Author Archives: Maggie de Barra

Verif.

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The closest thing to a sacred trust we’ll get.

“Accuracy, as you can see, can be a stretch, well beyond getting the quote right, which is also essential. As for truth, I think of it as an ideal, toward which we strive, toward which all of our work should be an important part. If we are lucky, we may even touch a piece of it.”

-William F. Woo

He was the first person who was not a member of the Pulitzer family to work as editor of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the first Asian-American to be the editor of a major American daily newspaper. He later worked as a journalism professor at Stanford University.

Studying for my J4000 exam. This was part of my presentation about the role of an editor. This quote stuck with me.

Update 04/19/10:
Hahaha William F. Woo was a question on the exam. Sorry to everybody who didn’t pay attention during my presentation. Woo was a small part of my presentation and I’m sorry that you were tested on a few passing inspirational quotations!

Play for the Kids 2.0

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UNICEF Carleton’s annual coffeehouse/open mic night.

Last night UNICEF Carleton presented their second annual open mic night, featuring a lot of local talent. This is a video of my roommate Jamye Troy singing a song she wrote about a little girl in Africa.

Flash in the Pan

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We’re #1! Right above #rolluptherim.

Last Monday, our journalism lecture live-tweeted during a presentation and our hashtag, #j4k (short for our course code, JOUR4000) became the number one trending topic in Canada for a short time. I took a screen shot.

This probably means very little to people who don’t use Twitter. But for the active 12 or so people in our class who do use it, this was pretty cool. I have a feeling that our class, and the creation of a course hashtag, will be used in a case-study somewhere. When journalism students use Twitter during class, something monumental is just bound to happen. We’ll see if there is a repeat tomorrow morning.

Update 03/23/10:
So much press. I love it! We’re kind of famous. Article on J-Source and on Carleton’s website.

There is no Modern Romance

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Well I was wrong. It never lasts.

Walking along Bank Street the other day I noticed something that really made me feel pretty sad. The Swap Box at Bank and Sunnyside is gone. I don’t know how long it’s been down.

It looked like this back in the glory days.

In the fall I wrote a feature piece about the Swap Boxes and street art in Ottawa. I was even lucky enough to interview the artist Elmaks.

Bank and Sunnyside is an important intersection for Carleton students. It stands out in my mind as a huge staple of my time in Ottawa. It took a while for me to warm up to Ottawa back in first year. Walking up Sunnyside from res, past Haven Books, to the Second Cup and the Chip Wagon, walking past the Mayfair and over the bridge into the Glebe… I’m not the only one who did these things. And the Swap Box was one of the things that really made my heart melt. It put Ottawa in my good books.

I never really contributed anything worthwhile. I only ever have bus transfers and bobby pins in my pockets, but I put them in anyway.

And now there is nothing left. I’m just sad that other Carleton students wont get a chance to experience this beautiful little piece of Ottawa.

(Title inspired by my current favourite song: Modern Romance by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Lyrics here.)

A Place for Everything

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And everything in its place.

I just wanted to show off my new flavors.me homepage. I’ve been looking for something like this for quite a while. I wanted a splash page that was stylish, user friendly, and easy to navigate. Flavors.me is all of those things.

I like Flavors.me for three reasons:

  1. It looks great.
  2. It was easy to create.
  3. It is efficient.

It will take less than ten minutes to craft and design your Flavors homepage. The customization options are very simple and easy to use. And it collects a bunch of your most important links and puts  them all in one really good looking page.

I changed my homepage url on Twitter from this blog to the splash page. This blog shows off my work and what I’m doing, but not everybody who clicks through from Twitter is interested in that. Maybe they want to see my photos or foursquare. Using the Flavors page let’s the user make the decision, instead of forcing something on them.

It also presents a more varied display of what I do and what I’m intersted in. Right now I have collected my blog, flickr photos, twitter stream, my tumblr and posterous accounts and my foursquare feed in one spot. Mine is pretty basic, but you can look at what some other users have created for inspiration in their design gallery here.

Flavors.me seems to be catching on. I read about Flavors.me while reading Amandalyn Ferri’s blog a while ago, and today I noticed that Lifehacker did a little write up about it here.

I’ve started using a lot of new services in the last month or so: Flavors, Buzz, Foursquare and Posterous. More on those later.

