The Daily Barometer Blog
September 11th, 2007
Back to school
By on September 11th, 2007
I was to only have three more days. The plan changed with News Editor Ty had a hockey incident. I will be subbing for Ty (in terms of news section production) for the next week. While the Barometer is in desparate need of attention (which I intend to grant it) I will be skipping out to do production at the McMinnville News-Register.
I am days away from the Snowden annual reception, where I will have my portfolio in tow. I will shake hands, talk about my wonderful experience and eat the food. Mostly, I’ll probably stay next to my advisor, Frank, and talk to my mom (she’s coming too).
We are just a few weeks now away from the beginning of another OSU school year. Football games, orange and black striped socks, Rockstar energy drink for breakfast, homework, new pencils,…. you get the picture. It’s exciting. It’s fun to think of being a freshman again, being so full of potential. It’s sad to realize that you don’t have as much potential as you once dreamed. But, alas, you struggle through your health care admin. classes and wait (not so) patiently for your OSU paycheck at the end of the month. Why does OSU do monthly anyway?
I sit in wait. I was waiting for a week-long break from work before I hit the grindstone at OSU but, alas, I get none. I will be simultaneously working on the Barometer and the News-Register. I will be performing similar tasks at least (in terms of layout/design).
I am living in Corvallis at least and I am driving a new car. So, life is good. I’ve missed the Cor, but driving to McMinnville and back everyday is a bit of a bear. Like, the animal. Like, being mauled by the animal.
If you are interested in writing for the Barometer (we are hiring columnists, reporters, cartoonists, sports writers, photographers, planners and editors). If you have a skill and an interest, we can probably put you to work. Or, if you want to develop a particular skill, let us know!
editor@dailybarometer.com
541.737.3191
August 24th, 2007
We’re not too far off now
By on August 24th, 2007
I have three weeks — and approximately 3 hours — left until I am finished with my internship. When did something that I was supposed to enjoy turn into a race to the finish line? I guess it is always a bit of a race to the finish line for everything we do in American culture. My time as a reporting intern at The McMinnville News-Register is on the decline. I have less days left than the number of days that I have accomplished.
If this was my career and I was HERE to be HERE, then I probably wouldn’t have numbered the days I have remaining on my personal planner. I’d be grateful for every long day, every missed hour and every day of vacation time that I had accumulated over the course of my career. To this date, I have missed 1.5 days. I missed the first day for a search I volunteered for that STARTED at midnight. The second was a half day when I risked contaminating the staff with my illness. This most recent bought (which was actually a recurring edition of the former illness) had me sneezing until my keyboard was wet — but stay at work, I did.
I feel bad because I should be here to BE HERE but its tough when, for every summer of my life, I have worked outside and chased around the Portland area having fun. I am getting a little restless. Sitting at a desk all day, which really has become my own choice for work, is a bit of a drag.
I am here but I feel I am lazy. I have written 23 or 24 stories/letters to readers to this date, but alas I feel lazy. Yesterday, I moved some of my belongings — the nice term for my crap — to my Corvallis apartment. God, it was good to be home. I miss Corvallis or even Damascus — my alternate, original home. And while mildly homesick, it is hard for me to concentrate on my work and fill my hours with productivity.
Everything is telling me that this is a great opportunity and that I need to be here to BE HERE but its tough because its summer and summer just doesn’t scream WORK HARD to me.
Tough, telling and all together frustrating, but I am here to be here. Existence merely for the point of existence is kinda useless.
August 21st, 2007
Mac-Tastic
By on August 21st, 2007
My muffins are stale and my car doors no longer lock. It has been a long two weeks — the amount of time since I wrote last — and I am barely surviving out the other end of it. About a week ago, I woke up one Monday morning, took a short walk to the parking lot at my apartment complex and found my car door locks had been punched. That’s right, the locks had been pushed inside the doors. My OSU roommate was staying the night and gave me a ride to work. I checked in and walked back to my apartment. Mostly because I needed to deal with the situation and I didn’t appreciate not having a car, I called AAA and got my doors unlocked for free. It was better than breaking a window, I suppose.
