Copy Editor Alex

Photography is my No. 1 hobby

2012-02-06T22:26:00.008-06:00

Over the course of maybe the past year, photography overtook roller coasters as my top hobby. I still love coasters and am planning some trips this year, but I've become much more passionate about photography lately. It's so much fun, and I'm really good at it. My friends think I'm good at it too. Look at these shots I took tonight:

This next one is a composite of three images at different exposures. This technique is called high-dynamic range, or HDR. I'm not a big fan of it because lots of people really overdo it, but I think it works in moderation.

My New Year's resolution is to get a photo put on display somewhere in town. I'm not exactly sure how to begin that process, but I think it's a good goal to have.

I'm also thinking of making a blog just for my photography. That could be pretty fun. I'd do it on WordPress so I get experience working with that site. Also, apparently it's got more tools than Blogger, so that could be fun to play around with it and see what more it can do.

My luck with Texas apartments (it's bad)

2012-01-28T14:41:00.003-06:00

I seem to have no luck at all with the apartments I've lived in since moving to Texas. In Amarillo, the first place I moved to was OK, but we had pay cuts at work shortly after I started. The apartment was now unaffordable, so I had to move. I only lived there for about eight months.

The second place I found seemed nice. It was in a good location, it was faster to get to work, and it was affordable. The problem was with the water. It was constantly off. Hot water was off, all the water was off. It seemed like it was happening every three weeks. One time during the winter, the hot water was off for four straight days. I had to take a bath with water heated on the stove.

And it never let up in Amarillo. Every month, without fail, something would happen with the water. They'd at least notify us ahead of time most times, but it's still absolutely ridiculous for the water to have that many problems.

I thought I'd be rid of that when I moved to the glorious city of Austin. NOPE. Since moving in to my place in late August, I've had the same problems. These people apologize more than the Amarillo place, but that doesn't make up for the fact that I don't have any freaking water!

I've had to skip showering a couple of times a week more than once because there was no water at all. When there's no hot water, I can take a quick, freezing sponge bath under the faucet of the tub, but that's still too much. Give me hot water. Give me water.

This is absurd! What is wrong with me? Why can't I finally just get everything in order? If it's not one thing, it's another.

First, my apartment smells like cigarette smoke for months. My apartment dragged its heels on sending someone here to fix the smell. The smell is finally gone, but it took them more than four months to do it. But this freaking water thing. This is too much. I wonder if I can break my lease and not have to pay penalties. These people aren't holding up their end of the lease. We are not being provided hot water or any water at all frequently. It seems like it's becoming more frequent as of late.

I'm ranting because, once again, I have no water. There was no notification on the door about this. I have no idea how long it will be out. I feel so disgusting. I can't shower, I can't brush my teeth. My co-workers should be grateful that I skipped working out today (I stayed out waaaay too late last night, so the time I had before getting ready for work was much shorter. No time to exercise).

They gave each of us a $25 gift card to make up for the water being out so many times, but $25 isn't water. This is ridiculous. I feel so dirty right now.

This is just too much. I can't believe this has happened to me twice in a row in two cities. Come on.

Good riddance, 2011

2011-12-31T11:58:00.004-06:00

I'm glad 2011's over. This was one of the worst years of my life. 2010 was pretty awful too. I would say 2011 was the worst, but things got way better in August because of my amazing new job and my friends.

I worked at one of the worst newspapers in America at the beginning of the year, then I was let go from that job. It sucked not having income, but it was a big load off my depressed back. I had to stop counseling because I didn't have insurance, which was really hard to do. But I was right about one thing I told my counselor: My depression was situational. I had a bad job, bad supervisors, low pay and lived in an awful city. Once I left all that behind, I'd get better.

And here I am. I'm having fun, I'm feeling great, I'm happy again, and I'm mostly optimistic. I've changed my attitude about dating and relationships. I'm learning a lot and get to be creative with my headlines. I'm taking a photo a day. Things are good.

I'd like to say that my 2011 ended in late August. This new year isn't a new beginning for me. I already got that.

List o' stuff (not important)

2011-12-14T00:28:00.003-06:00

I had a four-day weekend. It was fantastic. What I did:

I bought new sheets. I didn't find anything I liked at Target, so I went to JCPenney on my mom's advice. At the maul. What was I thinking? It was so freaking crowded. I had to circle the perimeter of the maul before being able to get out of traffic. I found a parking spot OK, which was a small miracle. Then I went into the crowded maul, which was doubly crowded where I was because the entrance to JCPenney was where freakin' Santa was. But I bolted over to the sheets and found some I liked. 325 thread count, which is a step up over the 200 thread count I had when I first got my bed (that sheet tore huge holes in it in Amarillo) and the whatever I have now. It was on sale for $49.99, down from $120. Tax brought it to over $50, and there was some coupon they had that brought $10 off anything over $50. So I got $120 sheets for less than $50. Winning.
I also dropped off my down comforter at a dry cleaners to get it cleaned and repaired. Somehow I put a huge hole in it sometime in Amarillo (I didn't have good luck with my bed in Amarillo, I guess), and I'd wake up with feathers everywhere. It also made it incredibly annoying to clean my room. Dirt? No problem. But my vacuum didn't like feathers. So I'm getting that thing repaired. Hooray. It would be easier if I knew how to sew or had a girlfriend who could sew, but we both know neither of those is happening.
What the heck else did I do?
I played my Xbox. Not a whole lot, but I also had to get out of the apartment.
I did some light work to help a friend move.
Took lots of photos.

There. My monthly update. If you were looking for something about a girlfriend or work, you get nothing.

Big versus small

2011-11-15T17:44:00.004-06:00

I really enjoy my job, and the pay's not bad either. It's amazing that I'm getting paid more money for less work than I did at either of my two papers. But I'm also amazed at the complaining some people do. We recently got new computers and switched from Macs to PCs. And our email system was just changed and updated. It blows my mind that my co-workers can get so riled up over that.

I don't argue back because it's so trivial. But I want to say to them: Are your supervisors screaming and cussing at you? Are your supervisors treating you like you're stupid and not trusting anything you do? Do they talk poorly about your other co-workers behind their backs but to you? Have you had pay cuts? Does your software crash when you push command+S? I could go on.

No. None of that. This place is paradise compared to other places, especially small newspapers. It's like when I had an interview a few months ago at a union paper. Some people were complaining that after the latest negotiations, they'd have to pay money for an emergency room visit. It was free before. Tough! They still got paid $40,000 a year in a city with an extremely low cost of living. Put some money in savings in case of something like an ER visit. Jeez.

I'm done complaining. I'd done enough complaining at my last two jobs to last me a lifetime. This place is great, the pay's nice, my co-workers are all fun, and I love this city. I'm finally happy. Also, my mom's buying me an Xbox for my birthday. I'm giving her a $100 gift card to help, so technically we're buying me an Xbox. I'm pretty excited about that.

DO NOT use Bekins Van Lines - a review

2011-10-04T15:01:00.007-05:00

Bekins, a moving company based in Hillside, Ill., is a horrible excuse of a moving company. Do not use it. I got ripped off by this company after moving intrastate to Austin, Texas. Here's my story.

The Amarillo affiliate of Bekins is A&W Transfer & Storage Co., located at 808 S. Houston St. Two men arrived promptly the morning of Aug. 24, 2011, and loaded all my things. They kept an inventory of each box and item. They listed them on paper and numbered them with red stickers. They said they had to take everything to their warehouse until another moving truck was passing through on its way to Austin. I left for Austin shortly after they left.

I did not get the insurance. I could not afford it, since I had been jobless for the past five months. I had used moving companies before. I used a local company (I don't remember the name) in Denver in 2006 to move to Ohio. I used United Van Lines when I moved from Ohio to Amarillo in 2008. Both of those went fine. Since I was familiar with how movers worked, I wanted another one.

Note: I am a nervous driver, so there was no way I could rent a U-Haul, Perkins or anything like that without having a panic attack. I had to trust my things to a mover.

A former co-worker used A&W, the Amarillo affiliate of Bekins, and her move to another state went fine. She recommended the company, so I went with it.

I should have read reviews online: 'Do not use Bekins Moving! I mean it.' and many bad reviews here. But I trusted Bekins.

What happened

Bekins never gave me a specific date as to when my things would arrive. They were vague and said "next week" and that they'd contact me when a truck was heading my way. They were right about next week. Two days after I started my job, the movers arrived.

On Aug. 31, a man with the movers called and said he'd be at my place in about an hour. A little more than an hour later, he showed up with another man. They had rented a U-Haul truck since my apartment complex wasn't accommodating to a full-size semi-trailer.

They unloaded my things in my new apartment, and I checked all the numbers with the copy of the inventory I had. Two items did not show up. They were listed as "desk chair" and "small box." Somehow this company had lost a box and a large chair. I understand the box, but how do you lose a large box with a chair in it? The men who moved my things into my apartment called A&W in Amarillo and told me to file a claim. I realized at work that night that the small box was my Xbox 360. I didn't load it in my car because my car was already packed with necessities. The Xbox wasn't a necessity, and I couldn't play it without my TV, which was with the movers.

I was sent a claim form and listed the two items that were missing. This was on Sept. 6. I also filed a police report and told the company that the small box was an Xbox.

A few days later, the company informed me that my chair was sitting in its warehouse and they'd send it once another truck was on its way in my direction. They didn't know how long that would be. Mid-September rolled around, and I still didn't have my chair. I just assumed the Xbox was stolen and gone for good. I called the company again, and they told me that my chair was still in their warehouse.

I had practically given up. This company was holding my chair hostage and clearly didn't care that it didn't hold up its end of the contract. It was supposed to deliver ALL of my things to my place. It didn't. And since I couldn't afford the insurance, it knew it had the upper hand.

I was sick of waiting. A&W, which said it would call me when things got moving, never did. Was it just going to hold on to my chair forever? I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I also called Bekins corporate, which didn't get me anywhere. Bekins corporate told me that it didn't handle intrastate moves. Since I moved from one city in Texas to another, the trouble was entirely with A&W in Amarillo. Great.

I called again last week, maybe on Sept. 29. My chair had been sitting in that warehouse for nearly a month, and no progress was being made. I complained, and they said they were sending a check for my Xbox and also had sent my chair via UPS. I think the BBB complaint might have prompted this.

I got the check yesterday, Oct. 3, more than 30 days after this ordeal began. It was for $30, 10 percent of the value I claimed of the Xbox. The company also sent a copy of the form with my signature saying I declined its "For All It's Worth" coverage. I guess that's in case I try to fight this more.

UPS also delivered my chair that day, though I didn't get it until today, Oct. 4, because I was out. And what happened to the chair? It was broken! One of the wheels was mangled to oblivion. The real problem with this is that I have no way of knowing if Bekins broke it or if UPS did. Who knows what happened to that chair while it was in a moving company's warehouse for a month. So to be fair, I can't entirely fault Bekins for breaking my chair.

But I can fault Bekins for being a shady company. Someone, possibly with the company, STOLE my Xbox. They held my desk chair hostage for more than a month. I had already paid in full. What else did they want?

So now I'm out a desk chair, and my Xbox is gone forever. All thanks to Bekins and its terrible Amarillo, Texas, affiliate, A&W Transfer and Storage.

My theory on the Xbox

Since my Xbox and the desk chair were both missing, I think I know what was going through the mind of the THIEF who stole the Xbox. The person saw a prime opportunity to steal something and either use it him- or herself or, even better, to sell it and make some good money off it. See, if a large box with a chair wasn't loaded, that's a great excuse to say they missed other things too. Like a small box with a video game system. I think the thief thought about it and said, "If one thing isn't loaded, another thing also can be 'forgotten.' I can profit."

So someone has my Xbox, and my chair's broken. The moving company won. I am a sucker. But you don't have to be one too. DO NOT USE BEKINS.

A terrible company

The way Bekins operates is it uses independent affiliates. It's what's called an agent-owned company. And through some kind of deal with the devil, if you move intrastate, the parent company is not responsible for anything its minion does.

