Move it on over. This blog is dead, but this one isn't.

Rocky Mountain News closes; chalk one up for the cynics

I wrote this for Radio Sweethearts, but wasn't quite comfortable posting it there.

I knew this particular bit of bad news was coming; Scripps has been trying and failing to sell the ailing Rocky Mountain News since December. Scripps has been suffering huge losses at the paper.

I say that I saw this coming, but the actual announcement of the closing comes as something of a suckerpunch.

The news comes as so much of a suckerpunch that I need to emphasize my editorial independence on this one. No one else knows that I'm writing this - until it's up.

It's fair to neither the employees of the Rocky Mountain News nor to their families that no one was told that tomorrow (Friday) will be their last day until today. And rather than simple "life isn't fair" unfair, this treatment of employees borders on injust.

Kerry works at the Commercial Appeal, another Scripps paper. She works for the online department - she and her immediate co-workers are/will be the saviors of the newspaper industry. If, that is, they aren't beaten to within an inch of their morale's life by incidents like this happening within their employer's parent company.

I strongly believe that the Commercial Appeal is going to weather the storm, a statement I can make only after having met the stalwart crew of the online department, because they're doing what they believe in, because they care too much, and most of all, because the paper has never missed an issue.

The people I know there are too damned stubborn to be the people around for the Commercial Appeal's first missed issue.

But I can't say that I don't worry. The morale of employees at any business directly affects the morale of their families. I try to stay positive, knowing that Kerry is in a position which will remain vital to the newspaper industry throughout this awkward pubescent transition to the industry's new world, but the simple fact that she's aware of the possibility of another suckerpunch causes me to worry, too.

I don't have the heart to look up any public radio reportage on the Rocky Mountain News' closure, because I'm afraid that it's all going to be tinged with the sense of superiority that comes from working in any other form of media.

I'm looking at you when I say that, Bob Garfield. You know, there was a battle between radio and television, too. Just like the one between newspapers and the internet. Guess what? TV won. And you still have a job - two, actually, in radio and print. Your living depends on dead media.

But if radio can evolve and find a market in a TV world, then surely newspapers can do the same in an internet world - this not taking into account the fact that much of the internet experience is already based on the newspaper model, an advantage that few commentators have noticed, and few small-town daily newspapers seem to have realized either.

My thoughts and prayers - such as they are - are with the employees and families of the Rocky Mountain News. If you people are anything like the people I know at the CA, you'll pull through and end up in a better place.

Madison Mosaic Mural (13/365)

Madison Mosaic Mural (13/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

I sort of inadvertently picked up a third job today - one of my Apple Store coworkers is working on restoring a mosaic at a MATA trolley station near downtown on Madison, and she needs help. So Nicola (left) and Jim (right) and I are acting as said help.

When we took the sketch out to the site this morning, it turned out that some grave miscalculations were made in transferring the original sketches to the materials we will use in making the new mosaic.

Everything is too big.

Mexican Potluck (11/365)

Mexican Potluck (11/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

lots of pots at the potluck. Isn't THAT inexplicable?

(My stomach is still recovering.)

Kerry Celebrates (10/365)

Kerry Celebrates (10/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

Kerry and I bought iPhones today. This marks her financial independence. We celebrated by drinking (rather good) champagne in a can through (rather collapsible) straws.

tri-tone (8/365)

tri-tone (8/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

I don't know what this is. But it was on my camera when I did find it, and I like the tri-tone sunburst thing.

Comin' ATCHA (7/365)

Comin' ATCHA (7/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

I lost my phone immediately after this photo was taken, thus the delay since the last photo.

Cooper-Young (6/365)

Cooper-Young (6/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

The intersection that gives my neighborhood its name, as seen from my passenger seat.

Brought to you by the miracle of Gorilla Pod.

Self-Portrait at Eclectic (5/365)

at Eclectic (5/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

I spent a rainy afternoon off at Cafe Eclectic on the other side of Midtown drinking Americanos, reading poetry, writing poetry, and figuring out how to make a new Automator workflow to help me use iPhoto more effectively.

(The workflow, by the way, takes photos added to a specific folder in my Dock, adds them to a specific album in iPhoto, and then moves them to the Trash.

I created this because my desk job frequently necessitates the use of public-domain/CC-licensed photos in Keynote presentations. It's just easier to use Keynote's Media Browser to find photos in iPhoto than to dig through Finder windows and what-have-you.)

screenprint (4/365)

screenprint (4/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

Screen for a print I made of Kerry and Myself. It sits directly above my desk, in the window for which I never found blinds.

(I know #3 is missing; Kerry and I spent the last day in Nashville, meeting my family somewhat less than halfway. Like an idiot, I forgot my camera. My sister did not, and I'll try to snag one from her.)

Henry (2/365)

Henry (2/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

I know the dog looks like he's guarding Hell. He'd need to have two more heads and own Chrysler before he's a true Cerberus.

