Rattlesnakes ... for fun and profit

What do you do on a slow weekend in Marietta, Oklahoma? Play with snakes, of course.

The big bad ad

Really, John Cornyn? And yet ... I'm strangely mesmerized. You can't pay for the kind of publicity he's getting from this. As my Chicago friend says, this ad is definitely "for Texans, by Texans."

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle

I've decided to try education by immersion. The whole "throw 'em in the lake and let 'em figure out how to swim" approach. So if you stroll by the pond and see me thrashing about, toss me a word of encouragement and don't drag me out of the water. But you might want to swing back by a little later to make sure there aren't a handful of bubbles rising to the surface with me nowhere in sight.

I'm equal parts educator, editor and journalist, and the technology blitz that we're living through is forcing all of us to pick up digital and video recorders and learn how to build websites, audio slide shows, interactive graphics, webcasts and the like. We're making up words like blog, podcast and RSS feed, which leads inevitably to the term technophobe.

 

I'm not a newsroom old-timer, but it doesn't take long in this business to feel like one. We were doing paste-up when I started my journalism career in 2000. That may as well be hot type these days.  So to prepare my students for careers in modern media, I am launching this blog. It's a platform for me to experiment and to keep in touch with friends and family at the same time. 

Check in on me once in a while. I should be sputtering to the surface soon.