So the affiliate can probably hire crooked people and criminals. This person obviously put a lot of thought into how perfect a steal this was. One large box isn't loaded, which means another could easily have been misplaced. This thief saw that I didn't get insurance, so the company wouldn't be out anything if I filed a claim. The perfect crime. And I come out losing.

Bekins Van Lines and its affiliate A&W Transfer and Storage in Amarillo, Texas, is an awful company. It has shady practices, employees who are not helpful and holds items hostage in a warehouse. This awful company knew I was more than 500 miles away and could not easily get back there to retrieve my chair. It did not put any effort forth to send me my chair until after I filed a complaint with the BBB.

Next time I'm making a long-distance move, I'm doing it myself. You failed, Bekins. You failed, A&W Transfer and Storage.

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

2011-09-15T13:35:00.002-05:00

I'm going to Tucson this weekend for my grandpa's 90th birthday. He doesn't actually turn 90 until next week, but we're celebrating this weekend. I'm really excited. I'll get to see the family again. Woo hoo!

My grandpa rules. I love him so much. He's such a great grandfather, and he's just a cool guy. He was in the Army Air Forces in World War II. He sold shoes to mobsters. He used to hop trains and travel the country. That's awesome. He's also an old guy who says old things. He calls the Midwest the "Middle West." How old school. He's the oldest person I know.

This is going to be a great weekend.

I took this photo in 2005. Grandpa took me fishing right before I left Tucson. I like this photo.

This city's great

2011-09-13T23:31:00.003-05:00

So I finally live in Austin. I am so happy. Here's a picture of downtown I took earlier today.

I'm really happy to finally be here. I think this is going to be a pretty, pretty, pretty good year.

What I will miss

2011-08-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

I know my last post was angry and bitter. "Gotta get out." "What I hate about living in the place I chose to live in." So this post is different. This is what I will miss about this place.

My friends. Brittani, Janelle, Betty ("Stretch"), Cindy, Stephen, Michelle, Matt, Marcos, Danh. They're all great people, and they made my life better. Brittani brightened my day with her smile, and she just got me. We clicked immediately. She moved to San Marcos to go to school last year, and things just haven't been the same since. I really miss her. Janelle, Stretch and Cindy helped keep me sane. They invited me out to places when I was jobless. They called me and sent me e-mails. They were my connection to the outside world. Marcos came over to hang out and watch "Futurama" and "Arrested Development." TV is better with friends. The rest, and not to say it lightly, were great to work with. They are great colleagues and really know a lot about the job. Thanks, guys. You all made me a better person.

The summers. Amarillo's climate is extremely similar to Kayenta's. It's hot and dry in the summer, windy and it snows a little. But forget that other stuff. The hot, dry summers are where I thrive. I love that climate. It's what I grew up with, and I lived with it in Tucson. It feels great. I loved going outside in that type of weather. It's so pretty too. The trees smell great, and it was fun going for a walk in the nice heat. It seldom tops 100, so it's not really that bad to get out and stay out. It's also great weather for taking pictures.

Palo Duro Canyon. I traveled to the second-largest canyon in the country three times. It's a great getaway with excellent hiking trails. I was last there in November. It's beautiful and full of wildlife. I saw some deer on the five-or-so-mile hike I went on.

I know this list is a lot shorter than the won't-miss list, but that's just how things always are, right? When you're leaving a place you weren't happy with anymore, the bad outweighs the good. But I had to put this post up because it's not all bad. There are things I will really miss when I'm gone.

What I won't miss

2011-08-22T20:30:00.005-05:00

Now that I'm leaving Amarillo, here's a list of what I won't miss about this place.

The smell. Nearby feed yards give this place the horrible stench of manure. It's not all the time, but when it hits, it's bad. People say it's "the smell of money." Well, money is a terrible smell, and I'd rather not smell it. A few of the surrounding towns and areas have these huge feed yards. When the wind hits just right, and it's usually at night or in the mornings, it can get unbearable just to go outside. Just look at these.
That's a feed yard in Hereford, about 50 miles southwest of Amarillo. Here's a Google Street View shot of that same yard.

DISGUSTING!

The water. Amarillo's water is awful. It tastes bad. It even has a smell. Water shouldn't smell like anything, yet Amarillo's water smells like something. Like chemicals. I guess the source of the water for the city is so poor (Lake Meredith, I'm looking at your constantly dropping levels), the city has to pump it full of chemicals so we don't die. When I shower, I can smell the water. I can't drink out of the tap anymore. I had to buy a water filter. It helps a lot, but it's still not too great. If that filtered water gets warm, it starts to taste odd. Come on, Amarillo. Get some good water.

The huge, car-destroying dips in the roads. In neighborhoods, there are these big dips that can damage your car if you take them too fast. Some of the prominent dips have signs saying "dip" or to slow down, but most give you no warning. You have to be familiar with the road. When I moved here, I had no idea about them, and I scraped the front underbelly of my car numerous times before I learned. I can only speculate that they're for runoff when it rains. I've never seen anything like this. Not in Tucson, where when it rains, it pours. Not in Ohio, where the town I lived in averaged an inch of rain a week. What gives, Amarillo?
Click for larger. See those two dips where the intersection is? Terrible. Look how deep that is. Cars bottom out there all the time. Detail in image below.
See all those scratches in the pavement? It's such a bad design.

The wind. Oh dear, the wind. Kayenta was windy, but Amarillo seems windier. There's just nothing to stop it. It's so flat. At least Kayenta was in a valley surrounded by mesas, bluffs, sandstone and far-off mountains. People say the only thing between Canada and Amarillo is a barb-wire fence. No kidding. This place is so flat, so there's nothing to stop the wind as it sweeps off the Rockies or comes in from the Gulf of Mexico. And it's brutal sometimes. My apartment moves, things fall over, branches on trees break. Terrible.
I shot this on a day when there were sustained winds of 35 mph and gusts of more than 60 mph.

The awful, jerk drivers. I know there are bad drivers everywhere. And unlike Fremont, most of Amarillo's drivers signal when they turn or change lanes. But the real trouble is the interstate. There are three lanes in either direction. It seems like no one is ever considerate enough to keep the right lane clear for traffic entering the highway. They just plod along without caring that people are trying to merge. Hey, that "yield" sign is there for a reason, right? Idiots.

The Texas Department of Transportation even puts notices on the huge, flashing highway signs to let other drivers on. Doesn't help. These morons don't expect anyone to ever enter a highway. You're either on it or exiting.

There's also something they do that just drives me batty. They enter the highway and drive to the next exit, only to get off. Come on! Just stay on the access road immediately next to the highway. They make it dangerous for other drivers, and it's inconvenient to everyone but them, apparently. Since they're getting off at the next exit, they don't feel the need to get up to the speed limit. That's trouble for people behind them trying to enter the highway and everyone else nearby.

The gas prices. I have no idea why, but gas prices in Amarillo are consistently the highest in the state. That's ridiculous. Why not El Paso or Dallas or Austin? I bet it's because Amarillo's so rural. It's the only city between New Mexico and Oklahoma on I-40, and you either have to stop for gas here or risk running out along I-40. Lame.

I also hate that once again I was freaking jobless when gas prices are the highest they've been in years. Gas prices were $4 a gallon when I was jobless in Ohio in 2008, and now in 2011, they're skyrocketing again. This is ridiculous. But it's telling of my life, so why should I complain about what's always bound to happen to me?

I HAVE made it!

2011-08-16T23:16:00.002-05:00

Take that, previous post that I actually wrote in May when I was all depressed and lonely and sad and hopeless! I landed a job! I just got back from Austin. I was looking at apartments, and I found one and put money down. Pretty exciting.

I landed a yearlong contract position at the Austin American-Statesman. My apartment's nice. It's a little bit smaller than the one I have now, but that's no big deal. I don't need a lot of space. As long as I have my bedroom, and there's room in the living room for my air mattress when people visit, I'm OK. The apartment has free cable and Internet. Ahh! Great way to save some money in expensive Austin. It's also got a washer and dryer already in the unit, and they have free maintenance. It was about $30 more a month for that, but it's worth it. I pay about $15-$18 a month for laundry now, and the extra ought to make up for the convenience of having it in my own place.

I'm feeling really good. This is a big newspaper with a good reputation. It's in a large city. There's lots to do and see, and my best friends live in Austin or nearby. Hooray. Things are finally looking up. Nuts to the people who expected me to fail. I'm moving on with my life and am going to achieve great things.

Have I made it?

2011-08-15T12:00:00.004-05:00

It's 1:07 a.m. on May 6, 2011. I postdated this to run now, Aug. 15. Why? Because I'd better have a job. I had better be out of stinky Amarillo and ended that chapter of my life.

No, it wasn't all bad. I learned a lot and made some great friends. Really, I'm just angry right now because my neighbors were having a loud party and I'm too frustrated to confront them. It wouldn't go well for me in the state I'm in. Another neighbor knocked on their door and told them to keep it down. I digress.

I should be at my new job. Maybe it just started. Maybe it's been a month. But I should be in a new city, perhaps even in a new time zone. The previous posts will make this post irrelevant or telling.

Baseball on the Xbox

2011-08-02T17:11:00.002-05:00

I've been playing a lot of "MLB 2K10" lately. It's a good waste of time and distraction. I'm playing a season with the Rockies just because I like Coors Field. Well, I'm not playing an entire season. I'm not playing 160-something games. I had the option of two shorter seasons, and I went with a 50-something-game season. It's fun. I guess I could play a real full season next year and try to get records or something. For now I'm still getting used to the game.

Maybe after this season I'll create my own player and work his way up. That could be fun. I do need more distractions from my boring life, and this video game seems to be doing a good job so far.

All I do anymore

2011-07-10T22:19:00.004-05:00

I just watched "Rabbit Hole," a movie about a couple dealing with the death of their only son. It's insanely realistic. I saw one of the stars, Aaron Eckhart, on "Conan" a few months ago, and the clip and his interview made me add it to Netflix.

It's really good. It's depressing too, but that's just because it's realistic. These people absolutely convinced me they're grieving for their 4-year-old son who died eight months ago. Watch this movie.

I've had an odd fascination with death since my dad died 10 years ago. Well, "fascination" is the wrong word. I don't want to die. I don't wonder what it's like to die. The HBO series "Six Feet Under" started shortly after my dad died, and it hooked me right away. The dad in the show dies in the first episode, and how everyone deals with that continues through the series.

I'm a dork, I know. It's just that this movie's really good with the grief issue, and I also hadn't blogged in a long time. My life's pretty boring, so there's not much to report on. One of my good friends just got a job in Salt Lake City, so she's gone now. I've got a job interview in a couple of weeks in Toledo. I've got my fingers crossed for that. It sounds like a good gig. Good pay, good paper, big paper, friends nearby, the lake, a river, Cedar Point, bigger city. Lots of positives.

That's all. I guess the next update will be if I get a job or move or something.

I'm seeing results

2011-04-14T01:49:00.005-05:00

A little more than two months ago I was in my kitchen area and saw the freakin' millions of soda cans I had sitting on my table. I think I had about 30 on the table, and there were probably 30 more in a bag ready to go to recycling.

I said to myself, "I have to stop this." So I did. On that day sometime in mid-February, I quit drinking soda. Cold turkey. I haven't had a drop since. My sleep pattern is better, and I get tired before I go to bed. I only got minor headaches for about two days from the caffeine withdrawal.

A little before that date, I decided to eat healthier. I didn't want as much microwaveable food as I had. I wanted more fruits and veggies and more food I had to prepare. So I went grocery shopping and bought better food.

The results were almost immediate. I lost some weight. My gut was getting smaller. Then a friend sent me a workout routine called the Spartacus Challenge. That workout is 10 exercises you're supposed to perform 15-20 reps of and take a 15-second break in between each exercise. After you finish the exercises, you start over. You do this three days a week. I went to Target and bought two 12-pound dumbbells. The next day, I tried the challenge.

It's insane. Brutal. Intense. My body felt like it was made of jelly after that. And I was only able to do eight of the 10 before I thought my heart would never beat again. The next day, I was so sore, I couldn't walk. It hurt to do everything.

Two days later, I did the workout again. This time I was able to do all 10 exercises straight through. I was still super sore and really burnt out afterward. But that meant it was working.

