Time keeps flying

Wow, over a month since last post.

Guess I haven’t had a lot wild things to say that I can’t say through Facebook and Twitter, but I do want to point out a fun program I just started using, so I can see my work/personal Twitter accounts at the same time, and my Facebook one too – Seesmic Desktop. A bit of a resource hog, but works pretty well, despite being version 0.3. They’re coming out soon with one that works within the browser, which will be better for many.

However, I can’t post news to the KTVZ page in Facebook that way, because the Facebook API hasn’t been opened up to that area yet. Bummer. Will be interesting to see how that develops.

Just ended a week semi-off (hey, you know the Web – demands constant feeding) and it was nice to get more sleep, got to Portland area for a day, etc. Hope you-all are doing well;-)

Only the good die young

OK, so it’s a great Billy Joel song. It fits as well as anything for this little piece.

I doubt highly regarded cyclist/triathlete/mtn. biker Steve Larsen, who died this week at age 39, and Navy rescue swimmer and Marshall (skip the smirks) HS graduate Aaron Clingman, who died this week at age 25, ever crossed paths in Bend, the town they both called home.

But they did this week, on the news and in the headlines. Both died inexplicably, to this point – super-fit Larsen collapsing and dying on the Cascade Middle School track of an as-yet undiagnosed heart ailment, Clingman with five crewmates in the crash of a Navy helicopter into the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.

They say deaths come in threes, but let’s not hoist that old canard and just draw some comparisons and contrasts.

I’d never heard of either gentleman, but both no doubt had endured much and prevailed – Larsen winning accolades not just for his multi-sport prowess but his strong family commitment and easy-going way of offering help and advice to just about anyone who crossed his path.

We know far less of Clingman, only that he struggled at Bend HS, always wanted to be a rescue swimmer with the Navy and eventually got that prized diploma.

We know he had a wife and 10-month-old baby, and to look at those photos is both heartbreaking and inspiring.

Two men among the many who die too soon, in the midst of doing what they loved, that giving solace to friends and family, but not really easing the pain.

Sometimes, the shining examples of true lives lived day to day in inspiring ways only draw attention when they end. Which is sad, too, but … hey, we’re all too busy living our own lives.

But it’s worth taking a moment to stop and contemplate – should you, too, depart this mortal plane in an instant, what would people say about you?

I no doubt would have my grieving friends and supporters, and quietly smirking detractors (some of those anonymous online commenters who think I wield my delete-button sword because I’m power-hungry or I don’t agree with their views. In other words, wrong;-/

What would your headline say?

Wow, officially spread too thin

So now we’re trying out Ning, a pretty darn attractive, free, easy-to-use social network platform for The High Desert Forum. A chance to do the things (talk about non-local news stuff, share pix etc.) our Web provider makes difficult/nearly impossible to do.

But that means between that, the Website, Facebook, Twitter – and this lil thing called TV news – I’m not blogging as much (and that’s always been hit or miss for me).

I guess I prefer conversations to blog statements. Others have different favorites.  I just think we all need to listen more, and talk less, and blogs, to me, are usually about talking, one to many. (I’m sure I’ll get some pushback… again.)

I just think social networks are fun, others consider them a royal pain, and absolutely HATE Twitter. Brings out the worst in some people. I just figure it’s another way to tell folks what’s going on.

Anyway, if you don’t see me here…look me up there. I’m bound to be online somewhere😉

Is blogging endangered, like G.I. Joe’s?

Okay, there’s a provocative title, if only for those in the ‘Pac-NW’ who grew up with GI Joe’s being a regional success story.

I’ve been meaning to write a piece of basically, ‘Will Facebook and Twitter kill blogging?” But now, first let me tell my G.I. Joe’s story, now that the stupidly-truncated named ‘Joe’s’ will be fading into liquidation history.

My first real job was at the original G.I. Joe’s on North Vancouver Avenue, a long but not killer-for-a-teen walk from my mobile home… no, trailer home on Hayden Island (Jantzen Beach) in north Portland.

I worked the summer of ’72 in the original part of the original G.I. Joe’s – a quonset hut where, some 20 years earlier, Ed Orkney began selling military surplus. By the time I worked there, it had grown into your basic clothes, housewares, etc. kind of store, and I worked in housewares, toys and bikes. (Believe me, you would not want to ride any bike I ever put together, if you valued your life.)

I remember working up in the musty dusty storage area upstairs, lugging things up or taking them down, then being all hot and sweaty and asking a customer if I could help them, imagining them saying, ‘Yes, please stand downwind.”

I remember how IMPOSSIBLE it was to get the store’s linoleum floor un-slippery after a groovy lava lamp fell and smashed open, spreading that goo all over.

I remember using my terrible handwriting (thenand now) to fill out these forms to transfer items to other stores, or request them from other stores, and dealing with getting signs made for the little holders on the racks and shelves. It’s really my only retail experience – a few years later, I’d be neck-deeper in journalism, an intern at UPI almost my entire senior year at Pacific U. in Forest Grove.

