The Friday Wrap

I've got a story scheduled for Sunday's paper on how the lack of political experience might be a virtue in this election season. Look for it in the Big Picture section. Here's some of the other stuff I was up to this week:

Projects for you

This week I launched a new project, Why I Vote. Send in your photo with a sign saying why you vote. Here's an example from David Bayer:


David did a fancy-schmancy computer caption, but all you really need to do is hold up a sign. Get your photos in and we'll put up a gallery.

I'm also still taking entries for the At First Sight project -- tell me a story about when you knew something at first sight.

On the blog and in the paper

I let you know I was going to be on TV.

Then, surprisingly, they actually put me on TV.

Links on Twitter

Here are some links I posted during the week from my Twitter account, @tommytomlinson:

Man eats half-stick of butter every day, solves problems faster. http://bit.ly/bBmWtR So shouldn't Paula Deen be Stephen Hawking by now?

Very cool CNN project: 50 choirs, 1 song. http://bit.ly/dnDvBS

A great gambling story that makes me not want to gamble ever again. http://bit.ly/do3mtf

Thinking about moving to France. Worst comes to worst, would still get to retire at 62. charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/19/177… via @AddThis

New York has its own Alvin Greene, except even more awesome. The rent is too damn high! http://bit.ly/9Do47u

Coming up

If you've been interested in the writing classes I've been teaching at Queens University, but you haven't had a chance to take one yet... I hope to have some news for you next week.

And the Panthers are playing! Against a team almost as bad as they are! If the home team does end up going 1-15, you really don't want to miss the 1.

(By the way, not to brag or anything, but my Panthers' season pick looks like a better bet than the ones by either of our official sports columnists. Although I'd be thrilled to be wrong.)

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Project #5: At first sight

I ran across a beautiful little movie the other day. It was one of the finalists in the narrative division of the Vimeo Awards for short films. Go to the site and you can get lost in there for hours -- I did -- but one film, less than 5 minutes long, has stuck with me ever since.

It's called "Nuit Blanche" (literally "white night," but the French use it to mean "sleepless night") by Arev Manoukian. Watch it first, and then I have a project for you.

What this film made me think about, as you might imagine, is the idea of love at first sight. But love isn't the only thing we feel at first sight... sometimes you know a house is the place you want to live when you pull into the driveway, or you know one dog in the litter is the one meant for you. And we also feel the opposite of those things -- sometimes we DON'T like or DON'T want something as soon as you give it a glance.

So here's the assignment: Tell me a story about a moment when you knew something at first sight.

You can leave it here in the comments or send me an email at ttomlinson@charlotteobserver.com. I'll also post this on my Facebook page. If you have photos or anything else that helps tell your story, send those along too.

We'll compile the best and publish them. So let's hear your story.