I kept it up three times a week since. I've been getting better at it and feeling much better. This week I decided to actually try circuit training. I was able to finish all 10 and start over, and I could do three of the next cycle (though fewer reps than the first cycle). This should build.

I feel really good. It's giving me an adrenaline rush, and I'm losing weight and getting in shape. Some old pants fit better. The other day I wore a belt and easily got it to another notch. How cool is that?

I'm visibly better too. My friends in Austin said I'd lost weight when I visited last month. There are some muscles on my arms that are starting to grow. My calves, as big as they always have been, are getting bigger. I can work out more and longer. I'm going to start trying jogging too.

This is great. Those dumbbells cost me about $30. $30 to get in shape? That's awesome. I don't need any fancy equipment or a weird machine. I just have discipline and a better diet. I'll see if I can find any "before" pictures. I can't wait to get the "after."

Go, Wildcats!

2011-03-23T23:31:00.003-05:00

My Arizona Wildcats are in the Sweet 16 again. They're playing Duke. Boo! The last time they played Duke was 2001 for the national championship. Tucson rioted after the loss. The police shot my friend in the leg with a rubber bullet.

I hope things are different this time. But even if they don't win, I'm still happy. We got a Sweet 16 appearance in what was supposed to be a few years of rebuilding. Come on. That's great.

Bear down, Arizona!

Vacation's over

2011-03-09T11:38:00.002-06:00

I hate it when my vacations end. I have to come back to some lousy place that I'm increasingly becoming less fond of. When I lived in Ohio, after my vacations, I'd have to come back to OHIO. And the freezing cold and awful snow. Though I'd come back to great roller coasters, a river and the lake.

Here, I come back to ... ugh. I don't even want to write about it. It just depresses me. I was in Austin over a long weekend seeing my bestest buddy. Austin is such a great city. It's more than four times as big as Amarillo. It's got a cool river through it. It's got a nice skyline. People seem cool (except the hipsters). It's got a huge university. Et cetera.

Then I come back here. A place with tiny buildings. With lots of dirt, no river or lake, terrible tasting tap water, boring people, uggghhh. All I do is complain. But I just don't fit in here.

I want to live in a place people will visit. My trip to Austin was my third since my friend moved there. He's visited me none. I don't blame him. In Austin, we had plenty to do. And there was more to do than what we did. We didn't even go kayaking or visit the Capitol. We visited the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg (twice), which was incredible. We sang karaoke, went to a comedy club, went to a "yarn bomb" thing where people put knitting around a bunch of trees at the university.

It was such a great trip. I also got to see my good friend Brittani for a little bit.

Uuhhh, I could keep complaining, but I'm tired right now. No one reads this, so it's become a good place to vent. Maybe I should rant about how impossible it is to find work in a city that could be cool, huh? Naw.

The Panhandle burned

2011-03-02T01:48:00.002-06:00

These crazy wildfires on Sunday burned about 50-something homes and killed some pets in a kennel. It was nuts. I got called in to work on Sunday (my days off are Sunday and Monday), so I got two hours of overtime. That's important because the company said it's got no overtime budget for the year. Breaking news changes plans.

But I'm only working three days this week. On Friday morning, I fly to Austin. Woo! I can't wait. I get to see my friend and his wife, and we've got a ton of things planned. We're going to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War, go hiking, sing karaoke, go kayaking, eat some great dinners, drink some good beer and so on. I'm so pumped for this.

Snowmageddon 2011

2011-02-12T00:10:00.003-06:00

It started snowing on Tuesday, and it didn't let up. It was awful. This blizzard just blew into town. If I knew, I would have stayed in the downtown hotel. It took me about an hour to get home. Normally it takes me less than 15 minutes if I hit all red lights.

We had an early press run that night in anticipation of the snow, so I came in 1 1/2 hours early. I got out a little before midnight and went to my car. I was able to back out, but I got stuck in the exit of the parking lot. It dips down into the road, and there was a snowdrift there that caught me off guard.

After trying to go back and forth for five minutes, I gave up and went into the building and took a snow shovel that was sitting by the door. I dug myself out and just kept the shovel. I was in the parking lot area for 25 minutes before I freed myself. It was so cold too. It was minus 1 degree with a wind chill of minus 30. Some of my fingertips were numb.

I was going to get on the interstate, but the roads leading to it were worse than the one I was on. I was following a plow (actually, it was a grader). The treads on its tires helped give me traction, and I just slowly made my way closer to my apartment. Turning on the street to my place was scary since my street wasn't clear at all. My car slid around a little, and I just drove through red lights and a stop sign. I made sure it was clear first. But if I stopped, I'd get stuck, and I didn't want to deal with that.

I turned in to my apartment complex and got stuck. Uuuggghhh! Two guys pulled in behind me and helped me get out. Thanks, strangers in my complex! I pulled in front of my parking spot and dug out in the vicinity. I'm actually not parking in my spot. It's got too much snow. The car parked to the leeward of it caused a snowdrift right in my spot. The spot on the other side of my spot didn't have as much snow. No one parks there, so I just dug it out and parked there.

I'm still parking there. They're covered parking spots, so the snow's not going to melt as quickly as snow in the open, even as highs will be approaching 70.

My car finally goes stupid

2011-01-23T00:53:00.003-06:00

Last week, my car finally did something really stupid. I've only owned it for four years, though it is nine years old.

I was driving home from work a couple Saturdays ago when I heard a click behind me. Then I heard wind, and it was cold inside my car. My passenger window on my side fell down! It didn't work anymore. Crap!

So that night I just taped it up and called the dealer in the morning.

They said it collapsed like the World Trade Center. Yes, that's what the mechanic told me. He said the mechanism or gear or whatever gave way at the top, then the rest of it just fell down.

They kept it for four or five hours Tuesday. Yeah, it happened Saturday, but here's why I didn't get it worked on till Tuesday: Nothing here is open on Sunday. I called Monday, and they said I could leave it overnight and have it worked on, on Tuesday. Or I could bring it Tuesday morning. Last option, it is!

So many hours and $430 (ouch!) later, my window is fixed. Yay. Good thing I have money in savings. Now I hope that's it with the car troubles. Be good to me, Lesabre! I don't need any more stuff like this!

My beautiful home

2010-12-18T13:24:00.013-06:00

I went home last weekend. HOME. My real home of Kayenta, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation. I grew up there, and it's the place I've lived the longest in my life. I spent 18 years in Kayenta.

Kayenta had been pulling at me, so I arranged a visit with my mom when she was here for Thanksgiving. So after a full day of work on Saturday, I drove overnight to Kayenta. It was about a 9 1/2-hour drive. Totally worth it.

I got to K-town about 6:30 in the morning. There were a few changes on first appearance, but for the most part it had not changed. I like that. Change is good, but it's also great going back to my hometown and seeing that some things will never change.

I took about 400 pictures. I'll post a few here just to show off the beauty and other parts of the town.

This is known locally as "The Toes." It's north of town and is a landmark. This IS Kayenta.

My high school.

A Navajo taco from Golden Sands. That place has the best Navajo taco I've ever had. Fry bread, beans and meat, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, green chilies and a black olive. This was high on my list of something to do when I went home.

Laguna Creek is just north of town. My friends and I used to go hiking there.

The sandstone formations north of town are gorgeous. I had taken the beauty for granted as a kid, but when I visited this time, I was awestruck.

Kayenta has next to no light pollution. This was taken in my neighborhood (the line in the middle is a telephone wire), and my neighborhood has street lights. Five minutes outside of town is even better, if you can imagine. I remember seeing comets with the naked eye.

This was the most disappointing change. This used to be the Trading Post, a store where my friend Zack and I would hang out all the time. There was one summer we went there every single day until one of us went on a vacation. I stood there for a long time just staring at this atrocity. How could the Trading Post go away?

Black Mesa overlooks Kayenta from the south. It's more than 2,000 feet tall.

I remember St. Ides from middle school and high school. It's always in the desert. It's the drink of choice in Kayenta, apparently.

The view from U.S. 163. Beautiful.

That's enough of that. The rest of the photos are on my Facebook profile. I took more than 400 and uploaded about 200.

My mom's retiring this semester, so I had to get home. It was so worth it. The long drive after a full day of work; I'd do it all over again just to see my beautiful hometown. I grew up here, and it shaped who I am. Sure, I talk bad about it after living in cities, but after visiting, I realized how great it was. I took that scenery for granted.

I'm glad I got to go home. I hope I can visit with some of my old friends. That would be magical.

Good haul

2010-11-27T11:35:00.005-06:00

Thanksgiving also was my 28th birthday. I can't believe I'm so old and have accomplished so little. But that's not what this blog entry's about. This is about the great stuff I got for making it another year.

My cousin knitted me a hat, got me gift cards to Starbucks and Amazon, assorted Ghirardelli chocolates and two hilarious cat toys she had with her Halloween costume.

Awesome. My cousin's great.

My best friend got me a book called "The Solid Gold Copy Editor." He also got me two ACES pens and an ACES scarf. He really knows me.

My mom got me the only thing I asked for: "The Pacific" on Blu-ray. It's a phenomenal miniseries that was on HBO early this year. I watched eight of the 10 episodes on Thursday, and I finished it up on Friday. It's so good!

I work today, then I'm off for my regular weekend. Pretty nice. I put in a year ago for my birthday off, and I got a bonus since my birthday fell on Thanksgiving. It was great seeing my mom. This was my first Thanksgiving in maybe five years that I've seen anyone, and it's the first Thanksgiving I've had off since I started my career. I'm feeling a little better.

I'm planning on making a trip to Kayenta next month since I'll have a three-day weekend. My mom's retiring, so this will be my last opportunity to visit Kayenta and not stay in an expensive motel. I'm really looking forward to that because I'll get to see my hometown, hang out with my mom, see my dogs again and wander around taking pictures. That should be really fun, even if it is freezing.

I WILL get better

2010-10-29T00:22:00.003-05:00

So clearly by my blog entries I've been depressed. I've felt depressed before in life, but it's never been like this before. This must be what real depression is. It's not fun. I certainly don't recommend it. I really feel like there's an imbalance in my brain or body or something because I can't just turn this off. Sure, I have moments of fun and can smile, but overall it's just a feeling of dread.

But I'm going to get better. I will feel healthy again, and I'll stop pushing my friends away. I'll keep looking for a job and trying to find a cool city to live in. About a month ago, something happened that made me realize that I can't do this myself or with my friends.

I needed professional help. So I'm getting it. This professional is going to help me feel better and get better. Eventually I will get to the point where I don't need to see her.

I will get better. I'm looking forward to it.

Still got it

2010-10-23T01:11:00.002-05:00

I may be pushing my family and friends away, but at least I can still do my job well. Plus my headlines are still good. I think I wrote a pretty good one tonight.

I just have to keep it under control. Dianna should be able to help me with that.

Sometimes I wonder

2010-10-20T14:17:00.002-05:00

I don't have a lot of free time. But what little time I do have, I tend to spend thinking. Or playing video games and surfing the Internet. But I think a lot. I think while I'm surfing the Net or beating up Lego Joker with Lego Batman.

Maybe I shouldn't be thinking because it's just making me feel worse. I think things like "Where would I be if I had taken that job in Salt Lake City in 2006?" I never would have gotten 1,000 rides on Raptor. I wouldn't have my great friends Kathy, Jess, Paul and Darryl. I met them at Cedar Point. I never would have dated that girl whose name I won't mention.

I don't know. Would I be happier? Would I still be in SLC? I probably wouldn't be in Amarillo, Texas. There's no saying. Right now I feel like I'm trapped in my life.

The light at the end of the tunnel is fading. No matter, though. Story of my life. I'll just be stuck until I die.

I miss my old life. I miss having fun and having friends. I miss having something to do and promises and excitement. I don't even know what that "old life" I'm referring to is. Definitely not Kayenta. Maybe from college through living in Denver. That was a lot of fun. I look back on college and see great friends, great times with them and all the fun I had at the paper. I don't think of the stress of studying or how difficult it seemed to graduate. I look back and am proud of myself for studying and graduating. I look back and am happy that I met my best friends.