I remember some nice bosses I had, without of course rememebering their names, and I also remember the discounts on merchandise, and for me, for albums. Buying Elton John’s ‘Honky Chateau’ that summer of 1972 (I was Class of ’73 at John Adams High, a story in itself some time.)

(And I remember, on one long walk to or from work one day, a sleazy driver pulling over and saying, in a wimpy-creepy voice I’ll always remember, “Would you like to have sex?” Uh, no. Ewww. Shiver…)

Anyway, flash-forward to now, and Joe’s (losing the G.I. was so … dumb.) goes bankrupt. It hadn’t been special or different enough – I hadn’t been in Bend’s for years, ever since the dumb move to wall off entrances to stores from the Mountain View Mall (now the all-outdoors, lifestyle (but only for Californians) shopping center called … what’s it called again?

So time passed Joe’s by, as folks went to the places where cheap prices rule, or trendier climes like REI beneath the smokestacks.

How does that relate to blogging? Let me try to connect the unconnectable, dot-wise;-)

I’m not blogging as much because I’m Facebooking and Twittering more, and there’s only so many hours in the day.

Blogging is a somewhat lonely enterprise. Facebook and Twitter are far more social – you are amongst friends, among followers, listening as well as talking, laughing and not just trying to make some “important point.”

No, blogging won’t go away. (Neither will journalism, though boy is it going through some rough times). But I feel I’ve neglected this little corner of cyberspace. As I have Newsvine, which I do enjoy but get tired of the yahoo factor at.

That reminds me – our comment system at KTVZ.COM now, much like Newsvine, is built around the news, pretty much (though folks could link to anything, I suppose.) But we’re probably going to finally launch the High Desert Forum at KTVZ.COM, using the latest version of KickApps, to allow folks to talk about things OTHER than the news (well, along with the news), to finally be able to post photos of the weather, wildfires, their kids Little League – whatever they’d like to share with a broader audience, primarily local.

See? Now when I post here, I have to try to catch up by cramming 4-5 things in the same blog entry. Maybe the 140-character limit of Twitter is the ultimate personfication of ol’ Bulletin editor Bob Chandler’s favorite reminders: “Omit needless words. Prune for vigor.” Followed by my usual whine to an editor back then, shoehorning so much to say into so little space: “But I don’t have time to write it that short!”

So I’ll stop there. Hope all’s well with all of you, and come looking for me or us (KTVZ has pages/feeds too) at Facebook or Twitter. I’ll be the one trying to find the Magic Answer to monetizing either/both for the station.

Wish me luck;-)

Being an assignment editor is… challenging

And thanks to a Facebook friend, I’ve found a lady in Denver, Colorado, Misty J., who writes a wonderful, fascinating blog about what the joys and tears and challenges of what this job is like – as well about Twitter, which KTVZ now has a feed on (we also have a new Facebook page! Come check us out;-)
http://assignmenteditorminds.blogspot.com/ is it, and if you’re all curious about what we face on the phones, in the newsroom etc., I highly recommend it.
I plan to be a regular commenter there. It might even inspire more blogging by yours truly.

Facebook, the P-I and change

Tuesday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer joins the Rocky Mountain News in the great Newspapers of the Past dustbin, except… online.

I used to deliver the Seattle Times (PM paper, only thing that worked with school) and the Kent News-Journal, in Kent, Wash. (Boy did people try to avoid paying their bills. Some things never change.)

Anyway, I’m not wistful about technology moving on, only about the idea that people will pay for quality journalism.

Did we shoot ourselves in the foot when we decided to make information free online? Did we have a choice?

Can we find the answers in time to keep journalism a thriving career, online? Hard to say, but the questions aren’t getting any easier.

When I found our competitor had started a Facebook page I decided to create one and wrestle with the technology, just as FB really messed it up with a new interface that… well, you can find enough complaints out there if you care.

How can we not go where there’s 200-million folks chatting the day away? People expect us to be there, and they’re right. We’ll use it in ways I probably can’t even fathom now, but not as shovelware for what we’re trying to draw people to at KTVZ.COM.

Could be interesting.

Meanwhile… RIP, P-I.

Somewhere in America… Election Day

Odds are, this happeed somewhere….

“I’m backing Obama,” says Mr. A.

“Why?” says Mr. B.

“Because his name is five letters long.”

“Huh?”

“Look, Bush is four letters long – nice and short, compared to that seven-letter Clinton fella. Just like his daddy, nice and short.”

“Yeah, so…?”

“Well, McCain – that’s six letters. Poor headline writers. Think of all the wasted ink and paper!”

“And Obama…”

“Yep, just five letters. That’s fine, one more letter. That’s change I can believe in. But from four letters to six? That’s too much. Wild. Radical. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”

“Yeah, but what about syllables? We haven’t had a three-syllable president since… well, when, Kennedy?”

“Hadn’t thought of that. Hmmmm…. that could be a reason to vote for him.”

(Randon thought inspired by the persistent realization that you cannot require an informed vote, or make someone pass a test first. They can back or bounce you based on your smile, your hairstyle or just “something about you.” Or how long your name is…)

Doctor my eyes (the Hallelujah Chorus)

OK, real-life drama is always the most interesting.

Here’s mine.

