I found my field bag

After many days of online research and some great recommendations from folks at work and left on this blog, I found the perfect bag for me.
It's the Lowepro SR D550 Stealth Reporter:


I'm very excited about this bag. It looks like it can hold all my equipment with some room to grow. It can hold two DSLR bodies (I only have one) and all the lenses and accessories, plus it has a pocket for a 12 inch notebook. My little Fujitsu tablet will fit nicely with room to spare. I chose it for the easy access, good price (bought at Newegg for $149) and great design.

I decided to go with a bag over a backpack because it works for work. I will probably get a backpack eventually for hikes and outdoor trips.

I just hope the bag gets here before we have to leave for our Colorado trip. I was hoping to use this bag as my second carry on item.

One commenter here suggested Crumpler bags. I checked the website and I couldn't find one for laptop and camera that wasn't massive. There just aren't many folks using 12 inch notebooks like me. I don't need room for a 15 incher or the extra weight that goes with the extra room. Crumpler bags are also really expensive, a similar bag was about $100 more than this one.

Lowepro might be a little cliche, but there is a reason these things are everywhere, they are great bags. Plus, how could I resist a name like "The Stealth Reporter?" It sounds like a comic book hero.

McClatchy looking to sell Miami Herald?

That's the word on the net today, at least. Inside, unnamed sources at McClatchy are saying this is a possibility.

Might not be a bad move. Miami has been a bleeding wound for McClatchy for a while, thanks to the dire hits to the real estate market down there.

McClatchy stock price is up by several points on this news.

My question is, are they looking to sell it as one piece or will the cannibalize the building and sell the equipment and paper to someone else who will move it somewhere other than its current prime real estate location. We could be seeing more condos where the Herald building currently stands.

I need a good field bag

I'm bummed because my red faux-croc laptop tote is about to bite the dust in a non-repairable way. It was only a $30 Target special, but it saw me through a lot of assignments.

But now that the Nikon D40 DSLR has entered my life, I'm thinking I need a new carrying device for my equipment. Can anyone recommend a good bag?

It needs to hold a DSLR body, three lenses, an extra flash unit, memory cards, cables, a 15 inch laptop, power cord, tape recorder and I'd really love a cell phone pouch that is easy to access.

That's not too much to ask, right?

Brits hurting too: Finacial Times announces cost cutting

The FT sent out an email that the Media Guardian got a hold of.

It basically says they're freezing pay for those making over 30,000 pounds a year (wish I made that much). They are also offering employees the chance to reduce their hours (and pay). Staff can also apply for "voluntary redundancy." That's "buyout" to us Americans.

No hiring freeze though.

My paper had several rounds of buyouts this year. We've had wage freezes for everyone for a while now. We've had a virtual hiring freeze for months.

But this hours reduction thing is something I haven't heard of in the newspaper business yet. Anyone heard of other papers doing this?

Ack! Some cities without newspapers by 2010?

This article by Editor and Publisher's Mark Fitzgerald quotes Fitch Ratings, a credit rater. More bad news for the newspaper industry. But we're not the only ones. We're just the most likely to default and get liquidated.

Great.

And my company is specifically listed as one of the most likely to default.

Super.

But we've heard this all before. It seems like every time we turn around, some company or analyst is telling us we'll be out of business by this date or that date. A lot of those dates have come and gone and we're still here.

This is my firm belief: There will always be newspapers. Even if one of these companies goes under, there will be brave souls there to pick up the pieces and buy the paper or start a new one. Cities need their newspapers.

Think about it. What if there were only TV and radio stations in your city. A lot of their news content comes from the paper or the paper's web site. What would news look and sound like without the paper?

Well, you'd loose a lot of the investigative stuff. That takes a lot of time and is difficult to present in a TV or radio format. You'd loose a lot of analysis. You'd get boiled down sound clips about stories, rather than real, in-depth reporting.

In one of my journalism classes in college, the professor talked about a phenomenon called "the Phoenix Effect." No, it's not the thing that happened to Jean Grey in X-Men comics. It's what happens when a newspaper goes under in a reasonably sized city. Someone buys it, cleans house and starts over. Or they start a new one from scratch. It's real and it's happened before.