That's all just looking back. I want to look forward, but I'm stuck in such a rut I just can't look forward. All I have is now. Maybe I should start living it like today's my last. Isn't that what people say? I wouldn't know how to do that. I can't quit my job and visit Atlanta and catch a Tech game. I can't fly to Denver for the heck of it. I can't drive to Kayenta.

There's not much to do here that's free. And either way, I'd have to drive somewhere. Gas isn't terribly expensive, but for some reason it's the most expensive in the state here. And I can't afford unnecessary expenses anyway.

Ugh. How did I get like this? How can I get out of here?

A light

2010-10-07T01:54:00.002-05:00

... at the end of the tunnel? I hope. I've been in this tunnel for far too long. We'll see if this one gets me anywhere. Don't get your hopes up, because:

OK, this is too much

2010-10-01T11:37:00.003-05:00

I get that breast cancer is a big deal. I get that a lot of women don't do self-exams or aren't aware of the symptoms or what to do. I get that a lot more women die of the disease than should.

But it's too much for me. Are places even "raising awareness" anymore, as they claim? Who isn't aware of breast cancer? You're no longer raising awareness -- you're shoving it in our face. And my job is one of the places that's pandering to it. Today our paper was pink. Mine wasn't delivered, so I don't have any photos of it, but I'll get some at work.

The website is pink on the top and bottom too. Ugly. I think it's ridiculous. I was told that the local Susan G. Komen affiliate was paying for that, so at least it's not some free stuff we're doing. But it's too much. People are aware of breast cancer. We don't have to make our freaking site pink for the whole month and the paper pink. At least the paper's only pink today.

And why is breast cancer such a big deal? Is it because people like breasts? That it sucks to lose a mom? Why don't people make such a big deal out of prostate cancer? More men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 than women were with breast cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Yes, more women than men died (40,820 to 28,372), but that's a disease that can be checked for relatively simply and handled soon, just like breast cancer.

But everyone knows breast cancer's month and its color, and everyone flips out and makes everything pink and finds survivors and tells their stories. I get it. People get breast cancer, and it's relatively simple to identify it and get yourself tested. So is prostate cancer, but you don't see people all decked out in blue in September. Yes, the color is blue, and the month is September.

It's Oct. 1, and I'm already sick of it. We got a bunch of e-mails at work to pay money to join the Race for the Cure. No. We get e-mails that today is "pink out" day. I don't own anything that's pink. I hope I don't catch hell for it. Our newspaper's already pink, and the background is pink. Enough.

Now back to your regular programming.

I've figured it out

2010-09-26T14:27:00.002-05:00

I'm Frank Grimes. My life seemed promising, I seemed to be rising up, but then it all came down. At least I'm not dead yet.

It doesn't get any better

2010-09-17T02:30:00.003-05:00

I'm so pathetic. You know what I had to eat today? Well, technically Thursday because it's 2:30 a.m. Friday. For breakfast, which was after noon, I had nachos. For dinner at work, I had two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, string cheese and a plum.

Then I didn't eat until I got home a little after 2. I made spaghetti, which I'm about to eat now. Actually, I reheated spaghetti. I make really good spaghetti, and I've got plenty of leftovers.

I've started posting the whole paper to the Web site at night. Tonight I worked from 3 p.m. to a little before 2 a.m. with a one-hour dinner break. That's almost 10 hours. I'm tired. But at least the overtime helps a little.

What am I going to do? My life is in shambles, I'm a loser bachelor with nothing going on. I'm out of roller coasters to ride, and my next paid time off is my birthday/Thanksgiving and the day after. Hopefully my mom and brother can visit. If not, it's going to be the most lonely birthday/Thanksgiving ever.

Someday I'll get out of this rut. I hope it's soon. I'm going crazier.

I've got nothing

2010-09-09T01:22:00.004-05:00

I really don't have much to blog about, but I figured I should so my few readers knew what was going on.

I want something new. I'm not terribly happy anymore. My pay is extremely low, and my job keeps coming up with ways to make us do more work. I'm not depressed or want to die or anything, especially since my supervisor recently left, but I want a change of scenery. I want a bigger city, a bigger paper, more money, etc. All that boring, shallow crap.

In this post, I mentioned December. I might as well give up what I was being "cryptic" about. That was my target date to land a new job. That's most likely not gonna happen. The other one, May 2013, was when I figured I'd get a girlfriend. I'll be 30 then. But that's not going to happen either, mostly because the world is ending in 2012.

Just kidding. I'm not stupid.

My next time off is on Nov. 25. That's Thanksgiving, and it's also my birthday. I put in for my birthday before realizing it also was the holiday. Nice. And since I'm normally off Mondays, I asked not to get holiday pay for Labor Day and take the holiday later. I asked for Nov. 26. So that's two days off for the holiday, and my mom and brother might visit. I hope they can.

That would be great to have us all together for a holiday. I think the last time the three of us were together for a holiday was for Christmas 2006. I hope this works out.

This is weird

2010-09-02T20:04:00.002-05:00

For some reason, I've been getting spam comments in my post Late-night posting, which I posted in mid-July. Most of them are typical spam saying things like "buy prescription drugs" and then a bunch of links.

But I had one today that said all this stuff about teens learning good defensive driving in Florida. It was poorly written, probably a script of some sort, but I thought it was legit at first. Then I saw that I didn't write anything about driving in that entry.

Good thing comments require me to authorize them.

That's it for now.

Nine parks this summer

2010-08-25T23:41:00.001-05:00

Unless I can find more time off and another amusement park, I've finished visiting parks for the year. My total is nine, including five in August. Nine parks in a year ties a record for me. To read about my last two, check them out here: Kings Island and Cedar Point.

I sure love doing this. Now I need to start saving money again.

Great vacation

2010-08-24T12:52:00.004-05:00

I'm back from Ohio. I visited Kings Island and have a new No. 2 B&M coaster, Diamondback. The airtime is ridiculous on that ride. What an excellent addition to the park.

I also visited my old stomping ground, Cedar Point. I joined some friends there and hung out for a long time. The park was busy, and I only got one ride each on my favorite coasters, Raptor, Maverick, Magnum and Millennium Force. But just being there was fantastic. I saw a lake freighter from Magnum. That made me happy. What perfect timing. I love freighters.

I flew into Cleveland, rented a car and just drove around. I had a little bit of time Friday night before heading down to Cincinnati for Kings Island, so I went to Huron and visited the pier and saw the lighthouse. I used to love visiting that place. The water is one of the things I miss the most about Ohio.

I needed this vacation, and it didn't let me down. I'm happy. Now I'm going to kick back in Amarillo for two days before going back to work.

The lime plant near the pier. I liked this photo.

The Huron lighthouse.

More travels

2010-08-18T10:32:00.006-05:00

I went to another amusement park last weekend: Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque. That was really fun. After the park, I met with a friend. We had our internships together at The Denver Post. That was great catching up.

The next day, I went to the Rio Grande Zoo. I had a great time. I spent about four hours at the zoo, and it's only $7, so it's a great deal. There are a lot of animals. The elephants weren't there because they were remodeling their pen or something, so I didn't get to see them, but there were plenty of other animals. That's a good zoo. I'm glad I went.

All this traveling I've done this summer is actually making me feel good. I really needed all this. I'm glad I didn't/couldn't follow in the footsteps of some of my friends and just get married right out of college and start having kids. I have nothing holding me back. I'm going off and enjoying my life as best I can.

Next weekend I'm most likely ending my coaster season at Cedar Point and Kings Island. Most likely because I could visit Wonderland again. But CP and KI are probably going to be the last parks I visit this season. I'm taking off six days (four plus my weekend), but I'm only going to be traveling and in Ohio for four of those six. The last two days I plan on kicking back and doing nothing.

I can't wait.

Silent Wings

2010-08-10T13:28:00.006-05:00

The Silent Wings Museum was a really cool place. When I was leaving, a woman sitting in a car asked me if I was a photojournalist. I said I only shoot for fun, but that I'm fascinated by World War II. She and her husband drove there from Kansas because they were helping their granddaughter move to Texas Tech.

We talked for about 15 minutes. She was glad that a person as young as myself was interested in the war. She told me a story of a relative she had who went to the war when she was a kid. After he got back, he was completely changed. He was in the invasion of Normandy. She said she didn't find out what he did and what happened to him until she saw it in his obituary a few years ago. She cried as she told me this story. It's amazing that the war is still fresh in people's minds. I hope that doesn't change. People need to know about the war.

Here are some photos I took.

Another visit

2010-08-09T19:52:00.003-05:00

I went to another amusement park, Joyland in Lubbock. That trip report's got something new in it. I shot a video!

Now I'm planning on going to Albuquerque next weekend and visiting Cliff's and maybe the zoo. The weekend after next weekend, I'm going to Ohio to visit Cedar Point and Kings Island. It'll be a good way to close out what turned out to be a really good amusement park season. I've been to six parks so far this year, and if my plans work out, I can make it nine. Four of those parks I had never been to before.

In addition to visiting Joyland yesterday, I also went to the Silent Wings Museum. It's a museum about Allied gliders in World War II. That was really cool. I'll post some of the photos later. I'm glad I stopped there.

More coasters and a fun weekend

2010-08-05T01:32:00.011-05:00

This is all I look forward to anymore.

I visited a good friend in the Oklahoma City area last weekend. She went to work on Monday, and I went to Frontier City. Read my report here. It was really fun. I've now ridden 191 different roller coasters, and I'm thinking of going to Lubbock next weekend to ride more coasters. I've got a big Ohio trip planned for near the end of the month. I'll only be adding one new coaster on that trip, but going back to Cedar Point will be awesome.

While I was visiting my friend, we went to Bricktown in downtown Oklahoma City. That's a really cool district.

After Bricktown, we drove around the city and then headed to a place called Pops on the old Route 66. It's a soda place that has more than 1,000 sodas. It's pretty neat. But it didn't have the one thing I was looking for: Apple Beer. A friend of mine found it there a few years ago, and he loves it, so I wanted to try it. Nope.

Ooooh, sugar drinks. I bought a strawberry drink that wasn't too good and a green apple drink. But then I saw the most amazing thing ever:

Yes! Leninade! It's got Communist jokes written all over it. It's sitting in my fridge right now. I don't know if I can bring myself to drink it. I will eventually. But for now, it's sitting in the fridge while I work myself up to getting rid of something so amazing.

It was a great trip. It was good seeing my friend again, Oklahoma City's got a really nice downtown, and that soda place was cool. I'm glad I went.

A new low

2010-07-23T00:51:00.001-05:00

I am so pathetic. I'm almost out of food in my apartment. I didn't want to cook anything after work, and I didn't want to eat leftover goulash because I had that for dinner at work. And I wanted to drink either a martini or a gin and tonic, and I wasn't about to do that with my stomach growling. So I figured I could drive to Wal-Mart and buy a frozen pizza.

While in the frozen pizza aisle, I saw a "family pack" of Hot Pockets and picked that up. Pathetic. What a loser. I make a late-night run to Wal-Mart for pizza and pick up a giant box of Hot Pockets. So I could drink alcohol alone in my apartment after work.

I'm a loser.

Driving in Kansas

2010-06-25T12:53:00.004-05:00

I almost killed a deer, and possibly myself, late at night while driving through Kansas on my great road trip. If my brights weren't on, I probably woulda hit that sucker. My car's got good brakes. Really good brakes. Phew.

There are signs every few miles in Kansas saying to watch for deer every X number of miles. It's kind of annoying because it's a false sense of security. You think, "Next 3 miles? Cool. I'll be in the clear." Then 3 miles later, there's a sign that says, "Next 8 miles."

Here's how they really should look:

Trip report and more

2010-06-24T11:43:00.003-05:00

Read my report about my weekend here.

It was awesome. I really needed that. It made me feel like an adult. I voluntarily drove more than 1,000 miles round trip to visit a college friend and go to an amusement park with her. College friend! That also makes me feel like an adult. Yeesh. I can't believe I've been out of college almost five years. I don't want to think about high school.

I feel great. Kansas City also looks like a pretty cool city. Hmm. Just kidding. Or am I?

