Students working on class assignment in computer lab

We are in the process of adding more bells and whistles to the online edition of the Cape Cod Daily News. Streaming video are popular in online papers and breaking news is paramount, since our breaking news breaks well in advance of the print media nearly all the time. As you might know the newsprint newspaper is on its way out.I look at it now and I realize that media is no longer a question of location. It is all about device now. And will be even more so in the future. Imagine when the eBook is small enough to fit comfortably in your pocket and store 40 or 50 thousand volumes. There goes Barnes & Noble. Or when the last press run occurs at the last newspaper. There goes thousands of other physical locations. Same with the CD download. Look at al the music stores that disappeared over night. Once again, Device over location (for obvious reasons of overhead, employees, etc) Now we will see it with DVD. Blockbuster just declared bankruptcy. Red Box is going to be limping along for a while. The truth is, one you can download all the very latest movies from your flat screen, many thousands of locations (movie houses) will become warehouses. That's the thing about being old today, but working in the new communication technology. I worked as reporter my whole life starting out in a room full of typewriters, cigarette smoke and coffee cups, and people yellling 24/7. Now I am in a smoke free library atmosphere on those days when I feel like going in. Most of my work is done at home. And frankly, as neat as this new technology is, I often find myself a bit lonely for the old days. The days when we went to a location and did a thing. The days before these magic devices.

Young Couple Sleeping

Most of the time when I close my eyes to sleep I have a vision of the day's events. It could take a long time, especially if something occured that I can't quite define. Then I try to define it. If it's something worrisome, or something I care about, it might be awhile before I can drift off to sleep. I take a lot of the day to bed with me every night. Whether I admit it or not.

Random Words

Favorite words don't work when you can't describe the way you feel about somebody or something. Words can create a puzzle that mere words can't solve. Words, distance, time, compassion and care can mix together into the worst of feelings. You can find yourself in the "presence" of the one you love and your vocabulary doesn't help,only takes you farther along a track in one direction that you can't even follow. I try to choose my words to mean something. But the real talent is writing something that only one person will understand.