Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.92.80
Current Song - The Other Side (Aerosmith)
I am starting to come up with a list of story ideas. As always, I am open to suggestions. But please don't post them on here (in case the Gazette sees this) :) [I'm only tryin' to survive].
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Bored to death
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.82.80
Current Song - Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs)
I'd rather stay awake than go to bed and wake up at 7:00 AM (5 1/2 hours sleep). I'm trying to find something to do.
Current Song - Lido Shuffle (Boz Scaggs)
I'd rather stay awake than go to bed and wake up at 7:00 AM (5 1/2 hours sleep). I'm trying to find something to do.
Monday, August 27, 2007
You're Supposed to Like What You Do
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.72.80
Current Song - Early Autumn (George Shearing)
Don't get me wrong: I like working at BP. It's the best non-journalism job I've ever had, but it seems like this particular college semester is not working out.
This has brought me to trying to figure out some way NISB can be a money-generator. This is the fourth year I've run the site, and I haven't made too much money off of it. Easily said: none. Kevin over at Streator Sports has began advertising on his front page for $75(?)/week. Then he has subsequent spaces on his page for smaller amounts. I think I can change the layout of my homepage to leave some space for ad space. Using his rates, a small ad, a tall ad and a banner ad would be equivalent to a $250.00 every-two-week paycheck. I don't think I should charge a higher rate because of the numbers of my current site traffic.
Using the current set-up of NISB:
1. I've got the top banner ad
2. One or more small ads or tall ads on the left side of the page, once the nav bar has converted to a drop-down menu
3. The Ticker can be scrapped, and a Story Archive description can replace the top half of it. The Story archive description and the nav bar/drop-down menu will be parallel in size to each others, thus doubling idea #2.
4. Submit your own story, the mailing list and the press releases descriptions can all be compacted to just three lines. These three entities can be placed just under the Message Boards link. This would compact the homepage itself.
Two recent stories on the current middle column, plus the space saved for small and tall ads would make the site (at least the top portion of it) a quadrangular shape.
Current Song - Early Autumn (George Shearing)
Don't get me wrong: I like working at BP. It's the best non-journalism job I've ever had, but it seems like this particular college semester is not working out.
This has brought me to trying to figure out some way NISB can be a money-generator. This is the fourth year I've run the site, and I haven't made too much money off of it. Easily said: none. Kevin over at Streator Sports has began advertising on his front page for $75(?)/week. Then he has subsequent spaces on his page for smaller amounts. I think I can change the layout of my homepage to leave some space for ad space. Using his rates, a small ad, a tall ad and a banner ad would be equivalent to a $250.00 every-two-week paycheck. I don't think I should charge a higher rate because of the numbers of my current site traffic.
Using the current set-up of NISB:
1. I've got the top banner ad
2. One or more small ads or tall ads on the left side of the page, once the nav bar has converted to a drop-down menu
3. The Ticker can be scrapped, and a Story Archive description can replace the top half of it. The Story archive description and the nav bar/drop-down menu will be parallel in size to each others, thus doubling idea #2.
4. Submit your own story, the mailing list and the press releases descriptions can all be compacted to just three lines. These three entities can be placed just under the Message Boards link. This would compact the homepage itself.
Two recent stories on the current middle column, plus the space saved for small and tall ads would make the site (at least the top portion of it) a quadrangular shape.
Banner
Tall------Content------Tall
Content
Content
Content
Small-----Content-----Small
Small-----Content-----Small
Small-----Content-----Small
The above makes up my top space. The middle space will be quad-shaped with eight (8) story links. That makes the recent stories set at a popular set number, ten, with the content pushing toward the sides of the pages.
Small-----Content-----Small
____________________
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
ContentContentContentContent
With each block of:
ContentContent
ContentContent
Being one story header
More requests for advertising space may be made for the middle section by shrinking the content to look more square than rectangle, and placing tall ads on each side of the page.
That makes up my middle space. The bottom space, which begins with "Can't find the article you're looking for?" isn't really a good place for advertisements. So I think this is set.
On the homepage, we're looking at 9 to 11 ads.
