Speaking of newspapers

Meredith survived the latest round of cuts at McClatchy and the bleeding seems to have stopped for the time being. Of course those who survived feel horrible about all the friends they've lost and now get to work with a permanent ax over their heads.

Here's the latest good news on newspapers, from AP:

"Half a dozen newspapers said they would slash payrolls, one said it would outsource all its printing, and Tribune Co., one of the biggest publishers in the country, said it might sell its iconic headquarters tower in Chicago and the building that houses the Los Angeles Times.

The increasingly rapid and broad decline in the newspaper business in recent months has surprised even the most pessimistic financial analysts, many of whom say it's too hard to tell how far the slump will go.

A few months back, when San Angelo's Perry Flippin went out with a cannon shot at the industry, I reacted kinda strongly in some instances, but I realized that I never made a point.

Here it is -- The newspaper industry is doomed because:

1. Newsroom executives (they used to be called editors) have grown increasingly elitist and separated from their readers.
2. The heads of corporate newspaper chains have grown increasingly elitist and separated from everyone.
3. Neither of these things matters because it's impossible to compete with the technology that everyone under 85 knows how to use. And the people who use that technology can, and usually do, find about 1,000 distractions before they decide to check out whatever happened with that Eritrea thing.

All that being said, I don't think that the local news will just go up in smoke. We'll have some kind of news service in the future. It's vigor and health remains to be seen.

Otherwise, me and the wife will continue to watch the state of the industry with an eye on a lifeboat.

From the aforementioned report:

In fact, the industry group that compiles and releases ad revenue figures, the Newspaper Association of America, this month stopped putting out quarterly press releases with the numbers, though it quietly updated them on its Web site.

NAA spokeswoman Sheila Owens said in an e-mailed statement that the organization will now put out press releases only with full-year data "to keep the market focused on the longer-term industry transition from print to a multiplatform medium."

Translation: "Turn out the lights, the party's over ..."

Edumacation

First off, as soon as I let people know I'm going to get a teacher's certification, a few things pop up in the news.

My Mom-in-law told me about a story in the Dallas Morning News. There's a fight brewing between the alternative certification schools and the traditional colleges. The first story I read mentioned that (gasp) your child's teacher may not have had more than a C-average in college and may have never stepped into a classroom until this year started.

And this is different from what might happen with a teacher from a traditional college how? Anyway, the traditional colleges are lobbying the state to pass new rules to make it more difficult to certify teachers, inner city and rural schools are planning to fight it, blah blah blah.

Here's the latest story, seems that colleges made the state do an audit.

It's just your usual turf battle and has nothing to do with providing a better education.

Todd also sent me this story on the shortage of math teachers, and noted that I seemed to be going for "low hanging fruit."

While saying "duh", I'd also add that I picked math because I enjoy it, and going that course will give me a lot more options as to where I can teach and a tad bit more money.

James Snipe mountain lion, for real

This thing has been a lot of fun. I've watched the hoax move from West Texas to East Texas to Alabama to North Carolina, getting hits and comments along the way. This site hasn't seen this much traffic since I wrote a few comments and posted a few pictures of that bikini model/anchorwoman for that reality show in Tyler.

I wonder what happened with her? Eh, too bored to Google.

Anyway, I first got a note that the mountain lion thing was for real about a week ago, followed by more notes and a comment. You'll have to excuse my laziness for not getting around until now to posting the truth, but, at the time, remembering that the actuarial amount is equal to the principal times e to the rate(time) exponential seemed more important.

I was directed to Snopes.com, where I found this:

The large mountain lion shown in the photographs ... was hit by a Ford F350 truck on Highway 64 in Northern Arizona ... in November of 2007.

So the pictures are real, it's just the story that was altered as it moved around. After looking at the different versions, I think we can all blame the cheeseheads.

My wife, writer

The Star-Telegram just published a little "traveling with your baby" guide put together by my wife.

It was kind of interesting seeing the backstory behind this publication: First my wife pitched the story, and was recieved with total indifference. Then she did the story on her own in hopes of putting it on a blog. Then they said, well, sure, we'll run it. Then they asked her to do more stories. Etc.

Anyone's who has ever worked for a newspaper is either rolling their eyes or nodding their head at this point.

Two other things:

• The process described above took two months, so Sam is no longer 7 months old as indicated.
• And, Meredith gave the staff a perfectly decent picture of Sam sitting in his car seat surrounded by luggage. Instead, the staff used a picture of a baby sitting in front of fabric blocks who otherwise doesn't seem to be traveling, and an illustration of a family in a car, with the baby in the middle of mom and dad and inches away from an open cup of hot coffee. I'm rolling my eyes again.

Anyway, congrats darlin'.

Happy Monday

Though this week starts with a note of frustration, as father's day came and went before I knew about this:

MANGROOMER Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Hair Shaver

Please notice that the ad says the product, which was going for $39.99, is now on sale for $39.95. You save four cents. That's like 1/25th of a double cheeseburger at McDonald's.

First seen at Instapundit.

Star Wars movie crawls

Here's a site that let's you create your own.

My first combines Star Wars with the Simpsons, something else I used to enjoy before it turned bad.

Huh, it's apparently been shut down. And I had about 20 things I was gonna do with this. Damn you Lucus!

Notes, A:

Saw a cool thing on the way to classes yesterday.

I was on loop 820 in an early morning rain when the sky turned into a brilliant white color. Lightning struck a powerline on a tall steel transformer about 100-200 yards away from me. Closest I've ever been to a lightning strike. Coolest thing I've seen in a while.

