December 28, 2005 Archives

I work with very nice people, but sometimes what you say isn't quite what you meant to say!

Here's the perfect example (11 second "Flash" video).

Again, they're very nice people... fun to be with. Stuff happens.

Blogger's note: I originally put the video here on the webpage until I realized you'd get it every single time you came here! I've had to figure out a better way. Now it's being hosted by VideoEgg - a New Haven company. Cool technology, but I have no idea how they'll make money (Hopefully they know).

I wanted to take my daily photo of Sydney, so I moved behind her with my camera. Slowly, she turned her head to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

When she saw it was me, she began to run in my direction. OK, run is a bad characterization. She gently walked in my direction and climbed onto my pajama pant leg.

It's possible her eyesight is so poor she just kept walking until she hit an uphill barrier? I'm more inclined to think she wanted the companionship... and the back rub that comes with dog/human contact.

It was an "ohhhhh" moment. You know, something so genuinely sweet you have to say "ohhhhh."

Earlier this morning, my friend Wendie sent this:

The same sentiment has been passed along by a few other friends who've caught the photos. It's just not so.

We loved Ivy more than you can imagine. And we loved having the companionship and love a dog brings. We just have no desire to take on the responsibility again.

It would be different if we could 'institutionalize' a dog so we could go on vacation or have a day in the city. We can't.

So, we will continue in the 'dog grandparent' mode - taking in borders from time-to-time and loving every second.

¹ - A fund is being established for Wendie and everyone else who is capital letter challenged. We can work to find a cure.

Recently, I've been reading more and more about the idea of citizen journalist. These would be folks from the community who, by virtue of circumstance or desire, report on local news.

This blog, and others like it, are not examples of citizen journalist. Sorry Geoff.

In the past 24 hours there has been a shining example of citizen journalism, courtesy of a blogger who was on the Alaska Airlines flight that depressurized between Seattle and Burbank.

Not only did Jeremy Hermanns write about his experience, he took photos! There were others on board taking video on their cellphones. I've seen some of that footage on CNN and our air here in Connecticut.

Read the story from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and then Jeremy's blog entry. In many ways they are complementary, as the PI story brings nuts, bolts and overview, while Jeremy's blog entry lives the emotion.

It is likely we'll be seeing more and more of this, as we did with the London subway bombings and the Boxing Day Tsunami.

One of my surprises are the comments below the entry (which Jeremy says he won't edit). It is startling to read the vitriol from so many small and vindictive people. It also seems some of the negatives might be coming from Alaska Air!