Then there is the message boards:
1. I can put a global banner ad for all of the NISB message board pages.
2. I can put a single banner ad for the message board index.
*Note that I cannot alter the ProBoards banner advertisement (nore do they give me any money, that comes with the site package)
Now we're talking 11-13 ads on the page.
Then it get's better:
Another link with other ads. Kind of like, a "Check out our sponsors" link with each sponsor that has ad space, plus a little more about them. AND, a logo and a brief description about other sponsors that don't have actual ads on the pages. That rate will be the smallest.
As soon as I can do my part in churning out the content and site traffic numbers, I can go forward with advertising. I'm also putting out an advertising Q&A soon.
So here's what we got:
1. Homepage banner ad
2. Homepage tall ad
3. Homepage small ad
4. Page of your choice banner ad
5. Page of your choice tall ad
6. Page of your choice small ad
7. Game article banner ad
8. Game article tall ad
9. Game article small ad
10. Message board banner global header ad
11. Message board banner main header ad
12. Message board small global header ad
13. Message board small main header ad
2. Homepage tall ad
3. Homepage small ad
4. Page of your choice banner ad
5. Page of your choice tall ad
6. Page of your choice small ad
7. Game article banner ad
8. Game article tall ad
9. Game article small ad
10. Message board banner global header ad
11. Message board banner main header ad
12. Message board small global header ad
13. Message board small main header ad
14. The cheap ad
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Sunday morning
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.62.80
Current Song - Plush (Stone Temple Pilots)
It was better than I expected. At first it was hard working with another person because I hate my routine being questioned. I've worked off-shifts before, quit babying me! I had to work with the one I don't get along with. She's not the future. Not with the way she rubs things into peoples faces. I swear I'm going to blow up one day.
Your first throught ... Cody should quit.
And do what? Write? Where?
I hate going through depression.
Current Song - Plush (Stone Temple Pilots)
It was better than I expected. At first it was hard working with another person because I hate my routine being questioned. I've worked off-shifts before, quit babying me! I had to work with the one I don't get along with. She's not the future. Not with the way she rubs things into peoples faces. I swear I'm going to blow up one day.
Your first throught ... Cody should quit.
And do what? Write? Where?
I hate going through depression.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Give me a minute!
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.52.80
Current Song - Rise (Herb Alpert)
Christmas list: Herb Alpert - The Definitive Collection
Combining football and work is going to be tough to do. I had a hard time yesterday because I woke up late and did some things on the computer before I was to take my shower and head to Morrison. As I was on the computer, my dog was scratching real bad and we had to put him in the tub to help get rid of them. This is the only bathing place in the house so I was left in my lounging clothes waiting for the dog to finish.
This is where my stupiditiy enters: I am waiting for some reason after Roy is done for the shower. As if I was waiting for the fleas to just find their way down the drain. As I was waiting, I completely forgot about what I was doing tonight. Going to Morrison was now out of the picture.
Rock Falls had a home game, but I wasn't about to cover it as I was Morrison/Newman. Orion has 5/38 of its roster "full" of seniors and they managed to whiplash RF 47-15. I thought RF was going to be somewhat coming back this year. They have a good passing attack, but I wasn't impressed at all on special teams: as in they didn't know how to catch a ball after being kicked. The kick return is where you gain the most yardage, right?
I am heading home at halftime ("forget this") and I listen to WSDR, where the announcer dude says something like, "If anyone knows what is wrong with this program, either you are really rich, or really popular in this town" - I won't DARE go public on my answer before being beat up.
Then I go to work.
Then I come home nearly falling apart as I type this.
Off to bed - I am planning on going to Kaneland to see the Knights take on Burlington Central.
Current Song - Rise (Herb Alpert)
Christmas list: Herb Alpert - The Definitive Collection
Combining football and work is going to be tough to do. I had a hard time yesterday because I woke up late and did some things on the computer before I was to take my shower and head to Morrison. As I was on the computer, my dog was scratching real bad and we had to put him in the tub to help get rid of them. This is the only bathing place in the house so I was left in my lounging clothes waiting for the dog to finish.
This is where my stupiditiy enters: I am waiting for some reason after Roy is done for the shower. As if I was waiting for the fleas to just find their way down the drain. As I was waiting, I completely forgot about what I was doing tonight. Going to Morrison was now out of the picture.
