Not For Attribution

Every now and then when I’m bored, I do an ego search on the Google to see if there’s anything new. Tonight, I came across my  Zoominfo profile.

Here’s my employment history. Does anything look a bit off?

http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=726186001

We’ve been working on a redesign for some time now. It was designed as an update, but also another way we are combining with The Olympian. Now the TNT is editing and designing all of the Oly out of the Tacoma newsroom. So the papers will look pretty much the same, other than the flag.

“We” is misleading. I didn’t come remotely near anything to do with the redesign. It’s nothing close to my job. I used to be a big design nerd, so I have watched it closely. There are some things I would do differently, but then again I am not a professional designer. It has a big KC Star feel to me. That’s not a bad thing.

One thing I do like is the paper and the Web site have the same feel, design-wise.

I could only find a black and white version. The flag is blue ala KC.

Here’s the editor’s column explaining the design.

I turned my back for a couple minutes, and this appeared on top of shelves at my desk.

Yes, that is a pastel green tree with an alien and a crocodile as ornaments.

Merry Christmas?

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here. I’ve had some stuff going on. Some bad family news, which turned out to be OK within about a day and an extremely hectic/annoying/irritating experience at my house in Tacoma.

And I have been working alot. So it’s a good thing I didn’t sign on to do the post-a-day thing.

Randomness:

Be careful with social media. One of my first weeks at the TNT, I put up a Facebook status saying I had a byline in a competing paper (through AP) and was made fun of/put in my place the next morning by the boss. And a week ago I referenced Lawrence.com’s Randy in a Facebook status, saying that I am going to have to get two jobs “cause babies ain’t free.” (Jacob and Victor should know, everyone else should click here) Within a day, my aunt asked if I had told everyone that I was going to be a father, an editor at work was asking around and Ingrid thought I was going to be a baby’s daddy.

Lesson learned.

And finally today, we turn to me ripping Jacob off. I am the keeper of the portable scanner (it is awesome btw) and the local agencies can be odd. They aren’t as weird or obsessed wtih AC/DC as the Tri-Cities ones, but much more interesting than Pullman/WhitCom. Here a few things I heard in the past couple days.

• Dispatcher: “Middle-aged male, no description, standing outside flailing his arms screaming ‘Roberta.’ “
• Cop: “He’s not a happy customer, and he won’t be happy shortly either.”
• Cop: “There’s a very uncooperative woman on the phone. Oh, she hung up.”
• (A stolen car is driving down the road)
  Dispatcher: “Is it occupied?”
• One cop to another cop who has a juvenile in the car: “You take care of McLovin.”
• And for some reason every time they say “Tacoma rural,” it sounds like “Tacoma aroma.”
• And it seems a lot of people in the area have license plates that have William-Zebra-William or William-XRay-William.

This new beat has been going extremely well, at least for the two days that I have been doing it. I love the hours, sleeping late and working late is perfect for me. I’m close to the schedule I had at the Ev, except this time around I don’t have the guilt of skipping class. And it’s cool having my byline in the paper/online pretty much every day.

Also, the night has given me a chance to admire the building I work in. It’s different from newsrooms like the Spokesman that are in old buildings in the middle of downtown. The TNT office is very much like the Tri-City Herald, but on steroids. It’s pretty huge, I got lost the other day near the press/distribution. I was in a massive room in a maze of giant newsprint rolls. I’m sure the TNT building was designed by the same people who did the TCH and the Anchorage Daily News.

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I’ve been waiting to say anything because the TNT hasn’t had the complete announcement, but everyone in the newsroom knows their jobs by now I thought I’d go right ahead.

I finally have a permanent beat. And I won’t pull a Scott Templeton.

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Like Jacob and Kaci before me, I shall post to say I have business cards. Party.

I say with my name on it, because the ones I got from the Tri-City Herald last summer had a line where I write my name. These say reporter, but I still feel cool. And there are a crap load of them.

And, as you’ll notice in the background is the most important award I have ever received in my journalistic career. Damn right I proudly portray it in my cubicle.

Today I went to the Labor and Industries headquarters and read through thousands of documents. I hadn’t done this since visiting my friends at the WSU records office. I forgot how much fun it is to read through investigative documents and marvel and the things some people do.

But I also forgot how tedious it can be. This was the first of, I think, three installments. It took me about four hours.

As I am sure it is at other newspapers, The News Tribune has a tradition of “cookie torture.” Editors put a bunch of cookies on a new person’s desk and everyone on staff comes by to introduce themselves/give congratulations and grab a cookie. I was lucky enough to have this twice, once for my internship and once now I am, as my editor put it, “an official, permanent-although-not-permanently-assigned member” of the TNT’s staff.

I would like to emphasize the word “lucky.”

My time at The News Tribune couldn’t have been crazier. Seeing layoff announcements on my first day, seeing a wage freeze and being hired the same day they announce buyouts. I really have had no idea what to think these past few weeks/months.

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I just got hired at The News Tribune. I couldn’t believe it. This afternoon they had a meeting to announce the buyouts, and the executive editor flat out asked if I wanted a job. I thought it was a joke.

But, I am now a professional journalist. I have a meeting tomorrow to talk about benefits and my 401K.

401K. Wut.

I feel old.

The newsroom is in the middle of a reset so I don’t know what beat I’ll have yet.