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"Astronomical Clock" by Anthony Dodd. Used under CC BY-NC 3.0 license.
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Ideally, when graphic design finishes putting an issue of Horizons together, the department gives
the editor-in-chief a proof to scour. He or she will fix formatting errors,
change headlines, and make sure the design is consistent across pages
Things went a little differently for the first issue this
semester. On Monday, March 25, Professor Karyn Smith, Editor-in-Chief Dave
Weidenfeller and I were discussing the progress we had made toward completing
the edition. The student handling layout said he would be ready with a proof by
that afternoon. We expected to send the finished version to the printer the
following day.
As we were talking, it dawned on us that we had miscalculated.
The instructions that had been left for us said the paper needed to be
forwarded to the printer by 5 p.m. Monday, not Tuesday. If we waited another
day, the paper would not arrive on campus until the following week.
It was already past 3:30.
We leaped into contingency mode. Dave contacted the graphic
design student to ask if he could finish in time. He said he could, but there
would be no time for a final review.
We'd have to take what we could get.
I got the task of forwarding the final document. Karyn sent
me the information that the regular professor, Steve Mark, had left her before
going on sabbatical. While I waited to get the PDF from graphic design, I
composed emails to the relevant people at Graphic
Image in Milford, the company that has been printing our paper for years.
I wasn't exactly sure, though, how I was supposed to give
them the document. Back when I had been running Horizons, we would drive to Milford with a printout, as well as a
CD containing the PDF, the InDesign file, and all the backup files. Things had
changed.
At 4:39 p.m., the graphic design student sent me a text:
“Done!” A few moments later, I found the document and opened it to make sure it
had transferred successfully.
I found the company's website. There was a login page where
users could upload documents. But I had no login information.
It was 4:56; I was running out of time.
I texted Karyn to ask if she had the login information. She
did. Once I saw it, I realized I should have been able to guess it.
I only had three minutes left until 5 p.m. I logged into the
account and uploaded the PDF file. Then I sent the emails out with the document
as an attachment.
Just in time!
The adrenaline rush of barely beating a deadline is
something I fell in love with years ago. It had caught me again. As much as I
would prefer to have had more time to properly proof the paper, in that moment
all I felt was excitement.
Although I could have postponed putting the paper online
until the following day, I was too eager to wait. I added it to my documents on
Scribd, then posted it to
Perspective, the online compliment to Horizons. From there, I updated the Horizons Facebook page, my own Facebook page, and a
few other sites.
The paper was out. In a few days, I would receive a call
from the driver delivering the physical copies to campus. Then the task of
distribution would begin.
For now, though, I could relax. The first issue had made it
to press on time.
Note: I neglected to post
the first issue on this blog when it originally came out. Though it is becoming
dated, I thought you, the reader, might be interested to see the product the
students I’ve been working with have produced. It is, after all, one of the
main topics I discuss here. With that rationale in mind, I’ve included the
online version with this post.
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