Comments on: 10 years ago: My first week in real online journalism

By: The first hard translation | Patrick Cooper: Greetings from Evanston, Ill.

The first hard translation | Patrick Cooper: Greetings from Evanston, Ill. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:48:13 +0000

[...] about the story in a long time, but it was the first real, hard, in-progress narrative demand thatÂ initial summer on the Web. Initially meeting the question, how did you take a horrible story, put it into a box and template [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:00:41 +0000

I fully accept responsibility on Wahid. But now there's the true test of a CMS. Ten years later, can the system allow the edit?

Melissa, we'll see how far back we can go in the archives with this kid… Could be dangerous.

By: Andrew Sherry

Andrew Sherry — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:36:09 +0000

Hey Patrick, sorry to pop the balloon of those two paragraphs after 10 years, but Wahid was known as Gus Dur not Gus Dar.

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:13:15 +0000

Strangely, June 1999 was when I went to work for CNN.com. I was incredibly proud. It took my boss about two months to completely snuff that out of me.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:27:03 +0000

So jealous that you still have your intern card. Despite tears and pleading, USAT security guys pried mine from my clenched fists when I came back to work election night and they realized I still had my summer ID.

Also, bring back 17-year-old Patrick. And keep going a few years more…well, maybe not.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:05:19 +0000

Also, on 19-year-old Patrick, there's a rerun from 17-year-old Patrick ("The Woman with the Big Hair" story aka how I failed my driving test) that's been waiting in draft mode here a few weeks. I'm hesitant to let him onto the blog.

With NoVa, moved there from Silver Spring in May '05 — finally googling what a glebe was — and had grown up in DC proper. So, Virginia isn't as much "the land on the other side of the river where I get lost" as much as it used to be, but still.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:52:30 +0000

So you're a newbie to NoVa?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:51:07 +0000

The next summer at Post.com was $10/hour, and I think both summers included MetroChek. Then the bust came, and online news interns would never be paid for anything ever again.

With the free lunch, the guy's name was Tim, and the place was the cafeteria-type predecessor to the cafeteria-type place above the underground Safeway on Wilson. Something that will surprise no one: It's possible I went there every lunch that summer. It's hazy, but I don't think Cafe Asia or even the Domino's opened until the next summer.

On jury duty, I think it's all about living in DC. You get called there almost as often as legally possible. I've probably been called six or seven times to different courts in the past decade (including two different levels this winter), but thanks to college/work/etc out of state, have only had to go twice. Meanwhile, you've got NoVa folks like my old boss here at USAT. He's lived in the region since 1983ish and got his first call ever within the last year.

By: LC

LC — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:59:34 +0000

They paid interns?! Oh the good days…

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:16:10 +0000

Too cute, Cooper. You've come a long way, indeed. An aside: I find it odd that it seems everyone I know has been called for jury duty and I've never, ever been. I didn't realize 19-year-olds got picked for JD!

By: Jess

Jess — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:00:57 +0000

PS — It's good to see that someone buying you lunch has always made you happy.

And this is my favorite line:

"It didn't really feel too boring when I'm sure it really was."

More, more nearly-19-year -old Patrick, please!

By: Jess

Jess — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:59:44 +0000

How far you have come… (all the way up the street!)