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.