Now, at present day, I leave my car doors unlocked (because I’d have no way to unlock them and get back in). I refuse to fix my car (it will cost at least $200). The solution: I’m looking into a new car.
On Monday night, I was up late working on a story that was due for Tuesday’s paper. It was 11:30 p.m. and I was tired. Suddenly, someone is knocking on my door. Pounding on my door, actually. After a little bit of a stand-off (I couldn’t see who was at my door, therefore I didn’t answer) I opened the door to two uniformed McMinnville Police Officers. They were looking for someone. And my heart was still about to beat out of my chest. I was a little freaked out to say the least. The police didn’t identify themselves or do anything but pound on the door at 11:30 at night.
The person they were looking for was not in my apartment. In fact, I was the only person in my apartment. Let’s just say I am looking forward to moving back to Corvallis ASAP. I miss my newsroom, I miss my roommate, I miss my friends, I miss cow town.
I have four more weeks of my internship, but I hope to be moved back to Corvallis well before the end of my internship. It will just be better that way. See you in two weeks, Cor.
P.S. Don’t make a dozen muffins when you are the only one who eats them.
August 3rd, 2007
Reminiscent of chicken
By on August 3rd, 2007
No, it doesn’t taste like chicken but it reminds me of chickens. The collective flocking and the rushed hustling. In my last few weeks at the News-Register, I have bonded — from afar — to a few individuals. Particularly the special sections editor Racheal and the lady who sits next to me, Marna. Today, the news editor is gone (he’s taking his week of vacation for the summer) and these two hens are fighting to get the Saturday edition out. Their not fighting each other, mind you. They are fighting the clock. (Specifically, fighting each other is something more reserved for cock fighting).
It reminds me of the Barometer. It reminds me of our nightly struggles to get the paper out. Only, these to women don’t do it alone very often and they can only do it three times per week at maximum. We, in our small, college-level, microcausmic way, do it more often than the big boys (girls in this case). Not true at other daily newspapers like the Gazette-Times and the Oregonian but something tells me that I will never have to work as hard as I do at the Barometer ever again. Funny, that. Be in college, work hard, get paid very little and leave with some of the best memories I will ever make. Funny, THAT.
I have been harshly criticized for my role as the editor of the school-year Barometer. I am fairly young, I am strong willed, I am occationally agressive and I am a woman. I get e-mails that say “Dear Mr. Dillard.” Hey, world, Mr. Dillard is my dad. That’s not me! It’s hard to be female in a job that is predominantly held by men. These two women are sitting here fighting because they are missing their male staff members. But the thing is, they will get the job done and the only reason they are having a tough time — it’s not because they are women — it’s because they are short-handed.
I’ll get the job done. I will be sensitive to my staff (the staff that I push harder than any professional newspaper would at an entry-level job). The readers may criticize and I will accept that criticism but I don’t see too many other students at OSU putting out a daily newspaper. We do what we can with a young staff. We do what we can while we try our best (we readily succeed) to not run around like chickens with our heads cut off.
Being young and learning the ropes of industry can be merely a battle or it can be a cock fight.
August 2nd, 2007
…and in other news
By on August 2nd, 2007
Today is yet another day. In fact, it is the Thursday of the fourth week of my internship. I have six more weeks to go. Today, I plan on crunching some numbers from the OSU Weather Service. It’s temperature data from McMinnville. Tomorrow, I plan on asking a woman who went to high school with Hilary Clinton about the race for the presidency.
I miss Corvallis and I miss the Barometer. I like McMinnville but it’s not home. I miss being surrounded by people all the time. We have something good in Corvallis. We have a bustling community and a campus with it’s own culture. Granted, we may not have the diversity that we would wish for, but there is always somebody on OSU’s campus that would be willing to talk to you. There is a kind of inherent trust and companionship that accompanies that really old and worn out student ID card.
What’s up with that, anyway? Why don’t we get new student ID cards? Mine is from START: the only time in my life that I forget shampoo. I look like a frizzy 12-year-old. I might have to loose my ID so I can buy myself a new one and actually look my age in my photo.
