My driver's license expires today. I have had it for four years. I had planned to get it renewed downtown during work on Friday, but as anyone can see from the self-portrait to the left, I chose the wrong day to wear such a bright colored shirt and not shave. I think I'll be going to the DMV service center at the library today to get it renewed.
June is going to turn out to be a pretty big month for me professionally. I just finished editing the Healthiest Employers of the Twin Cities package for the paper. It's the third year in a row that I've run the project. We had a nice lunch a the Hilton with all of the winners and I got to sit next to restaurateur David Fhima, a really nice French-born chef. He and his wife and I talked throughout lunch about food and about the Hopkins school district, which they just love (cause 2 of their kids went through there recently). I concluded after our conversation that the more involved a parent is in their kids' schooling, the less important the school matters.
What else at work. The ND oil boom panel discussion is next Thursday. I've been spending time preparing for that.
The first big North Dakota story that I wrote is now free for all to read. The editorial directors of all 42 bizjournals at our parent company, listed it as one of the seven best stories that we had the week it published. Here's their overly-nice summary:
5. A
good lead compels a reader to dive into a story. A really good lead
puts the entire story into perspective. And a great lead does both in
one sentence. That’s what Minneapolis’s Sam Black does this week as he
explores the incredible energy boom in neighboring North Dakota and how
it is affecting Minnesota. This story is full of market intelligence,
elegant writing and perspective. It’s superb, from the first sentence
forward. http://bit.ly/JwWWnh
We have our Society of Professional Journalists dinner on Tuesday night. I will be getting some award for the investigative business category, I think for
a story I wrote in 2011 about Bob Lux, a developer that wanted to build a casino in downtown Minneapolis. It was the first and only time in my career I've gone to seek out family court files to look at someones divorce files for a story.
Later in the week, I think on Friday, I'm going to be getting some kind of award for best weekly business news story of the year from the National Association of Real Estate Editors -- for the same Lux/casino story I think. That ceremony is in Denver, and so I won't be attending. I believe I'm the runner up for that award, which last year went to something in New York Crain's magazine.
Finally, let me share with you an interesting video. At our regular monthly staff meetings we've been rotating around the company to share a "day in the life" of each department. Our department used an 8 min video produced and directed by Nancy Kuehn (a fellow North Dakota native) and our staff photographer to show what goes on. The intro is my favorite part, but towards the end of the video you'll see why I called this blog post what I did. Click the center of the box below a few times to get the embedded YouTube video to start. If that doesn't work
, try this link.
