nuinca

I put the Bar in Barometer

There are plenty of ways to watch newspapers die – shrinking circulation, plummeting ad sales, massive layoffs, but I have my own barometer for death – watching my RSS feeds stop responding.

When I first created my ridonkulous Netvibes feeds about 2 years ago, I had lots of strange feeds from many different newspapers. The books feed from the Seattle Times. A food blog from the LA Times. Something by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that I don’t quite remember but do remember enjoying it.

Slowly but surely, all of those feeds have stopped responding. It’s not that I lament their death, I really don’t – I have replaced all of those feeds with local non-MSM bloggers who do the same thing, and usually better.

It’s just that now most papers have a main news feed, a national feed, sports, etc, etc, all boring and the same, none of them offering a real taste of local life.

*12/30 update – Rod Mar, photojournalist at The Seattle Times, and pretty decent blogger, has accepted a buyout. Another RSS down

Welcome, Romania

Yes. Google analytics just told me that I had my first visitors from Romania the other day.

Buna ziua, ma numesc Jonathan.

It took you long enough, this site is, after all, in your language. But seriously, glad to have you here. For all of my American friends – pfft, I’m so worldy now.

Feel good post of the year

Hey you low-level, poorly-paid and probably hard-drinking young journalists out there – I have some good news for you:

It can’t get worse.

Sure, that’s an absolute lie, but let’s ignore the obvious logic flaws for a minute and focus more on what I mean. Right now, we are often forced to do our jobs by people who have no concept of how to actually do the job, or what your job even is. Twitter? Digg? You so crazy. Here’s a sample conversation

Boss: But seriously, be successful on the internet. I don’t care how you do it, and in fact, I probably lack the fundamental understanding of the medium enough to fathom whether or not you are actually successful, but I demand success!

You: Great. I’m gonna go Digg some stories.

Boss: I SAID WORK, DON’T SCREW AROUND ON THE INTERNET ALL DAY

Take heart, fellow Ombudsmen of the Pipes, for one day we will be in charge and making all of the stupid decisions ourselves. Considering how quickly our industry is collapsing around our ears, we might all have long abandoned ship for warmer pixels, but maybe, just maybe, we will return some of these rusty hulks to their former shine.

In other news…

Our president might have the mind of an 8-year-old, but he has the reflexes of a Texas ninja.

If only he had moved that fast during Hurricane Katrina. Zing.

Smoking rooms, 2008

There was once upon a time when men would sit in high-back chairs, drink whisky, smoke cigars rolled between the thighs of Cuban women, and talk about ideas, both lofty and low-brow.

The whisky, cigars and cheap humor have mostly remained, but the setting has changed.

Instead of books and assorted periodicals, we have YouTube. Allow me to explain. I find a funny YouTube video. I show you. You, in the spirit of ones-up-manship, you show me your favorite. We continue, exchange ideas (no matter how low or high brow) until we have both come away with a different perspective on the world.

It’s like education, without all of the stupid learning!

Loudon Wainwright III

Thanks to the glory that is Pandora, I have stumbled across Loudon Wainwright, perhaps most famous for being father to Rufus Wainwright, but who is an incredible songwriter in his own right.

I heard the song New Paint and these two lines: “It’s good to take a girl in the not so very good world and walk in the park, until it gets dark.” If any of you are measuring the beats in those lines, it’s clearly not an even count, but I think it’s gorgeous, and that’s all that matters.

Later, thanks again to the glory of the internet, I downloaded every singe Loudon Wainwright album ever. He’s been releasing new music since ‘71, and that comes out to over two dozen albums.

Despite a few embarrassing ventures in the 80s into soft country rock, Wainwright is very much at his best with an acoustic guitar and not a lick o’ supporting equipment. And in case that doesn’t do it for you, he wrote most of the music for the movie Knocked Up, but if that’s what persuades you to give him a try, we probably shouldn’t be friends.

So hey, I don’t know where I’m going with this, but if you’re looking for a new Pandora station, try Wainwright – it’s like a coat of new paint.

Whooaaaa….see what I did there?

WTF happened to Jonathan?

It’s a question I’m sure you’re (both) all wondering, so I will address it.

I have had two things taking up a considerable amount of my life time. The first is Jacksonville.com. You wouldn’t believe how much time I have spent pretending to be a meaningful contributor to the development of our new site. Seriously, it was exhausting.

While some people, like Joe and Kevin (I went alphabetical, don’t argue over who’s the better friend), spent 15 hours days doing real work and solving real problems, I spent 12 hours days pretending to work. And let me tell you, nothing is more difficult than acting busy for 12 hours a day – a full 4 hours more per day than my average.

The goods news is, Jacksonville.com is alive. Super kudos for our dev. staff for being so amazing and taking an average design and turning it into a fantastic site.

The next thing that has been consuming my time was our recent, and much-needed, vacation to South Carolina. It was rocktacular. Of course, I didn’t take a single picture the entire time I was there, which is partially due to the fact I resent only having a point-and-shoot, but mostly due to the fact I’m a complete toolbag. That being said, I’m taking donations for this rig

Anyway, I won’t bore you with vacation details because nobody cares about vacations except for the people involved, but I promise you that it was a soulicious(?) time for Diana, Jax and myself.