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.