Making Media
The Virtual Producer

Ron howard wants to talk about the election. So does Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler. It's great to see these guys still got it!

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My boss sent this funny video around the other day. It made me laugh thinking about my own mother trying to make the transition.

This video made me laugh...hard so I thought I would share it.

Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug.

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SPC Jeffrey Waggoner was born October 13, 1975, and passed away on October 10, 2008. He graduated from Puyallup High School in 1994 and from Bates Technical College in 1998. He worked as a control master at Channels 11 and 13. Jeff enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2006, and served with the 173rd Airborne in Afganistan. After being injured, he spent several months at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. Most recently he was assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington. He is survived by his father, Greg (Millie) Waggoner, Puyallup; mother, Jeane Covey (Dr. Douglas), Sherwood, Oregon; brothers, Major Jason (Brianna) Waggoner, Clarksville, TN; Matthew (Marie) Waggoner, Surprise, AZ; Lincoln (LeAnne) Kopetski, Puyallup; sister, Kayla (Tim) Binnendyk, Portland, OR; and daughter, Paige Waggoner, Sammamish. He is also survived by his special friend, Karin Gudrin, Sammamish; step-father, Robert Thornburg, Portland, OR; grandmother, Anna Burchett, Stanfield, OR; aunts, Sue Fox, Granite Falls, WA; Eva (Dan) Inches, Minot, ND; Adila Gibson, Hermiston, OR; uncles, Jim (Tracy) Burchett, Stanfield, OR; Walter Burchett, Minot, ND; Robert Waggoner, The Phillipines; niece, Courtni Waggoner; nephews, Wyatt and Nathan Waggoner, and Jack Kopetski; and numerous cousins and friends.

I met Jeff seven years ago at work. There is a board inside the security door at work where all the photos of employees are displayed. This was Jeff's photo from that board. I got a picture of it before they took it down when he left the station about five years back.

Shortly after we stopped working together I moved in with him for a while. I have many good memories of backyard BBQ with friends. I got to know his family, they are a wonderful group of good people with big hearts.

Jeff died two days before his 33rd birthday. He was my friend and I will miss him very much. I am thankful for our friend Karl who went with me to his funeral. Jeff and Karl would both tell many stories about the week they spent together on vacation in Mexico.

Jeff and I would spend countless hours sitting at our computers in his house and comparing our music libraries. This is the memory that stands out most and I will treasure it forever. We would sit and share stories about the music as we listened, explaining the whole time why each specific song had impact on our life.

At the funeral they played: Queen "Who Wants To Live Forever" It was not listed on the program as a selection but I am glad they used this song, he liked it a lot.

My 'partner in crime' at work is Christine Umayam. Together Christine and I launched the three station sites on the new platform I talked about in an earlier post. We did this in a week and it was an incredible amount of work. We locked ourselves up in an office with no windows and no outside communication for entire days. Although at this point we had worked together for better part of a year, this is when I got to know Christine.

Recently Christine found herself traveling to the Philippines. I will tell you more about why in just a bit. She was gone for three weeks and has been back a few weeks now.

Today she pulls me aside and says "I brought you back a surprise from my trip." So we step outside and she hands me this small carved wooden figure with a barrel around it. She tells me that everyone has one over there. She says just take the barrel off! Not wanting to break it, I was being careful. That is not how this works.. You have to just grab it and yank it off, which is what she did when she grabbed it from my hands. Well, you can see the pictures so I will not explain what happens when you do this.

Can you imagine the look on my face? I said "Thanks Christine?"

We both had a laugh and parted ways to continue our evening.

I go to a computer and, as best I can, describe my new treasure to Google. Of course there is a Wikipedia page dedicated to Barrel Man.

I love my gift, thank you Christine. :-)

Christine was in the Philippines doing work for her organization, Child United. She works to bring education to Filipino Children. You can check out her site to see pictures and video of her recent trip. I know she has tons of content and will be making frequent updates in the weeks to come. The work her organization does is admirable. She is very passionate about her cause and it is one of the things I admire most about her.

This morning I woke, planted my feet on the floor and put myself on track to the shower. I got out of the shower and while grabbing a tee-shirt noticed that I had a message on my phone. This usually means that some fire in the newsroom I work in needs to be put out or something is broke. As I picked up the phone I noticed that the message was from my good friend Amy Mowery!

Amy Mowery
I met Amy about eight years ago. She started working for Tribune Company about a month before I did. A Chicago native, she was at WGN-TV while I was in Dallas at KDAF-TV. Over the years Amy and I formed a friendship that felt like the ones I have had for a lifetime. Through working on projects together and talking on the phone I learned that Amy and I shared passions in similar areas... Internet, TV, Entertainment, Music, Arts..etc..etc..

Amy hit a point a year ago when she wanted to explore other options in her career. Amy left Tribune and started doing her own thing, taking on clients, freelancing and other internet guru stuff. At first I feared we may lose touch. At my work we use AOL Instant Messenger to communicate with other producers in other markets. Basically, Amy and I were online everyday together for seven years.

Jeez.. I really 'buried the lead' on this one....

So the message was from Amy and she was telling me that she is coming to see me! I am so excited to see her. She will visit me Halloween weekend! What a fantastic surprise! I saw Amy recently when I was in Chicago on business but this will be the first time she comes to Seattle to see me. I have so much planning to do now...YAY!

Some of the best blessings in my life have names :-) Tiffany, Amy, Cathy and Ile

I will tell you more about them soon...

I have watched the web change over the years and I love thinking about ways to present a new web experience to site visitors/viewers.

My first experiences (age 13) on the Internet were not graphical ones. It was in a day when we sat at terminals and used text based browsers like Lynx to 'surf the web'. We were there for the information. We wanted to read articles on Litservs and we sent BOTS to travel the electronic lines and deliver us back loads of information from libraries and various government agencies. I recall the days when I was running a single line BBS (Bulletin Board System.) It's exactly what it sounds like, only one user at a time logged in and the network did not communicate with any other machines.

Today it is all about color and layout. Entire studies are done using eye-tracking technology to determine where a users eye goes first on a page, where did they click, scan left to right or right to left? We create templates with little compartments where content lives based on many variables.

Tonight I found myself on this website: www.dontclick.it

At first I was irritated, navigating an entire site and not clicking. As my mind wrapped itself around the concept and the techniques of mousing without my finger poised to click...well the concept grew on me. I felt like I was having to pay more attention to what was on the page and where my mouse was. This is a huge positive when you are addressing user engagement.

Check out the site and let me know what you think. I am curious to hear your thoughts on this experience.


I pose the question, "Can you imagine an internet without clicking?"