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June 19 Transforming the MissourianThis week I'm involved in a retreat with my fellow Missourian editors. Our goals: 1) To figure out what the new relationship is between a community news organization and its readers; 2) What is the newsroom we need to create. I'm going to try to blog about it throughout the week. Unfortunately, the wireless network here isn't really equipped to serve all of us laptop-toting faculty types, so the posts may be a little sporadic. From our morning session, here are some of the big questions going into the week: How do we teach what we don't know? How do we protect the core principles of journalism while thinking way beyond into the future? How do we keep up? How do we better teach what we do know, which is critical evaluation of information. What do we do less of so that we can do more of something else? Or, how do we do more without doing less? What do we do with the print product? How do we learn what we don't know? How do we learn the technical skills? How do we change horses in midstream? That is, how do we convince our students to think Web first instead of print first? How do we maintain news hierarchy online? How do we keep our readers happy? How do we attract more readers? Who is not reading us, and how do we get them? How do we bring our students up to speed? How can it dovetail with curriculum? What content should we continue? What content should we expand? What content should we get rid of? And how do we define content in this brave new world? How will the relationship between news and advertising change? How do we market the great stuff we do? How do we keep from turning students and journalists into low-level data collectors? Do we collaborate well enough as a group to move our newsroom to the next level? Better yet, can we? Much more to come. Stay tuned. Powered by ScribeFire. June 18 The future of news -- help Missourian editors out!!!This week, Missourian editors are at a retreat to discuss how we're going to shape the future of news. To that end, we really need to know how we can better serve YOU. Please hit the comment button and answer the following questions. Names will be kept confidential. We're strictly looking for ideas of how we can better serve the public. 1. How do you find news and how do you use it? 2. What is news to you? 3. Are you satisfied with the news you get and how you get it? 4. Is there enough news available for you? 5. What do you wish you could find more of? 6. Please list your age (or approximate age), gender and occupation: 7. Please include any other thoughts you may have. We have a really quick turnaround on this -- I need to hear from everyone by 6 a.m. CDT Tuesday. So please, take a moment now and help a fella out! Thanks, jake June 09 Fitness updateMy goal this week was to make it to the gym five days. I made it for four -- I skipped Thursday because I overslept. I worked the night shift on Wednesday night, and I was pretty amped up when I got home. I didn't fall asleep until 3:30 a.m., and I didn't roll my lazy action out of bed Thursday morning until 11 a.m. I had a 1 p.m. appointment, and in those 2 hours I had some other stuff that needed to be taken care of. I had to work after my 1 p.m. appointment, so thusly I had no time.
That's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking to it. I could have tried harder to go to sleep the night before, but I was watching Season 5 of Scrubs on DVD. That's what really kept me up until 3:30. I should have sucked it up and gotten up earlier and still gone to the gym, but I didn't.
But the four days I did go definitely gave me a lot of pep and energy this week. And the better fitness helped me to better handle the doubleheader we played in softball last night. I played both games at catcher and made some nice plays. I caught a couple of pop-ups and managed to get a couple of hits. I bought my first bat a few hours before the games and spent some time in the batting cage. That really helped, but I still need to practice my batting.
We lost our first game 17-4 but came back to win the nightcap 7-1. We're now 3-4 on the season, but that was our first "legit" win since the season opener (the other victory came via forfeit when the other team didn't show up). So it felt good to earn a victory for the first time in several weeks. And we have a doubleheader again next week, so I'm looking forward to that. Poor coverage of the political debatesPaul Krugman's recent piece in the New York Times about the coverage of the presidential debates is a must-read.
While it's no surprise that politicians lie, Krugman exposes some of the lies told during the recent Republican presidential debate and, more importantly, how top news organizations didn't sieze upon the whopper Mitt Romney told about the origins of the Iraq war. According to Romney, Saddam never let international inspectors into Iraq.
Hans Blix, the chief inspector in Iraq, wrote a book about the whole inspection experience. Now, in fairness to the whole inspection question, the Iraqi government under Saddam did play a whole lot of cat-and-mouse games with the inspectors in the run-up to the war. But once Bush started turning up the heat, Saddam started to straighten up and give the inspectors the access he really should have given them since the '90s. It was about that point in time that Colin Powell made his now-infamous case to the U.N. that war was the only option, and next thing you know the war was on.
