January 22, 2009

25 things you don't know about me

Lost City Mad Dogs

I've read them at FriendFeed, so I guess I should share some little known facts about adventures that help make me who I am.

1) I read The Whole Internet Guide in 1992, 20 years after I passed a Fortran class (and crashed a mainframe).

2) My favorite camper said he was 10 and from Brazil when I was one of 72 virtual camp counselors at Microsoft's Kids Web Camp '97. (Ask Kari Sable or Janette Toral Reader about the experience.)

3) I booked a Japanese bluegrass band - the Lost City Mad Dogs from Kobe - to play at a Flint, Michigan, festival because I wanted something different. Most fans preferred the year I brought in Bill Monroe. Lost City Mad Dogs came in 1981, I think. I do remember Jumbo Okutani.

4) I drove my roommates nuts when I was "seeing" four Daves at once.


My daughter and I learn to etch
glass at W-camp. I'm the oldest here.



5) In 1998, I camped in a tent in New York with people I met on the Internet at w-camp.. What fun we had.

6) I still like the simplicity of PINE, DOS and Unix.

7) I spoke at length with William Holden when he overheard me dishing Network at the screening in 1976. I believe my ranting started "I'm mad as hell and won't take it anymore" and ended with me wanting to walk out on the film early.

8) My first bylines said my name was Mark because the editor said no one would believe a girl reporting on hockey.

9) I learned it still hurts even if the law says you are right the year I was hit by two buses, a car, and two bikes in separate accidents.

10) I have seen every natural waterfall in Michigan's Upper Peninsula - most of them in one two-week period.

11) I have survived three rounds of Medicare Part D for 2 people and anyone who voted for Part D should be forced to choose a plan for 5 people.

12) A boy gave me his car in high school because he thought mine was unsafe. A Budweiser was painted on the top of the station wagon.

13) The daughter I would never have has a birthday every 4 years as she was born on Feb 29. She weighed 11 pounds that day.

14) I made it to the l's the summer a public librarian issued a challenge to read something new and pointed me to the wall of novels arranged by author.

15) I fell for Dale Chihuly when a glass artist took me to my first glass exhibition.

Film poster

16) I was backstage at Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic in 1980, the day after I was at the premiere of Honeysuckle Rose. It was held on what once was Pedernales Country Club with at least 60,000 people in front of the stage. On the stage, at various times, were Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard, Faron Young, Johnny Paycheck, Ray Price, and, of course, Willie Nelson.

17) Role models include Juliette Low, Mother Maybelle Carter, Helen Keller and Louise May Alcott.

18) My parents did not think I needed a college degree. I got one anyways.

19) I heard Bob Seger play in a garage (maybe a basement, it was a long time ago.).

20) I can ignore a ringing phone

21) I find it hard to throw away books, wooden spools and records (the black disc kind).

22) I have at least 8 quilts in progress and another 10 or so tops ready to be quilted

23) I believe in the Girl Scout movement

24) I will fire doctors and volunteers, believing that can make the world a better place

25) I want to learn something new everyday.

Frozen in time front pages paint sad reality for hometown newspapers

newspaper fronts

Just a few newspapers,
not edited by the same
photo editor. Really
See original page



It is the sameness of these newspaper fronts that helps me understand why I am so easily distracted when reading the print product so faithfully delivered to my house.

These images so proudly displayed - I saw them as they happened or on the national TV news.

And the sameness of choices emphasizes how much the leaders of this fading media think alike and not like the communities they live in.

The print edition of my adopted hometown newspaper gives me a few photos and quotes of people who live near me and drove, flew or rode to Washington D.C. to participate.

But I am still hungry to know more about their experiences. So little is there about the people from here.

I think about saving this paper as generations before me saved historic editions

But a look through the inside pages disappoints.
(coding issue - there's more)

There was a time when The Flint Journal would have published pages with the nation's best photos, an at-a-glance box of trivia or dates or ....

Instead, I count the house ads that might have shown me more about this day.

I wonder why I would be motivated to keep this paper beyond the next recycling pickup.

About 800 Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
answered questions, directed traffic and
helped with festivities.


My print edition teased me with a few words of Obama's speech. There is no reminder that I can read or hear or watch that online at the company website.

Oh wait, that site's redesign is revealed today, removing the comfortableness of familiarity on the day I want the unusual.

Even a search for a package from a Michigan point of view is futile. I would have spent time with that. But I give up when I can't find it quickly.

I would have liked knowing what my governor, my senators, my state leaders and people had done

I would have read updates from the area youth who went. Were there expectations met?

After I finish the print paper, I quickly remember why I need the always online phone with me. I can find the answers I want about culture, national issues and such: Who designed Michelle's dress, how many balls did the couple attend and how many arrests.

I won't learn how many more years the company I hope to collect a pension from can continue to publish keepsake issues not worth keeping.>/span>

January 21, 2009

freefromeditors: Flint Journal launches new website

freefromeditors: Flint Journal launches new website

Jim shares an opinion on the annual web page update (following the company lead this round)

I hope the comments will soon be Flint ones, otherwise Flint readers should be prepared to read a lot of sports comments.

Some work on searches are needed - my search for a community's news turned up items from another place. But then, I always am tempted to try new links out. I am sure someone in Flint is doing the same and things will get refined

Also on Jim's blog, hints on who is leaving the newspaper.

January 19, 2009

Bebo was a 5,000+ boo-boo

This one-eye Michigan whiz owes an apology to everyone in my Google address book, including members of e-lists I manage and/or read. I stopped counting at 5,000 possibilities.You see last night I was trying to use my iPhone to clean up some of the zillion (ok, that number is an exaggeration) social network sites I am on when I accidently invited folks to join me on Bebo. I didn't even realize that happened until the acceptances and questions started rolling in.

And then acceptances from people not in my addressbook but on shared lists tipped me off that the goof was a big one (do all things in a big way).

So what is Bebo? It is another networking site - the most popular one in UK and Ireland, third in the U.S., according to Crunchbase.

Bebo was founded in 2004, launched in July 2005, by the couple who founded Ringo and BithdayAlarm.

In March 2008, the pair sold it to AOL (you can login with your AIM account) and AOL has been trying to beef it up. Just the other day, it made it harder to see profiles of people you haven't connected with.

It is popular for music and video -- something the Jonas Brothers used in their bid to be popular in Europe.

You can easily recommend video, music and games to your friends.

There is easy aggregation of Twitter updates and delicious bookmarks. You can check multiple emails - Gmail, yahoo, aol,

Guess I will try for awhile since I invited so many (sure join me at Bebo, where I am mcwflint

Meanwhile a return trip to the doctor says my eye infection is clearing up - the danger of a brain infection passed and no spinal tap needed (big such if relief)

We have added another medicine to the list plus I am to put a hot tea bag on the eye four times a day

No word if green tea or Earl Grey is preferred. It is preferred that I limit my computer time since I'm down to one good eye. (And that doctor isn't even in my address book)

Sent via iPhone (which 'corrects' me all the time ...and I don't
always catch ... sorry)