Rock Falls had a home game, but I wasn't about to cover it as I was Morrison/Newman. Orion has 5/38 of its roster "full" of seniors and they managed to whiplash RF 47-15. I thought RF was going to be somewhat coming back this year. They have a good passing attack, but I wasn't impressed at all on special teams: as in they didn't know how to catch a ball after being kicked. The kick return is where you gain the most yardage, right?
I am heading home at halftime ("forget this") and I listen to WSDR, where the announcer dude says something like, "If anyone knows what is wrong with this program, either you are really rich, or really popular in this town" - I won't DARE go public on my answer before being beat up.
Then I go to work.
Then I come home nearly falling apart as I type this.
Off to bed - I am planning on going to Kaneland to see the Knights take on Burlington Central.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
College
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.22.80
Current Song - Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand)
From mid-May to mid-August seemed like forever. It looked like I forgot how to be a college student. Maybe it is just because Sauk has changed a whole lot and my "group" of students are off to larger pastures.
I've got PSY 103 and ENG 270 this fall. After tomorrow is done, I'll give a review of the classes. But I can already tell you that Creative Writing is tougher than I thought. The first writing thing I had to do was to think of my favorite song (at this point, I had a million favorite songs) and write a diary entry as if I were the person singing the song, but not as the actual singer.
I struggled to find a favorite song and was rotating between Rock With You, Take Me Out, This Guy's In Love With You; and then for some reason I settled on Saturday In The Park. God, I wrote the corniest diary entry as compared to the others in the class. We had to read them aloud. Of course, I cannot read things aloud because I will bounce around between words when I do (Inside joke - I CAN read, but not spoken). There's only 9 people in the class and the course is team-taught.
High School Football starts in two days! I'm heading to Morrison to see a great game between the Mustangs and the Newman Comets.
Current Song - Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand)
From mid-May to mid-August seemed like forever. It looked like I forgot how to be a college student. Maybe it is just because Sauk has changed a whole lot and my "group" of students are off to larger pastures.
I've got PSY 103 and ENG 270 this fall. After tomorrow is done, I'll give a review of the classes. But I can already tell you that Creative Writing is tougher than I thought. The first writing thing I had to do was to think of my favorite song (at this point, I had a million favorite songs) and write a diary entry as if I were the person singing the song, but not as the actual singer.
I struggled to find a favorite song and was rotating between Rock With You, Take Me Out, This Guy's In Love With You; and then for some reason I settled on Saturday In The Park. God, I wrote the corniest diary entry as compared to the others in the class. We had to read them aloud. Of course, I cannot read things aloud because I will bounce around between words when I do (Inside joke - I CAN read, but not spoken). There's only 9 people in the class and the course is team-taught.
High School Football starts in two days! I'm heading to Morrison to see a great game between the Mustangs and the Newman Comets.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Content
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.12.80
Current Song - You're The First, The Last, My Everything (Barry White)
Slowly but surely I am getting fresh content on NISB. I just put up a column about the MLB Hall of Fame and fixed around several other items throughout the website. Sometime soon I will post a link to the Conference Calls that I wrote for EdgyTim.com.
I am thinking about getting rid of the ill-fated Ticker project. I never really got around to updating it daily like I wanted to. It was just a way to help me read more stories about high school sports, and sharing those links with everyone else. However, I never could keep up with everything. I am planning on using the Ticker space for what it replaced: the older links to recent stories.
Speaking of stories, I'd like to kick off the Fall season with a game article of the Newman-Morrison football game on Friday. Then, I'd like to do a story on the Kaneland VB coach, who competed in the Deaf Pan-Am Games in Venezuela last week. Then after that, I may do a golf article on the Byron-Rockford Lutheran meet. We'll see if these happen.
I will attempt to write a mix of game articles and feature stories this year. I have written feature stories in the past and only did one last year: about the motorcycle rallies at West Carroll Football games.
With that being said, I am all ears about feature story ideas.
Current Song - You're The First, The Last, My Everything (Barry White)
Slowly but surely I am getting fresh content on NISB. I just put up a column about the MLB Hall of Fame and fixed around several other items throughout the website. Sometime soon I will post a link to the Conference Calls that I wrote for EdgyTim.com.
