Crushing dreams for being realistic?

We all have dreams. A better life. Being thinner, richer. Sometimes material things. Sometimes something else. Hopefully though we all have a way to balance our dreams with the real world and not spend life wallowing in regrets. When I look back at my life I see that many of my dreams never materialized through …

A shot visit to my roots…

...as a teacher. I never actually left the land of video but have been retired from teaching for some three plus years now. Last month I returned to Middle College High School where I went through the horror of learning how to teach. That was a truly tumultuous journey...from a single Digital Video Production class …

There be Dragons!

Love this crawling quote on my husband's computer: "It's not that we say dragons are real...but we say they can be beaten..." Dragons being, of course, totally (ahem) imaginary creatures that lurk in fairy tales and in the backs of our minds. Well in the back of my mind lately there's been a desire to …

Reinvention…

It's a fact of life. If you can't keep shifting with the shifting sands, you can't stay in the business. Yesterday's skills are so ... yesterday. Griping and complaining don't cut it. So shrug off that load of history and grab the best of what you are and move on... The din from the "good …

Storytelling and storytellers…

Although there are many resources on the web to watch great videos, there's one outstanding one if you are primarily interested in visual storytelling news style. TV News Storytellers on facebook has daily posts from cameramen all around the country soliciting input on how to become better or posts from experts in the field demonstrating …

Now you see them…

It has come to this. Opened my newspaper this morning and there was only a page and a half of classifieds - the (former) staple of income for newspapers. You know them. Lost and found. Cars for sale. Garage sales, used stuff, pets, boats, farm goods. There are (remember, Stockton is the former Ground Zero …

You did WHAT?!?

Facebook reveals many things about your acquaintances - it's a fun way to socialize and remember old friends and play catch-up. But I saw a posting today that I honestly cannot believe. A former co-worker at KOVR (CBS affiliate in Sacramento) posted: "So is it bad that I covered an accident involving a big rig …

j-Pad in the newsroom…

I love bright and shiny new toys as much as the next person, but am cautious when it comes to spending cash or plastic on the latest and brightest and newest. I'd rather wait for others to figure out the bugs - so instead of having iPad 1.0, I figured I'd wait until version 2.6 …

The queen is bitter…

Been following localnewsqueen for a while now and am becoming disappointed. While the initial promise was there to point out failures in broadcast news (and hopefully ways to fix them), what I'm reading is more personal rants and complaints. From coroners and oranges to the post office and potholes and reposting youtube videos I've seen …

When journalism dies…

For weeks I've been watching the despair on my high school campus as our school board struggled with massive financial problems and we all feared equally massive layoffs. The worst case scenario in my district is nearly 400 teachers gone next year. The board backed off a bit when the state finally came up with …