Road trip weekend

2010-06-22T11:41:00.004-05:00

I took a long drive after work Saturday. I went to a college friend's place, and we went to an amusement park on Sunday. I was really tired, but it was so fun. Totally worth it. I'm working on my trip report, and I'll link it here when it's done. Also, I think I've gotten over this fear of driving.

Google Maps

Sad note

2010-06-14T16:47:00.005-05:00

In my last entry, I posted my trip report to Holiday World. I found out today that the owner of the park, Will Koch, died Sunday night. He was 48.

This is the first amusement park death that's really hit me. It hurts. Will was a great guy. He loved what he did, and he loved seeing our smiling faces at his park. I'm pretty upset about this. I know it seems dorky to be upset about a stranger, but he was a real class act. He was always in the park. He was happy and nice and always smiling. The amusement park industry will not be the same without him.

I edited my trip report to add a line at the end dedicating it to him.

*Photo from Holiday World & Splashin' Safari's Facebook profile.

Great friends, great coasters, great times

2010-06-08T12:46:00.003-05:00

My visit to Holiday World for the coaster enthusiast event was amazing. I had so much fun. Riding those coasters at night is the best, and seeing my friends again was really fun.

Read my report here. I took plenty of photos.

Best coaster ever

2010-06-04T00:30:00.002-05:00

I'm going to Holiday World tomorrow for HoliWood Nights, the roller coaster enthusiast event there. I'm so excited. I get to ride my favorite roller coaster ever, Voyage, at night! I've never ridden it at night before. I'm sure a night ride will make up for the new trains not being ready. That makes me sad, but it's OK. I get a long weekend and my favorite coasters. And I get to see my buddies again. Hooray.

I'll be back late Sunday. I'll post some photos. I'll also link to my photo trip report.

This is gonna be a blast.

Today was good

2010-05-28T00:04:00.002-05:00

I don't know if it was because our paper was a lot smaller and we had more people to work, or because today was our new person's first day, but today was all right. I didn't feel pressure, I wasn't stressed, I felt OK about taking my dinner break, and we finished right around deadline.

I think it's a sign of things to come unless they keep giving us gigantic papers on days when more people are off.

Our new person was only reading today. She'll probably do that for a while until we get her familiar with the system. It really helps to have another set of eyes on the paper.

Feelin' fine.

Reinforcements

2010-05-26T00:21:00.003-05:00

Our new person starts on Thursday. I'm really excited. She's got a journalism background, and she's already familiar with our system. She just has to convert from Mac to PC. It's going to be great to have some relief in design and editing. And it should really help with everyone's stress levels. That's huge.

Then in a couple of weeks I'm going to Holiday World to ride my favorite coaster ever! It's getting new trains. They're still testing them, so I really hope they're ready by then. But even if they're not, it's still a phenomenal ride. I can't wait to ride it again and meet up with some friends.

Back so soon

2010-05-17T00:36:00.003-05:00

I'll be back in Amarillo on Monday. My vacation for Tim's wedding was too quick. I love the mountains and the city and everything. Today, we went to part of the mountains. It was so clear, I could see downtown Denver. I got to play with my telephoto lens, and I snapped some shots of the city.

It was awesome meeting Tim's friends and family. They're great. Some of Etienne's friends who were there are newspaper people, and it's great talking shop with them. I like being around other news dorks.

I really don't want to go back to Amarillo. I'll miss my friends and the big city and the mountains. But I'll be OK. At least I'm returning to some cool co-workers.

I'm in Colorado

2010-05-15T13:10:00.003-05:00

My best friend, Tim, is having his wedding today. I'm posting this from his laptop in my hotel room. How nice of him to leave his laptop here so I could feed my Internet addiction.

Yesterday, I met with my friend Mark. Mark was my supervisor when I had my internship at The Denver Post. It was great seeing him again. Tim came along, and we went out for a beer. Tim's the biz slot at the Austin American-Statesman, and Mark's the biz slot, so they got along well.

They're good guys. They've convinced me that the next place I work should be a big paper. I was considering making a lateral move just to get out of Amarillo, but they've got me thinking big. I'm a great editor. I just have my confidence shot a lot. But those two helped me feel better, so I'm going to look for work at large papers in bigger cities. Wish me luck.

I'm sitting around the hotel just surfing the Web. I need to put my shoes on, turn off The Weather Channel and get outside for some more Colorado air. Ahhh, I've missed it.

I'm hoping to take a ton of pictures today. Hopefully one can be for my picture of the day.

It feels so good to have some time off. I'd almost forgotten how good it feels to relax. I'm going for a walk now.

Trapped

2010-05-12T10:45:00.003-05:00

There was a line in a TV show I saw last night that seems to sum it up for me: I feel like I'm trapped in my own life.

Sometimes things are so bad at work, I can't imagine how they can get any worse. But then they do. I'm not going into specifics. You'll have to ask me for those. One big problem is the understaffing. We're dreadfully understaffed on the copy desk. The reporters are too. Yet they expect us to just work like we have everyone we need. Then they get mad when pages are late.

I just don't get it. Remember how I felt in Fremont? Remember that when I came here, I felt like it was a well-oiled machine? Not anymore. Something happened, and it's just as bad as Fremont now. And that makes me extremely upset. So far, I'm 0-for-2 for jobs. I guess this is just how it is. I imagine I'll never get a job I can enjoy for more than a year.

I hate that I feel that way. I just want to be happy at my job. I love what I do. It's just that things somehow seem to get too stupid. I hate stupidity.

Great minds think alike

2010-05-06T11:43:00.003-05:00

I like it when two newspapers have the same headline. I can't really describe why. I just think it's neat. Like these two papers in Tennessee:

That happened once when I was in Denver. When John Mark Karr was arrested in Thailand because he confessed he killed JonBenet Ramsey. Of course, it turned out he was lying. But The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News ran headlines that were one word apart. The Post wrote "AN ARREST," and the Rocky wrote "ARREST." I remember seeing them side by side on newsstands and thinking it was cool.

Speaking of Denver, I'll be back in one of my favorite cities in a little more than a week for a friend's wedding. I can't wait. I'm going to take so many pictures. I might even get to hang out with one of my friends from The Post. I can't wait. I seriously need to get away.

Almost a dumb mistake

2010-04-27T11:50:00.002-05:00

Last night, as ridiculous as this is, we only had two people putting out the news section of the paper. And sports only had one, though sports just had three pages. One of our pages was already done, and there were a lot of ads, but we still had eight pages to get out. So of course we busted deadline, but not by much.

Since it was only the two of us, there are probably some mistakes. But I caught one on the cover just before sending the page. Oh boy. It wasn't huge, but it sure was embarrassing. The story was about an area school district that doesn't have the kind of money other districts do. But it manages. My deck head was "Schools, teachers do less with more." Less with more? We didn't catch that until I glanced over the proofed cover and caught it. Wow. Less with more. That's really funny. Sure am glad I caught that. Yes, we changed it to "do more with less." Phew.

Today's going to be about the same. We'll have one more person here, which is going to help a great deal. Why are we like this? Someone's on vacation. Isn't that ridiculous? Someone goes on vacation, and everyone works six days (yesterday was my overtime day, cutting my weekend to one day). I'm praying that we hire that job candidate. For the sake of all our sanity.

Rest in peace, Bruce

2010-04-23T10:41:00.003-05:00

Bruce Beck, whom I blogged about a couple of weeks ago, died last night.

It was pretty strange around the newsroom when we heard. It was like that episode of "MASH" when Radar comes in to the operating room to tell everyone that Col. Blake's plane went down and he died. Everyone was quiet for a second. Then we got back to work.

Job candidate

2010-04-23T01:29:00.004-05:00

We had a job candidate here this week for one of our copy-editor spots. She seems pretty cool. A few of us went to lunch with her, and she hung out at our desks for a while as we worked. She's an award-winning designer, and she said she's a better editor than designer.

I really hope we offer the job to her, and I hope she takes it. We NEED another copy editor and designer badly. It should greatly help reduce stress levels. They're getting pretty high, and they're going to get worse as people go on vacation.

For some reason, designing has been taken away from me and divvied out to everyone else. So they've got more work to do. I am a much stronger editor than designer, but it does get difficult reading every single thing in the news section of the paper. Designing helps break it up a little, and I can read what I design. But that's how things are. If we hire this new person, I imagine I'd be reading a little less, which is great.

I just hope the job's offered and she takes it. We've desperately needed someone for months.

I've awakened the beast

2010-04-11T22:23:00.005-05:00

Last weekend I went to Wonderland, the amusement park in Amarillo. It was really fun. I was the first guest in the park. Boy, I'm a nerd. My first roller coaster of the 2010 season was Cyclone. The park also repainted Texas Tornado, and it looks good. It used to be all white. Now, it looks like this:

I was there a little less than four hours. I had a good time.

But it made me want more. So a friend and I figured out when we have days off together (his fluctuate), and I bought tickets to Dallas. I'm going to Six Flags Over Texas. Finally! I wasn't able to make it last year. My friend lives in the Metroplex, and he's picking me up at the airport and letting me stay at his place. I'm not taking any time off for it. I'm just flying in on a Sunday and flying back to Amarillo on Monday. Yes, it'll be quick, but I've done stuff like this before. It should be worth it.

I also sent a check to Holiday World so I could attend HoliWood Nights. That's the park's coaster enthusiast event. Voyage is my overall favorite coaster, so I'm really excited to do this. I'm going to buy plane tickets soon. Voyage is getting new trains, so it should be even better. I can't wait.

The tables have turned

2010-04-01T12:52:00.002-05:00

I realized something just now. It's kind of funny. I used to be afraid of driving. It was a petrifying fear. But I eventually got over it. Sometimes I still get a little nervous or realize that I'm driving, but I don't really have the panic attacks like I used to.

When I worked at the college paper, I always had to get a ride from a friend after work. I hated that. I felt like such a schnook, even though I gave them money for gas.

But now things are different. Now I'm the one giving people rides. When Brittani's car was buried under the snow, I gave her a lift to and from work. When her car wouldn't start, I drove her. When Janelle's car was hit while she was at work, I gave her a ride. I've driven her to the airport. I drove Hilary's boyfriend around when we were hanging out.

It's weird. I can't believe I just realized this. But it's a good feeling. I guess I'm finally growing up.

Took me long enough.

Helping Bruce

2010-03-30T12:47:00.003-05:00

I've got a co-worker who has cancer. His name is Bruce Beck (right). He's battled it for about a year and a half and has lived longer than they expected. But he took a turn for the worse recently when they found the cancer had spread to his brain. So last night, Janelle and Brittani and I went to Blue Sky for a benefit for Bruce. The money for our meals would go to help him.

That's one thing I like about Amarillo. It's a decent-sized city, but it's still got small-town character. A local business helps a resident, and I can be a part of that. And the burgers are really good too.

Also, the weather's been really nice lately. After it snowed 5 inches on the first day of spring, it cleared up and melted and got super warm. Yesterday's high was somewhere in the mid-70s. Today's going to be in the mid- to high 80s. Drool.

To take advantage of the great weather, I went for a few walks. There's a nearby park, and I walked a few laps around it. I think one lap is three-fourths of a mile, and I try to get in three laps. I've only done it on my weekends, but I'll probably start walking before I go to work.

I'm also going to try to start working out. My apartment complex has a workout facility, so I'm going to try heading there after work. I hope it will relieve some stress. We'll see. I just need to get off my butt and get a little more active. I think I can.

Photography

2010-03-27T13:05:00.002-05:00

I love taking pictures. Since my mom got me a digital camera in 2002 or 2003, I've been crazy about shooting. I've taken thousands of pictures at amusement parks, mostly Cedar Point. I've upgraded my cameras a few times over the years. In Denver, I bought a better point and shoot that I still use. And here, I bought a digital SLR, a Canon XSi. It's amazing.

My New Year's resolution was to take a photo a day, and I've held true to it so far. Well, with one exception. I have a pretty stupid photo I took after midnight one day, but I was too busy with work to be able to take a minute and get a photo. But so far the rest of the year is good. That project is here.

I'm really enjoying it. It helps me learn my camera, and it gets me outside a lot of the time. It's fun. Now that the weather's finally warming up (with a fickle day here and there), I'm going to be going for more walks. I bring my camera with me when I go.

