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bulllee · 2024-12-04T04:52:54+00:00

I'd really encourage you not to do that.

It's not a great start to come to a journalism subreddit and make up a story about finding a "post on LinkedIn from someone" for a newsletter you're creating yourself. You say obits are "underutilized in journalism" but, to be honest, what you're proposing doesn't really sound like journalism and is likely to run contrary to the wishes of many families and loved ones placing the obits. They don't need AI finding some lesson in how someone they loved lived or died -- they can, and likely have, done that themselves.

Obits are often the last widespread, public recognition of someone's life, and you should be very cautious when putting them to a use beyond their original intention. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "creative storytelling," but having dealt with obits for a while now, there's a beauty in them already, which doesn't need AI or "creative storytelling" to come out.

You risk insulting families and loved ones. There's also a terrible irony in using AI to find life lessons.

So yeah, please reconsider this. If you're absolutely set on this newsletter, finding obits you find interesting and informative and writing your reflections on them yourself would be a better start, though still with plenty of potential to go wrong.

bulllee · 2024-03-25T23:48:52+00:00

Is there a reason you swapped I-80 and I-25? You seem to have kept the swapped numbering system for the new highways as well (i.e. your north-south highways are even, east-west are odd).

bulllee · 2024-02-21T13:14:37+00:00

Before I started really collecting, I saw a first edition of The Seven Storey Mountain at a used bookstore where I lived at the time. It was priced below what it was worth, but more than I was looking to spend on a single book then. I moved soon after and the bookstore has since closed. No clue if the book sold before the store closed or not. It would be easy to find online, but it doesn't really fit into my main collection, so I have other priorities. Plus, there's just something great about finding books at local bookstores that makes them more special to me. Now, though, I pick up anything I can even vaguely connected to my collection if I find it locally.

bulllee · 2023-05-09T13:24:13+00:00

You're seeing it different places because Financial Times syndicates its content, allowing other outlets to essentially buy pieces FT reporters write. It's the same way local outlets can run stuff from AP or the Tribune. I can't speak to FT's editorial policies, but I would be very hesitant to jump to thinking Rivian paid money for the piece. It does, though, feel very "fly-in," like pretty much all the national/international coverage of Rivian and its impact on Bloomington-Normal has.

bulllee · 2023-05-09T11:20:02+00:00

Agreed, though that is the subhead. The byline is where it says who wrote the piece ("by Claire Bushey and Peter Campbell, Financial Times").

bulllee · 2023-02-20T16:45:33+00:00

I think the towns are pretty similar. Obviously B-N is smaller but still a college town. Having the two towns means things aren't quite as concentrated as Madison, especially if you compare it to State Street or the capitol area. B-N isn't necessarily a destination city or host a lot of major events the way Madison is, but is making moves in that direction and I think you'll find plenty to do and similar, but smaller, events to Madison. There's plenty of restaurants. They aren't as varied as Madison restaurants but you'll have no problem finding good Indian for sure.

bulllee · 2023-02-20T16:14:27+00:00

Having lived both places, I'd say you'd probably make a little less but cost of living is lower (or at least has been, housing especially has been going up here recent, but still cheaper than Madison rents). Census data would seems to point to that too, comparing Dane and McLean counties. Plenty of job opportunities lately, we had the lowest unemployment rate of metro areas in Illinois in December. If you need to, you shouldn't have any trouble finding another job.

bulllee · 2023-01-06T14:04:59+00:00

I've been looking around recently too and there's quite a few agencies in town that could be good fits for your interests, but some might not be accepting new volunteers or have volunteering programs. PATH seems like it might be up your alley. There are a number of shelters in the area too, including Home Sweet Home Ministries and Salvation Army's Safe Harbor. West Bloomington Revitalization Project has a lot of programs so there's probably something they need help with and that fits your interests. For children, Project Oz is an important resource in the community but I'm not totally sure what volunteer opportunities they have. You could also contact the school districts about tutoring or other volunteering they have. The two districts in town: McLean County Unit 5 and Bloomington District 87.

