Entries from May 2005 ↓

Woo-hoo! First breaking news day in the newsroom.

I’d feel bad if there were injuries, but since there weren’t: HOW EXCITING, A GASOLINE PLANT FIRE!

UPDATE: Apparently breaking news means free pizza for everyone in the news room. Score!

Some of my favorite photos tagged ‘blognashville’ on Flickr:

• I asked if I could interview him and then didn’t.
• My hands.
• I missed the this.
• Me, Bruce Barry and Roger Abramson
• Double your pleasure with double chin.
• title
• Looks like more than half to me.
• I had diet Coke.
• Fuzzy goodness.
• I don’t know if you know this, but you can’t call a sonofabitch a sonofabitch without calling him a sonofabitch.
• He must have erased the bewbs.
• And he doesn’t even like to cuddle after.
• My good side.
• C is for cookie, and I don’t mean chocolate chip ones.
• Nice guy who put me in his movie.

I promise I’m coming back. I haven’t forgotten you, Internet.

I’m finally done with BlogNashville and the article I wrote about it. I’ve got a sink full of dirty dishes and a buttload of laundry to wash, but otherwise I’m all caught up.

Check back tonight or tomorrow for something other than this piddly update.

Continue reading →

I have a lot to say about my new job, but I kind of like not waiting tables so I thought for the first time in my life I’d heed that "don’t blog about work" thing people are always talking about. That is until The Guy in Charge came down and asked me when I was going to blog about my new job.

I expressed to him my hesitation. People get fired for blogging about their jobs, you know. And he said, "Yeah, I know about getting dooced and all that, but that is not what is going to happen." We talked it over more and agreed blogging about work outright was best done on my personal blog, but that he encouraged it. He also said he looked forward to reading it, which was nice. He’s been nothing but nice.

And everyone else, too, I think. I’d never even been into a newsroom before I interviewed at the station a few weeks ago. Restaurants are the only thing I’ve known for almost a decade, so I’m not sure what to expect. People have bold opinions about people who work in television and they have shared them with me lately. One thing I’ve been warned about–from people online, I should say, not people who live in Nashville–is that often television journalists see bloggers as them in an Us vs. Them-type situation.

Here’s the thing, though. I’m no warblogging, agenda-having, political blogger that plans to take down mainstream media outlets with a flick of my trackball. That ain’t me. I write about toothpaste and tampons. Undoubtedly the folks I work with have major questions about what exactly I’m doing there, why I can’t find the bathroom and why I’m taking their desk.

And, holy wow, is it cold in the newsroom! The executive news director warned me of that on the first day going in. I can count on him to be a man of his word, because hoo-boy, he meant what he said. I’m always cold anyway, so sucks for me. The anchors both complained of being hot and I almost laughed, but my teeth were chattering so I couldn’t. But they wear make-up and sit under hot lights, so I can see where they are coming from. Good thing sweaters are on clearance racks this time of year.

One very cool thing about work is the coffee machine. It’s one of those cool-ass ones from the 70’s that flips a waxy cup down and fills it with instant coffee. You get to pick the size and amount of sugar with a button. There is even a button called "whitener." Love that. The coffee tastes like shit, don’t get me wrong, but it was worth 25 cents watch the cup flip down and fill up.

Also, I have a badge. I guess it’s a real press badge, who knows. Right now it gets me into the gate to the parking lot and all the doors, but one day soon I will slide it in my fedora** and try to get in someplace I don’t belong.*** Oh, and it came on this little retracty thingy that is far too much fun for someone who has never had one before. A name tag is so very not the same thing. (I actually didn’t have to wear a name tag when I waited tables.)

I am glad to hear so much cursing going on. That’s refreshing. I’ve heard that about newspapers and television stations alike: motherfuckers like to cuss and shit. Restaurants are the same fucking way, which is why I constantly stun my mother at Thanksgiving dinner by accidentally dropping what some have called "the f-bomb". I have unwittingly turned into my uncle who was in the Army all his life, a man who could create cuss word combinations that would blow your fucking mind.

Besides the totally surreality of hearing Bob Mueller in your left ear while you’re trying to blog when you’ve been watching him on the news for TWENTY YEARS, the other really cool thing is the morning meeting. The producers and reporters and "shooters" all get together and make the news. They pitch ideas, talk them through, assign research, get in the van and go and in a few hours, voila, the news! It’s crazy. It’s not magic by any means, those people work really hard. They are constantly going and phoning and typing and talking out loud to themselves. These people get shit done. And because I come from the fast-paced environment of a restaurant, I also feel that sense of urgency. When I am looking for stuff to blog about I catch myself trying to read REALLY FAST. Turns out that doesn’t quite work. I’ll hit my stride with the posting at Nashville is Talking and, hopefully sooner than later, find my voice as well.

The station’s webmaster gave me a little purple notepad shaped like a computer that says "Luvs 2 Blog" today. Second day and already a present from a very nice girl. I keep looking for the fangs every one keeps talking about, but so far nothing. Friday the 13th is coming up next week though.

Oh, and a question: is it bad break room etiquette to microwave Indian food leftover from last night in the communal microwave?

*My back is facing the entire newsroom. I’m going to have to get a monitor mirror for sure.
**I don’t have a fedora.
***I’m just kidding! [So getting fired.]

If I was a gambling woman I’d bet money I owe you an email. I’ve got
tons of it piled up waiting to be answered. I don’t mean to ignore you.

I am no longer waiting tables and will have extra time to devote to
long overdue emails in the days to come. I have to admit I’m feeling a
little overwhelmed.

Thanks for all the kind words and interesting inquiries. I look forward to responding.

Sorry. I suck.
TTFN.

Look at all of this:

• Baby You Were Born to Blog
• Birth of the Blogcaster
• TV Station Hired Full-Time Blogger
• Local Blogging Goes Primetime
• I Knew the Britt When She Used to Rock the Rolls
• Nashville is Talking!
• The ^Blogger^ Above Me^ on This List Smells Funny^
• Eat Your Heart Out, Kottke
• Better Late Than Never
• WKRN Weblog Aggregator Launches
• Have Computer - Will Blog
• Local TV News Hires Blogger
• Blogging without Web 2.0
• And Yet Spurned by News2: One Among the Unaggregated Majority
• A TV Station on the Cutting Edge
• Blogger’s Dream

NEW!:

• The Greedy Little Bloggers are Freaking Out

Not NEW! but Forgotten:

• Rawk!

And I don’t even start until Monday.