There was no loud boom, but that might have been a sensory overload -- it was too bright to hear.

Anyway, it was part of a damaging day out here. The power was out at TCC by the time I got there. After spending half an hour in a darkened room with my statistics classmates, school was called off.

It was a wierd half-hour -- the lack of light forces a certain kind of intimacy on the situation. Usually the only people you see in that light are people you've slept in the same room with.

Faces of football:
ESPN has an interesting bit up on college football: "The face of the program." They're naming whatever player, coach, mascot, or whatever "you" most closely associate with every major college team in the country.

Texas Tech's is the Masked Rider. It's the dude who gallops onto the field, leading the football team, at the start of each game. (UTEP's was the Sun Bowl.)

Every Tech fan loves the masked rider, but I'm calling this a whiff -- anyone who's heard of Texas Tech football has heard about coach Mike Leach, his offense, his strange ways.

Coke now

Here's a map that shows regional preferences for what people call their soft drinks, as in "coke", "soda", "pop" or other.

My two reactions:

One of the 50 or so people in Loving County, Texas, managed to vote, putting them slightly into the "coke" category.

"Other"? What "other"? People use something besides the top three? What? "I'd like a new fangled dark ginger ale, please." "Bring some of that canned brown bubbly."

Apparently there are some large swaths of Arizona with something funny going on.

McClatchy's Black Monday

Folks:

For those of you who know our situation. Meredith works at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The Star-Telegram is owned by McClatchy.

Today (Monday), McClatchy went forward with a decision to cut a little over 10 percent of its newspaper workforce, companywide.

Word broke last night, and despite the occasional fretting, Meredith has been holding up well.

The Star-Telegram is cutting 50 people from its newsroom. Without getting into too much detail, Meredith survived with her job today, but we're not out of the woods yet.

The thing is, we'll be OK regardless of what happens, but this is a damn inconvenient thing for anyone to deal with.

Will keep you posted.

Another month, another West Texas cult makes the news

House of Yahweh head says world to end June 12. Well, as I'm posting this, he still has four hours to be right.

The video is a pretty good look at a freak show.



As stated, the cult is headquartered in Abilene, which I guess means that San Angelo doesn't get all the bragging rights. I don't recall many run-ins with the people who belong to this group while I was in Abilene.

Mainly I vaguely remember a news story about one of the cult members who got got cheesed when he was cited for a code violation or something by the city, so he sued. And demanded damages in the hundreds of millions.

I've always figured that West Texas draws these folks for an obvious reason -- there's plenty of room, and crazy typically needs a lot of room.

Anyone up for a beer?

Mom and son are visiting family until Wednesday, and as this is the first time I've been home alone in 9 months, it'd be nice to get out.

It'd be good if you're from the Metroplex, and happen to belong to the small group of people I know. I tend not to like people I don't know.

Also: No strippers, prostitutes, or various loose women from Oklahoma.

Drop me an e-mail if you can do it.

Messed up headlines

After 300 years or so of newspaper publishing in North America, I doubt that anyone can put together a list of 20 most funny.

Still, a lot of these are pretty good.

It's kind of a list of Jay Leno's best stuff.

Sam, evil cat

Sam and the Evil Cat were playing around this morning. I wanted to get some pictures of a funny moment, but, as usual, they were both distracted when I took off and came back into the room and started pointing at them with this thing that beeps and flashes.

So here's a few shots for Grandma.

I just got back from my first two weeks of classes ...

And boy is my brain tired.

In one of the first algebra sessions, my prof was talking about math anxiety, and how some people hated math so much that they spent their entire college careers avoiding it until it's the last thing they need to graduate.

"That's four years without thinking about math," she said. "That only makes it harder."

It hit me afterwards that I hadn't seriously thought about math since before some of my classmates were born.

Here's how the night went before my first test:

Tuesday:

Noon: Get home from Tarrant County College. Pledge to spend all remaining free time reviewing for test, after I get a nap.

3 p.m.: Realize I can't sleep. Pledge to study from 9 p.m. (Sam's bedtime) to Midnight.

9 p.m.: Exhausted after not being able to nap. Prospect of going through two chapters of algebra too daunting. Pledge to get up at 4 a.m. the following morning to study.

11:45 p.m.: Nerves finally chill to point of allowing me to sleep.

First dream of night: I'm in a deserted British police station after dark. A mob is headed to the station, planning to break in and open the gun locker.

Wednesday

1 a.m.: Wife home, wakes me momentarily when she crawls into bed and tells me that she believes in me and "you can do it" for the sixth time in the last 24 hours.

Second dream: x2= (x-h)(x+k)/x+2 = A heavy dog shedding season.

3 a.m.: Wake up, realize that my combination of tossing, turning and snoring has driven wife to the guest bedroom. Hmmm ... Maybe I'll just get up at 5 a.m.

Third dream: I'm in a hotel past checkout time and I don't have the money for the bill. It's been an enjoyable stay, though.

5 a.m.: Wakey-Wakey. I take a very groggy, yet quietly desperate, review of quadratic and polynomial functions.

Not sure I can keep doing that for the next two years.

I made an A. Allowed myself a Tiger Woods fist pump.

Next test: Monday.

The strangest thought to hit me about the whole thing lately is how easy it is to get back into student mode. After a couple of days, you block out the fact that you're older than most everyone there and can't translate half of what they're saying to each other. You realize that 16 (or maybe 18.5) years of sitting in classrooms when you're young gives you a set of skills that aren't going to go away.