It's the Fourth

Enjoy :)

A place for prayer

I noticed her sitting out there all by herself. She seemed so at peace.

Sister Mary Louise Barba was sitting next to Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence’s new labyrinth with a book on her lap and her eyes to the horizon.

“It’s really special,” Sister Barba said. “To see them all on their hands and knees (to make it) … all the bricks came from (an) old house here,” she said as he points to the stones lining the pathway of the labyrinth.

She smiles and invites me to take a step closer to get a better look.

Sister Barba was waiting for member of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence congregation to join her for a blessing ceremony of the labyrinth.

Sister Ester Guerrero has suggested the labyrinth to the congregation when they were considering projects to undertake to beautify the grounds. "It was always a dream I had," Sister Guerrero would later tell me. "It was a healing tool for transformation, and I just wanted to provide this quiet place."

Now the project is complete and the Sister’s are caretakers of one of the only labyrinths in South Texas.

Sister Barba comments on how peaceful it is. Shaped by one layer of bricks, barely above the ground, is a winding dirt path that switches back and forth on itself. In the center is an open circle.

We both are still in our silence.

The wildlife chirped and hooted around us and as the white noise of freeway traffic dropped down. A slight breeze rustled through the trees and I watched the light dance across the ground.

Sister Barba was right; it was special.

Rocky Mountain News stops the presses

Today the last issue of the Rocky came off the presses and as the ink dried on the page, the last truck left the facilities and the newsroom doors close, it marks the end of another great photo paper.

We've lost too many in recent years.


Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Also check out Who Killed the Rocky (for the last time, it's not Craigslist!) and a review of the last issue.

theBAG

The bag from Shaminder Dulai on Vimeo.

The last of three videos created for the Midland Daily News' coverage of the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

Take a look and chime in with any comments/criticisms/advice.

Also if you find the video to be a bit jumpy, try watching it in SD as opposed to HD.

Thank you

Allie Will

Will from Shaminder Dulai on Vimeo.

The second of three videos created for the Midland Daily News' coverage of the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

Take a look and chime in with any comments/criticisms/advice.

Also if you find the video to be a bit jumpy, try watching it in SD as opposed to HD.

Later

021409

Happy V-day everybody.

Here's hoping you're with your hunny today. :)

Doubles

Doubles from Shaminder Dulai on Vimeo.

The first of three videos created for the Midland Daily News' coverage of the Dow Corning Tennis Classic.

Take a look and chime in with any comments/criticisms/advice.

Also if you find the video to be a bit jumpy, try watching it in SD as opposed to HD.

Thanks.

My how times have changed

If there's one thing I've learned in my short lifetime and in my even shorter professional life, it's that everything changes. No matter what you think can't be changed, will in all probability, change.

Just thinking back at some of the things I used to believe, some examples of which I'm sure you can find by digging back in this blog, and seeing how much I've changed my ideas and convictions in just a few years, it surprises me. I can remember having debates, well debates is a strong word, with Ryan at SJSU about the future. I reasoned that print would be around in some form because there's just something about holding that copy in your hand over your bowl of cereal. Ryan wasn't so sure (but you already know that). Now I'm not so sure either.

Looking at the advances in ePaper and devices like ultra-portable net-centric laptops, the iPhone, Amazon's Kindle 2.0, Google's Android cellphone OS and a slew of other products that have brought about a new age of personalized communication on the go and it's hard to argue that we still need a printed version of a daily newspaper.

My how times have changed.

Back in 1981, a group of newspapers were sure online news was nothing but a curiosity.



It's funny to look at that video today knowing all that we know now. Online has pretty much taken over. And why not? It makes perfect sense. Even within our own industry's past we've seen this before. When TV news emerged as a new medium the afternoon newspaper was under attack then, just as morning print is battling online news now.

It happened then, and most likely it's going to happen again.

“We’re not in it to make money. We’re probably not going to lose a lot, but we aren’t gonna make much either,” said David Cole, San Francisco Examiner, in the report.

My how times have changed.

But, there's hope still. The medium is changing, but there's still a hunger for good reporting and news.

I know blogs, Google news (which doesn't do anything but link users to your site), Criagslist, Twitter and blah blah get a lot of the blame, but if you really think about it, those guys have nothing to talk about without reporters and photographers providing them with the news.

There will always be a need and demand for good journalist and journalism.

Oh Christmas tree...

Here's some more Christmas goodness (yeah, I got ALOT of time on my hands all of a sudden).

As I sit on the couch and flip though channels on the TV, finding nothing to watch as I fiddle with the rabbit ears to pull in a signal, I'm reminded of those days when I was younger and spending Christmas night with my family.

Playing with our shinny new pairs of socks and taking turns on the video games. We never had much growing up, but Christmas was always special. Even if we only got one gift each, or some years one gift to share among three brothers, or some years no gifts at all, it was still a time where we'd all be home and watching Christmas specials like Charlie Brown or Rudolf or Ernest Saves Christmas (when NBC still showed it and people knew who he was), eating the chocolate candies my mother would receive at the office party and cooking up some tasty Indian desserts or homemade pizza.

But the best part was always the Christmas tree. My parents had bought a fake tree after a Christmas while I was a baby and every year when we pulled it out it we'd make a day out of decorating it. Pulling out all the hand made ornaments we'd made in school, each of us taking a turn at trying to untangle the mess of lights, poking ourselves and getting cuts on the fake needles and sharp medal that housed those needles and all sorts of other mischief. It wasn't always easy putting that sucker together, but when we plugged it and turned off the lights in the room to watch the red, green, yellow and blue twinkles dance around, year after year, it was all worth it.

I miss it now.

This isn't my first Christmas away from home, and it probably won't be my last, but it still doesn't get any easier.

I was asking myself if I wanted a tree this year. But I just couldn't justify spending money I didn't have on one, plus I would be the only one to see it.

But still the urge to have something for the holidays was there, anything to not feel empty.

Until two days ago my only decoration was a velvet bow I had bought to place on a gift for a co-worker, when it didn't work out, I tacked it up on the wall. It was a little thing, but it made me feel good, made the room seem warm, made it feel like home, but I still thought about getting a tree each time I passed by a lot.

Sometimes I imagined that I would pull over and walk in to pick out a tree. "If I get a little one, it'll be okay, that won't cost much," I tried to rationalize it to myself. But each time I would start thinking about how I'd have to spend money on lights, ornaments and then I'd have nothing to put under it.

It just didn't make sense, but boy would it be nice.

Well then I got a package in the mail from a really awesome person. Someone who just seemed to know exactly what would make my Christmas.

Say hello to my tree.



I love my tree. :)

Now I'm going to go make some hot coco, put on a Christmas carol and sit under my tree, or at least put a toe under it anyway.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Merry Christmas ya'll! (or, the year I celebrated my third annual Happy Thanksgiving part 2)

Well another year has gone by, and this blog has been way too dead for way too long (again).

Since my last post much as changed, I'm now working at the Midland Daily News as part of my first rotation with the Hearst Fellowship.

While I'm learning to better my craft and learn a few things I'm also getting the opportunity to do some really personally fulfilling work. The type of civic-oriented long-form story driven documentary style work I always dreamed of doing when I first started down this path.

But more about that another time.

For now I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and to remind you that as hard as it seems out there, it could always be worse.

I mean heck, even Santa has had to take on a second job.



Yet, as bad as it's gotten with the economy, with lay offs, with our friends losing their jobs and the future of our profession uncertain, it's important to remember to be grateful for the things we have and to always remember why we got into this business. (It certainly wasn't for the pay right? Ha!)

So, if just for today, relax, forget about your worries and just try and have some fun. :)