June and July 2008

Wow!

A lot can happen in 2 months.

AS you can see in the pictures in my previous post, my cousin Trisha got married on July 27th 2008 and some of us cousins posed for a picture in traditonal East Indian wear...as we do it in Trinidad.

Baby Kayla is the first great grandchild for my granparents...so everyone's happy about that.

The aunts having a good time. (My Mom is in the picture too)

I'm holding my niece! Don't we look good together. ;-)

And finally...inside the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, when I still had long hair. :-)

Vacation, wedding and baby pictures

June and July 2008 have been very busy and lots of fun! :-)

Vacation

"Vacation!"

Let that 80's song play through your head...

June 2008 has been a great month! My vacation with friends and family in various and often spectacular, parts of the USA has been fantastic, fun and unforgettable.

:-)

Dealing with a stressful boss

Hi

If you happen to stumble upon this 'venting' and it strikes a chord, feel free to post a comment.

I love my job, I really do, but my immediate boss can be soo difficult, obnoxious and manipulative, that I have felt frustrated beyond belief sometimes.

Yet, the unpredictability of my job as a reporter, the opportunities to go places, meet people, make a difference in someone's life, all make the bad times pale. :-)

That's why I thank God for giving me the strength and wisdom to see through the crap that my EP pulls, to what I truly have to offer the company and my career.

Sasha

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to you!

My Mom and all other moms out there deserve this day!

Love, Hugs and Kisses to the best mom in the whole world, mine...Sharon.

Windies cricket

If you're a Windies fan (that's West Indies cricket team to the rest of you) then the almost white wash of Sri Lank right here in the Caribbean was great!!

It's been so long since the team won a test match or took a one day series.

:-)

The most memorable win I think had to be at the Queen's Park Oval (here) in Trinidad on Thursday April 10th 2008...Shivnarine Chanderpaul needed to make 10 runs off the last 2 balls.

Mathematically he could do it by hitting a 4 and a 6 or two 6s...and I was at work glued to the TV hoping and praying that he hit a 4 and a 6.

And you know what?? HE DID!!! Chanderpaul hit a 4 then HAD to hit a 6 to win the One Day match.

The West Indies won that ODI (One Day International) on the last 2 balls of the last over of the match!! Phenomenal!!

And if you know anything about the team's past few years...this was huge!! :-)

(You can check out Cricinfo (pronounced CRIC-INFO) for more pictures, match reports and commentary on the WI and cricket in general)

Screenshot of Hardball with Chris Matthews

Shows on MSNBC

I've always enjoyed watching several shows on MSNBC.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com

(Just click on MSNBC TV)

These shows are, in random order...Morning Joe (Joe Scarborough), Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Hardball with Chris Matthews and Verdict with Dan Abrams.

(See the pictures above, in order of mention)

You can learn a lot about American politics and current events from these shows and the regular news updates in between.

3 great multimedia packages

It's week 5...the final week...of my online journalism course.





I had to choose 3 great multimedia packages and say why they stand out.

#1) Forty Years of Respect. An audio and video presentation on the history of that famous song "Respect."
http://media.freep.com/respect/index.html

I learned a few things about the song "Respect" and the people who sang versions of it.

The staff writer at Freep.com, the website for the Detroit Free Press, Kelly L. Carter, introduces and concludes part 1 of the 14 part video journey herself...allowing the viewer to see and hear the person who most likely spearheaded the project.

It's easy to navigate the site...which is video based with narration and lots of well-edited audio, especially of the star...the song "Respect."

You could even take the pop quiz on Aretha Franklin and "Respect."


As Mindy McAdams pointed out in her blog... (http://mindymcadams.com/tojou/2007/multimedia-packages-music-journalism/)

Forty Years was among the finalists for the 2007 Online Journalism Awards category “Outstanding Use of Digital Media.”



2) Reporting for Duty. The St Louis Post Dispatch takes a video diary look at the recruitment, training and graduation process at Fort Leonard Wood.
http://www.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/471

The only concern I have is the army song that plays continuously on the homepage...unless you choose to turn it off.

What brings the multimedia package alive are the basic training videos. Inspection was cool...just when a recruit thinks everything is perfect...the inspector finds something wrong...from a smudge on a lapel, to a flashlight standing upright in a cupboard.




3) "Black Market" by Patrick Brown.
http://mediastorm.org/0015.htm

This independent presentation got an honourable mention in the 2008 NPPA Best of Photojournalism Awards.

Unlike the other two sites...this one uses black and white photos, in a slide show presentation of sorts, and some colour video diaries...featuring the moderately paced, quiet, and at times haunting voice of Patrick Brown himself...to tell the story of the black market trade in animal parts and the way 'exotic' animals are treated in certain parts of the world.

Brown tells an amazing and even funny story in Monks and Tigers.

Windows Movie Maker

Posting and editing digital photos is pretty easy.

The new look at Gulf City mall in Trinidad is really nice.

But trying to get my Windows Movie Maker to work was a futile exercise!

I ended up posting three short video clips that would have been edited together if I could the pgme to work.

I even downloaded another editing pgme but that wasn't getting off the ground so...raw footage it was.

Pictures / photos and Videos

Well, I've joined Flickr and Google Videos.

They're both up...but they're not yet running.