I'm a Georgia Tech fan

2010-03-21T15:02:00.003-05:00

Co-workers and friends often wonder why I am such a fan of Georgia Tech. I didn't go to school there. I've never even been to Atlanta. But I love Georgia Tech. I'm die hard. Why?

I love college basketball. I fell in love with it when I was 11 or 12, thanks to my friend Zack. I watched a few games on TV with him and started to really get into the sport. But it really started with a video game called "NCAA Basketball" for Super Nintendo. I rented it a few times and liked it enough to buy it.

It was a really generic game. The graphics, of course, were pretty bad. But it also had a lot of dumb things in it. There was no crowd -- just a blue background. Though there were crowd sounds. When a shot was blocked, a monotone voice said, "rejected." If all your men fouled out, the game would keep going with the last five guys. You couldn't get a technical foul if you called a time out with none left. People often missed dunks. Dunks! Just lots of dumb things like that.

But the game also only had a few conferences. Since I lived in Arizona, I wanted one of the Arizona universities. But it didn't have any Pacific 10 Conference teams. So I just picked the first conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and picked a team that looked cool. Georgia Tech had a yellow jacket, so I chose that team and ran with it.

Eventually, I started catching Georgia Tech games on TV. I looked into the school a little bit and found out that the team had made it to the Final Four a few years prior. They've also got a good football squad.

I watched more games and eventually became a die-hard fan. I know it's weird. But it's different too.

Yes, I also love Arizona. How could I not? Home state team. I went to school there. I'm hard-core Arizona too. But I've been a fan of Tech longer. My loyalty's with Arizona, but I love Georgia Tech. Arizona's won a championship, lost in a championship, made it to the Final Four a few times and in 2005 had a chance of making it to the Final Four. Arizona's consistently been a great team my entire life.

Tech hasn't been. Tech's been in the Final Four twice. Tech's only been to one championship, and the Jackets lost that one in 2004.

Ehhh, I guess that's all I've got. Tech's about to lose to Ohio State. Yes, I'm angry, but they did a bit better than I expected them to this season.

I really do like my job

2010-03-13T13:02:00.002-06:00

Times are really tough right now. Our boss left for another paper a little more than a month ago. We had someone retire for medical reasons in October. And an intern-turned-staffer left a few weeks ago. No one new had been interviewed, and it seemed like there was no push to fill the positions.

It really started driving me (and the rest of us) crazy. Our already high stress levels were being pushed through the roof. I had a couple of meltdowns at work. Someone ended up working for 12 straight days. A lot of us had some overtime.

I also got sick last week and had to take a day and a half off. That was the first time I'd ever taken a sick day at any job in my life. I tried coming in the next day but had to leave because I still felt crappy and was being gross and sweaty. I think the reason I got sick was because of the stress. It compromised my immune system. I seldom get sick. Maybe once every 18 months. I didn't even have medicine in my apartment. But something happened that knocked me down.

I'm feeling way better now. I'm even going to persuade myself to start working out. I figure if I got myself to stop biting my nails last year after doing so my entire life, I should be able to start working out at my apartment's center.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yeah. My computer had a really weird problem a few days ago, and I couldn't design pages. Because we're so understaffed, everyone has to design. In an ideal world, we'd have at least one person dedicated strictly to reading rim, but that's not possible. But with my computer being a jerk, I could only read. So I passed my pages to two co-workers, which sucked for them, but that's just what had to happen.

So as I was editing, I got to realizing how great it is. I'm not that good a designer. I don't dislike it; it's just not my thing. Editing is my thing. I'm really good at it, and I love it. And being able to do nothing but edit made me pretty happy. I was back in my element. Without design hindering me, I was able to focus 100 percent on something, and I did a great job. Seven of eight of my headlines on section fronts and 1A made it through slot. Things are good when I'm not being distracted. Not that design's a distraction, but it does cut into my editing abilities.

We've got a new guy coming in, in a few weeks. He's not a copy editor or a journalist, but he knows the design program. They're optimistic he can help cut the workload. I'm hoping it helps. An extra body (or three) is what we really need.

Hero

2010-02-17T13:05:00.004-06:00

I want to live in a bigger city. Denver? Austin? Dallas? Kansas City? We'll see.

Kansas City? Are you serious? Weirdo.

The C-word

2010-02-11T01:31:00.002-06:00

Cryptic? Cynical? Crazy? Sure.

December 2010.

May 2013.

Hopefully sooner.

First post of 2010

2010-01-18T15:53:00.002-06:00

I entered a headline contest. The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors contest is a statewide contest. I entered six headlines, which constituted an entry. I wish I would have kept track of my headlines better, but I think I did an OK job. But for next year's contest, I've already got two saved.

I think I've gotten pretty good at writing headlines. I can relax a little and write something I think is clever, captures the story and can get the reader's attention. And it's really fun.

Our slot's going to be learning design for a couple of weeks, so I'll be doing nothing but slotting that whole time. I really like that.

That's all. Sorry I don't have anything else to write about. Nothing else happens to me.

The 2000s: A decade in whatever

2009-12-31T22:24:00.005-06:00

For my last post in December, I'm going to write about the highlights of the past 10 years of my life. I've bolded the really cool stuff to break up the wall of text.

2000 was fairly uninteresting. I only remember going to Cedar Point for the first time. That was pretty sweet. I got to ride Millennium Force, which was the tallest, fastest coaster in the world when it opened. That coaster and Cedar Point helped elevate my love of coasters from sort of liking them to me going a little insane. Also that summer, I attended a program at the University of Arizona and made some great friends.

2001 was crazy. My dad died at the beginning of the year, I graduated from high school, and I started college. College was terrifying at first. I'd never been away from home. I'd never been around that many white people, so it was total culture shock. But I got accustomed to school and Tucson, and I had some friends I met the previous summer who helped me through.

2002 was more school and another roller coaster trip. My friend, my brother, Mom and I drove across the country to visit family and ride coasters. We visited her stepdad in Pennsylvania. We visited five amusement parks on that trip: Dorney Park, Cedar Point, Kings Island, Holiday World and LeSourdsville Lake. The Holiday World visit made me fall in love with good wooden coasters, and I got to see that bigger isn't always better. LeSourdsville Lake only was open for a few months that year, and it's been closed since, so we totally lucked out in visiting.

2003 was the first summer I worked at Cedar Point. I was a sweep. I walked around and picked up trash and lost a lot of weight and had a stronger left arm because of the dust pan. But I also got to ride coasters all the time. I fell in love with Raptor there and rode it 246 times that year.

2004 was another summer at Cedar Point. I was the assistant team leader of a sweep crew, and we did so well, our crew was named to operations excellence. That is an award that goes to the best crew of any division at the park. We were the best. I also got 303 rides on Raptor, including my 500th ride on it. I started working at the school newspaper as a copy editor. I quickly became the copy editingest copy editor there. My nana died, which was really upsetting. I still find myself missing her.

2005 was my last summer working at Cedar Point. I got 151 rides on Raptor. I also cleaned up the worst mess ever ever: a freaking ton of blood. Soooo gross. Also in 2005, I graduated from college in the fall semester. I had spent two semesters as the head copy editor, and I also landed an internship with the prestigious Dow Jones Newspaper Fund.

2006 might have been one of the best years of my life. I was fresh off graduating from college. My internship at The Denver Post was starting in June. I had five months to kick back and do nothing. So I did. I felt like I deserved to do nothing before really venturing out in the so-called real world. That was fantastic. I trained for my internship in Austin for two weeks in May. In June, I started my internship. Denver was a great place to live, and my internship was extended. Then I landed my first job out of college in Ohio at The News-Messenger and News Herald. A huge triumph was I learned how to drive and got over my fear of driving. I took driving lessons from an old man named Roger. He was awesome. He'd say "gee-ma-nilly" at things that amazed him. My mom got me a car when I moved to Ohio, and I was forced to drive to work and to the store and stuff. So I finally learned how to drive.

2007 was fun because I got to get a season pass to Cedar Point and ride the heck out of my favorite rides. I got 312 rides on Raptor, including my 1,000th ride on it. I also went on a lot of trips and visited amusement parks. I went to seven parks that year and rode two roller coasters a man built in his backyard. One of those parks, Holiday World, ended up having what became the best roller coaster I'd ever been on. Voyage is still my favorite coaster, and I can't even imagine what a coaster would have to do to be better than that. It's unbelievable.

2008 was a little rough. I quit my job at The News-Messenger in February and had a heck of a time finding a job as the economy plummeted. I was jobless for six months, but I had a lot of money saved up. I still visited Cedar Point weekly because it kept me sane. I also visited Holiday World again and got more rides on Voyage. But I found a job in Amarillo, and things were great. I loved it, and I found myself learning a lot and doing a lot.

2009 was great way to end the second decade I got to live through. I did a lot of slotting at the paper, and I think I greatly improved my headlines and editing. I made some good friends at the paper. I visited the small amusement park in Amarillo twice, which is pretty good for the size of the city. I visited Cedar Point by the skin of my teeth. I got there on closing day as a side trip to some friends' wedding. Speaking of which, I went to two weddings. Tons of fun. I bought a digital SLR camera and freaking love it. I bought a nice suit for the weddings.

2010 and beyond should be cool. I plan on visiting a few amusement parks next summer. One of the trips I plan on taking is to Holiday World for its annual coaster enthusiast event, HoliWood Nights. I would love to ride Voyage at night. And it's getting new trains, so it should run even better. I can't wait. I'm going to my best friend's wedding in Colorado in May. I miss Denver, so maybe I can hang out for an extra day and just wander around the city. Maybe I could pop in and say hi to my friends at The Post.

I'm looking forward to things. Though I don't really measure things in years or decades, I figured I'd do a wrap-up. The end. Words, words, words.

Tucson was fun

2009-12-14T23:14:00.002-06:00

I was in Tucson for my cousin Alison's wedding. It was really fun, and it was great seeing my family again. I got to see my aunt, all us grandkids/cousins, my mom, my brother and Grandpa. So cool.

Highlights from my trip:

Amarillo's airport isn't big or a destination, so it's hard to get flights anywhere. I had to fly from Amarillo to Denver (stayed on the plane) to Las Vegas (three-hour layover) to Tucson. The flight from Denver to Vegas was annoying because a woman was sitting next to me and kissing her finger to turn the pages of a magazine. Not licking it. Kissing it. Annoying.
But also on that flight was a woman heading to Vegas for her 40th birthday. She was surrounded by her annoying, loud, stupid friends. Once we got over Nevada, they walked around the plane asking people to put a dollar in a bag. They'd draw the seats of people who put money in from a hat and give the number they drew to that person. Gotta gamble once you get to/over Nevada!
The flight from Vegas to Tucson was annoying because I was surrounded by high school girls apparently going to some synchronized swimming competition in Tucson. Loud, annoying girls.
Tim and I went to a store Friday night to get the last stuff for our mom's Christmas present. When we went to pay, a woman in front of us bought something like $60 of stuff and paid with singles. ALL ONES! Ahhh! Who does that? Why does she have so many ones? I made a joke about her working in a strip club because everyone tells that one. But she was old too. Dumb.
I had In-N-Out my first night there. Yes! I love that food. And the fries well done are so good.
When I was waiting in Tucson's airport for my flight out of there (to Denver and a four-hour layover!), the UA men's basketball team walked off the plane I was to board. I saw the team! And coach Miller! I only recognized him. I've been out of school for so long, I don't really know anyone. I just know names, not faces. Though I did look up their roster later and put some names to faces. Pretty cool.
Once again, a decent-sized city makes me realize how small Amarillo is and how I really want to live in a larger city.

It friggin' snowed today

2009-11-29T14:25:00.003-06:00

I woke up around 10 a.m. and heard cars driving around in the parking lot. It sounded wet, so I figured it rained overnight. You know, like we were expecting.

Nope. Temperature plummet plus wet equals snow. Boo. I'm staying indoors today.

