blog lull

Good story! After two trips to the Apple store in Allentown, (an hour drive from Reading), I am informed that my hard drive is indeed dead, and I'll need to replace it.

I find and buy a drive, search around town to find the crazy torx screwdriver I need, find that, and I'm good as new! Or so I think.

I drive back to Allentown (time #3 now) with new drive installed, all excited, and they tell me it's a dud. No bueno. No good reason either - it just is a bad drive, and I need to return it.

So I said eff this crap, I'm just going to return the drive and wait until I get to Norman to deal with another Apple store trip.

Cool, huh?

In other news, tomorrow is my last day at the Reading Eagle. Saturday morning I'll begin my drive back to Oklahoma. woohoo! I'm really excited to see some familiar places in a familiar place. So, if you'll be in Norman next week hit me up! And, if you'll be in or near Dallas after that hit me up too!

Hopefully it won't be too horribly long till I'm back online, and not secretly blogging at work.

RIP MacBook

My precious MacBook has died.

Thus, the lack of posts of late. Well, that's at least partially to blame. I was finally sitting down to blog, and it completely froze. I shut it down, and ever since, all it does when attempting to start up is show me a mean, blinking file folder icon with a blinking question mark on a blue screen.

I'm fairly certain my hard drive is gonzo.

I have an appointment with Apple tomorrow, so they can tell me exactly how much money I'll have to pay (that I don't have) to fix it.

:(

I really need an external hard drive.

nompton pride

Take a look at this! Impressive! Numero 6 out of 100. I'm a little proud, I must admit. As much as I thought I never would, two months out and I miss the place.

And they lead with Cafe Plaid! Freakin' perfect!

So, I read on and find number 15 on the list. Talk about some hometown pride! I'm starting to wonder who judged this.

Many other Dallas suburbs made the list too; Frisco, Richardson, Allen, McKinney, Lewisville, Garland. But I still think Norman in the top 10 is impressive.

clearwater beach

Here are some long overdue Florida photos from my vacation. (Many more can be found on my flickr if you're interested at all.) I camped out on a boogie board at the water line to shoot the skim boarders, and got a monster sunburn. Like, second degree burn, thought-about-going-to-the-hospital burn. It was rough. I was seriously committed.

take my poll!

please.

Photos to come as soon as I can get over my frustration with the blogger post editor.

reporting etiquette

Just to preface, there's a little bit of journalism ranting ahead.

I think I'm a relatively trusting person. Sometimes I'll leave my car unlocked if I'm running to the curb to return movies or running in my house to grab something. I generally will talk to people in public.

Today I was out reporting at local grocery stores, working on a story about "grocery line etiquette" - the dos and don'ts in the checkout line and in the aisle. A fun little story, nothing serious.

I walked up to a lady and very politely told her, after apologizing for interrupting her shopping, that I was a reporter with The Reading Eagle, that I was talking to customers today - and explained my story. Would she have a few extra moments to answer some questions? She proceeds to hesitantly answer my questions, and asks if we can walk and talk. Sure, I say.

So, she's nice, answers my questions, gives me some pretty good quotes actually, "self checkout is a beauty" "I really like to get in and get out as quickly as possible" "sometimes people just aren't very considerate of those around them - stopping and blocking the whole aisle" before I ask for her name. She tells me her first name, Bernice, and then says, "you can just call me Bernice B." I pause, and in the most polite way possible, tell her that unfortunately, I can't use anything we talked about unless I can publish her whole name.

She then insists to see some ID. Really? I can count on my hand the number of times I've been asked for a press pass and they've either been when I was A) holding a camera in my hand or B) asking for much more consequential information than "do you prefer paper or plastic?"

Of course, with my luck, I don't have my press pass on me, so I lose the whole interview.

Here's my question: Who else COULD I have been? What kind of criminal would pose as a reporter asking about your shopping habits? Who would make that up, and furthermore, for what purpose? I'm wearing a gray cotton skirt from the Gap and ballet flats. I'm not exactly intimidating.

Also, if a reporter identifies herself and proceeds to WRITE DOWN what you say - it's a safe bet you're being quoted. I guess I just thought this was assumed.

My other issue is that people like this women are probably the same ones who call newspapers untrustworthy and not credible. I guarantee if she had read that story with "Anonymous shopper" quoted, she'd have some criticism for the validity of The Reading Eagle.

I didn't understand that at all. Maybe I'm just too trusting.