Making Media
The Virtual Producer

After 7 years of working and living in Seattle, I am leaving the city. The people who know me best understand that this is my favorite place in the whole world. This decision has not been an easy one to make.


When life calls for change we can not resist but instead put our best-foot forward while knowing the whole time, that with change can come a bounty of great things.

I will be heading back to Vancouver, Washington to spend some long overdue time with my family. I have two of the most amazing parents in the world. I have spent most of the last 15-years traveling around for my career in television and look forward to being able to spend more time with them.

I hope to spend some time with old friends and as always, make new ones. I have a 20-year high school reunion in August and it will be great to see everyone and hear how their lives are going.

The extra time I've had has afforded me the luxury to get back in touch with my one true love... music. I have ideas and projects in the works already with plans to expand at a breaking news pace. Looking back it's hard to believe that with all the music scholarships I had on the table, I somehow wound up working in broadcasting. I am thankful for this time I've had to rekindle a flame I will not let the pilot light go out on ever again.

So to my Seattle friends I say goodbye for now. If you should need me I am only three hours away. You know how to reach me and I hope to be back soon.

To my Vancouver/Portland friends, look out because I am coming home!

T-Minus 5 days and counting till I leave Seattle.

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Don't Worry"

Today was a very hard one for me. My position was eliminated at the company I work for. This means that after almost nine years I am back in the job market.

Over the last 16 years in television I have done everything from; be an on-air talent to producing three TV station websites at the same time. www.q13fox.com / www.myq2.com / www.portlandscw.com.

I have worked the entertainment side, the news side and all the other 'sides' of TV.


When someone leaves the online world with Tribune we do a virtual toast to that person. I got mine today and everyone said nice things about me, it made me feel good.

One of these posts brought me to tears and I thought I would share it with you. When I went to work for this company I was surrounded by people like Doug and we treated each other like Family. Check out what Doug wrote about me...

"robbie-

i remember walking into the tower in 2000 and meeting you for the first time at what was supposed to become our annual web convention... i think jeff sherb was there, dean wall & clark bender, and of course so many other ghosts... we truly believed that that bright new era of tech was gonna make us all rich, along with all the other corporate crap about how we "mattered" and were the company's greatest assets. well, we've learned a little since then, & most recently that really, it's just a spreadsheet game about fte's & expenditures & revenue & now with these current dunces, it's not even about being good anymore.

ironic thing is we do matter. maybe we only realize it when people leave, but we matter to all of us because really it's all of us who come through for each other, stay late for each other, go the extra mile so that we can go to sleep knowing we came through for... us. the rest is a lot of dogshit propaganda.

you, rob, are one of the most conscientious, kind, hard working, brilliant, funny, honest people i've known, and i look forward to knowing you for a long time. believe me, i'll remember you and all your good qualities far longer than i'll ever care about what ever becomes of this company.

stay cool, my brother!

doug"

Thanks Doug, you are tops in my book
rob

When Amy came to visit we did lots of stuff around Seattle. We went up the Space Needle and visited the EMP (Experience Music Project) and saw a few neighborhoods around town.

Returning to my house Amy began to upload photos from day 1 of her trip. I went through them on Facebook and enjoyed seeing the Seattle icons I have grown to love over the past 8 years living here.

It was the next day when I saw these incredible images full of vibrant colors. Fall is the most beautiful season here in the pacific northwest! The evergreen trees stay green as all the leaves on the trees surrounding them transform creating a visual symphony of colors that words could not describe.

When I first clicked on the images I asked Amy where she had taken them. Imagine my surprise to learn she had merely stepped out the front door of my own home and snapped shots which should have looked familiar to me.

This whole experience has forced me to recognize that I have lost my passion for some of the simple things in life. To lose the ability to stop and enjoy simple beauty that occurs around me can not be a good thing.

I think it is time to stop, pause and remember to hold close to my heart the things I value and love.

If a kaleidoscope of colors all around me can go unnoticed, imagine what else I am missing!

Amy arrived in from Chicago last night. We got up early this morning and hit the local Starbucks. Amy had hot chocolate and I had Americano. We headed downtown and went up in the Space Needle, the EMP (Experience Music Project) and Science Fiction Museum. We headed to meet up with Reid to grab a bite of lunch at the Deluxe on Broadway (Capital Hill.)

After lunch Reid decided he had a craving for S'mores. You may be asking yourself, "S'mores in a condo?" The building has a roof deck with a beautiful view of downtown Seattle. I also learned that it has a mobile fire pit up there. Reid had cedar kindling and he started the fire.

Once we got some nice coals the roasting of the marshmallows began. I must admit I've never had S'mores on top of a building in downtown Seattle before. It was a perfect mix of all my favorite things: good friends, S'mores and the city of Seattle.

We all had our task: I tended fire, Reid roasted the white gooey goodness and Amy prepped a perfect mix of chocolate & graham crackers.

I will never forget the day I had S'mores on a roof in the middle of downtown Seattle as long as I live.

Thanks Reid for making such a fun, special and memorable moment for all of us.