Second half of day

We were treated to Jim Jenks, Vice President and Executive Producer of MLB.com and Roy Peter Clark, who's spent 30 years at Poynter.

The first thing Jenks did was dispense advice: "Volunteer for assignments. If you don't know how to do it, find out how to do it. Then volunteer next time. Don't turn any assignment down."

Jenks also had a couple of don'ts:

1. Don't be afraid to move (Check ... twice; thus Miami to Boulder to Colorado Springs)
2. Don't be afraid to take risks (Check ... don't ask how much I owe. You don't wanna know. I don't even know anymore)
3. Don't be afraid to learn [the business] side of the business (Need to do)

Jenks seems to exhibit some of these qualities. For instance, he said he grew up in the military, so he's used to migrating. He's also been employed by nine newspapers and three Internet companies.

One way to learn the business side of any business is to be successful, which means making money. Jenks is a part of this process and says MLB.com does the usual -- sell ads, subscriptions, tickets, etc. -- and the unorthodox -- film commercials with Captain Morgan and Sprint, and provide services for ESPN3 and March Madness because MLB.com has the infrastructure.

One more piece of Jenks advice, which I never thought about prior to these last five days, before I move on to Clark: "For every good writer, an editor helped get them there."

Everyone is crazy. The question is, how crazy? Then, is it good or bad crazy? With Clark, it's the former.

Clark's first book was "Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer" and he has a proposal for an iTunes Application called "Writer's Little Helper." He might make his bones in books, but he's a pretty good teacher.

Clark said all creative steps include steps and teachers has to slow down and process it to teach the steps. He even compared teaching to shooting a free throw. Get to the line, set your feet, take a few dribbles, bend the knees, rise and release. And he demonstrated all of those steps. When he came time to teaching reporting, he gave us an eight-step process to follow.

All in all, a learning experience as pure and sweet as a Jesus Shuttlesworth jumper.