And if a town or two has to go without a paper until the economy picks up again, then they will get a paper when things turn around.

Mark my words, we're not going anywhere.

Amish Friendship Bread

In keeping with the theme of the Hungry Journalist, here is a recipe I tried out last night and love. The Hungry Journalist needs to eat and as I find cool recipes I will post them here.

Here is a copy of the recipe I was given:

Amish Friendship Bread

Important notes:

Do NOT use any type of metal bowl or spoon for mixing.

Do NOT refrigerate

Do let air out of the bag

It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble and ferment.

Day 1: Do nothing (this is the date on the bag)

Day 2: Mush the bag

Day 3: Mush the bag

Day 4: Mush the bag

Day 5: Mush the bag

Day 6: Add to the bag: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk; mush the bag

Day 7: Mush the bag

Day 8: Mush the bag

Day 9: Mush the bag

Day 10: Follow the instructions bellow:

1. Pour entire contents of bag into a large, non-metal bowl

2. Add 1.5 cups of flour, 1.5 cups of sugar and 1.5 cups of milk; mix well until blended

3. Measure out 4 separate 1 cup batters and place each one in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag.

4. Keep 1 for yourself as a starter. Give the rest to friends with this recipe. Mark the start date on the bag.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

6. To the remaining batter add: 3 eggs, 1 cup oil, ½ cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp vanilla, 1.5 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, 2 cups flour, 1 large box of instant vanilla pudding. Mix well.

7. Grease 2 large loaf bread pans. Mix an additional ½ cup sugar with 1.5 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half this mixture.

8. Pour the batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar mixture on top.

9. Bake for 1 hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pan. Turn onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.

If you keep the starter for yourself, you will be making bread every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Only the Amish know how to create a starter, so if you give them all away you will have to wait until someone gives you one back.

Options: Add fruit, candy, nuts or chocolate to the batter, substitute vanilla pudding with other flavors.

You can actually make your own starter. Like sourdough, it's a very specific type of yeast, so you'll probably have to order it online if you can't find a friend who has one. Check with some local churches, as these breads are popular bake sale items.


This is a sweet bread. I recommend using really high quality cinnamon (I used Saigon cinnamon) because the cinnamon is the main flavor of the bread. The type of cinnamon you use will also determine the color of the bread. The darker the cinnamon, the darker the bread.

Cut it up and serve it like cake or gingerbread. It's good plain or with butter. I wouldn't recommend adding anything sweet as it is already pretty sweet.

The online world is taking over

I'm significantly branching out into the online world.

Sure I've had email and a Facebook page for years now, but I'm just getting into Twitter. I started this blog, but I had one a few years back to communicate with friends and family while I traveled abroad. I've always read a lot of news online and shopped online, but I feel like I'm really using the internet for the first time.

I'm working on a Facebook and MySpace page for the section of the paper that I write for. I'm working on starting a website, hungryjournalist.com. This is getting very interesting. Hungryjournalist is stretching out all over the web. I like it.

I think I might have to take a class in web design though. My crude attempts at HTML coding are not looking real hot. I supposed I could spring for a copy of Dreamweaver, but I was never really a hotshot with that program when I worked with it back in college.

I'm worried about finding a new job

There is a distinct possibility that the fiance and I may be moving for his job. I'm just worried that I won't be able to find one.

The media job market is a war zone right now and I'm really lucky to have the job that I have now. If I willingly give it up, I don't think I'll be able to find another one in any media field, not just reporting.

According to some reports on Poynter, the media job market is pretty bleak. The key to getting a job in this market is being flexible about where you can move to. That's not an option for me as we have to go where the fiance gets a job.

I agree that we really need to focus on his career right now as he is just graduating, but I'm sad that I will probably have to leave my job and won't be able to get another one.

This sucks.

Anyone having the same problem? What do you do when the spouse gets an awesome job, but you can't?

