Category Archives: personal

Maui, Hawaii

So the little woman and I went and got ourselves married — to each other of course. Then we went to Hawaii, the island of Maui, for a vacation/honeymoon. It was amazing and lives up to the hype that people give the place. If you ever have a chance to go, don’t hesitate. We did all the things we wanted to do, saw what we wanted to see, ate great food and swam in amazing water. It was, for lack of a less hyperbolic term, perfect.

I wrote a review on TripAdvisor about the place we stayed in, Maui Ocean Breezes. Our host was absolutely wonderful and I can’t imagine staying somewhere else if and when we go back.

I rented a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens from BorrowLenses.com and it was amazing. I used it nearly the entire time there and I think I’m going to have to pick a lens of that length/speed up permanently. The Canon is too expensive so perhaps a Sigma offering. Below is about the best of what I captured.

The Home Formerly Known As Clifton Terrace

At a recent mixer of people in our building, Corrie and I learned about the rather storied history of the place we moved into and the two adjacent buildings. Clifton Terrace (now known as Wardman Court) was a drug and crime infested wasteland in area even taxis were afraid to take passengers.

Searching some databases I found some old articles detailing shootings, fires and the several attempts by community groups and eventually the federal government to redeem the place. It eventually worked, obviously, as we live there and the place and surrounding neighborhood now seem pretty safe. But the history fascinating and I’d like to try and find out more about the place, especially photos.

The most notorious gang of the area, the Clifton Terrace University, still exists today. It’s strange to see people walk their dogs in the nice lawn that once was a den of so much violence and crime.

I’ll let this 1987 Washington Post article below sum it up:

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New adventures await


So that’s it then, this is my next big step. As of today I officially accepted a job offer from NPR to be an assistant producer/editor, digital. It is an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait to get started.

Being given the chance to work with one of such a first-class and primary news source is something I’ve always dreamed about. A hearty thanks go out to the people who helped me along the way.

Now, where’s that Kool-Aid?

white-house

We made it to D.C.

Well, we made it. Our drive to Washington, D.C. and the moving of all of our stuff across the country went off without much of an issue. We’ve only been here a week but it’s been great so far. There’s so much to see and do and we’ve got an amazing road ahead, including some expected good news for me later this week. I can’t wait for wait lies in our future.


Ch-ch-ch-changes

Leaving the rally

So next week we (Corrie and I) are moving to Washington D.C. It’s a big change but an exciting one. Corrie landed a great job there after having earned her Ph.D. and so I decided to take on that next life adventure with her. Though we both have enjoyed Minnesota, D.C. seems like the kind of place for both of us.

MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO

It wasn’t easy to decide to leave MPR News. It’s what brought me here to Minnesota, when then managing editor of online news Mike Reszler took a chance on wayward Florida boy. I came here with just my car full of clothes and no idea what it was going to be like — especially the winters. Clearly, I survived.

I leave MPR News with a wealth of knowledge and the experience of working with an amazing mission-driven organization full of talented, bright and passionate people that absolutely love what they do. That environment and the type of people I worked with might have spoiled me, but it’s one I would never want to trade. I was only at MPR for just under 3 years, but the work I did there and the people I worked with will stay with me forever.

Whenever you leave a place you get a sense for the impact you might have had based on the reactions of those around you. Judging by the reaction of almost everyone I worked with in the newsroom, I feel I’ve left a lasting impression of someone who cares deeply about what I can bring to a workplace and that I was an important cog in the MPRnews.org machine while there. Thank you all.

‘WHAT NOW? WHAT COMES NEXT?’

Currently, I don’t have a new job lined up. I’ve applied at a few places in D.C. and have high hopes for some opportunities at NPR. I’m not worried, D.C. is an amazing spot for media and a great market for digital journalism.

The strange part will be that until I get a job, it will be the first time in close to 16 years that I haven’t had a job. I got my first job close to when I turned 15 years old at one of the local pizza places near my parents’ house. Since then, I’ve always worked and had overlapping jobs. At one point I think I even had three jobs at once, and somehow managed to go to school somewhere in there. Looking back, I wonder how I survived.

I’ve also thought about going back to school too. The University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism has a great program in multimedia journalism that I want to explore. There’s also a program at Georgetown, though it’s more academic and analytical (though that doesn’t necessarily mean bad). The possibilities for me (and us) are wide open in D.C. and I can’t wait.

So long Minnesota! Cheese curds, I’ll miss you most of all.

Cheese curds

LinkedIn IPO: day 1

So LinkedIn’s stock went nuts on its first day of trading today. Now, let me preface everything I say with the fact that I have very little expertise in stocks, IPOs and all the elements in between. However, watching stocks and the furor surrounding them fascinates me.

LinkedIn, valued at $4.5 billion/$45 a share, opened at $80 a share today. It peaked near $120 a share, which technically would have made the initial investors a boatload of cash, and then closed the day at $94.25, still a hefty sum. The first-day craziness might have just been hype related. It could tank tomorrow, but that’s unlikely. I’m thinking it will dip and plateau once the shine wears off.

I’m willing to bet though that other big social media networks and tech stocks were watching LinkedIn like hawks. It is the first major social network to go public, and it has laid the groundwork for the rest. Facebook, Twitter, Quora, GroupOn; all were thinking about their financial future as LinkedIn’s stock flitted wildly like an EKG. I guarantee one of these companies will go public in the next 6-8 months.

Now, even though some LinkedIn folks made some loot today, Henry Blodget (he of Eliot Spitzer/tech stock scandal fame) says they got screwed out of roughly $130 million because they were undervalued by their underwriters. Funny, since some people thought that they were overvalued. And to be honest, I’m not even 100 percent sure of LinkedIn’s business model. Regardless, someone thinks they are valuable. And in the stock world, sometimes that’s all that matters.

It was fun to watch all day, even if I didn’t have anything personal invested in it.