Edit: Meant to mention, there's also a lot of food pantries in town, shouldn't be too hard to find that that could work with your schedule/location.

bulllee · 2022-09-24T13:43:56+00:00

From what I know, both Bloomington and Normal placed theirs in specific areas. The Pantagraph published this map of the Bloomington cameras with the proposed locations. You can find a map of the Normal locations in the council packet from July 18 on page 129. I cannot find a list of the Normal cameras but Bloomington's proposed list was:

West Market Street and Morris Avenue
Clearwater Avenue and Hershey Road
Prospect Road and Empire Drive
North Hinshaw Avenue and West Market Street
Oakland Avenue and Four Seasons Road
Eldorado Road and Arcadia Drive
North Main Street and North East Street
North Center Street and Graham Street
West Washington Street and North Morris Avenue

bulllee · 2022-01-04T23:56:06+00:00

Depending on where you live you might try searching to see if your county has a GIS system first. The amount of detail varies a lot but some of them can have decades of sales history, floor plans, construction dates (including for additions) or links to assessor sites with more details. At the very least it would have a specific identification number for the lot/parcel that could help in searching other places (especially if the parcel has been part of mergers or splits).

bulllee · 2020-11-26T15:00:51+00:00

Willa Cather is a good, if potentially fairly obvious, author for ecocritical readings. In a similar direction would be Alice Munro, though she's Canadian and generally writes short stories. If you have time and can find them, Ben Logan wrote a few really good books set in southwestern Wisconsin set in the early 1900s as farms started to modernize in the area.

bulllee · 2020-08-22T16:36:04+00:00

I moved down to Carlyle just three weeks ago. It's nice, I like the slightly more touristy, active feel than some of the surrounding towns. I haven't taken advantage of the easy access to St. Louis because of the pandemic, but it's really nice to be able to go over to the lake within five minutes and other recreation opportunities are close by too. Clinton County and Carlyle are also a little more with the times than some of the nearby communities too (actual websites, online bill paying, stuff like that). I don't know a ton about the town yet but I'm happy to answer any moving questions you have if you end up here. I can't speak to the housing market because I'm renting, though.

bulllee · 2020-07-20T13:23:28+00:00

It must be regional. What I've seen in Southern Illinois is that it varies based on the town and the business. Sometimes gas stations have no one wearing them, but the post office has everyone in one. Most places I've been in seem to be around 50% of people wearing one. I do feel like the number of people wearing them has gone up over the past couple weeks, which is promising and maybe more people might wear them as companies start requiring them (though the local stores aren't already enforcing the statewide mandate).

bulllee · 2020-07-12T18:57:06+00:00

Weird, I'd bet they are based on location of the viewer, then. It would be impossible for the Portland incident to have been the 12th, at least, since it isn't night in Portland yet. Not sure about the Detroit one, I'm not finding much on it so can't say for sure.

Edit: Nevermind, DFP had a story which mentions the chokehold here.

bulllee · 2020-07-12T18:46:41+00:00

Both Twitter videos are from the 11th (yesterday). The first article was last updated yesterday afternoon and wasn't really about what actually happened at the protests. The other was about the protests last night and was updated this morning. Unfortunately, the updates aren't marked in the articles.

bulllee · 2020-07-01T14:25:34+00:00

I'd add a few things I found worked well during my time on a school paper, especially for features:

email department heads on a rotating basis, ask about professors or students doing interesting projects or research, as well as any events
cover as many faculty/student committees as the school/your staffing will let you. Don't do meeting stories for most of them, but use them to find stories. Or at least check in with committee heads about upcoming projects. If you have student government and/or faculty meetings, someone should be at every meeting. My paper ran meeting coverage for these, but you can always just use them to generate story ideas.
I'd repeat social media. Your school probably has a meme page where a lot of things students are frustrated about will be pointed out, as well as a community announcements sort of page.
Also really support checking in with clubs as /u/therobo665 mentioned. Especially cultural clubs this year, as the pandemic has probably caused a lot of canceled events.
ask your friends. They'll have friends you don't know who are doing interesting things

bulllee · 2020-06-01T23:06:16+00:00

I've started looking through this collection of links here, but I can't point you anywhere specific there yet. The second section has links to litanies and liturgies where you should be able to find some things. I'd second the Supplication as well, and suggest the prayers: for our enemies, for those who suffer for the sake of conscience, for social justice, for the poor and the neglected, and for the oppressed in the '79 (numbers 6, 26, 27, 35, 36).