That said, he was acting like a little demon when I took this picture.

New Year, New Habit

Kerry (1/365), originally uploaded by The Spacebase.

I'm trying to start doing the 365 Days project, over on Flickr, as something to replace smoking, which I've been trying to quit (in fits and starts) for a year.

It only occurred to me yesterday or the day before that having a new habit to replace smoking was the only real way to keep myself from having that craving - I'm pretty sure it's psychological addiction, not chemical dependency.

Also, I used to be pretty good at photography. And some pictures I've taken for the desk job have gotten compliments that make me wonder if I didn't make a mistake in not pursuing it further.

Anyway, the first entry for the year 2009 is this piece of work: one shot, taken at around 11 (because I'd forgotten to carry my camera around with me all day) of Kerry, who's probably the most insistent that I stop smoking - even though she's got the least faith that I will.

Do people really expect this to work anymore?

FROM MR UMAR HASSAN.
BILL AND EXCHAGE MANAGER.
FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT
BANK OF AFRICA ( BOA)
BURKINA FASO WEST AFRICA
TELEPHONE:+226 78 82 57 54

Dear Friend,
Compliments,
 I am writing to seek your cooperation over this business proposal.
First I must solicit your confidence in this transaction; this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day.
l have decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction, Let me start by introducing myself properly to you. I am MR UMAR HASSAN. a manager with the Bank Of Africa( BOA), Ouagadougou Burkina Faso, Africa .
I came to know you in my Private Search for a Reliable and Reputable Person to handle this Confidential Transaction, which involves the transfer of huge sum of Money to a Foreign Account requiring Maximum Confidence.
In my department, We discovered an abandoned sum of$15million USD(FIFTEEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS.)Only, in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in a plane crash that took place in Kenya , East Africa, the bank now expects a next of kin as beneficiary. Valuable efforts are being made by the Bank to get in touch with any of the Brumleys remaining family or relatives but all to no success. the Late DR. GEORGE BRUMLEY,a citizen of Atlanta , United States of America is a known Philantropist in, West Africa and the whole African continent
 Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because it cannot be released unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you via your foreign bank account as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and It is because of the perceived possibility of not being able to locate any of Late Brumleys s next kin (He died with his entire family members)
The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after seven years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund The request for your assistance and maximum co-operation as a foreign citizen to stand as the next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
The sharing of the fund are thus: 30% for you the account owner,60% for I and my  trusted colleagues and the remaining 10% for expenses for both parties. If this proposal is acceptable by you, do not make undue advantage of the trust we have bestowed in you.
Best regards,
MR UMAR HASSAN.

 NOTE
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter
Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Science!

Proof that 90% of all scientific inquiry consists of someone getting bored, thinking "What if I do this, here?," and then trying it out.

Fwd: From Rev.Jones Maxwell Harth (Urgent Matter)

Uh oh, if he's with the World Bank, I should probably pay attention.

or...

DELETED!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rev. Father Jones Maxwell Harth <info@live.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Subject: From Rev.Jones Maxwell Harth (Urgent Matter)
To:





I am Rev. Father Jones Maxwell Harth, a senior staff with the World Bank
fact finding & special duties office.I need your attehtion on an urgent
issue please write me back email:(rev.jones.maxwell121@live.com) call me
on phone: +44-704-572-0668

--
Matthew Trisler
www.radio-sweethearts.com

The best friendship $15 can buy

DSC_2501, originally uploaded by alexander.gordon.

I am now a lifetime member of Graceland, Too!

DSC_2547, originally uploaded by alexander.gordon.

as in "Graceland, Too!," not as in "hey, you're a lifetime member of Graceland?" Neat! Me too!

No, this is Graceland, Too, as in Paul McLeod's Holly Springs, Miss.-based shrine to Elvis. I'll explain more later.

Also, I'm thinking maybe I should buy a leather jacket.

I have bad dreams.

Alone in Homewood, originally uploaded by Hryckowian.

I had a dream when I first fell asleep tonight. It was a bad dream. I'm not sure why it felt the way it did, but I can't shake it.

It wasn't a bad dream the way dreams about being chased by Nazis are bad; it wasn't a bad dream the way dreams about falling towards certain death are bad.

I just know that I woke up from the dream feeling depressed, feeling hopelessly, inexorably alone. Never mind the fact that Kerry had fallen asleep with her head on my shoulder, with her arms around me.

Part of the problem is that she slept on, while my initial round of R.E.M. constituted a power nap, so while she shifted and dozed off, my loneliness was compounded by a very refreshed feeling.

I woke up well-rested and ready to conquer the day. Even if that meant conquering my loneliness. Alone. At least until she wakes back up.

Squeeeeee!

Feist
Feist
Feist
Feist
on sesame street!

The grin is infectious.

Multimedia message

The most awesome rest stop EVER. at least by name.