So there's the whole back story that Krugman didn't have space to go into.
And before you readers on the right get defensive, don't worry -- Krugman sure takes Hillary to task as well for her lie at the most recent Democrat debate about health care. Her lie? She says the plans offered by John Edwards, Barack Obama and herself are all pretty much the same thing. Funny thing is, we haven't seen her plan yet. And really, if you look at what Edwards and Obama are each proposing, they're far from the same thing. And you sure can't compare your plan to anyone else's when you don't have one in the first place.
And to think, we still have more than a year of presidential politics fun in front of us. I hope the national media finds it within itself to report the whole story when candidates tell whoppers like Mitt and Hillary did this week. June 04 The worst podcast EVERI managed to make it to the gym today for about 30 minutes of cardio work. But before I went, I spent some time trying to find a podcast or vodcast of last night's debate for Democratic presidential candidates. I didn't have a ton of time to search, so I ended up going with a podcast from the Washington Times. I thought it would be interesting to see how a conservative paper covers the Democrats.
Needless to say, WORST PODCAST EVER!!! I don't even mean that in a partisan way -- I mean it in a purely technical way.
If you're into the idea of a monotone, almost robotic voice reading stories directly from the pages of the Washington Times, then this is the podcast for you. I may end up subscribing to it if I ever have a bout of insomnia, but for now I'm still looking for a good podcast of last night's debates.
Oh well -- still plenty of time to follow this race with the first primary still about a year away.
As for the podcast, I haven't heard something that bad since I lived in Cheyenne and had to watch Channel 5. This week's fitness goalsMy goal this week is to make it to the gym every day. I have appointments scheduled with my trainer for Tuesday and Friday, so those days are pretty well taken care of. The big days will be today, Wednesday and Thursday -- can I pull my lazy action into the gym on those days, or will I make excuses and not do it? Stay tuned ... Powered by ScribeFire. June 03 Is it time to pull out of Iraq? The debate continuesJust offering up some links to the "should we stay or should we go" debate for a Sunday morning. Robert Kagan writes in The Washington Post why it's important to stay and win. However, he does fail to attribute some of his supporting facts, including this paragraph: It is what's wrong with this story, however, that makes it so irresponsible. The fact is that, contrary to so many predictions, Iraq has not descended into civil war. Political bargaining continues. Signs of life are returning to Baghdad and elsewhere. Many Sunnis are fighting al-Qaeda terrorist groups, not their Shiite neighbors. And sectarian violence is down by about 50 percent since December. * * * The Washington Post editorial board tries to strike a note of compromise with this editorial on what to do after the surge. * * * Michael Kinsley seems to be getting some long-held rage out of his system with this column. There's an especially interesting nugget near the end of this column that should make us all think a little bit as we turn our attention to what the 2008 presidential hopefuls are saying to get elected. * * * The New York Times opinion page didn't have too much on the debate to end the war, but I did want to throw in two editorials that are at least related to the war. The first is on Dick Cheney's lack of accountability. Sorry if that upsets the conservative readers of this blog, but it's true -- he doesn't feel he needs to be held accountable to anyone. Considering that our Constitution is based on a series of checks and balances, doesn't that make him anti-American by being against the Constitution? The second editorial is on how we as a country need to do a better job taking care of our troops. I hope we can all get behind that one. Powered by ScribeFire. June 02 Ideas for your iPodHere's what I'm listening to lately when I'm doing my cardio (or when I'm writing blogs):
VHI Best Week Ever video podcast: I love this weekly recap of the best and worst of pop culture, but I rarely get a chance to catch it on TV. Thanks to iTunes, you can not only download the show weekly for free, but you can also get daily Best Night Ever recaps featuring a lineup of comics you don't see on Best Week. There are also outtakes from the show, DVD picks of the week and other online-only content. Best Week usually runs around 22 minutes without the commercials (the best part of watching it at the gym instead of on TV); the other content runs about 5 minutes or less.
