Ken vs. the City

I’ve started playing around with the Drupal content management system, a piece of software like Wordpress or Blogger that helps you manage your web site. It’s a whole lot more complicated than Wordpress, which KvC is built on, but it’s also a whole lot more powerful. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing yet, but the first step in playing around with any new piece of software is figuring out how to install it.

Installing Drupal was actually a whole lot easier than all the reams of confusing online documentation would have you think.

1. Decide Where to install Drupal
You can install Drupal either in the root directory (http://www.whatever.com), or a subdirectory (http://www.whatever.com/subdirectory). Since this Wordpress site is already installed in the root directory, I decided to install Drupal into http://www.kenvsthecity.com/drupal.

2. Download Drupal
Go ahead and download Drupal. The most recent version is 4.7.2. Drupal is compressed in a wierd archive called a Tarball. Don’t worry. You can unzip it using just about any decompression software. I recommend IZArc.

Drupal is actually compressed twice for some reason. So just unzip the first file, and then unzip the file you just unzipped. (I hope that makes sense.) Make sure Drupal is nice and cozy somewhere on your hard drive.

3. Create A Home for Drupal
Now it’s time to make a home for Drupal on your web server. Fire up your FTP browser (I recommend SmartFTP) and log in to your web site. Go to your site’s root directory (usually “public_html”) and create the subdirectory where Drupal will live. I named mine “drupal,” since I’m just playing around with it and it doesn’t need some gimmicky URL.

4. Create Drupal’s Database
Drupal stores all its data (blog posts, menus, etc.) in a database. You can use either mySQL or PostgreSQL. My webhost has both installed, but I decided to use mySQL. Wordpress also uses mySQL, so I already had a general idea of how to connect Drupal to a new mySQL database.

4a. Add database. Most webhosts like mine have a graphical front-end to their site called cpanel. Just click on the mySQL icon. Then type in the name for a new database (I called mine “drupaldata”) and click “Add Db.” There’s a way to do all this stuff through the command line, but this is just easier.

4b. Add user. Add a new user by typing in a new user name and password, and clicking “Add User”

4c. Add user to database. Select the user you just created in the drop down box under the new database. Make sure “All” privilages is selected and click “Add User to Db”

5. Tell Drupal Where It’s being Installed
Go back to the copy of Drupal you saved on your hard drive. Navigate to “\sites\default”. There you should find the file “settings.php”. Go ahead and open it up in a text editor like Notepad or Wordpad.

Scroll down to where it says “$db_url = ‘mysql://username:password@localhost/databasename’.” Replace “username” with the mySQL username you chose, replace “password” with that mySQL user name’s password, and replace “databasename” with the name of the database you created.

Now scroll down to where it says “$base_url = ‘http://www.example.com’.” Replace “http://www.example.com” with the URL of the location you’re installing Drupal to. In my case, it was “http://www.kenvsthecity.com/drupal”.

Save “Settings.php” and close it.

6. Upload Drupal
Fire up your FTP browser again and upload Drupal into the directory you created.

7. Import the Drupal Database Setup
I’m not sure if this step is necessary or not, but I did it and it works. Go to cpanel again and click the mySQL icon. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the icon for something calles “phpMyAdmin.” It’s a web-based front-end for managing the settings of your mySQL database. Select the Drupal database you created in the drop down box on the left.

Then select “Import” from among the tabs on the top of the main section. Where it says “File to Import,” click “browse” and select the file “database.4.1.mysql”. It should be under “\database” in the copy of Drupal on your hard drive. Then click “Go.”

8. Create The Drupal Admin Account
Drupal should now be successfully installed on your host’s web server. Fire up your web browser and navigate to your new Drupal installation. It’ll give you an error message if you haven’t edited “settings.php” right. Otherwise, it will prompt you to create a new user account. The first account you create will automatically have all the administration privilages.

The instructions are pretty straightforward. Click “create new account,” enter the user name and an email address. Hit enter. You’ll get an email with the administrator password. Log in to Drupal and you’re ready to start playing around.