:-)

Overseas flower deliveries

Has anyone else run into problems when trying to arrange a flower delivery from one country to another?


For my birthday, my best friend decided to send me flowers.

She lives in NY and I live in Trinidad and Tobago...so you know what happened.

By the time the flowers got to me, they were completely different to what she had ordered and the actual flowers were much cheaper than what she paid for!

However, where there's a great florist, there's a way...

I am using my florist here in Trinidad and he will cut out the floral middle men and place the order with another florist in NY! :-)

The sunflower, gerbra/gerber and delphinium should be in the celebratory bouquet I'm sending to her. :-)

Widgets

Does anyone else think widgets can be fun?

They add colour and life to a blog while letting visitors get to know you and your interests more.

:-)

Screen grabs 2

The keyboard I'm using doesn't have the button to grab screen shots, so I have improvised as best I can.

Blogger only has picture and video options, so when I tried to save the page and upload it...I got error messages.

Screen grabs

My top 3 blogs (so far)

I decided to follow Mark's advice about the top 100 blogs and here are the 3 that appealed ot me the most...

I love trying new foods. So this blog was an obvious choice :-)

http://www.elise.com%2Frecipes

Sci Fi has always interested me. A blog by 7 sci Fi Fantasy writers? What could be better?

http://technorati.com/blogs/eatourbrains.com%2FEoB


AND I need to know what's happening in the world. So why not the blog of a group of BBC editors on what they face in getting the news and putting it out. Their blog also lets one get a different view of the news and the people who provide us with it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/

Web headlines...here are the good

Web headlines

The Good…

1) Storms ahead for Olympics torch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7310654.stm

2) 18 trapped underwater after collision

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23766256/

3) Pole, 79, arrested for catapult anti-car campaign

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080321/oddities/poland_senior_crime_offbeat

4) With strain of war, thoughts of suicide

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080321/cm_usatoday/withstrainofwarthoughtsofsuicide;_ylt=AncLDzgtDATFgfZ3eQ3U4aX0kPUI

5) Oreo defense used in Conn. speeding chase

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080323/ap_on_fe_st/odd_oreo_defense;_ylt=AseNfIzBLh.zSM0jmobvJ0ftiBIF

Web headlines...The good and the bad

Web headlines

The Bad…

1) Bear Stearns staff auction off teddies, T-shits, memorabilia

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080321/oddities/us_banking_company_bearstearns_auction_ebay_offbeat

2) Sweetheart deals let schools cash in at students’ expense

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080321/cm_usatoday/sweetheartdealsletschoolscashinatstudentsexpense;_ylt=Av0iQ1DrzZYk30YWisE24Z_0kPUI

3) Dutch anti-Koran film’s Web site shut down

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/23/dutch.koran.ap/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

4) Play halted due to bad weather at WGC-CA Championship

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080323/sp_golf_nm/golf_pga_delay_dc_1;_ylt=AvXPkuza.wkyCwGpD8Kw2JL0kPUI

5) Conrad Black on life behind bars: “I am doing fine”

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/22/black-jail.html?ref=rss

Why the Good ones work…

1) Storms ahead grabbed my attention because of the controversy surrounding the Beijing Olympics and the recent violence and protests in Tobet.

The headline is also short and catchy…making me want to find out more.

2) 18 trapped makes me ask What? Where? How? When? And of course, Who?

All of the things any headline worth it’s space should.

3) Pole, 79 just seemed crazy. What on earth did this man do? Did he, as the headline implies, really catapult a car into the air in protest?

4) With strain made me stop and think about the wars America and its allies are fighting in the Middle East. The apparent impact on those involved is alarming.

5) Oreo defense had me smiling. I love odd news and this sounded like it would be a good one.

Why the bad ones don’t work…

They tend to be too long. A catchier title would still get the point/news across.

Some assume the reader knows what acronyms mean.

Easter

This Easter Weekend saw people around the world celebrating the religous and secular holidays.

The BBC's Week in Pictures included this shot that I really like.

Sorbs - a Catholic minority in eastern Germany - ride in a historic Easter procession to celebrate the resurrection.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7310341.stm


If you're looking for more info on Easter...try this site...

http://www.fvsd.ab.ca/stm/easter_sites.htm

Breaking news alerts

Breaking news alerts were not something I ever really used before.

I prefer the RSS feeds, plus I'm always checking my favourite news sites several times a day.

But I now get alerts from BBC, CNN and MSNBC.

Here are the links to each site's main page...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Keeping track

CNN's breaking news alerts are a good way to keep track of world news and events.

RSS feeds

Well, I've finally set up my RSS feeds.

This after almost a week of trying to figure out when and what to select.

I've chosen the ever reliable BBC, Yahoo Odd News for radio kickers (love those), Reuters Sports, Yahoo Opinion, TV listings, Hollywood North Report and Cesar Milan Dog Whisperer, among others.

I think that's everything for Week 2.

Favourite TV shows

I really love watching "Lost" on ABC.

Unlike a lot of other shows, "Lost" is like a really good suspense novel...it keeps you guessing about what's going to happen next, why and how it's all connected.

Other shows that I really enjoy include "Dexter" on Showtime, "NCIS" on CBS, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" on NBC and "Monk" on USA.