Real Time with Bill Maher: After the next-to-last season of The Sopranos (the one where Tony spends most of the season in a coma), I was so frustrated with the show I canceled my HBO. After the fact, I realized I was going to miss out on some other pretty good shows, including Entourage, Big Love and Real Time with Bill Maher.
Well, I can always catch Entourage and Big Love on DVD. As for Real Time, there's the Real Time podcast. It's an audio-only version of the show, which may not be ideal but it beats paying for HBO. Most of the show is about conversation -- or what passes for conversation, because it can degenerate into petty bickering at times -- so you don't miss too much not having the visual component.
The SModcast: I'm a huge geek for anything made by Kevin Smith, so I love his podcast. The SModcast is just Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier, is longtime collaborater and executive producer, talking about whatever is on their minds. Sometimes they babble endlessly, but the stories are quite reminiscent of his Evening with Kevin Smith DVDs. And the production quality is amazing -- the songs and other audio they play in the background correspond brilliantly with the conversation. Just be ready for a long investment in time -- the shortest so far is 45 minutes.
Comedy Central Stand Up: This one is hit or miss in terms of quality, but if you like stand-up comedy it's worth checking out. Largely it's clips from Premium Blend or some other stand-up show. Some of them will make you laugh out loud on the treadmill. Others will make you want to throw your iPod across the room.
The Man Show video podcast: This is simply a weekly clip from the original Man Show starring Adam and Jimmy. Thank god it's not the short-lived version with Joe Rogan and Doug Stanhope.
FrankBlack.net podcast: Two of the guys who run the best site ever dedicated to the genius that is Frank Black (aka Black Francis of the Pixies) do twice-monthly podcasts that explore his musical genius. The man himself even stops by on occassion for interviews or to take the hosts on board his tour bus. Great stuff if you're into Frank Black or the Pixies.
The Onion Radio News and the Onion News Network: The Onion is branching out into radio news and TV reports. Radio News is a true podcast, often shorter than a minute. The News Network is a longer version designed to mimic a report you might see on CNN or Fox News. These are often hit or miss themselves, and so far I'm largely unimpressed with the News Network -- they just haven't been that funny. The Radio News version contains a few more gems but neither is a worthy substitute for the web site or print editions yet.
All of these podcasts are available for free through the iTunes Store, except for the Frank Black podcast. For that one, go here. June 01 How I fell off of the fitness wagonHere's the story I've been promising on the site about how I fell off the fitness bandwagon.
After the original Shapin' Up project came to a close at the end of 2005, I was able to keep my momentum going pretty well for a few months. But without a weekly newspaper column or a blog to update, I started losing my motivation. The $30 monthly dues for Gold's Gym would motivate me some -- I hate wasting money, so I had to feel like I was getting my money's worth.
I finally canceled the membership in the summer of 2006. I had spent a week back in the Rockies to visit some friends, and on the drive home my truck blew up on me. The water pump went out that morning as I crossed eastern Colorado, and before I realized there was a problem, I had burned up the entire engine. Here's a look at what was left of the engine:
 A new engine for a '99 Dodge Dakota costs a lot of cake, so I started looking for expenses in our household budget that could go to help me pay off the truck. The gym membership was the first thing I canceled. I tried to reason with myself that I would get the exercise I need by doing situps and pushups each morning in my bedroom. I would walk more places instead of driving, which would be good for the budget and for my fitness. I even kidded myself into thinking I'd look on Craigslist for a cheap exercise bench to put in the basement.
I did none of it.
I pretty much spent the next eight months getting fat and sassy. I may have stayed somewhat active (or as active as I get) about keeping up on yardwork or chores around the house, but I don't think I ever did situps or pushups each morning in my bedroom. And I know I didn't start walking more places -- I may have walked my dogs a little more, but it wasn't like I started walking to work everyday. And the exercise bench? Ya, right.
Meanwhile, Jenny started working out with Rob, our new friend and personal trainer, back in October or November. Originally she talked about just working out with him until our wedding in December, but after the honeymoon she resumed her sessions with Rob. In a few months time, she was finally able to convince me to get off my fat, lazy behind and get back into it too.
So when Spring Break rolled around, I started working out with Rob. I've been faithfully going twice a week ever since. |
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