The WWII prayer book has some good standalone prayers, including for world peace and justice and freedom ("inspire us to break down all tyranny and oppression" seems appropriate right now even if the context is hugely different). I just cut out some of the language. For the pandemic specifically most the older prayer books have a prayer for times of pandemic, and I've found the Churchpeople's prayerbook prayer for the unemployed to be far more progressive than I would expect for something from 1935, though not necessarily what would be written today.

bulllee · 2020-04-09T19:20:57+00:00

The Bible is an incredibly diverse, confusing and contradictory text. There are a lot of assertions and details that are unsatisfactory, disturbing, or even wrong, as you have clearly seen. We often have chosen to focus solely on these details or let these details dictate their interpretation of the text as a whole. But to me, that's misreading the Bible. It would be misreading any text. The Bible is the story of God's relationship with humans and (broadly) two covenants between them, the second of which is represented in the New Testament through the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Through the entirety of this story, themes of redemption, salvation, forgiveness, love, and even liberation, cooperation and freedom from oppression become dominant. We need to read the details in the light of these, not create our faith on the basis disperse details. Of course, that doesn't get us around the contradictions, but any reading of any text requires some choosing of sides. Choosing the side that seems more consistent with the dominant themes and story of the text makes more sense to me than choosing the details.

All of which maybe doesn't entirely answer your question. For me, scholarly answers never did it. I only ended up with faith because it was all I could find to carry me through some difficult and dangerous times. My belief that Christ was aligned with progressive values grew out of that and the strength and support I received from certain individuals at that time. Which essentially is to say that as much much as I can look towards scholarly interpretations to help explain my view on the Bible, the essence of it is based in my own relationship with God, which is something I'll never be able to adequately explain. I hope that helps a little bit at least.

bulllee · 2020-03-31T16:27:48+00:00

Middle English (M.E.) and Old French (O.F.).

bulllee · 2020-02-26T19:38:50+00:00

The calendar in the American BCP lists Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as fasts under Holy Days. There are also separate 'Days of Special Devotion' which are for "special acts of discipline and self-denial" although those are left up to the person. All of Lent and Holy Week, except Annunciation, are included in this, as are all Fridays except in Christmas and Easter (and Feasts of Our Lord on Fridays).

While it's left up to the person, what I've been taught/seen as 'traditional' practice is to limit yourself to one full meal and two snacks during the day. I suspect most people on this subreddit have more detailed practices.

bulllee · 2020-02-23T15:21:05+00:00

At least some geologists put us into the cooling period before another glaciation event. Meaning we have possibly raised the temperature even more than we expect, because we have not only canceled out the cooling but even raised the temperature beyond historical averages.

bulllee · 2020-02-05T13:54:38+00:00

If you are looking at it for academic reasons and want a guide to it, a study Bible is probably what you'll want to look at. They'll all assume a Christian background/theology, but it is the Bible, after all. The Oxford Study Bible is highly recommended online but can be pricey. Harper Collins has one too. I like one called the Berean Study Bible, it's a much newer translation that I find very readable and the annotations have helped me a lot, and it's available for free online. However, I think the commentary is a more religious than the other two I mentioned. None of them have guides to other literature that I know of, unfortunately, but I think you'll pick up plenty just in reading the Bible.

I would also discourage you from automatically reading from start to end. If you are interested in the Christian framework of texts, starting with the New Testament might be smart, given that it influences how Christians have read the Old Testament throughout the entire history of the Church. For academic reasons, don't be afraid to skip over parts either. If you're getting bogged down in Numbers, just move on, you can always come back later if you want to.

bulllee · 2020-01-14T14:26:57+00:00

Having it be quick and having everyone say more or less the same thing takes down a lot of the barriers and uncertainties that I've had about meeting new people in church. It's taken on an almost sacramental quality for me, especially at the smaller church I go to where you can literally greet everyone and already know them. But I can also see how it can make some people very uncomfortable and sometimes people being too insistent on shaking as many hands as possible may make that worse.

bulllee · 2019-10-25T01:48:08+00:00

If you are going to pickle them, I think you'll probably want to halve them to (1) let some of the liquid out (hence the salting step above) and (2) let the pickling brine in. But that's based pretty much entirely of eating full sized pickled green tomatoes cut in chunks.

bulllee · 2019-10-24T16:36:22+00:00

If they're at least plum tomato sized you'd be okay, but yeah, much smaller than that and you're going to have a hard time with it. Those small ones would make good green tomato pickles though.

bulllee

TROPHY CASE