Have fun.

Unconventional Writing Exercise #4

Hmm. That interview exercise was a lot more work that I thought it would be. I kept putting it off and putting it off. Then I became so busy with other stuff, I nearly forgot about it. Maybe I’ll come back to it eventually. Anyway, this next unconventional exercise is actually pretty conventional:

Create a character.

I promise we’ll do some unconventional things with your character later, but character creation is one of those fundamental things that all creative writers should practice.

When I write a story, I usually don’t know much about my main character. I get to know him (or her) by throwing trials, tribulations, and other sorts of sticky situations at them. For example, I’m working on a (somewhat neglected) novel in which the main character finds himself in the middle of a nuclear war. So far I have hit him with a nuclear shockwave, shot him in the leg, made him spend all night in the rain, forced him to confront a pack of wolves and fight a killer robot. Through these trials, I have concluded that he is not only rather timid, prefering sometimes to hide, rather than confront what’s facing him, but he’s also inquisitive and determined to press on towards his destination (it’s a journey story, by the way) in spite of his timidity. He’s also very proud and is largely reluctant to accept help from anyone.

When you’re thinking about your character, also think about what makes them angry, what makes them hurt, what will push them to their utmost limits, what’s in room 101. Sticky situations will literally “build your character.”

Step 1: Think of a character
Think of a man, a woman, a robot, an animal, whatever. No need to come up with any background information. That will fall into place later.

Step 2: Put them through the meat grinder
Write a scene where your character experiences the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world varies from individual to individual. For example, if your character is a proud athelete, create an accident that leaves him paralyzed. If your character is a 90lb weakling, put him in a fight with the toughest bully in school. If your character hates snakes, make him dive in to a room filled with deadly asps to recover the Ark of the Covenant.

Step 3: Share your character
Post what you learned about your character here by leaving a comment.

I met up with a guy yesterday who’s a columnist for the New York Sun in their Arts and Culture section. He’s kind of a quirky guy, but that made him interesting. Anyway, he gave me a quick tour of the Sun’s news room.

The Sun is a new paper with an old name. The original New York Sun was published in the late 1800’s and is known for having published the editorial “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” in 1897. The new New York Sun is a small paper, even compared to amNewYork and Metro, the free commuter papers. It was launched in 2002 by a group of New York City businessmen.

I had never been in a real newsroom before. I expected it to be loud and busy, like you see in the movies, with story ideas and papers flying left and right and a matter-of-fact editor-in-chief sequestered behind a glass door labeled “Perry White.” What I saw instead was a typical office setting with people typing away quietly on their computers, trying to meet the evening deadline so the paper could go out in the morning.

I suppose I should’ve expected that it would be pretty low-key. As a journalist I’m more of a Jimmy Olsen than a Clark Kent. It’s adventure-free Jimmy Olsen that should be the one to realize that journalism is a working man’s job. After all, despite the sensational nature of a handful of stories, the bulk of the news is pretty mundane.

Anyway, after the guy showed me around I asked him a few questions about how he worked. Apparently he’s got his nose into various arts and culture events around the city. He attends them in the evening and then writes about them in the morning. That’s it. I didn’t get a chance to talk to some of the hard news folks (I would’ve liked to), but I got the impression that work at the Sun has an even pace to it, with plenty of time to think about what you’re writing.

I got the impression that the Sun is very “old journalism” with a heavy emphasis on the print side of things. Still, they have a decent, if cluttered, website. I’ve seen worse. And the news is news, whether it’s online, in print, or scrawled on the subway wall.

Like a lot of smaller papers, they get most of their international stuff off the AP news wire. For local and business, they pull some stuff off of Bloomberg, but they have a team of dedicated staff reporters. Maybe I can grab an interview with one of them and find out what the news news is like.

After chatting, the guy suggested that I pitch the Sun a column idea. Frankly, there are times when I feel like I can’t even pitch a baseball. I just nodded and told him I’d think about it. Maybe I will, but who knows?