The media is an interesting being. I am distracted to this idea because I was thinking about the search that I was recently on. I was called out (by the way, I am an active member of Multnomah County Search and Rescue) to the Columbia River Gorge — The Moffet Creek area — where two hikers had been long overdue. We hiked through the night to reach to waterfall. We stopped at that point, unable to climb until daybreak. At daybreak, news helicopters located the couple. They were only 300 yards away, just up a 100 foot waterfall. The media actually was a benefit to that situation.
I like newspaper reporters because they can wait and talk to the right people — the people who can answer their questions. But TV news crews need their shot of Advisor Ted driving the van or the boots of the searchers tromping in a line down the pavement at the parking lot. It’s obnoxious. We are searchers and we are getting back. We need to relax and take care of ourselves. I can’t very much change out of my wet clothes in privacy if I am being watched by news cameras. It’s the woods. It’s all out in the open. But TV takes away the peace and quiet, the blessed silence of the trees.
But when is the media a good thing? When police and fire can use it as a resource to give information to the public. When it can tell a story that speaks to the human condition and the perseverance of the human race. When it can recognize the efforts of searchers who hadn’t slept yet that night — that’s when we appreciate the media. We don’t appreciate when the media highlights the failings and the faults. When the media reports our crimes and our wrongdoing. But with the good comes the bad. With the blissfully perfect comes the incredibly annoying, and it is our place.
As much as I am seemingly torn between being a part of law enforcement — acting as a rescuer — and a member of the media, it all seems to work out. Some information is sensitive and cannot be released. Other information, like what it was like to be a searcher in this particular case, is open to share. I wish, that above trying to capture the perfect camera angle, that media professionals would realize that there is a mission to be accomplished. Trying to save a life is the most important thing, that’s why we release criminals names and photos. So people are informed. It’s why we tell these stories, so people learn how to make sure something like “this” doesn’t happen again.
We are a community and we are working together. The news media can compile information to make your life easier, better and more fulfilling. Yes, written word can make that possible.
It is important also, that the news media can identify when fire/law enforcement/public officials are acting unethically.
And that is why I like print news.
To READ the story on the rescue at Moffet Creek click here.
July 30th, 2007
news of the wierd
By on July 30th, 2007
It seems, that the body found in the Columbia River may be that of a Moscow, Id. city councilor. He’s been missing since January. I call that strange times indeed. Because of the level of decomposure, it will be difficult for the medical examiner to make a positive ID. However, his family has been contacted. They were told that there has been no positive ID.
Click here for the full story.
Also, the Pittsburg Herald Tribune features a story about how there is a mydeathspace.com , but I am pretty sure we all knew about that anyway.
Read the story
July 25th, 2007
Really?
By on July 25th, 2007
Today, I have a few new rants. First of all, I am frustrated that Ikea has its very own “traffic-flow” plan. Click here if you don’t believe me. It has its VERY OWN traffic flow plan. It’s a store for the love of all that is holy.
Also, I am against the street edition of The Oregonian. When you have a front page that has no text below the size of 12-pt font, something is very very wrong. Click here to see the normal layout. This layout is acceptable. The street edition tries too hard to push sales. I am frustrated. It is not okay to have no ” body text-size” font on the front page of a newspaper. It is just WRONG.
That is all.
P.S. I hope you forgive me, Oregonian.
July 23rd, 2007
The final frontier…
By on July 23rd, 2007
is not space. Though Captain Jean-Luc Picard may have stated in the opening credits for Star Trek: The Next Generation that space was the final frontier, I may have to disagree. I may have to agree, however, that the final frontier is the internet.
I’ve encountered some strange-new life and civilizations via the internet. I’ve Myspaced some pretty undiscovered life-forms in my day. Whether or not you believe in life on other planets in the galaxy, I think we can all agree that the internet — a vast array of information-bearing space — is a lifestyle all on its own. Sending e-mails instead of letters is a way of life. Today, I have accomplished both and I have found that sending an e-mail takes far less time than writing a letter. Considering the fact that you would type the letter on a computer-based word processor anyway.
I had to walk to the post office. WALK. Yep, I walk to and from work every day. It’s pretty amazing. AND the post office is on the way. But mailing something costs money.