I am thinking about getting rid of the ill-fated Ticker project. I never really got around to updating it daily like I wanted to. It was just a way to help me read more stories about high school sports, and sharing those links with everyone else. However, I never could keep up with everything. I am planning on using the Ticker space for what it replaced: the older links to recent stories.
Speaking of stories, I'd like to kick off the Fall season with a game article of the Newman-Morrison football game on Friday. Then, I'd like to do a story on the Kaneland VB coach, who competed in the Deaf Pan-Am Games in Venezuela last week. Then after that, I may do a golf article on the Byron-Rockford Lutheran meet. We'll see if these happen.
I will attempt to write a mix of game articles and feature stories this year. I have written feature stories in the past and only did one last year: about the motorcycle rallies at West Carroll Football games.
With that being said, I am all ears about feature story ideas.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Glad to be home
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.02.80
Current Song - You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (The Beatles)
The kids are starting school and I'll get the house somewhat to myself. My privacy is limited somewhat because Mike is now at home, and can't seem to decide if he is going to college or not. Work was rough today with the rain and storming.
I start classes tomorrow. Yuck!
Right now I'm working on NISB trying to get most of things done before I have to worry about college shit.
Current Song - You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) (The Beatles)
The kids are starting school and I'll get the house somewhat to myself. My privacy is limited somewhat because Mike is now at home, and can't seem to decide if he is going to college or not. Work was rough today with the rain and storming.
I start classes tomorrow. Yuck!
Right now I'm working on NISB trying to get most of things done before I have to worry about college shit.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Welcome to #35's NEW Waste of Space!!!
Cutter's Log - Stardate 7002.71.80
Current Song - Dirty Work (Steely Dan)
Hello everyone and welcome to my NEW Waste of Space, otherwise known as a blog. I have been writing blogs for a couple of years now, and my kind of blogs are unlike the traditional ones. I treat it more like a journal, with blog-like things. The last two years were spent at CJB, the same people who hosted my NISB Message Boards.
Here is my old blog, since infested with advertisement garbage:
http://blogs.cjb.net/CodyCutter35
Since I am starting over at a new blog site, I may as well tell a little bit about myself.
I am Cody Cutter, high school sportswriter/convienence store "jack of all trades". I was born and raised and have lived my entire life in Sterling-Rock Falls, IL. Sterling and Rock Falls are two seperate cities bordered by the Rock River. I was born in Sterling on April 28, 1986 and lived in RF, then Sterling, then RF and now in Sterling. I have a lot of pride in my childhood that I spent up until I was 11 years old. I'll sometimes refer to the "good 'ol days" which were my years in Rock Falls (1993-1997). But it's not like everything went downhill after I moved away from RF. I wouldn't be a sportswriter if I were to have stayed in RF.
However, I fell in love with a girl for the first time while living in Rock Falls. Then another one.
Then another five or so while I lived in Sterling up until graduating high school. Of all 7 girls I fell in love with (I'm not crazy, it's just me), the two girls who are now the nicest are the two girls I fell in love with in Merrill School. However, you can't go back and relive your past. One still lives in town, and another is a girlfriend of one of the Yankees (Class A).
I am a 2005 graduate of Sterling High School. I went from sports management (boys and girls basketball, football and volleyball) to high school sportswriter in those four years at SHS. I was waterboy in Max Gaumer's final year coaching football at SHS and I (and others) like to consider myself a cult figure on that particular team. I now attend Sauk Valley Community College.
I began my journalism career with Prep Sports Online, then "interning" at the Daily Gazette and Dixon Telegraph before creating Northern Illinois Sports Beat, the high school website I operate on my own.
Unfortunately, NISB doesn't churn in any dollars or cents. I work at BP, the gas station on Lincolnway and Freeport Rds in Sterling. I work three nights of 11-7 late nights as well as Sunday mornings. One of only three men working there, I get handed the maintence chores and tough guy chores. I've never fallen asleep on the job, I've never been robbed or shot at, and I've only had one drive-off (gas-and-go) in the 11 months I've been working there.