Cadillac Ranch

2009-11-19T23:50:00.013-06:00

Tim and I went to Cadillac Ranch a couple of days ago. We bought some spray paint and drove out there. With no idea of what to write, we just came up with the first things that came to our mind. See what we did below:

10 Cadillacs buried halfway in the ground sit in a field off the interstate just west of town.

The first thing Tim wrote was "Buy war bonds." All righty.

It was a little messy out there. We cleaned up after ourselves. Our two spray cans had some paint left, so we left them there for some high schoolers who showed up.

Some women were finishing up their work as we showed up. Pretty cool.

Oh no. It's ruined.

Tim runs to another car.

Artsy shot.

Cool face. Tim painted the eyes.

Ah, yes. The giraffe conspiracy.

Gotta nuke something.

It was pretty cool. Yeah, I waited more than a year to visit it, but I'm glad I finally got around to going. And it was fun going with my brother.

Tim visited

2009-11-19T14:15:00.000-06:00

My brother came to visit for a few days. We went to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, which is the largest history museum in Texas. We also went to Cadillac Ranch and drew on some cars. I'll post some pictures after work. I have to resize them and hope my Internet doesn't cut out.

I'm back from vacation

2009-11-04T00:21:00.004-06:00

I went to two friends' wedding over the weekend (they married each other). It was a great experience. I got to see lots of friends again, I got to travel, I got to take a vacation, I saw pretty trees changing colors, I got to go to Cedar Point and ride my favorite roller coasters, and I had an all around great time.

I also got to play around with my SLR camera. Oooooh. It was amazing. Between my two cameras, I took more than 1,000 pictures of the wedding, friends, hanging out and Cedar Point. Some of the pictures looked really good. I might upload some here, but I'd have to resize them from gigantic.

But I really needed this vacation. It was fantastic. I love my friends.

Speaking of friends, my plans to get back to the Cleveland airport fell apart. But a friend of mine who lives in greater Cleveland offered to give me a lift to a motel near Cleveland and drive me to the airport the next morning. What a great guy.

Being in Cleveland made me realize how much I love big cities. He drove me around a little bit. We visited another friend, who was totally surprised to see me. That was so fun. But I also enjoyed driving around the roads and seeing all the businesses. We drove by downtown Cleveland. I like it because the tall buildings are pretty cool.

And it made me realize how small Amarillo really is. This city's got about 200,000 people, but that's it. There are no suburbs. There are two interstates, but they just pass through the city. Not much of a loop. Downtown's small and not too lively.

Don't get me wrong, I like Amarillo. Anything larger than Kayenta is cool. But Amarillo's not big enough for me. Ever since I lived in Tucson and Denver, I've been an urbanite. I love cities. That's all there is to it.

This was pretty corny

2009-10-19T19:39:00.005-05:00

A co-worker, Brittani, and I went to a corn maze yesterday. I got to really try out my new camera. There were two parts of the maze. The first part took us about 40 minutes, and the second took us about an hour. We got so lost a few times in the second part.

But it was fun. The skies were clear, and it was in the 80s. What great weather for mid-October.

There was a slide. The view above the corn was no help.

It was pretty fun. I'd never been to a corn maze before, and I had a good time.

After a year

2009-10-06T23:29:00.002-05:00

Wednesday is my one-year anniversary at the Amarillo Globe-News. I'm really happy here, and I've been given so many opportunities. My design, editing and headline writing skills have improved vastly, and I'm doing a lot more with the Internet.

I got my camera today and am currently charging the battery. I can't wait to try this sucker out! I guess I'll be making more blog entries with photos.

De shuttle photos

2009-10-01T13:06:00.002-05:00

Half of the photos I took with the SLR didn't come out because the film was damaged. Boo. But the pictures that did look really cool. Man, that thing's big. I'll scan some photos and post them here sometime.

Camera!

I ordered my camera, and it's being shipped. I can't wait! It should be here Tuesday. I am nervous because UPS was the only shipping option, and I've had such bad luck with UPS. I want to boycott UPS, but it's hard to when it's the only option. So hopefully things aren't screwed up. It even requires a signature, which is one plus.

I bought my tickets to fly to the wedding. Things seem really good right now. Except the weather. It's cooling off a little after two days in the 90s. But it is fall now, so I guess I'll have to start dressing warmer.

Coolest thing ever!

2009-09-21T21:07:00.006-05:00

The 747 that the space shuttle piggybacks on flew into Amarillo yesterday to refuel. It flew here from Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was easily the coolest thing I've seen and done since I moved to Amarillo nearly a year ago. I'm just going to post pictures of it. I'm so geeked about it, so the pictures will replace my rambling about the awesomeness.

Woo! Best day ever!

Good news!

2009-09-19T01:00:00.002-05:00

At last! We got our schedules for the next four weeks. I'm getting my weekends back (Sundays and Mondays), and our new guy starts on Tuesday. I'm so excited.

And apparently I proved myself as slot, so now it looks like on Saturdays I'll be rimming and slotting to help speed up the process and get all the pages read for the big Sunday paper. That's awesome.

I am a little nervous about going back to doing some design, but it's nothing too big. I'll be fine.

Vacation: My days off were approved, so I'm going to be attending my friend's wedding in Pennsylvania. Now I just need to find plane tickets.

Ah. Feelin' fine.

Time off, huh?

2009-09-17T23:41:00.002-05:00

My supervisor called me today asking about the time off I requested. Sounds like it's going to be approved! I'm excited. I'm taking six days at the end of October and beginning of November to go to a friend's wedding. That should be cool. It'll be a great break from the six-day weeks and changing days off.

The new guy starts Monday or Tuesday, and I couldn't be happier. I'm totally burnt out. With fluctuating days off and no weekends, I'm going crazy, and it's showing at work. I've been missing mistakes lately, and my headlines aren't good. Good thing we have people look over the proofs because I've just sucked lately.

So going to the wedding in Pennsylvania will be good for me. I'm only going to Pennsylvania for a couple of days, so the other days I think I'm just going to lounge around and do nothing. I might drive to Albuquerque and visit a museum or something. I'm such a bum. I've lived here nearly a year, and I haven't done anything.

I'm already thinking of real vacation ideas for next year. I do want to get back to San Fransisco and visit my cousin. My brother's trying to get time off so we can go together, though his time off seems to never be approved.

I'm not sure where else I could go. Maybe I could go back to Denver. Or Washington, D.C. I'd also like to ride some more roller coasters since I only got to Wonderland this year. I'll figure it out when the time comes. For now, I'm just thankful that it sounds like I'm getting some time off!

I hope this doesn't keep up

2009-09-14T01:06:00.002-05:00

Things were mighty insane at work this week, especially Saturday. Two people are on vacation, one person's out sick, and we're down two people. So we had to double up on assignments. The person who normally does local also was doing the features pages, the wire person was doing business, and no one was rimming.

Saturday for Sunday's paper was the craziest. We didn't get any advance pages done. I came in to work Saturday and had to read all of the lifestyles stuff; I read some biz stuff that wasn't read, and the biz editor came in to get the rest done; I didn't even read some wire pages. It's insane around here. One of the sports editors is on vacation for three weeks!

We got the paper out. We busted deadline, which was to be expected. I asked my supervisor if we're still going to fill the open copy-editor position. She said we will, which is great, because I was nervous that someone would see that we miraculously put out Sunday's paper with three people and decide that we don't need that extra person. But we need rimmers, and our intern's not going to be here forever.

Other nonsense

I put in for some vacation time for late October and early November to attend a friend's wedding. Originally I put in for four days off (two if I got a weekend with it), but I changed that and put in for six or seven days (four or five with a weekend) because I need the vacation. I'll fly to my friend's wedding and spend a couple of days in Pennsylvania, but the rest of the time will be just for me. I'll kick back in Amarillo. Maybe take in some sights or whatever. But I figured that working then flying to my friend's wedding and then coming back immediately to work would be a little insane. I need a full week.

Camera

I've decided to buy my camera. I'm buying a Canon XSi and a 70-200 2.8 lens. I'm saving up my paychecks, and I'll buy it in a few weeks. I'm really excited. Once I get that, I'll try to update this boring with more photos of anything.

Abandoned Amarillo

2009-09-03T18:34:00.012-05:00

On my day off today, I drove downtown and took pictures of the abandoned buildings. Here are some shots.

This is the Barfield Building. It's supposed to be turned into condos, but it keeps hitting setbacks. The first floor was cleared out, and that's really it.

This is a former Freemason temple. The owners want it demolished.

I don't know what this building is, but it's pretty cool.

Herring Hotel from the back. It's been closed since the '70s.

That white building is the historic 1915 Liberty Theater. It's closed, and the city wants to tear it down.

I also drove north of downtown and got some pictures of the closed Baptist St. Anthony's hospital.

The front of the hospital.

The steps leading to the front door.

For my next photo project, I'm going to try going with a co-worker to find lots of these crazy signs put up around town by local weirdo artist Stanley Marsh 3.

The best part about this sign is it's right across the street from the old BSA hospital.

New person?

2009-08-26T19:55:00.002-05:00

So I think the guy who interviewed for the assistant copy desk position a few weeks ago took the job. That's exciting. I'll go back to my old duties, I suppose, which means sort of erratic hours and more design.

That doesn't sound too exciting. But at least the pressure of slotting will be off most of the week. Ugh. I am not ready for this yet. I will eventually. But not yet.

In more boring news, I'm trying to make my apartment less bachelorlike. I printed another picture I took and hung it on my wall. So that brings the art in my apartment to two. Boy. But I'm going to buy a picture from The New York Times next paycheck and hang that bad boy up. I'm looking forward to that. It's a cool picture. Maybe I should get a plant or a lizard or something.

I did buy better silverware and some actual drinking glasses. No more plastic cups for me. I can't believe I'd waited so long to start drinking water like an adult.

And in adult news: I've got some friends who are getting married. Crazy. Actually, I have two weddings to go to this year. My cousin's also getting married. Wow. So I need to get time off for both. But in stupid news: I don't know how many days off I have (I just know that I've taken two), and my days off fluctuate because of staffing levels. Also I'm an idiot and just don't take time off. I don't know why I do this to myself.

But today and tomorrow are my first actual weekend in like three or four weeks. My goal today was to get nothing done. So I did just that: nothing. It was great. I sat around and watched TV and the second disc of "Dead Like Me," which is a good, though super cynical, show. I also veged around and ate candy. But I guess I can cook some good dinner. Hey, at least I got dressed.

Tomorrow's also going to be a good day. Maybe I should look for a couch. I need a couch to help slowly rid myself of being a pathetic bachelor.

Intern last day

2009-08-21T02:13:00.002-05:00

Today's Sean's last day. He's heading back to school in Austin. We're really going to miss him. He's been a big help this summer, and I think he'll take a lot back with him at The Daily Texan.

The other intern, Hilary, is sticking around for a while. She'll be searching for a job, but she's going to stay and help us until she finds a job. I'm happy. Hilary's also a big help.

durrrrr.

No dice

2009-08-20T01:40:00.000-05:00

The woman I took on the lunch interview last week declined our offer. Too bad. She seemed cool, and I thought she'd be a good addition to the team. I guess that means Brittani and I will be taking someone else to dinner next time.

Pubic meeting

2009-08-15T11:24:00.001-05:00

For the first time in my career, I saw a pubic/public mistake. It's often talked about, and I'd probably seen it on Leno, but this is the first time I prevented it from being in a newspaper. And the best part? It was in Bill O'Reilly's column. We run him in the opinion page on Monday. So I caught it in his column, but does that mean everyone did? No! That means lots of publications will run it unedited on the Web! Ah ha ha ha ha!

I need a vacation

2009-08-11T11:56:00.002-05:00

My performance at work is starting to be affected. It's probably not an excuse, but I just need to get out and go somewhere. Austin really helped clear my head a couple of months ago.

I guess I'm just upset that I had to cancel vacation plans for the end of this week, and that changed the schedule and cut my weekend to one day.

If I go on vacation, I need to figure out where to go. I have two weddings to go to this year, so that'll eat up three or four days. I've only taken two so far. Maybe I can go back to San Francisco or visit a new city.

Lunch interview

2009-08-08T13:28:00.004-05:00

As my co-worker Brittani put it, it's days like this that make me feel like I'm an adult. Brittani and I took the guy interviewing for the job to lunch. He seems really good. He said he's OK with working with a bunch of greenhorns like us kids on the desk.