Podcast Update

We recorded Episode #6 of Haven Nation last week, but the web site has been having some server problems, so I haven’t been able to upload it yet. I think we’re moving more towards topical discussions with guest artists like “what do you think about such-and-such?”, instead of just asking guests questions like “who is your daddy and what does he do?”

I have a new co-host for the show, and Episode six sort of introduces her. I’ll let you know when it’s up.

Work Update

I’m still trying to get my head around what my editor thinks so I can write accordingly. Today I wrote a short news brief on Google’s upcoming facility in Michigan, and he added in a phrase that I would personally consider unnecessarily wordy. Here’s an excerpt:

“Michigan has been Googled,” said Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm at a news conference yesterday in Landsing. What that means exactly is that Google plans to open a facility in Ann Arbor that will employ 1,000 workers over the next five years.

The part highlighted in yellow was the addition. What do you guys think? I’m probably being nitpicky, but I still like to know the reason behind edits.

Work Update

Self-Scheduling
Things have been a little interesting in the realm of journalism for me. I’ve finaly set up a work schedule for myself at Adotas that will hopefully let me crank out about 2 feature articles and one editorial per week. The schedule is stagard, meaning that I come up with the article idea and start researching and setting up interviews two weeks in advance. The actual writing will be done on the articles I was researching the previous week.

I have no idea if this will work, but we’ll see.

Creative differences w/ editor
Last week I wrote an article about Digg 3.0. It basically detailed some of the new features of Digg from an online marketing perspective. I’m not happy with the way the article turned out, but deadlines are deadlines. But the thing that bugged me the most was that my editor changed the title to one that made the article sound like it was a regular old review or description of Digg 3.0 (of which there are a million already) rather than something aimed at marketers.

It’s certainly his perogative to make such a decision and I’ll stand by it, but it peeves me none the less. I was really pushing to make the article stand out from all the other Digg 3.0 descriptions out there. Part of it was I just couldn’t seem to get away from the “here’s all this cool new stuff” mentality. At least I got a chance to interview Kevin Rose. He really is a nice guy.

Need sleepy
And finally I was amazed at how much I was able to get done at work yesterday after having gotten a good nights sleep the night before. So kids, listen to you parents and GO TO BED!

Creative Update

I must confess that I haven’t done any significant fiction writing since my last Creative Update. Part of it is because I’m getting used to a new work schedule, but part of it is because I’m just lazy. I have 3 short stories that are complete, and need to be re-written and edited before I can even think about selling them. I’ve just been dragging my feet with them.

I’ve set myself a goal to have one of the stories ready to go by Monday (7/10/06). That means I’ll have the weekend to work on things. The one I have in-mind is codenamed B3, just in case I mention it later.

Unconventional Writing Exercise #3

Today’s writing exercise may be a little difficult for all you solitary writers out there. It’s time to break out of your shell and try something a little different.

Step 1: Interview somebody. Anybody. It could be a friend or a stranger. Ask them things like what they like, what they hate, what they do for a living, and who their heroes are. Just be curious and play it by ear. Find out who they really are deep down inside. Don’t be afraid to ask questions that are difficult to answer.

Step 2: Write a short description of a character based on what you learned from your interview. Fictionalize it as much as you want. The character you end up describing may end up looking nothing like the person you actualy interviewed. Just make sure you use your interview as the basis for it. But when you write your description, don’t use any adjectives or adverbs. That’ll force you to think around corners.

As usual, post your character descriptions here in the comments section. I’ll do mine and post it in a few weeks.

Interview tips:

• When you ask someone for an interview, say something like: “Hey, I’m ________. I’m a writer, and I need to do an interview for a writing exercise. Mind if I interview you?”
• You don’t have to record the interview, since your character description will be fictitious, but it may help if you want to refer back to the interview later.

5 Sample questions:

• What is your name? (who are you, what do you do, what do you love, hate, etc.)
• What is your quest? (what’s your highest goal in life, who do you look up to, etc.)
• What is your favorite color? (what makes you unique, what couldn’t you live without, etc.)