Okay, this CT night was really great. We got out of there at 6:20. That sounds bad by some mythical objective standpoint, of the "average" student or something, but first you have to consider two facts. One: our times have been steadily getting better. Ths first night this semester - my first night as editor - I couldn't sneak out until around 10, and the paper wasn't ready to go until after 11. The second week, We got out of there around 9:30 am. The third week (last week) we finished up around 7:45. And today, here we are, back in our rooms already at 6:20.

And the second fact to take into account is that over the course of the week, the number of articles we were expecting dwindled from 12 all the way down to six, and a five page news section takes seven stories. Reliable writers had family emergencies or just very busy weeks, stories given to less reliable writers were harder than we expected or just plain not possible... and worst of all (to me at least), I was working on something which we thought would be a major story but after a dozen reversals I found out at the last minute that it was no story at all for another two weeks. (I guess that puts me in the class of "less reliable writers". Well, I don't know. In some ways I'm very good, as we found out today, but in others apparently not.)

Today's paper will almost certainly suck. But you know what? We went into it with most stories coming in late or not at all, and we came out of it the easiest and quickest yet. The one story (not counting a brief) with my name on it is horrible, terrible, and pointless, but I wrote it completely from scratch after 9 pm around doing other editing jobs when it became clear that we probably wouldn't have enough space. By the time I was through writing it, it filled the space with text to spare.

And I also luckily never had to worry about breaking that promise; that's the thing that turned out to be not a story. So I'll be able to squeeze a certain someone for information in two weeks for something that will almost definitely be a story then. Also, if I feel vindictive - no, that's not professional enough, I should say "If I need to play hardball" :) - I have enough quotes from this week's failed investigation to make a complete idiot of anyone who doesn't want to cooperate.

Not really, of course. That actually happening is as likely as me actually punching Nick as soon as I see him. It sounds like fun, especially right after dealing with a headache orthogonally related to him/them, but come on, in real life my brain would step in.

But anyways. This issue probably won't be great, but considering what we were working with, I'm proud of it nonetheless.

Also, as I think I mentioned before, I was lucky enough to be one of the four editors selected to represent the UR Campus Times at a conference for college journalists in March - in Las Vegas. That should be fun.