Gemma Ward. Supermodel.

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Very good read. Not quite right for Del.ici.us

I just wanted to pass on this article about my favourite supermodel. “Gemma Ward, A Supermodel Betrayed” written by Sarah Horne for Page Six Magazine. I don’t usually like to wade in this kind of territory. But I think that it’s important for these kinds of articles to be kept in the pubic eye. It’s especially important from sources like Page Six who deal in that whole media/celebrity industry.

I used to love seeing pictures of Gemma Ward in Teen Vogue. She had this strange alien-like beauty, she always sounded very polite and sincere in interviews and she just seemed like a nice, normal girl from Australia who just happened to be one of the most influential and successful models of the moment.

I stopped buying Vogue and Teen Vogue a long time ago, but I have noticed that Gemma Ward hasn’t been in many pictures in any of the magazines that I flip through when I’m waiting in the check-out line at Shoppers. This article explains why.

It’s a very sad story about a cruel industry. And the fact that it happened to Ward makes it hurt even more. I feel so bad for this girl. I’m torn between wanting her to make a stellar comeback, or for her to throw it all at their feet and move on with her life. Again, a very important read from Page Six Magazine, here.

40 Years on the Canal

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This is about the most “Canadian” that Ottawa can get.

Hopefully the weather will stop being so moody, and the Rideau Canal will open up again soon.

A Somber Celebration

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Photos from the funeral prosession in honour of Ottawa police Constable Eric Czapnik.

Walking home after my class yesterday, I noticed a huge crowd of people gathered on the sidewalk. I was just in time to see the funeral procession on the way to Lansdowne. There were endless rows of Mounties, police officers and firefighters all in a row along Campus Avenue waiting to begin. Just the sight of all of these men and women was enough to make me tear up. I saw police officers from Perth, Toronto, Kingston, Barrie, Cornwall and way more than I can remember. It was so nice to see all of them out in support. I wish I was at Bank and Sunnyside because I hear that the kids from Hopewell Avenue Public School came out to line the sidewalks. It was just an all around sad and somber day remembering and celebrating a fallen hero.

I feel like my journalist hat is never off. You’re always on call, always on the clock, always on deadline. You can’t really escape it, no matter how hard you try.

 

Looking for The Iron Heel

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Searching, in vain, for Jack London in Ottawa.

I spent a good three hours walking around tonight looking for a copy of The Iron Heel by Jack London. It is the first of five novels on the reading list for my english class. Every other student must have been proactive about getting books for this class, because all these stores (all nine of them!) were out of stock.

Octopus Books – Bank Street and Third Avenue
Patrick McGahern Books – Bank Street and Third Avenue
Dragon Tail Bookshop – Bank Street and Fourth Avenue
Book Bazaar – Bank Street and Frank Street
The Book Company – Bank Street and Slater Street
Chapters – Rideau Street and Sussex Drive
Sunnyside Bookshop – Dalhousie Street and Murray Street
Argosy Books –  Dalhousie Street and Guigues Avenue
The Book Market – Dalhousie Street and Rideau Street

Can’t believe I walked this far in the cold only to come home empty handed. On the bright side, the War Memorial looked so pretty tonight:

Update 01/26/10:
I took out the map pictures. Nine photos of Google map screenshots is excessive. I did end up getting The Iron Heel from Octopus Books. My review: don’t even bother reading this one. It is socialist propaganda parading around as a novel. It’s less than 300 pages and it took forever to get through. I didn’t enjoy it at all! Our next book, Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov is even more tough to read. I thought I was good at this kind of thing: reading, thinking, reflecting. Guess not.  

  

Auld Lang Syne

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Happy 2010!

Ringing in the new year with some new things. Yesterday I ordered a new keyboard for my laptop because the period key has been missing for about a month. I’ve gotten used to the little plastic knob instead. A new keyboard will be nice. I also ordered a new power adapter cord because the one I have right now doesn’t charge the battery. Everytime it gets unplugged, my laptop shuts down. I’ve taken to agressively saving word documents just in case of emergency.

So glad that I don’t have to deal with this on a regular basis. I’m happy to use computers as they come, and not look inside ever again. No wires, no problem.

Our Chihuahua puppy Veronica Corningstone helped too.

I also got a new phone to replace the one I lost in the library before Christmas break. New year, new phone. Endless possibilities.