Last but not least about myself: I am different than you. That's not a made-up statement, but rather I act and think differently than others. This is because I have Asperger's Syndrome, a condition where childhood cases of mild autism "just go away." Well, they don't. After puberty, the autism begins to show in particular situations. *Limited or total lack of verbal communication ability *Reoccuring thoughts of the past *Believing that the world is different that what others think *Social isolation *Specialized knowledge of only certain interests *Clumsiness.
The Asperger's Syndrome is why I appear shy. When I say that I loved 7 girls, this doesn't go noticed by most others because I am afraid to admit it to not only the girls themselves, but to others. You may think it is easy to set up a relationship with someone you love, but for me it is very hard with the characteristics of A.S. that I have. I've tried to build a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship at times, but I have failed because I am not as swift and quick as every other boy who trys to do the same thing. Sometimes I feel like I have to life with a label of "un-workable" when it comes to relationships.
If you would like to know more about me, just feel free to comment.
My MySpace profile: http://www.myspace.com/CodyCutter35
Current Song - Dirty Work (Steely Dan)
Hello everyone and welcome to my NEW Waste of Space, otherwise known as a blog. I have been writing blogs for a couple of years now, and my kind of blogs are unlike the traditional ones. I treat it more like a journal, with blog-like things. The last two years were spent at CJB, the same people who hosted my NISB Message Boards.
Here is my old blog, since infested with advertisement garbage:
http://blogs.cjb.net/CodyCutter35
Since I am starting over at a new blog site, I may as well tell a little bit about myself.
I am Cody Cutter, high school sportswriter/convienence store "jack of all trades". I was born and raised and have lived my entire life in Sterling-Rock Falls, IL. Sterling and Rock Falls are two seperate cities bordered by the Rock River. I was born in Sterling on April 28, 1986 and lived in RF, then Sterling, then RF and now in Sterling. I have a lot of pride in my childhood that I spent up until I was 11 years old. I'll sometimes refer to the "good 'ol days" which were my years in Rock Falls (1993-1997). But it's not like everything went downhill after I moved away from RF. I wouldn't be a sportswriter if I were to have stayed in RF.
However, I fell in love with a girl for the first time while living in Rock Falls. Then another one.
Then another five or so while I lived in Sterling up until graduating high school. Of all 7 girls I fell in love with (I'm not crazy, it's just me), the two girls who are now the nicest are the two girls I fell in love with in Merrill School. However, you can't go back and relive your past. One still lives in town, and another is a girlfriend of one of the Yankees (Class A).
I am a 2005 graduate of Sterling High School. I went from sports management (boys and girls basketball, football and volleyball) to high school sportswriter in those four years at SHS. I was waterboy in Max Gaumer's final year coaching football at SHS and I (and others) like to consider myself a cult figure on that particular team. I now attend Sauk Valley Community College.
I began my journalism career with Prep Sports Online, then "interning" at the Daily Gazette and Dixon Telegraph before creating Northern Illinois Sports Beat, the high school website I operate on my own.
Unfortunately, NISB doesn't churn in any dollars or cents. I work at BP, the gas station on Lincolnway and Freeport Rds in Sterling. I work three nights of 11-7 late nights as well as Sunday mornings. One of only three men working there, I get handed the maintence chores and tough guy chores. I've never fallen asleep on the job, I've never been robbed or shot at, and I've only had one drive-off (gas-and-go) in the 11 months I've been working there.
Last but not least about myself: I am different than you. That's not a made-up statement, but rather I act and think differently than others. This is because I have Asperger's Syndrome, a condition where childhood cases of mild autism "just go away." Well, they don't. After puberty, the autism begins to show in particular situations. *Limited or total lack of verbal communication ability *Reoccuring thoughts of the past *Believing that the world is different that what others think *Social isolation *Specialized knowledge of only certain interests *Clumsiness.
The Asperger's Syndrome is why I appear shy. When I say that I loved 7 girls, this doesn't go noticed by most others because I am afraid to admit it to not only the girls themselves, but to others. You may think it is easy to set up a relationship with someone you love, but for me it is very hard with the characteristics of A.S. that I have. I've tried to build a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship at times, but I have failed because I am not as swift and quick as every other boy who trys to do the same thing. Sometimes I feel like I have to life with a label of "un-workable" when it comes to relationships.
If you would like to know more about me, just feel free to comment.
My MySpace profile: http://www.myspace.com/CodyCutter35
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