Around 12:30 yesterday, in the newsroom of course, no more stress than normal, I thought I’d looked out our nice new windows at a sun reflection or something.

Why elese would I be seeing spots?

But soon, they morphed into some pulsing designs of various trapezoidal traiangular stuff along the edges of my vision.

Uh…. oh….

I was talking to the ladies in the room, working on their shows, telling them about it but trying to not freak them out or have them freak me out.

I’d put off eye doctors for far too long, in part because… well, occasional flashing thingies in a darkened room, especially as I got up for the day.

For years – even before I heard Dr. Doug Nelson (former Bend schools supt.) tell me, “If you see flashing, get thee to an opthalmologist!”

So I was scared, to put it mildly.

Fortunately it started to pass, then morphing into some odd issue along the edges of my eyesight.

Okay, freak out time.

Called my darling wife Deb, told her calmly there was something wrong with my eyes and I need to see an eye doctor, SAP.

She had an appointment set up for me within two hours. And by the time she’d called me back to tell me, the issue was gone. But not the fear, of course.

Wake up call!

So I told my bosses, they said get outta there. But of course, I was fine, so I kept working. Deb showed up early, I left late. Working, working. (I’m so pathetic;-)

Anyhoo, to make a long story short, I told the nice lady optometrist everything – they numbed and dilated the eyes, did their tests and used the most glorious word I could ever hear.

Normal.

Whew!

What I’d had was an “ocular migraine.” (I’d never heard of that.) One of the joyous fun possibilities when one gets older. I’m very nearsighted, so I have long eyeballs, and… well, the funny, even amazing thing is, after 15 years of far too much staring at computer monitors, my prescription was… basically the same.

That’s right – I’m finally getting new glasses! Nowhwere near as big – they don’t make em this size any more, I hope – but quite fashionable – bronze, lightweight, etc. etc.

These glasses have stood me in very good stead for a decade-plus, even when the nylon straps stretched so much the lenses would fall out and I had to pry/pop them back in.

I’ve been ribbed by many (especially you, Joe;-) about the corny old glasses for a long time.

Pity it took a big fright to get me to do what needs to be done. (Men can be like that. Women too, I suppose.)

The new me, coming soon to a face near you, well, me;-)

Feed the faith. Fight the fear.

We need to focus on the positive about our economy. Because the fear factor is as big an enemy to recovery as any disagreement about the path.
Not Polyanna, just a counteract to the gloom and doom that’s eating up our future.
Whatcha think?

UPDATE: Quick Google search found this: http://www.goodnewseconomist.com/ – exactly what I’m talking about. Hope to feed him more content of a positive vein – you do the same, please.

Abuse of anonymity and an attempt at a solution

 

I think I’ve written no phrase more in recent months on our Website, unfortunately, than “abuse of anonymity.”

 

Privacy is something to be cherished, and many anonymous parties have been great contributors to our comments.

 

But anonymity abused is nothing but grief, except for the chucklehead behind the keyboard. And so, we change our online comment experiment, after about a year or so, to require that people register with the site before they can comment.

 

I hope it doesn’t chill comments. It surely doesn’t at sites like USA Today, where you also must register and log in to comment. I figure craigslist rants and rave can and should have the corner on totally anonymous brawls. We need to set the bar a bit higher than that/

 

Our comment system has been popular beyond my wildest dreams – thousands of postings a month. On the other hand, it also has brought threats of physical harm against me and others, and sincere people who say the comments online hurt KTVZ.COM’s reputation, etc. Then there are the catfights over ‘spin’ and ‘censorship.’ It gets old.

 

Meanwhile, for every person posting an interesting (or outrageous) comment, there have been dozens if not hundreds who read them, like one kind lady who complimented my efforts at moderation (oy, have I got the arrows to prove not everyone feels that way) and said the comments are “better than reality TV!”

 

I love a good conversation, but at times I’ve needed a whip and a chair, or felt like I was babysitting in kindergarten. I think many would rather I spend more time writing and less time fending off the anonymous hordes of hate and divisiveness.

 

So… we’ll try it this way. I’m hoping it’ll be a wash, posting/page view wise – that for every person who clicks away because they can’t post anonymously (or because it isn’t so salaciously enjoyable any more), there’ll be others who now enjoy a less nasty, more civil conversation (folks won’t be required to post with real names – I think – just register an e-mail address, etc. Learning as we go, people.)

 

Like anything else on the Internet, folks can find ways around it, but it won’t be so easy to just throw a bomb into the room and watch every run for cover. And if it causes unexpected problems, changing back is simple. Or finding a new answer.

 

I know some media sites that tried with required registration from the start have little or no interactivity, but I hope we’ve already built enough of an online community that this change will simply make us less offensive and more interesting a spot to visit or hang out.

—

AFTERNOON UPDATE: As usual, no change comes without pain. And it was a pain to see turning on registration/log-in requirement stopped comments completely. Ah, bugs and computers – they go together like… fill in the blank. We’ll try again once things are sorted out. Until then, I get to keep fighting to keep the conversation on a somewhat sane, non-incendiary plane. Wish me luck;-/