The Hole

Decided to title this post “The Hole” since it is both the multimedia room where I stow myself away and the vortex in the time-space continuum many of us at The Texas Tribune have disappeared into as we make our final push toward next Tuesday’s launch. Whoa. Next Tuesday is November 3rd. Conceptually, it’s tough to wrap my exhausted and excited mind around.

It’s a significant date because it’s launch day… the unveiling of the first iteration of what will be many versions of The Texas Tribune.  The goal is a rich, satisfying site full of context – which our founder will explain much, much better on day one.

I’ve never worked on a campaign. But a lot of commenters on our Facebook site have made that comparison. I guess we’re working for a cause (public service, the reason why we wanted to be journos in the first place) and toward a certain drop dead date (the aforementioned November 3rd), but perhaps the most apt similarities are the frenetic pace, sleeplessness of staff and piling up of food containers everywhere.  I took a picture of a typical end-of-a-working-weekend trash pile yesterday, but decided it was too gross to put up, even in this personal blog space.

I haven’t seen or talked to many of my closest friends in the past few weeks. So I’m really sorry, and I miss you. Also, a huge thank you to the friends who have already supported or are planning to support The Tribune in one way or another. This is a non-profit organization dependent on support from ‘viewers like you’, so it means a lot. Until we can come up for air, I’ll make better use of this cyberhole to communicate. Much, much more to come.

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Confrusted

Converting to Snow Leopard operating system created a mountain of problems for me and all the video/audio programs we rely on. Various device driver downloads solved most of my camera compatibility issues, but now my hub for my podcasting mics is unable to be read as an “aggregate device”, because Snow Leopard won’t make that a choice.

This is a situation our technology grand pubah calls “confrustion”, the unfortunate hybrid of confusion and frustration. You can see it on our faces, below. I’m guessing since we’re a startup trying to build a new public media brand, being confrusted will become the norm for the next few weeks.

Muddled

Outrage! I started a new personal blog only to abandon it for professional pursuits. At least for the last few weeks, that is. Everyone at the new office is working nonstop to be ready for our November 3rd launch, so, you know how it goes.

We are allowed to have weekends, though. Last weekend was one of the bigger ones in Austin, because it was the annual ritual where 90,000 people converge on a lush, green lawn to listen to hundreds of bands play three days worth of live music. A drenching rain on Saturday turned the newly-turfed Zilker Park lawn into a thick, sewage-infused mud sludge, so thick you’d easily lose your shoes to it and be forced to wander the open swamp barefoot. (Note someone’s Crocs casualty, pictured. And let me digress to argue that losing your Crocs is perhaps not a casualty at all.)

Barefoot did me in. Sometime between Raul Malo or Ben Harper and before Michael Franti, something sharp pierced the arch of my foot, then made a three-inch-long lateral cut I didn’t get to see for several hours, because a.)my feet and legs were buried under several layers of mud and b.)I had to stay to see Pearl Jam, because, come on.

One tetanus shot and many bandages later, I’m in pain every time my foot hits the ground. Like the man sings: “Lifetimes are catching up… with me…”