Online events calendar is driving me crazy

At my paper we use an online events calendar. Folks can go to this site, which is connected to our main page, and enter events. It's a great site because it helps us keep track of what is going on around town. I use it some to write my weekly entertainment column. It also generates our print calendars automatically.

The only problem is, a staffer has to approve the events. We usually have to edit the events for AP style as well. There are a lot of mistakes!

Well, as a very junior staffer, someone decided that I had the time to do this. I really don't. The person in charge of this site is half-way across the country. There are only a few other people that handle event approvals for this site. They all have very demanding full-time jobs as well. One is out on paternity leave.

We get these pleading emails from the site manager several times a day. I hate to tell her that with all the layoffs and the deluge of events for the holiday season, we're going to need some more help or someone is going to have to start pulling some major overtime.

Does anyone else have a similar problem? What do you do when someone goes on vacation?

Playing with my new camera

I just got a new Nikon D40 DSLR last week. My mom bought it for me for Christmas, but she can never wait to give me things. She also wanted me to have time to learn how to use it --it's pretty complicated--before we go to Colorado for Christmas. I want to be able to take lots of pics of those gorgeous vistas.

Here are some shots I took playing around with the new camera:

This is my chihuahua/terrier mix Roughneck. I used a slow shutter speed so I didn't have to use flash. It caught the sun coming in the window quite nicely. The auto focus feature on the shutter priority setting is really nice.

This is a photo of a steel rose we picked up from an artist at the Renaissance Fair a couple weeks ago. I used the aperture priority setting on this one because I wanted a soft focus. I put it on no-flash auto.



This is our cat Pez with the new toy we gave her. I'm using full auto with continuous shooting because I didn't want to miss a thing and she moves so fast. Now, using flash on the D40 with continuous shooting can be challenging. The flash has to reset each time and it slows the shots way down. You just have to learn to time it right. I might invest in a better flash than the built in one. That will probably be my next purchase because I want to be able to do indirect flash and bounce flash.

This camera has been amazing fun. I'll be posting more pics soon!

Phone posting works

Posting from my phone works and it is pretty instantaneous. I like it. A lot. I can post on the go now. I love technology. Speaking of technology, stay tuned, I'm going to show of my digital camera work a little later.

Posting from my phone

I'm posting from my phone. Just trying out the technology to see if it
works. Here goes.

Trying to go on vacation

For those of you in the news biz, you already know, getting unshackled from your desk to go on vacation can be a pain.

My newspaper company instituted a policy this year that we can't roll over PTO (paid time off) days from year to year. Has anyone else's company done this? They told us this in May. It's going to save the company bunches of money, so I have no problem there. But I do have 13 days to burn off before the end of the year.

The fiance and I planned a super vacay. We'll be going home to Texas for a week and up to Colorado for a little skiing for a week. The only problem is getting unchained from this desk long enough to do it. Apparently, it's an unspoken rule that folks only take a week off during December. Well, no one told me. And I worked Christmas last year, so it's time for a little time off.

But I have to do a ton of advance copy to run while I'm gone. Do other industries have this problem? I feel like I'm killing myself so I can go on vacation. Let me be clear, I'm not harping on my employer. These features need to run every week or readers get upset. I'm one of two people at the paper that knows how to put them together and the other guy is on paternity leave.

Well, I'm going to get back to it. I need to compile real estate pages for the weeks I'm going to be gone.

Welcome to the Hungry Journalist

This is the first post of the Hungry Journalist.

I felt the need to start this blog for a variety of reasons.

First, there is not a lot of perspective out there for a young journo. I wanted to write about my experience as a young person working as a print journo so that others can learn.

Second, I want another outlet for my work besides the newspaper that I write for. I want a place to play with ideas, experiment and get feedback.

Third, I wanted a place to display my talent for any potential employers.

Fourth, I wanted a place to discuss media issues with readers. Take it from someone in the business, there is no liberal media agenda. We barely have the presence of mind to get our coffee in the morning, we don't have the collective mind set to elect presidents or determine the course of a nation.

Let me know what you think. This blog is about dialog as much as it is about me experimenting with journalism. Email me at robardsforbes@gmail.com if you don't want your comment to be public.