He said he would give feedback to us, which I really like. I'd rather have someone tell us to try rewriting a headline or pointing out an odd error than just changing it and letting it go. I try to give feedback, but sometimes things are a little rushed, so I can't do that.

Today might be a crazy day. We found out yesterday that we had something like 500 extra inches of space in Sunday's paper. I'm sure my supervisor was exaggerating, but it's still a bunch of pages we didn't anticipate. I read as much advance copy as I could get to last night after deadline, but today might be a bit stressful. But we'll be OK. We always pull through.

Then on to my weekend! Hopefully my friend lets me borrow his Nikon. I can't wait to try that guy out.

Back to work

2009-08-06T23:31:00.002-05:00

So I had to fill out a correction form today. We had an inaccurate headline in yesterday's paper, and we ran a correction in today's paper. I'll learn from it, but I think it's a bit of an indicator that I'm not completely ready to slot yet.

But on that slotting thing, we've got a guy interviewing for the slot position. I'm excited to take him to lunch. I'll post and entry on how that goes.

Someone's interviewing ...

2009-08-06T00:21:00.001-05:00

... and I'm on the list of people to go to lunch with him. He'll be here Thursday and Friday, and Brittani and I are taking him to lunch on Friday. Neat. He interviewing for the slot position. He last worked at the Rocky Mountain News, and he was there when it closed. :<

On cameras

2009-08-05T00:30:00.002-05:00

So my co-worker let me borrow her Canon XTi last week, and it was pretty awesome. I felt like a sorcerer with that thing compared to my point and shoot. It's a bit difficult getting exposure right, but I'm sure I could get the hang of it after awhile. I was mostly shooting in manual, which made getting exposure a little harder than if I were maybe shooting in aperture priority.

Another co-worker sometime will let me borrow his Nikon. I think it's a D70. I'll compare the two and try to make my decision based on that. I've heard arguments for and against both brand. It doesn't really matter to me. Whatever works for me is what I'll buy. I won't be shooting professionally, and I won't be getting super top-of-the-line equipment until way later.

I just hope I can make a decision. So far, I just feel like an SLR is what will help. I don't care on the brand. I just want an SLR.

Take that, AP

2009-07-28T23:24:00.000-05:00

I caught an error in the lede of an Associated Press story today. Our biz editor called the AP in Dallas and had them run a write-through to change it. They hadn't noticed they made it. Cool.

I need an SLR

2009-07-27T20:52:00.003-05:00

As you can tell in my photos from Wonderland and downtown, the pictures aren't that great. These two trips made me kind of sad. For the first time since I've had this great point and shoot, I've been let down. I truly felt limited with it.

I needed a wider angle for the buildings downtown. I needed a better metering system and manual settings to get the exposure right during the overcast day at Wonderland. I was hindered because of my camera.

:<

So this did it. After years of talking, I'm doing it. My next big purchase will be a DSLR. I'm leaning toward the Canon XS or Canon XSi. Any of my three readers know which I should get? I need a good starter SLR. I don't want to go professional and get a Nikon D700.

Time to set money aside for it. Thankfully I can do that because my new apartment is much cheaper than the last one.

Amusement parks rule

2009-07-27T00:03:00.003-05:00

Amusement park, photos and fun.

I went to Wonderland with a co-worker, Hilary, to get in the few rides I didn't get to ride in April. A new section called the West End opened in June with three rides: Hornet, Fiesta Swing and Drop of Fear. I didn't get a wristband this time. I got 10 tickets for $15. Hilary hung out just to take pictures. And eat a funnel cake. She had to have that.

Read more at my Web site.

A pictorial tour of downtown

2009-07-23T01:45:00.008-05:00

To stray from talking about my job, which is getting boring, I'ma make an actual blog post. Let me clarify. The job's not getting boring, but I guess posting about it is. "Wow, I wrote a headline that made it to 1A." "I'm super cool." Eh. I guess this is maybe the beginning of me keeping a seminormal blog.

Last week, I went to downtown Amarillo and took pictures of the buildings. It was pretty cool. Downtown's pretty dead. There are a lot of abandoned buildings that don't seem to be getting anywhere, though one will be turned into a hotel next summer.

On to photos:

This is the Chase Tower. It's the tallest building between the Dallas-Fort Worth area and Denver. It's also the tallest between DFW and Phoenix.

Fisk Building. It's abandoned, but it will reopen next summer as a Marriott hotel.

The Santa Fe Building. This is about a block away from work. The letters at the top light up in red at night. It's a really cool building. It houses some government offices.

Here's where I work. This is the advertising building.

Vehicle.

The Barfield Building. It was going to be turned into condos, and even the first floor was gutted (as you can see), but the developer bailed or something. Either way, it sits vacant and ugly.

Amarillo National Bank Plaza One.

This is the Amarillo National Bank Plaza Two. I can see this from the window at work, and it's amazing when there are brilliant sunsets. The oranges and reds reflect off the windows and look amazing.

The old Potter County courthouse. It's sitting around doing nothing but looking pretty.

This is the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts. Read about it here. The look is supposed to emulate Palo Duro Canyon, which is the second-largest canyon in the U.S. The canyon is about 20 miles south of Amarillo. It's a great place to hike.

Aw. Downtown. Isn't it cute?

The Herring Hotel. It closed in the 1970s. I have no idea what's going to happen to this building. I hope it can be revitalized as something. It looks pretty cool.

I don't know what this building is, but I posted it because it pretty much shows the state of downtown. It's pretty sad. I hope the organizations working to fix up downtown actually get something done.

This is typical of many streets downtown. Brick! How cool. I'd seen brick streets once before, in Port Clinton, Ohio. It's a pretty cool old touch. Driving on them is kind of neat too. They make a cool sound.

Want a job?

2009-07-19T13:05:00.002-05:00

We've got two job openings. We're looking for an assistant copy desk chief. This person will slot. Will's last day is Monday, and with him leaving, we've got a copy-editor spot open. I'm glad we're filling the positions because we're bare bones as it is. With the two interns leaving in a few weeks, things will get really hairy without some more help.

I hope we fill them soon. I think someone who was with the Rocky Mountain News when it closed has applied for the slot position. That'd be cool because I'm sure those copy editors were really good.

Big Sunday package

2009-07-19T00:23:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow's (well, I guess today's) paper has a big package on the Tulia, Texas, drug sting of 1999. We read the copy a few days ahead of time, so we were all ready to go. It was really interesting. I'd suggest checking it out on our Web site. It's about how some of the people involved still feel discriminated against even though they were acquitted or pardoned. There's a lot of information on it online.

When it got to me as slot, I wasn't satisfied with the hed. I thought for a while until I came up with a pretty good one. That's the front page on the right. I'm proud of myself. It's a big headline, all caps, top of the page. Cool.

Slotting and headlines

2009-07-11T00:33:00.002-05:00

When I slot, which is all the time now, I often rewrite headlines. Well, maybe not often. But I do. I'm not the best at headlines, but I am getting a lot better. And when it comes to rewriting headlines, a general rule I use is I'll change it if it doesn't sit right with me.

Obviously I'll change it if it's inaccurate or something, but for the most part, I just rewrite a hed if it's kinda weird. I'm not really good at explaining this. But it's how I do it.

Some people have told me that they think some editors change heds just for the sake of changing them. That's not me. If I feel a hed is good, I leave it there. Simple.

Moving day!

2009-07-09T21:42:00.002-05:00

Read the title like the guy says "garbage day" in this clip.

I'm moving to a new apartment. Oh, wait. I already did. I've been busy unpacking today. It's crazy. Yes, I'm still in Amarillo. This isn't another one of my move-across-the-country things. Since our pay cuts a few months ago, my last place just got too expensive. So I'm in a much more reasonably priced place. It's closer to the grocery store, and it's a quicker drive to work. That means less gas and more money saved.

Score.

The computer was the first thing I set up. Obviously. Need Internet! I'll get pictures of the new dwelling once things are in place and organized and not just covered in boxes.

In other news, someone else on our desk is leaving. William is taking a job in Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston. I'm not sure what he'll be doing. I wasn't at work today (my days off since the slot got fired are Monday and Thursday), and Brittani sent me a text message. Darn that woman. Text messages cost me money. I'll ask Will about it tomorrey.

I'll post more about work later. I just decided to post some sort of update for my three readers.

Photos? In my paper?

2009-07-06T17:17:00.002-05:00

These photos are mine. We had a wire story on Cliff's Amusement Park celebrating 50 years, and no art ever moved. So my supervisor asked if I had pictures of the park. I did, and we printed 'em. Neat!

Sheesh. Sorry.

2009-07-06T02:14:00.000-05:00

Ugh. I'm moving to a new apartment on Tuesday, and my days off are now Sunday and Thursday, so I haven't snapped a picture of the page with all my photos yet. But soon!

And since no one reads this, it'll just be there, and this blog post will not have mattered.

This is cool

2009-07-04T23:29:00.000-05:00

We're running a story on Cliff's Amusement Park in Albuquerque in Sunday's paper. It's an AP story, but it didn't have any pictures. My supervisor asked if I had pictures from Cliff's. I said I did, and I brought them in to work. My pictures are being published in the paper! I'll show how it looks tomorrow.

Headlines are fun

2009-06-29T03:34:00.003-05:00

One thing I like about this job is it allows me to be creative. I feel like I'm getting better at writing headlines. I wrote a fun one today for Monday's paper. The story is about the generation gap now being wider than it was 30 and 40 years ago.

The hed? "In my day, we got along."

It's not too great, but it's clever. I think it gets the point across. And the deck hed further tells what it's about. I'll try to get a shot of it when I get the paper.

A crazy house

2009-06-26T02:07:00.005-05:00

The newsroom was pretty crazy today. First, Farrah Fawcett died. Then we got news that our slot was "no longer with the company." Then Michael Jackson died.

Ahhhh!

So the newsroom was a mess. I took over as slot, which I guess I'll be doing until we hire someone else. That's fine by me. I like slotting, though it is a bit stressful at times. But it'll be OK. I enjoy writing and rewriting headlines. Oh, and that editing thing. Yeah, that's pretty fun too.

Done training

2009-06-21T01:48:00.004-05:00

Woo hoo. Not a day too soon! I want to go back to copy editing. And designing. Never thought I'd say that. But I've got most of the Internet stuff accomplished and figured out. I took lots of notes. I'm feeling OK about it. Now hopefully no one gets sick, so I don't have to do this.

The shift is from 4:30 to 1:30, and it gets lonely after midnight when everyone leaves.

But it's kinda cool being there that late because the presses are in full swing, and the building vibrates a little. The presses are a few floors below us. The mailroom where they put the inserts in the paper is one floor below us. Tonight as I headed out, I stopped on the mezzanine level and took a picture of the presses below through a window.

In other news:

Sean and Hilary, the two Dow Jones Newspaper Fund interns, get dinner together every day. They bring their food and eat at a nearby park. The park's a little shady, but it's good to get out and eat.

A couple of days ago, they asked if I wanted to eat with them. I said yes. We ordered from a deli, and I got a BLT.

I should say more

2009-06-19T02:26:00.003-05:00

I guess I should try to make this blog more interesting than my life really is, so I'll try to write more frequently. And I'll try to write more. I'll see if I can put more pictures here too.

Today (rather, yesterday into today) I did more Internet training. I'm learning how to post the paper to the Web site at the end of the day. When I first was trained on this in February, next to nothing sank in. It seemed ridiculous. The software is outdated, the system has so many steps, and I had so much to learn in a short amount of time, a lot stopped making sense.

But I'm doing four days of training this week, and it doesn't seem that bad. I'm adding to my experiences and to my duties. That's fine. I rim, I'm a wire editor, I slot, I post news updates to the Web site, and now I'm learning how to get the finished product online for the next day. It's really not that bad.

They're going to be moving over to a new system sometime in the near future, so training me might not even matter with this system. But it doesn't hurt. I'm feeling much more optimistic about this than I was before.

In non-newspaper news: Brittani invited me to come roller skating on Sunday. It's good to get out and hang out with friends.