I’m headed to The Seattle Times
Big news today in the life of Lauren Rabaino: I am taking a job at The Seattle Times as a resident producer.
For those of you who don’t know, I left Publish2 at the end of December. Since then, I’ve been blogging, doing freelance design and lounging on the beach — all while searching for the right job. I have finally found it.
The Seattle Times is the second-largest newspaper on the West Coast and has a newsroom of about 200. The team I’ll be working with, led by Eric Ulken, is awesome and loaded with good ideas — and exciting changes on the way.
Posted in journalism, life | Tagged announcements, eric ulken, new job, seattle times, seattle washington | 5 Comments
California Supreme Court rejects noncompete clauses. This is old news but I discovered it today from a lab technician in Santa Barbara. I’ve signed a few noncompete agreements in my day, and apparently they’re void here in California. “Californians have the right to move from one company to another or start their own business and can’t be prohibited by their employer from working for a competitor in their next job.”
Detroit Free-Press uses Intersect to map and document Asian carp journey. My personal critique at 10,000 Words on Free-Press’ use of the storytelling tool. Overall, I don’t think it’s a good medium for the content type, but give them kudos for real-time, on-the-spot reporting.
Sample uses of WordPress’s Twenty Ten theme
I love Twenty Ten. (Really, it’s what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving). The theme’s structure, typography and general functionality make my mouth water. It’s more than “just another WordPress theme.” The best part: It’s so damn versatile. With just the addition of a file or two (a stylesheet and sometimes a loop-index.php), the theme can be transformed into a whole other animal. Here are some of the ways I’ve tweaked Twenty Ten for freelance projects and for friends/family to quickly make WordPress sites that are compatible with all of WordPress’s awesome features. Continue reading →
Posted in design | Tagged child themes, themes, twenty ten, twenty ten examples, uses of twenty ten, wordpress | 2 Comments
How I lost my WordPress virginity
I started to write this post for the Carnival of Fail about CoPress. But I realized that the CoPress story wasn’t really mine to tell (passing the mic to Bachhuber) and didn’t end up writing a Carnival of Fail post. However, the interesting narrative that came out of my unfinished post is the story of my first WordPress installation and my introduction to a group of people who have shaped my life in ways unimaginable. I don’t have any friends left from my college experience except — and probably because of — the CoPress crew. So here’s my underwhelming story about losing my WordPress virginity (Spittle and Nacin might be interested, in the very least). Continue reading →
Posted in random, two cents | Tagged copress, mustang daily, personal reflections, wordpress | 3 Comments
Happy Mother’s Day
To all the mothers out there, I hope you have a wonderful day. I know my mom is — the six words I used to describe her for The New York Times‘ “momoirs” were briefly on the homepage this morning, take a look:
I described her as having a “sailor’s mouth, baker’s touch, lion’s heart.” And it’s all true. If you’ve ever spent time with me you know I curse like a sailor, too, and I have her to blame for that 
. I unfortunately didn’t acquire her ability to bake and I’m still always learning from her about how to be selfless and giving.
My mom is amazing. Happy Mother’s Day to her. LOVE YOU, MOM. You can follow her on Twitter.
Posted in just for fun | Tagged ladonna rabaino, mom, momoirs, mother's day, new york times, six words | Leave a comment
Why the New York Times’ Pay Model is Similar to NPR and Spot.Us. David Cohn’s awesome idea to implement a points system for readers who pay a subscription fee to the NYT.
Personal reflections on Osama Bin Laden’s death
I am from the generation shaped by 9/11.
I still remember that somber day in 2001. I was in seventh grade. I woke up to my dad watching TV, probably around 6 a.m. PST, telling me that a plane had just crashed into The World Trade Center.
I didn’t know what that building was. I didn’t know what it meant. But I knew that someone was intentionally trying to hurt a bunch of people. And I was scared. I ran across the street, knocked on the door of my cousin who lives there, and told her the news (except I said it was a plane full of bombs, because in my adolescent brain “terrorist attack” equated to bombings).
Posted in two cents | Tagged osama bin laden, personal reflections, sept 11 | Leave a comment
Even In Real Life, There Were Screens Between Us. This NYT guest piece by Syracuse student Caitlin Dewey captures exactly what modern love is like in an online world. I’ve had many-a-fling that played out the same way. For the record, offline love is a million times better.
Five Things AOL’s Patch Is Doing Right. My latest 10,000 Words post about things we can learn about openness and transparency from Patch, despite other criticisms of the hyperlocal effort. These are easily-adoptable concepts for all newsrooms.