic achievement, April 2008
  • Honors Department, Temple University entrant, July 2006
  • Diamond Award, Temple University recognition for student journalism, May 2006
  • Ralph Vigoda Collegiate Journalism Award, May 2006
  • First Place, Collegiate Keystone Press Award for Spot News, April 2006
  • Political Science Honors Department, Temple University entrant, April 2006