It’s hard to say where our society will end up if the demands on our time are so great that we walk no where and do everything electronically. Maybe someday we will all be large, flabby piles of brain matter that have appendages to type with. Or maybe we can just imput information through our brains to the computers. This is a form of telepathy, this internet. We are all connected and all we have to do is reach out and type our thoughts — it’s a little slower than a mind-meld however.
We are boldly going where no man has gone before — to a webcam based in the room of the geeky guy from high school. JUST SAY NO.
I am not really sure where the internet is actually getting us, but it seems we are becoming more efficient while sitting still at a desk.
July 20th, 2007
What is NEW media, anyway?
By on July 20th, 2007
It’s been two weeks at the News-Register and I am still a whole person. The media industry has not sucked a hole out of my being.
This week, I made a trip to a 4-H camp in Salem where I spent some quality time with 10- and 11-year-old girls and boys. The kids are the children of military families and their parents had been or or deployed since Sept. 11, 2001. Also, I learned how to bring my iPod to work. It makes the hours go by!
My fellow News-Registerians have been talking a lot about new media. I am a new media communications major but I don’t much understand the wave toward 30 minute documentaries about everything under the sun. I appreciate a complex graphic and recorded sounds and voices. Sometimes you just can’t get the ‘coo’ or holler on paper. For me, as a member of my generation, I want printed words. I want a Web page that has type. I don’t want a video and I am certainly not going to download a podcast. So, what’s the draw?
My favorite medium for my news is the newspaper. It is a dying tradition because of the internet. And, because of the cost of a copy of The Oregonian — I have switched over to the online form. I click over to The Oregonian headlines page and have at it. I love reading. But I know there are few in my generation that love it as much as I do. Though, the staff at the Barometer seems to like it just fine.
Why is the news industry spending billions of dollars to compile video stories? I have no idea — I don’t want them. I think the drive towards new media is just a trend. I think it is the hot thing of the moment, but I think people want their stories told in the most effective manner. That effective manner — the manner perfected by generations and generations of journalists — is writing. Leave the rediculous story telling to the movie-makers. All good movies started from books anyway. Writing is one of the few ways to draw impressive levels of depth and importance.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1184901916229010.xml&coll=7
This is a story teller. Julie Sullivan is the source of my story-telling inspiration. Just listening to this woman tell a story is inspiration enough. I have had the pleasure of meeting her on two different occations and both times, her story moved me to tears. She was telling the stories of families and other people! She draws details and tells the story. She paints a picture and uses words to highlight certain aspects. You can’t SHOW something, in reality, and make it have as much importance as you can with words.
We are a people of words and tales and I don’t think new media will ever be the best way to tell a story — to practice journalism. Especially not if reporters are telling the story on paper, creating a video and taking still pictures for the same pay they were making when they were just writing.
July 13th, 2007
I have arrived
By on July 13th, 2007
After two flea-bitten weeks in the grand-ol’ city of McMinnville, Ore. I am winding down my first week as an intern at the McMinnville News-Register**. I plan to wind it down with a backpacking trip with my search and rescue group. Specifically, I am avoiding Turkey-rama. Yes, that’s right. TURKEY-RAMA. It’s a celebration. Of turkeys. I walk out of the newsroom door and I can’t help but run into a trash box and a porta-potty.
I couldn’t help but exclaim to the newsroom (a staff of people I have just or haven’t at all met), “They’re dragging a porta-potty down Third Street!” By the way, Third Street is the McMinnville main drag. I have to be careful when I leave the office to not get hit by one of the rides that has been set up in front of McMenamin’s Hotel Oregon.
TURKEY-RAMA. I’m leaving until it’s over.
Last night, I got my first “go-and-cover” assignment. I went and covered the Lafayette City Council meeting. Let’s just say it was not the best four hours I’ve ever spent.
Turkey and Lafayette water crisises. Or is that crisees?
I’m lovin’ the turkey and enjoy my quaint cubicle at the News-Register. You can read some of my stuff on the Web site.
http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=223896
-Lauren L. Dillard
School-Year Editor/The Daily Barometer
**I was selected as a Snowden Intern through the University of Oregon School of Journalism. I will serve a 10-week term at the McMinnville News-Register. A place where I have to get up kinda early and go home pretty early too. I’ll have to switch my body clock from late-night Barometer production.
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